Signs of change

The Yale Herald reports on a recent comedy show at Yale by D.J. Demers. Demers is hard of hearing and incorporates jokes about his experiences growing up and wearing hearing aids. On his website, Demers describes the tour as “a cross-country road trip to shatter stigmas and raise awareness about hearing loss through the power of laughter.” Disability Empowerment for Yale (DEFY), founded in 2016, helped bring Demers to Yale’s campus as part of a larger move to give more visibility for Yale’s disabled community. 

DEFY is not the only group  on campus interested in increasing awareness of Deaf culture. The Linguistics Department has been doing their part. The article reports on efforts by Raffaella Zanuttini and others to have American Sign Language (ASL) implemented as a language of study at Yale. Their efforts have been rewarded, and a pilot program in ASL will begin in the spring.