Fifty percent of deaf people read at or below a fourth-grade level.
Onudeah 鈥淥ni鈥� Nicolarakis, born deaf, has taught deaf and hearing students and is earning her Ph.D. Her research focus is helping deaf people become proficient writers: 鈥淢y preschool communicated with parents through writing, and my mother always asked me what I wanted to tell them. I recognized writing鈥檚 power to express something others can understand. Written language is the map of spoken language.鈥�
At New York City鈥檚 , once exclusively for deaf students, Nicolarakis taught hearing children fluent in signing (their parents were deaf) and others eager to learn. Language acquisition is 鈥渕essy 鈥� it doesn鈥檛 have to be perfect,鈥� she says. 鈥淢ake contact, have interactions, and language develops in an organic way.鈥�