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Friday, November 20, 2009

Providing the road map into a hearing world

Kathryn Waller kwaller@themercury.com

Rheanna Ullmer gives the sign for interpreter outside Woodrow Wilson Elementary School. Staff photo by MIchael Schweitzer.

For the millions of people living with hearing disabilities worldwide, learning to function in a society made for the hearing-abled can be a difficult process. Rheanna Ullmer is working to change that one student at a time.

A sign language interpreter at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, Ullmer serves as a liaison between the hearing world and the muted world in which her students operate.

"The hearing and deaf cultures are completely different," the soft-spoken, broad smiled 23-year-old explained. "From the obvious physical difference, to the way they live their lives, they have different views on everything... I am here to do whatever it is they and to help merge those two cultures."

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Headlines

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