Audism in Public Schools

Watch this first: Watch this last: Summary: When I viewed the Pantene ad, it gave me a flashback of several incidents of audism that I went through while growing up in a public school just like that girl had experienced. Looking back, I recalled being ridiculed and snickered when my name was called to give a dancing performance similar to a mixture of Michael Jackson style and what we now would call it a hip-hop style. After winning the award, the attitude among the students had changed as I felt they respected me more ever since the performance. It is true that as a Deaf person, you have to work much harder to prove that you are capable of such things.

Another experience I had was when I was involved in a diving team, I did not get as much support and enthusiasm from the teammates and not even from the diving coach. I was again mocked and snickered in the first few weeks of practice and I was about to give it up until a Black janitor who watched the whole thing since day one recognized how I was treated came up to me. Although he didn't know sign language, I was able to understand him so well that he made an effort to communicate clearly with me. Just like this man in the ad, he came in the light and started to support me by giving me tips and encouragement. From there, I was able to dramatically improve my performance in diving.

The lesson from this is that every Deaf child needs a role model who believes in them by giving them support that they are capable of doing such things in spite of their hearing level.