Students at A.M. Barbe High School and area residents experienced a day in the life of the hearing-impaired during the inaugural “Deaf-Deaf World” event on Friday.

With the help of deaf students and deaf-education teachers, participants used sign language, posted signs, lip reading or miming to complete certain tasks. They included completing a classroom lesson, describing medical symptoms to a doctor and ordering food at a restaurant.<p>Lindsay Duhon, a deaf-education teacher at A.M. Barbe High School, participates in the “Deaf-Deaf World” event on Friday.</p><a href="mailto:news@americanpress.com"> Special to American Press </a>

Participants wore earplugs during the simulations. Those who spoke were sent to the “voice box penitentiary,” where they had to learn 10 signs before being released.

Christa Foolkes, coordinator of the Calcasieu Parish School Board’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program, said, the event gave residents a better understanding of how deaf people communicate and perform everyday tasks.

Lindsay Duhon, a deaf-education teacher, said the event gave deaf students the chance to “share their culture and give greater awareness to their unique difficulties.” She said many deaf students at Barbe can feel isolated because they make up a small portion of the school’s more than 2,000 students.

Allie Hayes, a senior and American Sign Language student, said people typically underestimate how important sign language is. She said the event showed how a community can “shut out deaf people without realizing it.”

“It’s not fair either, because deaf culture is really cool,” Hayes said.

Duhon said events like these will hopefully encourage hearing students to reach out to their deaf peers and recognize their talents.  

Duhon said deaf students “really rely on their interpreters to be their ears” in specialty electives like culinary, graphic design and carpentry.

The School Board recently agreed to boost pay for educational interpreters, something Foolkes said will hopefully attract new professionals. The board is also developing a training program designed to help interested interpreters earn their certification.

Damien Parfait, Deaf-Deaf World chairperson, said the best way to learn sign language is to interact with deaf people through social events.