When I was growing up in the 80’s, I was not courageous enough to let others know I am deaf. I had a fear of others being unfriendly and less accommodating towards me. It was easy to hide my disability since it’s invisible and I look like a normal person. At an early age, the first time I was bullied was by a hearing babysitter and hearing children she was watching. I experienced discrimination and negative attitudes directed against deaf people. That is called audism.

Growing up with an invisible disability has taught me that there are some people who are ignorant, unaware they are exhibiting audist behaviors. It’s because the hearing person has never met a deaf person before and will try to walk away because they don’t know how to interact with them. People who don’t feel comfortable have a tendency to get away from something so they don’t have to deal with it. That can be frustrating for deaf people.

As I got older, I learned to accept my deafness and appreciate things in life in a world of silence. I have never heard a single sound all my life and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. Along the way, I built my courage to tell people that I am deaf if I just met them. I do my best to try to keep them from walking away if I can. If they stay, I would tell them how they can communicate with me in my preferred form of communication which would be ASL, writing back and forth on paper, or using the phone to text each other. Every deaf and hard of hearing person has their own communication preferences. It’s strongly advised that you don’t assume all deaf people can lip-read or speak because that’s not true. When a hearing person interacts with a deaf person, it is a rewarding experience for them to have exposure to a deaf person’s presence. In other words, I believe it is important that our deaf presence helps spread deaf awareness by finding opportunities to meet hearing people.

To my hearing readers, I encourage you to take American Sign Language (ASL) classes. Be sure the teacher is deaf so you can learn ASL accurately. Be sure to learn more about the deaf community and their culture. If you have a deaf employee in your workplace, learning ASL would be so rewarding and helps your deaf employee feel welcome and happier. I personally experienced that when I met my first boss, an Art Director, who took her time to learn ASL so she could communicate with me to develop a positive working relationship. It was awesome.

I love being deaf. I am grateful to be a part of a beautiful, rich culture in a deaf community. Being deaf is a huge part of me that paved the way to a career in graphic design because I depend on my eyes for communication and I love art. I attended National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) to pursue a BFA degree in Graphic Design. Visual communication is vital in graphic design and that is my strongest strength as a deaf graphic designer. I love the holistic creative process from sketching to final design solutions that are effective and easy on the eyes for a clear communication. I love to play around with textures, creating vector artwork, and trying out new things. I have talent in print design, branding, logo design, illustration, direct mail, and more. You can find me on @creativeseedink on Instagram. Be sure to check out my @deafetiquette platform as well. Right now, I am looking for a new job in the marketing department at a company or at an advertising/marketing company. My portfolio is at mschallau.com. I’d love to hear from you if you are hiring.