We Rise Alum Spotlight: Germaine Graham Celebrates Deaf Awareness Month with Education Series

For many students and families across the United States, the months of August and September traditionally mark the end of the summer and the Back to School countdown. Among the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, September also marks Deaf Awareness Month

Local First’s We Rise graduate and owner of Deafinitely Communicating, Germaine Graham, carried out an Instagram series called ABC's of Deaf Education, sharing information about the culture, lived experiences, accomplishments, rights, joys, challenges, and day-to-day life of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people of all ages.

What started out as a simple story with a question and answer box shared to her Instagram, @deafinitelycommunicating, transformed into a month-long series featuring 88 collaborators, 129 posts, and countless connections via shares, likes, comments, and saves. The series educated, spotlighted, connected, and introduced families and followers to terminology, resources, and perspectives related to Deaf education that they may have never come across.

The collaborators, more than half of which identified as Deaf/Hard of Hearing, included business owners, professors, parents of Deaf/Hard of Hearing children, Deaf and Hard of Hearing children/youth, early interventionists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, Deaf Educators, Teachers of the Deaf, special educators, interpreters, mental health therapists, psychologists, and much more. Due to the reach of social media, collaborators from England, Australia, and the Netherlands also participated in the series alongside those located in the United States. 

The series will soon be available on YouTube for viewing and use in classrooms across the United States and beyond!