Hello, my name is Oliver Ferguson. I was born Deaf, plus my parents and my uncle is Deaf, plus my two sisters are Deaf too. Did I feel different growing up? No. Did I notice anything? No.
When I was growing up we used sign language all the time, for everything. We added TC at one time but really we carried on as usual. I didn’t feel unique. I went to a Deaf school and everything carried on, we all connected.
This continued till I was about 8 or 9. I started to notice something different. What was it? My friend, we’re both Deaf, I went to visit their home and saw the rest of the family were hearing. I saw that communication was very difficult. That really struck me and made me reflect. I thought about when we went shopping, access there was also difficult. I began to be aware of barriers getting the way,
I reflected and felt that Deaf culture is strong, I realised we as a group value our culture which was different to that of hearing people out there. As I grew up I became more aware of that.
Now I have three children, two are Deaf. They’ve noticed that Deaf culture strong applies to them too.
