Wales Deaf rugby champions
Born deaf, I understand how difficult it is to communicate with people that people who are deaf/mute, particularly through sports. My daughter is extremely Deaf and has already been through numerous challenges.
In my free time, I am an avid athlete who is a professional international rugby player in the name of Wales Deaf. Our D/deaf women’s team participated in the World Deaf Rugby Sevens World Cup championships held in the city of Cordoba, Argentina.
It was an honor and privilege to wear the red shirt at the national championships. Being a part of my country was a dream that became real. Between work, family, and other social obligations, the training schedule was very demanding, which included a great many early beginnings! But it’s all resulted in a win as both female and male teams have returned home as World Champions!
As our family, we’ve been through a variety of difficult situations, all resulting from a lack of deaf awareness. I want to think that we’ve inspired those who will come after us to be deaf and hard-of-hearing children to understand that they can do more than their hearing peers and that there aren’t any obstacles to playing sports with deafness. Participating in the World Cup was one event in my history and one I will cherish for all time. I want other young D/deaf people to have that sensation.
Deaf rugby definitely has its challenges, however. We must remind our coaches of the basics of deafness, like facing our faces (the athletes) when speaking, making sure that everyone is paying attention before the coaching starts, and then repeating instructions. On the field, it’s a different story during games when you’re always trying to grab everyone’s attention with your hands, shouting, or singing.
One of the highlights of participating in the World Cup was being able to interact with other players who are deaf from different nations. We were worried that we could have problems communicating with our diverse spoken languages. However, because of the visual aspect of sign speech, there were no obstacles.
My goal during the competition was (and is still) to create as much awareness of hearing loss as possible. Deafness is an invisible disability, and it is difficult when people make remarks like “You don’t appear deaf’ or ‘You’re not sounding deaf.’ What they don’t realize is that hearing loss can be an extensive spectrum and many degrees of deafness range from moderate to severe.
There’s a common mistaken belief that Deaf people use only signs to communicate. The methods of communication and the preferences for them vary from person to person. Some prefer to use only sign language, while others prefer using speech, and certain Deaf individuals employ both spoken and sign language. It is important to keep in mind that there’s no single size that fits all when it concerns deafness.
