CiTi Celebrates Deaf Awareness Day
Students in the Center for Instruction, Technology & Innovation’s Fourth Street building this week learned basic American Sign Language to promote a better understanding of Deaf culture and community as part of CiTi’s Deaf Awareness Day celebrated Thursday.
Lisa Phinney, CiTi’s teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, helped students create a bulletin board filled with basic ASL signs, including common phrases, numbers and letters, along with a student-led video to share in building classrooms.
“Our goal for today was to have a day without any barriers for communication so that the Deaf people in this building can feel like we’re all a community and chat with each other,” Phinney said. “We’re aiming to make communication free and easy, and we’re hoping that continues beyond today.”
CiTi’s Deaf Awareness Day, held the last week of September, coincided with Deaf Awareness Month which recognizes the rich cultural history of the Deaf community and encourages the continuation of work to advocate for the rights of Deaf people everywhere.