Deaf World event shows the hearing what it's like to live in the non-hearing world
Nicole Jeffrey said she felt nervous as she tried to adapt to a world much different from her own.
Jeffrey, a Northville sophomore, tried to carry out daily activities, such as going to the bank or participating in a classroom, while being the only person who could hear.
Jeffrey, along with about 150 other students, participated in the Deaf World event Tuesday night, where students learned how it felt to live in the non-hearing world.
Deaf World gives people insight into everyday life, Jeffrey said.
“It’s more of a respect thing,” she said.
The event allows students to swap shoes with someone in the deaf community, said Crystal Kline, vice president of the American Sign Language Society.
“Deaf World gives the students a small understanding of what deaf people go through in everyday life,” said Kevin Cramer, event coordinator and communication disorders instructor.
Role reversal
Stations were set up in the SAC and students rotated from station to station to understand what it feels like to go to the bank, car dealership, learn in a classroom with a deaf teacher who uses an interpreter and even what it is like to be deaf and blind.
“It’s a total role reverse — you’re immersed in deaf culture,” Kline said.
A lot of students will find themselves saying, “I can’t do this, this is too much,” Kline said, but that is the purpose of the event.
Kline, a Greenvile senior, said feeling overwhelmed is not an uncommon reaction for students who participate because the environment is so different. But the event emphasizes that to show students what a person who cannot hear in the speaking world goes through daily.
The ASL professors at CMU are the creative minds behind the events for Deaf Awareness Week at the university and Cramer has been putting of the Deaf World event for nine years.
The first year, Cramer did it in a class with about 20 students. The second year, he needed two classrooms, and the event continued to grow.
It is nice to see the turnout, Cramer said.
The event venue changed this year to accommodate more students. Deaf World took place in the Bovee University Center Rotunda last year and the room was just packed, Cramer said.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” Cramer said.
