As Christopher Mick stood alongside other deaf West Virginians outside the state Capitol Wednesday, his hands worked passionately to convey the discrimination he has faced since losing his hearing at age one.
"Hearing people need to learn our world. We need help - better interpreters, better education, better jobs, better everything. We need to improve on it all," he said. "We want to wake the government up to understand our suffering and our side, to get a better future ahead of time for our future generations."
The Deaf Grassroots Movement, a national organization that advocates for the rights of deaf and deaf-blind people, held a national rally Wednesday in Washington, D.C. State-level branches of the organization converged on their own capitols on Wednesday to spread awareness about the challenges and discrimination that face deaf people at school, work and in their day-to-day lives.
The West Virginia group held its own rally on the Capitol steps in Charleston Wednesday, and Mick, its public relations officer, joined more than 50 other deaf, deaf-blind and hard-of-hearing West Virginians gathered to push for deaf rights.
"All around the nation, we all have the same complaints, which is why, for the first time in history, we're having a rally," Mick said. "We want to tell everybody statewide that we want to stop the oppression. That's enough.
"The time is now, because nowadays, with all of the technology available, it's time to change. It's time to get our equal rights."
The Deaf Grassroots Movement held a national rally last year, but 2016 marks the first year that a rally has been held in every state, Mick said. The group hopes to push for greater legal protections for deaf people, end job discrimination, improve the education system for deaf students and provide greater communication accessibility for deaf Americans.
"Things like captioning with movies - you can't go to a movie theater. Going through a drive-through, how can you do that? You go to a airport, there's nobody [who can sign]. If you go to an emergency room in a hospital, there's no interpreter there," Mick said. "If I want to go and have an important meeting with a lawyer, or if I have court, they postpone it because they didn't get an interpreter.
"Deaf people suffer a lot, like with jobs - I try to apply to jobs, and they won't hire me. As soon as the interview process is over, it's like they have a fear of deaf people."
Larry Hubbard, a Culloden resident and an assistant representative for the West Virginia Deaf Grassroots Movement, said that although he is retired from the United States Postal Service, he recalls how hard it was to find a job that would accept him as a deaf employee.
"Deaf people love hearing people; I'm just hoping we can all work together and cooperate with each other," Hubbard said. "There are a lot of deaf people who work at the post office, and I applaud the Postal Service for hiring deaf people, but there are a lot of other businesses that still say, 'Oh, deaf people can't.' Please, please stop."
According to the National Association for the Deaf, a deaf employee's rights may depend on who their employer is - federal employees who are deaf are protected under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which requires the government to practice affirmative action and provide equal access to training promotion opportunities.
Employees of private companies or state or local entities are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits companies with more than 15 employees from discriminating against those with disabilities, and requires them to provide "reasonable accommodations" to those with disabilities. The law doesn't require private companies to practice affirmative action during the hiring process, however, so deaf people are often passed over during the interview process.
"I'm retired, and most of the hearing don't know how to deal with deaf people," said activist Robin Coon, of Clarksburg. "When they look at a resume, it's, 'Oh, it's beautiful,' but when you meet, it's... 'Oh, no, they're deaf. How do I deal with that?'
"We need to educate the hearing on how to deal with disabilities - not only deafness, but disabilities in general. Wheelchairs and everything like that, they think, 'Oh, it's expensive to deal with.' No. Money is not the issue."
The movement also hopes to see greater educational opportunities for deaf students.
The West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind in Romney have struggled with inadequate funding for years, and its more than 100-year-old buildings need more than $40 million in renovations, according to the schools' 10-year Comprehensive Education Facilities Plan.
"The deaf in deaf schools have a lot of activities they can do, they have sports - at hearing schools, they can do some things, but some things they can't, because they don't let them," Hubbard said. "It's best that they go to a deaf school, so they have access to more activities, and they can enjoy themselves and have better experiences."
Reach Lydia Nuzum at
lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.