Wayne State College hosted their fourth Ideas and Healthy Conversations event on Tuesday, Oct. 28.
Ideas and Healthy Conversations is an annual event hosted by students in their introduction to personal, public, and global health class alongside their professor Barbara Engebretsen.
The idea to start hosting these events was brought to Engebretsen by a former student.
“He came to me and he said, ‘I have an idea,’” Engebretsen said. “He wanted to highlight different stories that students, faculty, and community members had to share with a TedTalk-like event. He called it Idea Tuesdays.”
The Idea Tuesdays were successful with a variety of guest speakers attending their events.
Engebretsen routinely brought the health department into her classroom as part of her personal, public and global health class.
“We would have healthy conversations so people were more aware about public health, what we know about it and what things expose health disparities or challenges,” Engebretsen said. “We need to better understand so we can address [challenges] better.”
A combination of Idea Tuesdays, working with the health department and the encouragement of President Marysz Rames to start hosting events about civil discourse melded together to create the current Ideas and Healthy Conversations events.
Previous events hosted talked about the healing power of music for African Americans, healing historical trauma by reclaiming culture and dignity among Native American people and a monologue about Spanish speaking immigrants and the challenges they face during and after immigrating.
The event, hosted on Oct. 28, featured guest speaker Jeremy Daffern, an Advocacy Specialist and Outreach Liaison for the Nebraska Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (NCDHH).
The night followed a schedule of listening to Daffern’s speech, which included the use of an interpreter as Daffern is deaf, a song sung and signed by one of the WSC choirs, talking amongst table groups, and a question and answer session.
During his presentation entitled, “Listening Differently in a Deaf World” Daffern signed while an interpreter named Megan spoke to the room.
“My parents had no idea I was deaf until I was 18 months old,” signed Daffern. “I was playing and she came to check on me, and a door was about to close on me. She yelled my name, but I had no response and that is when my journey as a deaf person began.”
Daffern’s family took him to a deaf school in London where children were told to speak and read lips. His mother did not like this and they moved to Washington D.C. where Daffern attended multiple schools including mainstream schools and schools specifically for deaf children.
Daffern affirmed that he preferred the school specifically for deaf children and so did many of his peers. Children had direct access to people who sign and interpreters alike at their special school, while many children’s families did not sign and they had no one to communicate with when they went home.
“I have to fight for myself as a deaf person,” Daffern signed. “I have to fight for my right to have an interpreter.”
Daffern interned at LAVOSI Deaf School in Guatemala, where students’ education was limited to a sixth-grade level. Despite the limited teaching of these students, their school is thriving, Daffern signed.
Statistically, more than 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, and 22% of those parents learn to sign. This means deaf people live in a world with limited communication, many until they reach college age, when they have the opportunity to attend a deaf university and are exposed to deaf culture and other members of the deaf community.
“The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 expanded the rights of deaf people in education and in employment,” Daffern signed.
Daffern shared his experience working for UPS, and that they did not allow him to drive their vehicles because of his lack of hearing in spite of having good vision. They settled a lawsuit outside of court and deaf people at the company were allowed to drive UPS vehicles.
The same situation happened with a trucking company that would not allow deaf people to drive semi-trucks even though the deaf drivers had earned their CDL license. This dispute was also settled and now deaf drivers are allowed to drive for the Omaha company.
These are two examples of discrimination that able hearing people would not experience and are two of many circumstances in which deaf people have to fight for their rights.
Working with the NCDHH allows Daffern to help people who are deaf and hard of hearing get the resources they need. Part of their main goals are to educate others on the community, engage with those inside and outside of the community and provide equity to those in the community so they have the same opportunities as hearing people.
In Nebraska, the company has four outreach liaisons which limit the abilities of deaf and hard of hearing people to find the resources they need in rural areas of the state.
Deaf and disabled people fight every day for their right to fair access and treatment, and Daffern said if you see someone in the community struggling the best thing you can do is be an ally and speak up.
