On Dec. 8 and 9, Mr. Robert Nielson and the ASL team hosted an event known as Deaf for a Day, in which ASL students went 24 hours without using their voice or their ears. First started in 2006, this program aimed to provide students with a unique experience as to what it is like to be deaf or mute.

“The experience taught me a lot about what deaf and mute people go through,” Daniel Bennett ‘18 said. “It was difficult because it was hard to go through your daily routines without being able to hear or speak.”

Students wore earplugs in their ears the entire day so they couldn’t hear and were encouraged to continue the event at home and at work. This was the closest that they could have ever come to knowing what it’s like to be a mute or deaf.

“Our entire lives, we’ve known how to speak and to hear without giving it a second thought, so it was interesting to be able to walk in someone else’s shoes,” Brooke Culp ‘18 said.

While some students communicated with teachers and friends in sign language, most resorted to gestures or simply writing sentences down. Most thought that the most difficult part of the day was in the classroom, where they had to actively participate without being able to hear or speak.

“Class was the hardest part for me because we had earplugs in, and we weren’t able to understand what our teachers were trying to tell us, unless there was a visual in front of us,” Sarah McCllellan ‘18 said.

As Deaf for a Day is a semi-annual event, the next one will be taking place in the spring semester. The event rose awareness in the most interactive way and gave a change in perspective to students who have been able to witness what a gift it is to have something as simple as hearing.