On Friday, April 11, the Harding dactylology club, in collaboration with the Arkansas Division of Rehabilitation Services, will host the event “It’s a Deaf, Deaf World,” a simulation of deaf culture and interactions. The event will promote awareness about services and technology for the deaf.
One of the scenarios of the event will be a doctor’s appointment, in which the students will not be able to hear the doctor and must try to communicate with him without using words.
“Just because you can’t hear doesn’t mean you can’t communicate,” senior Victoria McIntosh, president of the dactylology club, said.
When McIntosh was a baby, she was diagnosed with pneumococcoal sepsis, a disease that the doctor said should have killed her or made her lose her hearing. She started to learn sign language at an early age, but maintained her hearing and became interested in the deaf culture.
“I want to be able to communicate with everybody,” McIntosh said.
The Arkansas School for the Deaf, located in Little Rock, has helped the dactylology club in its beginning stages. Now the club is helping the school by donating to them the income from the event.
“‘It’s a Deaf, Deaf World’ is to show people that the deaf are just like us, and if we are to encounter a deaf person, not to treat them differently,” sophomore Victoria Ellis, treasurer of the club, said.
Among other things, the dactylology club will teach the proper etiquette of sign language. One of the basics is to constantly look into the eyes of the person you are talking to.
“Students should attend because it may help with their major like CSD, nursing and any one going into medicine, just to name a few,” Ellis said. “They will learn some signs; plus, it will be fun.”
Tickets go on sale Monday for $5 in the Student Center or $7 at the door. The event is in the Lee building from 3:30-5:30 p.m.
