It's been such an amazing season of basketball, watching the teams grow with their skills and teamwork!
Olds kindly hosted the year-end tournament for the Grade 7-8 players and we went up. I am a profound deaf coach, who can speak, hear with a hearing aid and do fluent ASL.
I was born deaf and my parents found out that I was deaf when I was one or two years old. I grew up in a hearing community in Cremona, but signing is my first language and English comes second.
I do a lot of PSE (pidgin-signed English) because of my speaking skills and how natural it is for me to sign when I speak anyway. I had interpreters my whole life but when I am doing things in my own life and working on my own businesses, I do not have accessibility 95 per cent of the time, only on my own TV and devices with closed captions and Video Relay Services for phone calls.
It is very rare that public has accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing people. My dream is for the school curriculum to provide classes for sign languages.
My team has 12 players who are hearing and we made it work throughout the whole season, by them knowing to look at me when they talk to me, tap me on the shoulder, and be patient with me when we are communicating. On the Friday of the tournament at 5:30 p.m. we played against Olds. We had a really good game, even though we lost, but we improved so much since we played them last.
Right before the game, the Olds coach was kind enough to sign to me a bit while we chatted, and I thought it was so cool! Just like when any hearing person makes an effort to spell or sign with me.
Then we were saying good game to the players and the refs at the end. Instead of shaking my hand or giving me the hand, one of the Olds team players approached me, and they all signed "good game," as my brain naturally just signed back, "Thank you! Good game too!"
But by then, the rest of the team started to do it. It was the most amazing thing to see! I was surrounded by the Olds players who were signing American Sign Language, to give me some accessibility.
I was so inspired and I honestly don't think I have ever been so surprised. It takes a lot to surprise me.
The memory I have of being surrounded by players that I simply do not know make such an effort to sign to me something very simple, but the effort goes so far and beyond.
I started to tear up and I was so happy and signed it back excitedly and signed "thank you!" over and over again! It was honestly one of the best moments in my deaf journey and I am 36 years old.
Toast to the Olds coaches and their team!
It shows that it takes education, time to understand and effort to help someone. It is about sharing information with others that everyone is different and it is OK. It is not all peachy keen though, as the team and I experienced the opposite at the next game on Saturday.
During the same situation, of saying "good game" some of the other team players' mocked me and the way I spoke. My own two daughters who are CODA (children of a deaf adult) heard, and they got very defensive and told me after.
I explained to them that, often, I don't hear that kind of stuff unless it was straight to my face. I told them I have so much confidence in myself and my deafness, that I know those kids and some adults, just plainly, don't understand.
They unfortunately have not been exposed to differences, been taught, or have the empathy to care about inclusivity. I just hope that one day soon they will learn that just because someone speaks differently, dresses different, walk differently or looks different, does not mean they should be treated less than others.
It is interesting seeing how my community who have been exposed to the "deaf girl" growing up my whole life, and some other communities have no experience at all. It is human nature and it takes time and understanding of adults to educate the youth.
Tessa Lerbekmo-Joes,
Cremona
