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- I think I learned about Nigel at sort of the same time
everybody did really.
When Bonnie Henry and the Health Minister
we were doing the daily press updates.
I wanted to draw something about those press briefings
because everybody was so enamored with, Bonnie Henry
and the message and the calmness that she had.
And I was just so struck by Nigel.
I was just like, who is this guy?
Cause he's so expressive
and he was so interesting to watch.
He was making the sign that I knew right away.
It was stay six feet apart from other people.
And so, I drew this cartoon for "Vancouver Is Awesome".
And it was Nigel, and he was doing that sign.
And it said, "You, Me, six feet apart".
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Once I had drawn it and send it to "Vancouver Is Awesome"
a guy in Vancouver contacted me through Instagram and said,
"Hey, I really love that poster.
Would you be okay if I made some posters out of it
and posted them up around town with some friends?"
I thought, great, absolutely.
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And he just kept sending me pictures
of where it was showing up around town.
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- Today, in addition, we taken the extra step
of declaring a public health emergency
in the province of British Columbia.
- Well, I remember back in March
when COVID first started spreading here
the public was concerned and looking for guidance.
I was called upon to interpret for the broadcasts.
I used a particular sign for physical distancing
and it really resonated with the public.
They could so clearly see two people
putting two meters or more distance between themselves.
It became quite popular, not sure why that caught on,
but it really did.
- Everyone knows the sign now from TV.
You can see it on t-shirts, billboards, along streets.
You can see it everywhere.
People see the sign and they associate it with Nigel.
The deaf community have a different name
that we know him by.
But the public saw this on TV and now know him by that sign.
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- As a person who is deaf for whom ASL is my first language,
having a qualified deaf interpreter on screen
means I am able to access news updates comfortably
without the language interfering.
- Many hearing people who had no awareness
of American Sign Language,
really became fascinated with watching him daily.
And it was meaningful that it was a deaf interpreter.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, would it give the message
and then off screen would be a hearing signing interpreter.
- Spoken language uses vocal inflection to relate tone.
Whereas tone has to be conveyed through facial expression
in a visual way in ASL.
The deaf community can then see where emphasis is placed
or when a critical message is being conveyed.
- It's great.
It's about time.
We've had captions, but to have Nigel on screen
interpreting the ASL makes the information clear.
He's done a fantastic job.
- I then take the message and convey it visually
in a way that retains clarity and impact.
Remember ASL is a visual language.
Captions provide a 2D linear stream of English words,
the meaning is easily lost in process.
My job as the interpreter is to make that information
accessible to the broader deaf community
in our shared language.
When they announced we were to self-isolate
it was clear things were very serious.
This was not to be taken lightly.
- We were left wondering what would happen
to accessibility moving forward.
For example, with COVID testing
or for in-person conversations
now that interpreters couldn't be onsite.
Without access to interpreters, it was difficult.
And we didn't know how things would be going forward.
- Virtually overnight doctors had to move their practice
to online platforms with no technology in place
or experience or expertise to do it.
This change in the system excluded the deaf community
leaving them in uncertain times
with nowhere to access information.
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- I came to discover Nigel was deaf
when I was vacuum cleaning in his room and he never moved.
He never woke up or anything.
So I suspected then,
he was only three months old at the time.
And he wore hearing aid when he was 18 months old.
It didn't really make that much difference to him.
He was insistent that we did not learn sign language.
We offered to him, and he said,
"No, no speak to me, speak to me."
So we did that.
Possibly he wanted to seem more like a normal child
and has people speak to him and him understand.
I really don't know.
I've never asked him that.
But we have both agreed that it was a mistake
not to learn sign language.
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- I remember I was probably about nine years old
and I was reading in my room.
My dad came in and he said to me,
"Never use your deafness as an excuse for anything."
I wasn't sure what he meant by that at the time
and he didn't elaborate, but it stuck with me.
Now, when I see people leveraging the fact
that they are deaf for discounts to get out of things
or as an excuse, it doesn't sit well for me.
I'm a human being just like everyone else.
Of course, there are challenges in life
but I learn from them and I find a way around them.
When you fall, you have to pick yourself up,
dust yourself off and carry on.
I prefer to navigate around obstacles
making my own way through.
Obstacles are a part of the journey
and life is just that, a journey.
- I always remember him saying to me,
"Mom, when I grow up will I be able to hear the birds sing?"
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And I had to say no.
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- I really wanted to be a pilot.
I was invited into the cockpit
and as a young boy, I thought it was incredible.
The whole place was covered in dials, knobs, and lights,
that had those headsets, the works.
I was awestruck.
I saw the pilots working with controls
and speaking through their headsets
and I had a moment of pause.
I came to it all on my own
but I realized this might not be the ideal career for me.
I had wanted so much to be a pilot
but in the end I went in another direction.
I came to that conclusion on my own
and that's what I want for every child.
Allow them to decide what works best for them
without interference.
People say to these kids, "You'll never be able to do that.
That's something you can't be."
Who are they?
How are they to know a child's dreams and goals?
Regardless if a child is deaf or not
they should not be limited based on what others think.
You cannot impose your own beliefs
on a child's life, dreams, goals, or passionate.
Who are they to tell a child they can't?
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- [Announcer] When the gun goes off, deaf people feel it.
Even swimmers who hit the water before the sound dies away.
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- I taught swimming at the school for the deaf.
Initially, Nigel, only communicated through speech.
And then he used cued speech and eventually signed English.
You know, I really encouraged him through all those years
to learn the language.
And when he finally found ASL, well his whole life changed.
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I had heard Nigel was on a hearing swim team
so I approached him and I asked if he'd be interested
competing in the deaf Olympics.
He'd never heard of the deaf Olympics.
And although he was resistant, I kept on him about it.
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- [Announcer] It's time to enjoy the games.
- I was 15 or 16 at the time.
It was the first time I felt I was normal.
I know, what is normal anyway.
But I was in a place where everyone was signing,
people of all kinds.
I realized then that this was my community.
This is where I belong.
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When I came back,
I remember two of the older deaf community members
comment that they could see I finally understood
what they'd been telling me all along.
I've never looked back.
There was one deaf man who told me
to go to the deaf Olympics,
but at the time I really didn't wanna go.
I was trying to blend in
and going to the deaf Olympics was not going to help.
But he was insistent and encouraged me to go.
When I finally went, I was absolutely blown away.
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- There are several barriers that continue to exist
for us at Deaf Children's Society.
One of them is still that mainstream belief
that American Sign Language is something less
than spoken language.
We still have children that are coming to us
at age three and four that have little to no language.
- I was the only deaf person in my world for so long
that I believe something was wrong with me.
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When I was about 13 years old I had an interpreter
who explained to me that ASL and English are not the same.
You can't think of it as word for word translation
and said you read the English sentence as a whole
and find the equivalent in ASL.
So I tried that myself and it was one of those moments
that gives you chills.
Something clicked, and it all made sense.
Other deaf people haven't had that realization.
So I take the time to explain
until they have their own moment.
It's so rewarding when they do
so this work has really become my passion.
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- That birth to five is a very important time,
a critical period for language learning.
And if consistent language input is not provided
then essentially a disability is created in the child
that did not exist in the first place.
- When deaf children can't communicate
or express themselves fully, they act out in frustration.
They're seen as angry kids.
And people believe that as a product of their deafness.
In reality, it's the adults who need
to examine their own contribution.
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Part of the teaching process is identifying
where general knowledge or context is missing.
That's an indicator for me to pause the lesson
and fill in those gaps for these students.
I provide formal instruction
on information that people normally pick up on
from conversation around them.
Filling in the gaps and catching them up on these topics
opens up the world for them.
It changes everything.
How they see things, what they think, how they live.
It's like a part of them was dormant this whole time
and now it's been awakened.
It was that way for me too.
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- I was born completely deaf
and they gave me implants when I was in China.
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Everything that happened was a dark secret
and I only learned about the details recently.
I remember I had to communicate through speech alone
and the teacher would force me
to practice speaking with my voice.
When I was around two or three years old in China,
I spent quite a bit of time in the hospital for surgeries.
I remember being there IVs, lying in bed.
The whole process felt like physical abuse.
I had no information what was being done to me.
Now, I can put two and two together.
I was there for surgery for cochlear implants
but I had no idea at the time.
My speech had to be perfect.
And now it feels like the teacher's actions were abuse.
It's so traumatic, the whole thing.
I'm realizing all this now that I'm older.
I don't have fond memories of that teacher.
- Cochlear implants and hearing aids, those are tools.
And when those tools are not being worn
that person is still deaf and they still have an identity
that is connected to deaf culture.
Really, the brain is designed and patterned for language.
And it does not discriminate
between visual language and spoken language.
By introducing sign language, right from the beginning
the brain is starting to develop those neural pathways.
It's starting to build and strengthen existing tissue.
And so why would you not want to give that to your child
to give them that start right away?
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- Definitely wasn't a decision that we took lightly
and it definitely was not a decision that,
okay, he's going to have CIs and he'll be hearing
and that's it.
For us, it was always one more tool for him.
The entire spectrum is available to him.
If he's 14 and decides, I wanna completely embrace
my deaf identity and I don't want to wear my CIs anymore,
that he would know that we support it.
We're fully on board with him acquiring more sign
and just existing in the way that's comfortable for him.
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- The BC Special Education Guide
has had a profoundly damaging impact.
The first two areas of instruction
listed address speech and listening skills.
Only in the third point is sign language mentioned.
And the worst part is,
it says to include deaf culture if necessary.
How dare they say, "If necessary".
Imagine saying to the indigenous community
or the black community or Asian community
that their culture is to be instructed only if necessary.
They'd be rightfully furious, and so are we.
The problem is deaf people
are constantly silenced on these issues.
We ask, we lobby, we fight.
Every child should decide their own journey.
The opportunity to take the path they choose
rather than being told how they should be
and what they should do.
Enough is enough.
- People are often not always aware
that the language exists.
And most of us as hearing people
I don't think we have very much knowledge of deaf culture.
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- Nigel's personal experience resulted in access
to university education for the deaf community,
myself included.
UBC was the first university I attended
and I had interpreters provided, I had access.
As a direct result of Nigel's own journey
we're all provided that access.
- Speaking to Nigel, just recently, he was telling me
that he speaks seven different sign languages fluently.
Which is incredible if you think about it.
You have to know the vocabulary and the grammar.
You also need to know how to interpret it.
- Nigel is internationally, nationally,
and locally recognized.
He's looked up to as a role model.
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- They all know Nigel.
Everybody seem to know him in that community.
And off course, just recently he's become super.
So now the cartoon is my famous son, Nigel (chuckles)
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- So I think being on the broadcast, I hope,
that it is a bit of a turning point.
- So what it's done is, a big spotlight
has been put on Nigel.
But really what it's done is put a spotlight
on the need for American Sign Language
and access for deaf British Colombians
to be able to get the same information
that all of us hearing individuals
are getting at the same time.
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- And I'm very hopeful and optimistic
that many of the parents who would previously have thought
that deafness was an unknown
because they'd never met a deaf person
will not feel that way.
That they will say, "Oh, I know a deaf person.
I've met Nigel. I've seen Nigel."
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- [Interviewer] Are you curious to know about who Nigel is?
- Well, we all know Nigel, but we'd love to know more.
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- Even in dire circumstances,
I think you can find some positive.
There's been recognition of language here.
In the deaf community,
there's often a pathological medical perspective
looking down on deaf people who using sign language
and that deafness is about the ear.
And there's something wrong with that person that's deaf.
But we're not just people who can't hear
we're full human beings.
We've got hearts.
We've got brains.
We're not just our ears.
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I'd love to just sit back one day, have a good cup of tea
not have to be political and advocate.
I just want to be able to relax and have things be right.
But that's not quite where we're at.
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- Great thing about Nigel, now having met him is
he's kind of this super hero.
He's just out there reminding us to sort of stay safe,
be kind to each other.
He just carries himself with such grace.
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He's like a super hero.
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- [Interviewer] How does it feel to have the roles reversed
and you be the voice of Nigel?
- Yeah, put me on the spot. (chuckles)
You know, going through this most difficult
and challenging of years,
very early on we recognize the importance
of being able to communicate with everybody in in BC.
And when Nigel came into our world
it was just such an amazing bright spot
to know that he was able to communicate in the same way
that I tried to with a whole group of people
that needed that information.
And it was just so powerful.
And I'm immensely grateful to Nigel and his team
for being able to support us through this.
- No, I haven't seen that.
- [Interviewer] Okay, what about this one?
- Not exactly my cup of tea.
- [Woman] That's one is okay. (chuckles)
- I've never seen these memes before.
- [Woman] I've never seen those memes before.
- That's one is a little out there.
A window of opportunity is now open.
The public are receptive and interested.
And so now is the time to provide them with the knowledge
that ASL is a bonafide language.
All those memes aren't the best but it's start.