NYC Chanukah Party for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

On the sixth night of Chanukah was NYC’s Public Menorah Lighting and Chanukah Party for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Co-hosted with Hebrew Educational Society of Canarsie, the program featured live captioning and an ASL interpreter. This program was inclusive for everyone across the hearing spectrum and brought together people from all different parts of NYC.

Everyone that came was so thrilled to come to a program that was tailor made for them that nobody wanted to leave at the end. Even the adults that came were thoroughly enjoying the magic show! One mother was thrilled to meet a teacher that works in her daughter’s school, nearly two hours away and they were able to exchange numbers.

Another advantage to the program was allowing those who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing to meet others who share similar challenges. Sometimes a child or an adult can be the only one in their whole school or neighborhood with a hearing loss and it’s always nice to meet someone who can relate. It also allowed mothers of children with hearing loss to meet each other.

Mrs. Chaya Raichik is a teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Crown Heights and she was motivated to put on this event after hearing from so many children and adults with hearing loss that they feel excluded at programs and shiurim.

“I have adults who are very respected figures telling me that they no longer feel like they can follow along with conversations in public settings,” Raichik says. “According to the NIH, 12 percent of teenagers, and over 50 percent of adults over age 60 struggle with some form of hearing loss so this is a challenge that many in our community are having. The good news is that there are solutions available!”

Besides for individual solutions like hearing aids or remote microphones, an amazing community solution is captioning. Every JEM video has great captions that make the Rebbe’s words come alive for people who don’t understand Yiddish fluently. Every YouTube video has a caption button. There are even apps that can be downloaded that caption a conversation or on the computer (Such as the live captioning setting on Windows computers.)

“We should be having captions on as many videos and programs as possible,” Raichik continues. “Whether it’s videos (and Tzivos Hashem rallies) watched in school to shiuirim posted online. With just the press of a button, we can make videos easier for everyone, not just those with hearing loss, to follow along!

“So if you are organizing a community event or showing a video all you need to do is turn on those captions, or add them as an option, and you never know who you could be helping!”

For more information on future programs for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, or to learn about how to make your class/program/sheuir accessible for the Deaf or Hard of hearing or to join the existing support groups for men with hearing loss or the one for mothers of kids with hearing loss email [email protected]