Story of the Day 9/ 2/ 2011 #2

Sarah was in ASL class- the sign language class she has after lunch.
Oh wait, North Central High School doesn’t offer any ASL classes? But this was her ASL class. The one she “teaches”.
You see, every day, half way through the lunch period, a group of girls who have hurried through what is already a rather abbreviated lunch period, sit together in the hall and learn new signs and practice the ones they know.
One girl has been at this for over a semester, and she often has to “interpret” things for some of the newer “ students”.

Today, one of the newer students, Kate, asked Sarah, “You read Braille, right?”

Sarah, who has heard things like this, before, was not nearly as startled as Erin, the young lady doing the “interpreting.”

“What? What? She is able to see just fine!” spurted Erin. “Deaf people can see to read!”

Kate was taken aback…. “Oh, uh, sorry, I got confused between deaf and blind people….”

This is not something Sarah, nor I, nor Sarah’s deaf brother, nor my husband has not “heard” before. Several times, my husband and I have been asked, when Sarah and Aaron were young, if they would need to learn Braille to be able to read.
But my all time favorite moment of confusion over what “deafness” could possibly mean was when a very kind older man gave Aaron and Sarah presents that he had specially ordered for the, so that they would be able to tell what time it was. He had bought special “ talking watches” for them.