Hello again! Your friendly neighborhood RA here. Since I last updated you, our ASL Community has been rather busy! UW-Milwaukee had some Deaf Awareness Week Wisconsin (DAWW) events the last full week of September that I brought some of residents to. There were events ranging from Myths and Facts of the Deaf Community to Deaf Stories to Deafopolis: a "city" in UWM's union in which ASL was the only language used. When people within Deafopolis couldn't figure out the ASL signs to finish their tasks, they were able to gesture and act out what they needed to communicate. It help put in perspective how tricky communication can be when two people don't share a common language or on the same language level. It was amazing to see our residents going to these events and helping each other learn more and experience a new culture in a different way than they may have believed possible before joining our community.
After DAWW, our LLC hosted an event open to all of West Tower where our residents got the opportunity to lead some games and help students practice their VGC (Visual Gestural Communication) skills - an important part of signing! At the event, we got to play fun games like the elephant game, - with some additions including toaster, cat, and jello - telephone, and more! Our students had a blast at the event with our stakeholder, Erin Wiggins! She got to play the games with our students and meet them and answer a few questions.
Now we are looking forward to our next event where we hope to be volunteering and making crafts with residents at WaterTower View this November. Until then, we keep practicing and using ASL more and more!
-RA Ariel
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