Unless someone is deaf themselves or personally know of someone who is deaf, it is less likely for that person to consider deaf people in their lives. The same way you probably don’t think about what it’s like to be blind, use a wheelchair, have down syndrome, dyslexia, or arthritis.

While other minority groups, such as LGBTQ+, African American, and Latinx, are making progress in the departments of inclusion, advocacy and awareness, the Deaf community remains quiet. But, this isn’t because they aren’t making noise. Deaf people are speaking up. They need everyone to listen.

With interests in politics increasing over the United States, it is necessary to acknowledge who isn’t being included in the conversation and why that is.

An article by Harvard Political Review cites the rise of political marches, such as the National Women’s March, the March For Our Lives and the Global Climate Strike, as the reason for increased political engagement in people ages 18 to 29.

Jaden Deal writes, “With political engagement and hope impacting youth voter participation, young people’s becoming more politically engaged and hopeful may play a critical role moving forward toward the 2020 election. Already, the youth vote seems to hold a more significant role in electoral politics than it has historically.”

With more young people showing an interest in politics, as well as actively engaging in it, can be a positive thing for democracy in this country. According to research compiled by Gallaudet University, in the United States, “anywhere from 9 to 22 out of every 1,000 people have a severe hearing impairment or are deaf.”

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Under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), state and local government agencies, as well as public entities, are prohibited from discrimination. This means that local and state agencies must provide equal access and equally effective services to people with disabilities.

For the deaf and hard of hearing community, this means that appropriate auxiliary aids and services have to be offered and provided to ensure the deaf individual has the same opportunities as everyone else.

Auxiliary aids and services can include a wide variety of things, such as qualified interpreters on-site or through video remote interpreting, qualified readers, and/or modification of equipment or devices.

These laws under the ADA were drastically life-changing for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Before, there was nothing ensuring deaf people access to interpreters in hospitals, when talking to police or other law officials, in courtrooms, in school, in prisons, or anywhere.

Imagine going to the doctor’s office and trying to communicate your medical needs when you don’t speak the language of the doctors. In addition to not understanding the doctor, the medical professionals couldn’t understand you.

Or, imagine being arrested and not being able to understand or speak with police officers. You don’t know what you’re being charged with, and you don’t have the opportunity to defend yourself. On top of that, you can’t call anyone to help you because telephones are not an accessible service when you can’t hear.

The ADA brought all of these neglected places into the fold so that deaf people have the right to be served regardless of their communication needs essentially everywhere they go. The ADA was an attempt to combat Audism in the United States.

HuffPost defines Audism as “the belief that those with the ability to hear are superior or ‘normal.’”

It was only up until recently that it was socially acceptable to refer to Deaf people at “deaf and dumb.”

Sign Language as a practice had to be pushed and advocated for because of movements to repress and ban the language from schools. This was known as “oralism,” which is the act of suppressing sign language in favor of speaking and lipreading.

Alexander Graham Bell became synonymous with oralism because of how much he pushed for oral communication for the deaf. His wife and mother were deaf, and he used his fame associated with the telephone to influence the deaf community.

The goal or oralism was to assimilate deaf people into the hearing world, while eradicating deafness from the human race.

Brian H. Greenwald, Ph.D., Gallaudet University wrote that, “Such strategies paralleled the general assimilation movement through the supposed uplifting of the deaf community by halting sign language use, reducing the importance of residential schools, and decreasing intermarriage among deaf partners.”

Similarly to other disabilities covered under the ADA, there is still more that has to be done for the Deaf community. There are still obstacles that are preventing Deaf people from fully participating with the greater community.

For example, there are little things that hearing people may not consider when it comes to accommodating deaf and hard of hearing people. At sporting events like Bills and Sabres games, there are pre recorded videos and announcements with no captions. Deaf people at these events have no way to understand these on their own, which excludes them from the full experience of Buffalo sports.

Having captions on these videos, in movie theaters, and in any other visual medium is an easy way of accommodating the Deaf community and treating them with dignity and respect.

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There are thousands of deaf people in this country who don’t have equal access to political discourse, including AJ Delposen, a senior at Rochester Institute of Technology studying computer science.

Delposen grew up in Hampton Township, a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA, with three brothers. He also has the experience of growing up deaf. Born without the ability to hear, Delposen has never experienced the world with the ease and convenience that hearing people have the privilege of.

Delposen uses hearing aids to help him understand conversations and communicate effectively, but they don’t “fix” his hearing abilities - and they don’t have to. AJ is excelling at college, earning internships in Pittsburgh, Virginia and Texas. His deafness doesn’t define him, but at the same time, it is an essential part of him.

“The biggest obstacles would be being able to participate in live debates or discussions with non-deaf people,” Delposen said. “There are no interpreters (that I've seen) for large debates and the live captions are far too slow to catch up with the fast paced discussions. That also translates into situations where Deaf people don't often communicate with the hearing as the Deaf will keep to themselves.”

Deaf people are being excluded from receiving a wide range of political views. For example, Deaf people can’t hear telephone call messages from politicians that are widely used to spread candidates messages, goals and initiatives. This prevents Deaf people from getting a full perspective on all political candidates and the issues at hand.

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This being said, there have been technological and social advances that have made things

more accessible for the Deaf community.

On the local level, there is one nonprofit organization, Deaf Adult Services (DAS), whose mission is to “responds to the interests of Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals by promoting communication access, awareness, and opportunities in the greater community.”

DAS provides interpreters, employment opportunities, community support services, ASL classes, and Deaf refugee services.

David Wantuck is a community engagement specialist at DAS, and he is Deaf himself. Wantuck comes from a large Deaf family in Buffalo. He has Deaf parents, a plethora of Deaf family members, and a Deaf wife. As a Deaf individual, he is both passionate about Deaf advocacy and his role at DAS.

His goal is to collaborate with the great Buffalo community to get more involvement in the Deaf community. His job involves a lot of understanding about what people need to be exposed to, as well as how to go about it. According to Wantuck, the Deaf community tries to reach out to the hearing community, and the hearing community is reciprocating.

His job is about finding and explaining the right ways of communication, asking what are acceptable rights and what is needed to have full accessibility or accommodation. With all of that, he goes out in the community and actually communicates with deaf and hearing people about their needs, questions and concerns.

While there are several other organizations and programs for the Deaf community in Buffalo, DAS is the only nonprofit organization for deaf services in 8 counties of WNY. Other organizations include the Buffalo Implant Group, The Buffalo Club of the Deaf, Buffalo Senior Citizen, Buffalo Civic Association of the Deaf, St. Mary’s School for the Deaf, and Buffalo Hearing Speech Center.

These all play a different role within the community, with different purposes in mind. DAS does a lot of advocate support for everybody. They give opportunities to hearing people who what to learn ASL, Deaf people who need accommodations or advocacy, and the hard of hearing who have lost their hearing or want to learn sign. They are here for employment, searching, interpreting providing, and legal advocacy.

“We help the deaf community as much as we can with every resource possible,” Wantuck explained. “We will get ahold and do training with medical facilities, doctors and ensure that they understand the right and the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing person.”

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As far as politics go, there are some intersections between national issues and deaf specific issues. For example, the national health care debate relates directly to the health needs that come with being deaf.

“I believe my current hearing aids are both worth $10,000,” Delposen explained. “I will need to either fight the county government to help support me in paying as it falls under disability, find a separate health insurance that might (probably not) cover hearing aids, or pay it all out of pocket myself. It's a big issue not knowing who to contact in order to get the help I need. This is also region dependent. Living in PA will have different rules from when I move to Texas.”

There are several deaf politicians with enough of a notable career to have a Wikipedia page about them; however, none of them have been involved with American politics. There are some from Canada, Hungary, the British Parliament, New Zealand, South Africa and more, but no American deaf politicians are listed on Wikipedia.

With no deaf individuals directly involved in politics, it makes sense that the greater Deaf community is having a hard time engaging themselves.

Wantuck expressed that one of the toughest things about the under-representation of the Deaf community in politics is that Deaf people are not being able to share their experiences and voice their opinions. Even when they are advocated for, it is by hearing people who don’t necessarily have the perspective of what it’s like to be deaf.

When hearing people speak for the Deaf community, the community is somewhat cheated out of that opportunity to be consulted on matters that directly concern them. Another thing that is lacking is the space and time to explain and share the experiences of Deaf people so that their opinions, ideas, and voices are heard and taken into account.

“We feel that there may be nobody in the office there as the deaf role perspective to ensure and push for those new policies or advocacy accessibility for the Deaf and hard of hearing community to be passed and processed. We are oftentimes overlooked in the community, because of the perception that we are incapable of doing what we are capable of doing,” Wantuck said.

“We are capable of doing a lot of things. It's just, we’re not given that chance because of communication barriers. People feel it's more work to communicate with us. Really, we’re just like everyone else.”

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Buffalo has a strong Deaf community. This is partly due to its proximity to Rochester, where the Rochester Institute of Technology resides. RIT is internationally recognized for their education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

The short hour drive between Rochester and Buffalo have made it possible for the relatively small cities to be able to collaborate with each other to create a stronger Deaf community.

Wantuck emphasized that other cities and states don’t have this opportunity. There are only three major colleges in the United States, including Gallaudet University, RIT and Howard College's Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf.

Buffalo is fortunate to have such a flushing Deaf community. There are weekly ASL socials at coffee shops, ASL food truck events and plenty of other opportunities for Deaf and hearing people to mingle and learn about each other’s experiences.

St. Mary’s School for the Deaf is located at the heart of Main Street, only a few blocks from Canisius College which has a Sign Language club and offers basic ASL classes.

Sign Language and Deaf culture is becoming more prevalent, but there is still a lot of hearing people don’t know about the Deaf community.

Wantuck identifies some of the biggest problems between Deaf and hearing people as assumption and effort. He explained that it can be as simple as asking the right questions to the Deaf community, as well as giving them the opportunity to answer.

“The biggest thing that people doubt other deaf people who can talk, and they assume they’re not deaf,” Wantuck said. “They assume if they're deaf, they can read lips. Those things need to stop.”

Deafness is not perceived as a disability to Deaf people. It may take some extra steps to bridge the gap between the hearing world and the Deaf community, but if one is willing to put in the effort, the effort will be returned.

“Most of the deaf want to just be treated as normal, but also have more awareness of potential deaf people,” Delposen added. “The general population doesn't know how to effectively communicate nor have the patience for it. People will either really attempt or ignore it entirely. The best thing people could do as well is not to be offended when a deaf person admits multiple times that they cannot understand or hear a person, regardless of their speaking volume and/or accent.”

Instead of a disability, Deafness is seen as an identity. As such, it is used in the article with an uppercase D to signify its importance as a person’s identity. It is a sign of respect to that individual when the uppercase is used. Starting there, one can start to learn more ways of showing the Deaf community the respect they deserve.