On Thursday, March 3, members of the deaf community gathered in the D.P. Culp Student Center to tell stories and share their experiences.

The event, Deaf Talks, organized by Jordan Fanuele, an ETSU student and member of the deaf community on campus, was organized with the purpose of understanding the deaf community better and providing a space for members to connect with each other. Interpreters, food and drinks were provided at the event.

The event featured four different “speakers” who told stories of their experiences being deaf. The first speaker was Leonard Granda, assistant professor at ETSU in the Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology. Granda spoke about his experiences as both a high school teacher and a professor.

He told of how he was unjustly evaluated by the high school’s principal while he tried to accommodate the principal by allowing his American Sign Language students to use their speaking voices during class. His principal marked him down for trying to accommodate him and in the future, a translator was required for the evaluation.

Granda’s second story was about the power imbalance the translators can hold over members of the deaf community. While working at another university, his position as a professor was given to a staff ASL translator. During the between time, the translator refused to respect Granda’s boundaries and took advantage of the fact that Granda could not communicate with speaking people.

The next speaker was Christina “Chrissy” Vorreyer-Davis, executive director of Knoxville Center of the Deaf. She told a story of a Spanish speaking family that had a deaf child. The parents and others wanted her to receive cochlear implants, and the child struggled with life until she received resources, but she learned ASL and began to thrive. Her family also began to learn ASL and learn to accept their child as she is.

The third speaker was ETSU student Haylie Brandt-Ogle, who told of her own experiences facing prejudice and struggle in school. She described being bullied by teachers and other students for much of her life. Despite that, she continued to persist and continued to attend extracurricular activities and began to find friends in her life through perseverance.

Photo of Tracey Milo. (Matt Reed/East Tennessean)

The final speaker was Tracey Milo, an artist and deaf community member from Maryland. She told jokes and described growing up and being forced to learn to lip read and conform to speaking society. She now is an advocate for the deaf community.

The event was an opportunity for members of the deaf community to get together and share their experiences and stories.

For more information, contact Jordan Fanuele at fanuele.etsu.edu.

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