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Each September students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to a unique place… “It’s a Deaf Deaf World”.  Joan Philip from the Center for Living and Working in Worcester and Judy Freedman Fask, Director of the Deaf Studies program at Holy Cross have been offering the interactive workshop since the first formal ASL classes started at Holy Cross in 1994. 

The tables are turned and students, staff, faculty and members in the community must attend “various stations” that simulate everyday situations for a Deaf person… NO SPOKEN LANGUAGE is allowed.  We also had stations where individuals wore special glasses that simulated various visual loss, which then left the person with a better perspective of the challenges a person with hearing loss AND vision loss might face.  

Communication varies at each station-only lip reading, only writing, gesturing, using American Sign Language and using other sign systems.  Individuals must attend to daily tasks such as going to the bank, eating at a restaurant (informing them of a severe food allergy!) or going to the emergency room at the hospital.  The individual must figure out how best to communicate in situations like this without being able to use spoken English- this becomes quite a challenge!