Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Fair aims to make deaf community visible

Fair aims to make deaf community visible

But Leff wasn’t part of a club campaigning outside the Memorial Union Tuesday - she was trying to raise awareness for deaf people.

Leff helped coordinate the first ASU American Sign Language Festival at the MU to help raise deaf awareness at ASU. The festival ends today.

“My goal is to educate the campus community,” Leff, an ASL lecturer at ASU, said through an interpreter. “I want to make them aware of the deaf community.”

Students can learn about the deaf community by visiting the festival’s various booths dedicated to famous deaf people, history and advances in technology, Leff added.

“Deaf people are alive and are in the campus community,” she said. “They can do anything that anyone else can.”

While those passing by caught a glimpse of the deaf community’s heritage Tuesday, those who stopped to check out the festival could sit in a nine-minute express class teaching basic sign language, she …

DeafRead + Extra