This Happens to Me Every Day
by: Kate Alton and Dawn Jani Birley

This happens to me every day

People talking all around me

But we don’t speak the same language

People moving their mouths while I move my hands

The world is full of moving mouths

On March 16th I flew from Vancouver to Amsterdam

I knew something was wrong 

The visual silence was worrisome 

The world had changed almost overnight

Why?

I had no fucking idea

Everyone was scared of COVID-19

But…

it is more frightening to see and feel something scary when you don’t know what is happening

I had to catch up to understand what was going on

There was no information in my language

I was very behind

I began to read, research, do homework

I was fortunate because English is one of the languages I know well

I shared what I learned, making videos in ASL for our communit 

How can Deaf people save themselves without information?

All the information is auditory

None in sign language

My point…

Deaf people are forgotten, disregarded, discarded, like garbage

Deaf people have long sought accessibility

Our requests are ignored

When COVID-19 hit it was chaos

We had to beg for information

Finally interpreters are on screens all over the world

When drastic things happen we are the last to know

You only warn us when our ignorance threatens your safety

Are we not important?

Deaf & hearing, both are human

Humans NEED communication

Can the world agree that all languages

spoken or signed

should be equal?

Sign Language IS language