My Essay

Breaking Barriers

My latest project is organizing a deaf/ hard of hearing awareness club. There isn't a club at Fairfax like this one and the deaf community is a very private one. But it's because there is an inequality between deaf and hearing people. To most people being deaf is the same thing as being handicapped. Look at the special needs kids that go to Fairfax. Even though their main disability is autism or Down syndrome a lot of them are hard of hearing or even deaf. If you walked into Fairfax's campus off the street you wouldn't know special needs kids went to our school because you don't see them. The student body knows because we see them at lunch and nutrition or when were wondering the halls instead of going to the bathroom during class. It's like there is a separate on campus school just for them and basically there is. Deaf kids don't know the hearing world just like hearing kids don't know the deaf world. Just because someone is deaf doesn't mean they are disabled. I bet to deaf kids hearing is what's weird and alien to them. I have no real basis for this club only the drive to do something for people who don't know how to do it themselves or for people who just need that extra push. I'm passionate about this. I had one experience with a deaf kid. I was at six flags and I started seeing all these teenagers signing, all these kids with hearing aids and weird laughs. I didn't understand at first and then it was like they were the only ones there and it wasn't until later on that I figured out it was national deaf awareness day. I was in line to get food when this deaf kid had just gotten his food. They gave him his meal and a drink but there was no straw. So he went back up to the window and asked for a straw. I watched him try to communicate with the people working there and it was heart breaking. They couldn't understand what he was saying and it was evident he hadn't had speech therapy. He kept trying to make them understand he used his hands to...