Invisible Disability
Deaf culture gets boost from new organization
By Hlee Vang
of the Northwestern
Day-care worker Chloe Jezeski II loves to play the piano.
A car accident last year, however, left her completely
deaf.
Now, the laughter of children she works with every day
are heard only in the echoes of her memory. To hear music she plays on her
piano, Jezeski feels for its vibrations.
“I miss the kids’ voices and I love music,” Jezeski
said. “Sometimes I feel fine. Sometimes I just feel frustrated and angry.”
Jezeski, an Appleton resident, was one among hundreds of
hard of hearing and deaf people who attended a weekend welcome event for Deaf
Empowerment, a newly formed non-profit organization with a mission to help deaf
and hard of hearing people in Northeast Wisconsin lead more productive lives
through advocacy, education and community involvement.
Although Deaf Empowerment publicizes itself as a
Northeast Wisconsin organization serving Winnebago, Calumet, Outagamie and Brown
counties, people as far as Milwaukee showed up for the event, held in Oshkosh at
All Saints Lutheran Church.
The “overwhelming” turn-out is proof of just how
important an organization like theirs is to the deaf and hard of hearing
community, said Deaf Empowerment co-founder Melanie Blechl, who is hard of
hearing.
The only other existing service available for hard of
hearing or deaf people in Wisconsin outside of the Madison and Milwaukee areas
is the state Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Green Bay.
The office, however, is run by one person and serves 17
counties.
“We wanted to offer services at the local level,”
said Deaf Empowerment’s other founder, Lori Fuller, who is deaf.
Blechl said it’s impossible to estimate how many people
in Winnebago County or Northeast Wisconsin are hard of hearing or deaf. People,
particularly those who weren’t born deaf, do not want to be identified as
being deaf or hard of hearing.
Nationally, getting updated and reliable numbers also is
difficult but experts estimate that 1 out of every 10 people experience some
hearing loss, Blechl said.
One of the big issues Deaf Empowerment wants to tackle is
the literacy rate among deaf and hard of hearing people.
Jean Laux, a Deaf Empowerment board member and tutor who
is deaf herself, said raising the literacy rate will help in the other four
areas of services (ASL translation, family, financial literacy and employment)
the organization will be providing to its clients.
Quinn Buekner, who attended Deaf Empowerment’s event at
All Saints, said being deaf has limited her in the employment field and she’s
interested to see what Deaf Empowerment can do to help people like her.
Buekner got laid off after 10 years of working with
machines. She couldn’t find a job for 10 months and didn’t know where to
turn for help.
Recently she was hired at Ponderosa but said she would
have been grateful to see an organization like Deaf Empowerment months back when
a waiting list she was on seeking employment assistance stretched 3,600 names
ahead of her name.
“Deaf people can work. They have good work ethic,”
Buekner said. “Now that I’ve seen the number of people here, I’m hopeful
it (Deaf Empowerment) will be successful.”
In addition, Blechl hopes that the organization can
bridge misunderstandings about the deaf world and advocate for the rights of
deaf people —members of the deaf culture.
Deaf culture is a term that designates deaf people who
use ASL as their primary form of communication — it denotes that they are a
language-based group, different from the mainstream in many of the same ways
that characterize ethnic groups.
The deaf culture doesn’t see being deaf as a
disability, Blechl said. That implies something “is wrong and needs fixing.”
“Deaf people are proud of being deaf and don’t feel
you have to change us. We don’t need to be fixed,” Blechl said.
Hlee Vang: (920) 426-6656 or hvang@thenorthwestern.com.
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Deaf Empowerment
1478 Kenwood Drive
Menasha, WI 54952
(920) 886-7692 (TTY)