Over 5% of the world’s population are deaf or hard of hearing. Of these, 34 million are children, 90% of which are born to hearing parents. Their deaf child is the first deaf person that most of these parents meet, so they don’t know anything about Deaf Culture. Many medical professionals insist that sign language can hinder the children’s speech. Therefore parents may be reluctant to introduce sign language, and instead encourage their deaf children to learn the spoken language.
At the age of 6 I became deaf and grew up surrounded with hearing family, hearing friends, and hearing role models. I depended on lip reading and didn’t know what Deaf culture is. When I was 26, I decided to raise awareness on social media after experiencing various barriers. This also gave me the opportunity to meet with Malta’s Deaf Community, start using sign language, and developed a Deaf identity. For the first time I felt like I belonged. Sign language gave me more accessibility to information, and my quality of life improved. Today I am also a Deaf mother of a hearing toddler. I teach her sign language which helps us both to communicate with each other.
My experience taught me that it doesn’t matter which language is used, whether spoken or signed, as long as our messages get across and we are able to communicate with each other. I became more aware of how important it is for a deaf child to be able to communicate with the parents as early as possible. Being unable to communicate with anyone can be very lonely, and that’s one reason why sign language is very important. A deaf baby who cannot hear the spoken language and who isn’t exposed to any language during the first years, which is a crucial period for language acquisition, can experience language deprivation. Using sign language can eventually make it easier for the deaf child to learn spoken languages and become bi/multilingual. Sign language, which is the natural language of the deaf, gives Deaf people the ability to access information and develop their potential.
As a Queen’s Young Leader, a One Young World Ambassador, a student studying the Masters in Disability Studies, and a Deaf activist, my responsibility is to use my voice to lobby about the importance of sign language as well as offer support and awareness about Deaf Culture by acting as a role model.
I dream of a world that embraces Deaf Culture and chooses language acquisition for all deaf children.