Visible Minorities: Deaf, Blind, and Special Needs Adult Native Literacy Access

Abstract

This article is the result of a presentation at the Aboriginal Literacy Symposium on
May 3-5,2002, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of
Toronto. My good friend Ernestine LaCroix and I begin with a demonstration of
using American Sign Language (ASL), which is a way of communicating in the Deaf
culture. I also talk about my early experience in the school system before I realized I
had hearing and vision disabilities. Eventually I was able to enter a training program
in residential school at the Ontario School for the Deaf (OSD) in Belleville. I was just
turning 16.1 am culturally diverse and am able to bridge the gap for our Aboriginal
people who need access to our traditional way of life. I know how to move between
communities, I have become productive, and I continue traveling the healing path of
the Sweet Grass Trail. You cannot have a hearing person lead a Deaf Native literacy
program any more than you can put a second-language speaker of any tongue to
teach the language and culture. Such a person will not have the cultural grounding.