It has been approximately 15 years since I was first interviewed by Gene Pedersen. I will try to update things I touched on in the first interview and add other information.

My family and I remained in Mankato, Minnesota, for another 6 years and I stayed in the same job.

We took our son out of the mainstream program he had been attending and enrolled him in the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf (MSAD) in Faribault, MN. He had been diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder and the mainstream environment was not working for him. Looking back on this decision, we feel it was definitely the right one for him.

Our oldest daughter was found to have a hearing loss, and like our son, was put into a mainstream program, but later attended the MSAD. Her hearing loss was not as severe as our son's and she had a difficult time fitting into the MSAD environment.

My wife worked mainly as an itinerant teacher, traveling to different schools working with deaf children who were mainstreamed. Around 1990, both of us were getting restless in our jobs and decided to look elsewhere. She was the first to find other employment at the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf in Wilson, NC. We moved to our present home in 1991. For the first 8 months I did not have employment. I stayed home and was a "house husband." It gave me a new respect for women who stay home and take care of things.

I finally found work teaching in a new interpreter training program at Wilson Technical Community College. In fact, I was the first person hired for the program. I found I enjoyed teaching at this level and continue to enjoy it. It is a little difficult imagining myself doing the same work until I am 65 years old, but it is gratifying to see improvement in students' skills because of my efforts. It is also disappointing to see students who don't succeed.

My oldest daughter now lives in an apartment, but is not working. She recently had a hearing test that indicates she now has a profound hearing loss. My son is enrolled in the welding program at the community college where I work and is doing well. Our youngest daughter, who is hearing, is a senior in high school. All three children have attention deficit disorder.

I have now been deaf for over half of my life. When I attended Gallaudet and in the years after that, I didn't notice the divisions within the deaf community. By that I mean, the hierarchy of deafness. At the top, deaf children of deaf parents, then deaf children of hearing parents, deafened people, etc. Remember, I became deaf before the cultural view of deafness was popular. Even now, I find older deaf people don't view me so much as an outsider as do the younger deaf people. So I would say that the deaf community has splintered in the last 15 years or more. Unfortunately, this can hurt all of us. We should be all working together, not worrying about who is big "D" deaf and who isni't. That kind of thinking drives off many people who could be of help in getting things that we need.

Also, when I was first deafened, captioned films were still around. Now many movies are on captioned video tapes and there is no need to get groups together to watch them. As I mentioned in the original interview, computers and other technology are beginning to replace the TDB. I use E-mail and ICE chats to talk with both hearing and deaf people. Several people I know use fax machines instead of either the computer or TDB. So technology is having an effect on the deaf community. This effect has both pros and cons. We can communicate with more people, both deaf and hearing, and we can enjoy the same things hearing people do, but at the expense of deaf clubs and other events that used to be social gatherings for deaf people.

There are even more deaf people in supervisory positions than when the original interview took place. There are also more deaf actors and actresses in movies and TV programs. ASL is being accepted more and more as a foreign language. Deafness and ASL is becoming more visible and accepted by the hearing society. But there appears to also be a backlash. Here in North Carolina, the director of the Department of Health and Social Services has decided the speech should be a first priority of children who receive a mediocre education, but hearing children, too. Deaf youth should learn as much as they can. They can use ASL to communicate, but they must also be fluent in English. Read as much as they can, learn as much as they can. Deafness causes obstacles, but the obstacles can be overcome.

In the future, communication will be the most important factor in work and life in general. People will have to be able to communicate. Those who communicate well, will succeed; those who cannot communicate won't succeed. You will also have to have an understanding or ability to use technology, such as computers.

Deaf people will see more and more acceptance and inclusion in activities in their local communities. Deaf people will be able to advance better than in the past. In general, life for deaf people will continue to improve, but it will improve more for those deaf people who are able to communicate with large numbers of people and who can use the technology available to them. I foresee my deaf children having more opportunities than even my wife or I had.

Gail Hyde
Project Coordinator, Web Design