Life After Deaf

 

I'm actually fifth generation deaf on my mother's side - my maternal grandfather was also deaf, as was my maternal great-grandfather. I was born hearing, and I started to lose it at the age of 5. I moved to Ohio when I was 6. When I arrived at the local schools, they advised my mother to put me into the Ohio School for the Deaf - fortunately, my mother is also deaf, and she felt strongly that I should be mainstreamed. I used hearing aids and lip-reading all the way through high school, and became the first student in my school district to attend Johns Hopkins University as an undergraduate.