The American Sign Language (ASL) class did their yearly “Deaf for a day” activity on March 23. The activity consists of all of the students who take the ASL course who chose to participate. The ASL students put in earplugs for the day to block out all verbal communication. The goal of this activity is to represent what it is like to be deaf for a day and spread awareness about this difficult disability that affects the lives of roughly 360 million people around the world. Although the majority of ASL students participated, there were complaints by students and teachers about how it interfered with learning and classroom activities.
Although the majority of ASL students participated in the “deaf for a day” activity, some ASL students chose to not participate.The earbuds were chosen by the ASL teacher, Mrs. Clark, as the best technique of spreading awareness but not all ASL students could tolerate how the earbuds affected them in the school day.
Mrs. Clark believes that being partially deaf for a day is an effective way to spread awareness of the struggles of deaf students. “I feel like most of the students participated and tried their best to keep the earbuds in throughout the day,” Clark said.

Justin Fishman

Staff Writer