Saturday 24 April 2004

Deaf students bring silent world to life

When Pueblo Community College student Miranda Trevino took to the stage Wednesday afternoon to sing Mariah Carey's hit song "Hero", it was her hands, not her voice, that captivated the audience. Trevino, who is deaf, used her language - American Sign Language - to interpret the song for the crowd that gathered at the PCC Amphitheater to watch skits and jokes, songs and plays presented by members of Pueblo's deaf community.

The festivities were part of a daylong Deaf Awareness Day hosted by PCC's Disability Resources Center. "The purpose of this day is to enlighten students and let them see what our deaf students go through day to day," said Bonnie Clark, chair of the planning committee. "Our (deaf) students thought this would be a good way to open the door between the two groups."

Eight deaf students currently are enrolled at PCC. Clark said the deaf students, their interpreters and students in the American Sign Language class put together the program, which featured vendor and information booths relating to the deaf as well as a variety of entertainment from deaf and hearing-impaired performers.

Among the performances were jokes, interpretive songs and a skit by deaf individuals. Several hearing-impaired students from Carlile Elementary School also gave an interpretive performance. Trevino, who reads lips and can speak, said the event gave her an opportunity to show people in the hearing world what the deaf culture is all about.

"The deaf community is growing and a lot of people are not uneducated, but they are undereducated," she said. "They don't understand that we have our own language, American Sign Language. When we use sign language our English is backward and oftentimes people assume we are dumb because we don't understand English."

Trevino said she also wanted to be able to demonstrate to deaf children that they can be successful in life. "This gives us an opportunity to be a positive role model for those students," she said. "Hopefully by our experience, we will be able to inspire them and let them see that they can go to college just the same as a hearing person can."

Clark and Trevino said they plan to make Deaf Awareness Day an annual event. "Our deaf students were fully involved in this and a lot of them volunteered their services to make this event a reality," Clark said. "The consensus is that most want this to be an annual event."

(The Pueblo Chieftain Online)



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