On Tuesday, May 2, 3rd-graders at Solomon Schechter Day School in West Hartford participated in a very powerful workshop on deafness, as part of the Gateways program, Ambassadors of Inclusion. During the almost two-hour workshop, students learned about the scientific basis of deafness, the uses of adaptive equipment, and how to finger spell their names – even their Hebrew names! – and hometowns. The students had a good laugh trying to read the lips of their classmates. The students were spellbound as they listened to presenter Gary Alpert tell his own story of growing up deaf, from the time of his diagnosis as a baby to his life today as a father.

Third-grader Zelia Kasper summed it up best: “It turns out deaf people are just people the same as us,” she said.

CAP: Gary Alpert shares with students his experiences as a deaf person.