By Carter Kucier ’23, staff writer

International Week of the Deaf has just wrapped up on Sunday, Sept. 25, on International Day of the Deaf. 

This holiday is meant to raise awareness for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people all over the globe, through focuses such as securing human rights for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people, accessible education, the status of international sign languages and accessible information technology and services. 

This week is also meant to uplift and celebrate the community, culture, and heritage surrounding the Deaf and hard-of-hearing. There are events and conventions that take place worldwide during this holiday every year that bring both deaf and hearing people alike together to learn, celebrate and work towards creating more safety and accessibility for deaf people. 

This year, LVC’s Center for Accessibility Resources spent the week over on their official Instagram posting information centered around ways to recognize Deaf and hard-of-hearing people and how to communicate clearly and respectfully as a hearing person.

Their advice included an emphasis on how to speak so that the hearing impaired will be able to understand, patience, creating a comfortable conversation space to alleviate any anxiety the hearing impaired participant may be feeling, how to engage properly in conversation with someone who uses an interpreter and much more. 

They have also discussed the use of Deaf as an identity, how and when to capitalize the word “deaf” based on context and understanding how each Deaf or hard-of-hearing person may identify differently than the next in terms of how they prefer to be addressed and whether or not they consider their deafness a disability. 

All of these posts can be found as infographics across 7 individual posts on LVC’s Center for Accessibility Resources Instagram, @lvc.car, as well as more information regarding International Week of the Deaf.