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I grew up in a deaf school and I was educated through Irish Sign Language, in a signing
environment, so when I finished school and went into DIT, I was in a hearing environment.
Everyone was talking, nobody had Sign Language. I felt very left out, my education was falling
behind. There was a disability officer in the college but I didn’t want to go in because
I didn’t identify myself as a disabled person, I just felt like, you know I was just deaf.
About 2-3 months later I ended up having problems with my education, it did suffer and I realized
I needed some help so I decided to just face it and I went into the disability officer
and I asked for help, such as interpreting and they provide everything and I really wish
I had done that at the very start.
If you go into the college for the first time, don’t be shy, tell the lecturer that you’re
deaf, let them know that you’re deaf because it’s really important that they’re aware
of who you are, especially when it comes to things like assignments. Lecturers are very
good at emailing deaf people to let them know when the assignment is due and areas that
need to be studied for exams. It’s really important to let them know earlier on, you
know, maybe on your first day, that you’re deaf.