Students were playing Bingo, Battleship, Uno, Twister and other games but little cheering and jeering could be heard.

The students were playing in near silence Wednesday in the Bovee University Center Rotunda.

They were participating in Deaf Games, an event organized by the American Sign Language Society as part of Deaf Awareness Week.

Matthew Pearson, a Jackson senior and president of the American Sign Language Society, opened the event by saying that the games would be played using sign language, and players should try to speak only if needed.

This is meant to help students understand what it is like to have a hard time communicating.

“This week, we are normal and everyone else isn’t,” Christine Taylor, a Communication Disorders professor, signed jokingly. Pearson interpreted.

Taylor has coordinated Deaf Awareness Week since 2005, and feels it has improved each year. She said the week’s events have tended to be the same, but last year Deaf Games replaced a movie night.

“Students are very brave going in not knowing what’s going to happen,” Taylor said.

Communication Disorders professor Kendra Miller said students feel safe to sit back and watch the events, but once they are pulled into it, they begin to understand.

Pearson said more people attended the event than the organizers had expected. More groups for the games were set up to accommodate the participants.

Pearson said many students attended to write a reaction paper for a sign language class, but many also returned after attending the event in previous years.

“We have a lot of people who graduate and come back up for this,” Pearson said.

Marshelle Jennings, a Detroit junior, and Ashley Bigard, a Mount Pleasant senior, were two of the students attending for their ASL 102: American Sign Language, Level II class.

“You can still talk while you sign,” Jennings said.

Several of the games had someone who would interpret and provide signs for the students who did not know them.

Bigard felt it was also a good experience for students who had already learned sign language.

“It’s really cool to interact with people not in your class,” Bigard said.

Miller said the event’s success is because of the support of the community, and she wants to continue involving the community in the future.

“The ASL program here has become popular and successful because the students are eager to learn,” Miller said.

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