Leung Gallery in the mid-afternoon is normally buzzing with the chatter of student groups or lecture panels. But Wednesday afternoon, the atmosphere was noticeably more hushed as Brown hosted the Deaf Deaf World event for the second consecutive year.
Over 50 attendees participated in the conference, the first of a two-part program honoring Rhode Island's Deaf Awareness Week. For nearly two hours, Leung was literally a "deaf world." Stations were set up to demonstrate the inconveniences and frustrations shared by those in the deaf community, challenging participants to attempt such tasks as ordering a drink from a restaurant or requesting a prescription from a hospital, all without the aid of speech.
Yakov Kronrod found himself lost when a "travel agent" asked for his driver's license in American Sign Language.
"I had no idea what she was saying," said Kronrod, who thought the agent was telling him to leave. She was actually signing three A's, as in AAA, the American Automobile Association.
"It's very eye-opening," said Jason Davis '08, who is taking ASL. "It's hard to fathom living in a world where you can't communicate in a language you're surrounded by."
The second half of Deaf Deaf World was a panelist discussion in which members of the Rhode Island deaf community talked about aspects of deaf culture. Interpreters and real-time captioning were provided to bridge communication gaps among participants, audience members and volunteer panelists.
Arkady Belozovsky, a lecturer at Brown's Center for Language Studies who was hired in 2005 after the University cut the ASL concentration, facilitated the discussion. He said he had been planning Deaf Deaf World and the Meet and Greet since April with the help of his teaching assistants and various sponsors, including the Rhode Island Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Currently, there is no official program for American Sign Language at the University.
"I was more than elated by the crowd," Belozovsky, who is deaf, said through an interpreter, noting that the information sheets he printed had all been taken by the end of the event. "I'm happy that people at Brown showed interest."
This year's turnout was greater than last year's, according to Davis.
Despite the event being what he described as a "one-man show," Belozovsky said he hopes and expects Deaf Awareness Week at Brown to attract more attendees and more campus attention in the future.
"My goal next year is to get more Brown faculty, staff and administration involved. If I get a larger crowd, I will get a bigger room," Belozovsky said with a smile.
Meet and Greet, the second part of Rhode Island's Deaf Awareness Week at Brown, will be held at 6 p.m. tonight in Salomon 101. Victor Palenny of Russia, author of two books, and Deborah Meranski-Sonnestrahl will present deaf art, a little-known but long-standing art form.
