When Hands Speak Louder Than Words

By: Melinda Tormes-Quiñones


Walking straight and erect, her lips forming a soft smile, she confidently approached the podium to deliver her graduation speech. Silence cloaked the crowd of almost a thousand guests and fellow graduates.


“How will she do the speech?” Romeo Catap, her good friend, overheard the comment from the back corner of the convention hall.


Ana Katrina Macasaet Arce, the first Deaf student to graduate magna cum laude from the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB), smiled and let her hands do the talking. Delving into the biblical potter and the clay story in Jeremiah 18, Ana used a metaphor on the importance of hands to the Deaf as they interact with others.


 “In pottery, the potter places a mold of clay on a table and turns it around carefully,” Anna gestured. “Using his hands, the potter will repeat the process several times until he gets the perfect shape. Likewise, the Deaf students’ primary source of communication is their hands. The Deaf talk and express themselves through hands. Just like the potter, we also hope to get the best, if not perfect, performance for ourselves using our hands. With our hands, we can go places, change lives and make a difference."


Ana, who was born Deaf, brought the house down. “As she ended her speech, I saw some parents teary-eyed and the members of the audience waved their hands to do a Deaf clap,” shared Romeo, who was documenting Ana’s speech with a video camera.

 

For Anna, graduating from college is just a beginning of her active participation in Deaf advocacy. She is committed to stepping up to the fore and bridging the gap between the Deaf and the hearing community. “She’s a person with a passion for excellence,” says Ana’s mom, Vilma, who believes that her daughter can fulfill whatever she takes upon herself.

 

By means of a Filipino sign language and help of Romeo, an interpreter-friend, Ana shared to H&H her aspirations to raise the level of appreciation and understanding of people about the Deaf and their community that struggles to belong.

 

Growing up Deaf in a hearing world

Like any other parents, Ramon and Vilma, wanted Ana to hear and speak. Ana was enrolled at four different oral schools, where she learned to speak and read lips.  “There was a time when she was wearing a hearing aid because the doctor made us hope that she can speak if she can hear how each word sounds,” Vilma explained.

 

“I tried my best to adjust,” Ana said. “But I felt uncomfortable wearing hearing aids because I could hear all the loud noises.” Later on her parents enrolled her at the Philippine School for the Deaf, where sign language is used as medium of communication.  Her grades improved significantly and she graduated class valedictorian.          

 

In college, she was enrolled in a regular class. Talking about that experience, she said it was “more saddening than exciting.” There were times when she felt ostracized especially during group gatherings. She struggled to prove her abilities but her classmates ignored her.

 

And then her break came. “I heard from parents of Deaf students about the program of DLS-CSB, the School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies (SDEAS),” Vilma said. Ana enrolled in the Bachelor in Applied Deaf Studies program specializing in Multimedia Arts.


“Some Deaf want to be hearing persons. There are a lot of Deaf who think they cannot succeed. Through SDEAS, they would be helped become better persons,” noted Ana, who now works as an artist at the Marketing and Communications of DLS-CSB. SDEAS offers scholarships for 60 poor yet deserving students each school year.

 

At SDEAS, the Deaf can!
SDEAS aims to “empower Deaf young adults to become productive and active members of society,” says its website. As part of mainstreaming Deaf advocacy, SDEAS develops the competitive abilities of its students and prepares them for their future careers. SDEAS is also active in educating industries, which are potential employers of the department’s Deaf graduates, explained Joy Dalawampu, communications coordinator of SDEAS.


Deaf students are more appreciative and diligent, according to Teresa Quentonilla, multi-media coordinator of SDEAS and a professor of Ana. “You can see outright from their gestures and expressions if they understand the lesson or not,” she further said. 


Teresa shared one of her experiences teaching Deaf students.  “I didn’t know how to do sign language when I first came to SDEAS, so I had an interpreter with me when I went to class. I could not help but to interact with those who approached me. One time I was forced to do a little sign language on how to make the image bigger by opening and closing my hands on face. I saw them frowning. Only later did I know that the sign meant “ugly.”


Teresa and the rest of the faculty members at SDEAS have learned the Filipino sign language to easily communicate with their students. “In fact, the Deaf outnumber hearing faculty members now,” affirmed Joy.

 

Being Deaf is no different
Ana believes that the Deaf can do anything except hear.  That is why she encourages the Deaf to pursue college. She is the epitome of what the Deaf can do if they put their heart and soul into what they believe in.


In her graduation speech, she emphasized, “Communicating with our hands should not make a difference… we also long for respect, inclusion in accessibility, and acceptance with dignity. We are not a different breed because of our disability. We also want to live in a society where people will not stare or frown at us or treat us differently.”


And Vilma confided: “It pains me to see people looking at us differently whenever my daughter and I converse in sign language.  I want to create awareness that the way we communicate with them may be different, but they are normal people just like everybody else.”


As a mother, Vilma always worries for her daughter’s future. But Ana’s free-spirited ways always give Vilma an assurance that her daughter can overcome anything. “One time she’s beside me but my thoughts were lost somewhere else. And as if she could read my mind, she told me, ‘Mom, don’t worry about me,’ ” Vilma recalled.


Proving her self-confidence, Ana studied horseback riding.  “She has past the first grade level in horseback riding. She’s supposed to join the competition but one time she fell off the horse and I begged her to stop,” Ana’s concerned mom said. “And now she’s asking her dad to enroll her in driving school. She wants to learn how to drive!”


Contented and grateful for the gift of life, Ana says, “God give us gifts. I want to be a hearing person but if I would be born again and God would give me the same disability, I would still be happy.”


An affirmation, indeed, to Ana’s graduation speech. God’s perfect hands made Ana’s hands speak louder than any words when her message reverberated into the hearts of both hearing and Deaf communities. Ana could not have agreed more with apostle Paul who says: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me,” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

 

Melinda Tormes-Quiñones, Information Officer III (PMD) of Philippine Information Agency, holds office at PIA BLDG. in Visayas Avenue, Quezon City.

 


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