As Deaf women, we have a right to know what’s going on around us. For so long, we walked around ignorant, but not anymore. Now we want people to know their rights and that it’s okay to speak up and how to protect ourselves against awful or traumatic experiences. I was a victim before in my life, and I learn now how I can become a survivor. And I really want to show others how they can become survivors too.
You can do it! Don’t just sit back and let things pass you by! If you need help, look for it! Deaf people can do it! Don’t allow other hearing people and mainstream society to look down on you, push it aside, and go on! Women have power!
At the time I lived in New Hampshire, so I went home on the weekends and stayed at the dorms at school. Next school I went to was Columbus School for the Deaf in Ohio. I stayed in dorms there too, but only went home for holidays, just Christmas, Easter, for summer vacation. I really preferred being at school because there were Deaf people there and I could sign. It was much more exciting than going home because my hometown is very small and there are not many Deaf people there I can interact with.
I would want people to know that I don’t want to be put in a box. When you first meet me, I don’t want you to think ‘Oh I know that person,’ because I have many different faces really, when I’m working or when I’m at home or when I’m with my family. I’m different I have a different personality almost, in each situation it’s interesting, it’s fun to see the different sides of me but I don’t want to be put in a box.
When I see a student developing and learning, and I see that they have goals and ambitions, academics, social, and their behavior- everything together is improving. That’s what I see as success. I don’t look at myself, I look at them and see their individual successes…they’re excited about school and they’re passionate about learning, that’s what I see as success.
Jaimi Lard
“Before, when I was a baby, the doctor had told my parents that I would never learn how to communicate and that I would not be able to become independent. He told my parents that I would have to stay in the hospital for my entire life. That would have been awful. But my parents did not listen—they brought teachers into our home who helped me become more mobile and taught me how to communicate. And so my parents have been so excited that I have learned to do so many things.”
Summary:
Jaimi was born deafblind in 1964. She was born deaf and blind because her mother was stricken with Rubella, German measles, when she was pregnant with Jaimi. Jaimi has two brothers, but she is the only person in her family who is deaf and blind.
When she was three years old, Jaimi attended a Deaf school in New York but soon moved to Perkins School for the Blind from age five. She remained at Perkins until her graduation at the age of twenty-two. It was here, at Perkins School for the Blind, where she learned how to communicate and truly flourished as an individual. Jaimi was taught through many different methods of communication including tadoma, oralism, written English, Braille, and finally, tactile American Sign Language.
Jaimi currently lives in Watertown, MA with another deafblind individual and works at Perkins School for the Blind as their spokesperson. She travels to many schools and a variety of other places sharing in her experience with Perkins and her accomplishments as a Deafblind woman in today’s society.
Well, we're business owners; I never thought we'd be business owners. I thought that was for hearing people. Wow, we can do it. Like I said, technology is changing and now we access to a variety of things. It's given us a chance to become business owners, it's really great.
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