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I'd like to tell you a story.

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When I was 24, I found myself living
in a small beach town

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by the name of Naples, Florida.

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I was looking for something new.

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I was 24.

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I'm 29 now.

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And in that small coastal town,
I was the only Deaf resident.

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In fact, the closest deaf person
was a few hours away by car.

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And all of the friends and acquaintances
that I had made could hear.

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I didn't mind though;
I wanted something new.

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Lucky for me, Naples, Florida

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is home to some of
the U.S. Olympics volleyball team,

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where they reside
and train through the year.

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So I had a fantastic opportunity
to play with them every day I could.

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And we'd hit the court all the time,
either indoors or out at the beach;

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it was great.

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Lucky for them, I happen
to be very good at volleyball.

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So one night after a great game,

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a friend and I pull up
some chairs by the water

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to watch the sun go down and chat.

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And he looks over at me
and he asks me a question

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that completely blew me away.

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To be honest, in 24 years of my life,
nobody had ever asked me.

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And his question was simple:

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"Have you ever wished you could hear?"

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I looked at him for a second and thought,

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Where did that come from?

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Then I took a moment and I realized

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while we had been sitting there,

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I could see waves coming in
and crashing on the beach.

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He could hear that.

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Obviously, I couldn't.

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My entire world is completely silent.

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To our left, people
had taken over the court

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and were playing volleyball,
cheering each other on.

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To our right, a mother
was playing and laughing with her baby.

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And behind us,

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cars and ATVs had passed by all day
without me even noticing.

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So, I was quick to answer:

40
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"No, of course not.

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I've never wished I could hear.

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I've never wished
that because I love who I am."

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And you may be wondering,
How do I love myself as a Deaf man?

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Well, first, I was born deaf.

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My deafness shaped my childhood,

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and it's all I've ever known.

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So my perspective on life
and my experience of the world

48
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is very different.

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My outlook and my life
has involved experiences

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that many of you have never
had to encounter as hearing people.

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My culture, something
I embody and cherish,

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has always been Deaf.

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My perspective on life
is completely different.

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The experiences I've had,
something I hold most dear,

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have taught me
to love myself as a Deaf man.

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To illustrate that point,

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if I were to walk into a job interview
with a panel of hearing peers,

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and if I were to approach that meeting
wishing that I could hear,

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wishing that I could speak like them,

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and focusing on that imbalance,

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do you think that I would do very well?

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Obviously not, right?

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Because in the back of my mind
I'm focusing on the negative,

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therefore creating a negative outcome,

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and I'm certain I wouldn't get that job.

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But, if instead, I use my difference
as an advantage and an asset,

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I know that as a Deaf man
I have so much to offer their company.

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My experiences growing up
are much different from theirs.

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And knowing that allows me
to approach the interview positive.

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I can go into that meeting
and confidently tell them

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how they will benefit
from hiring a Deaf man

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for a multitude of reasons.

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And I can walk out with that job
because it's all about mindset.

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So I say first and foremost
to love yourself.

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So as I mentioned, the first reason
I love myself is my upbringing.

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But many of you may not know
that I come from a rather large family.

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I have two brothers who are also Deaf

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along with my parents,

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my grandparents,

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and yes, even my
great-grandparents as well.

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I'm the fourth generation
in a beautiful family

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with over 25 Deaf members.

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Born to Deaf parents
who understood the Deaf experience,

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they knew exactly how to raise me.

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They knew how to provide me
with the best opportunities

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and to support me.

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From day one of my existence,
my parents gave me language,

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access to education,

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and love.

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Growing up, my life was perfect.

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Imagine, like many of you
born to hearing parents,

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I never noticed barriers
that simply weren't there.

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I'm sure many of you
felt your life was normal,

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the same way that I did.

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Coming from a Deaf family, my world,
in every way, was a utopia.

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When it came time for my parents
to enroll me in school,

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they already knew
that I would go to the Deaf school.

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I would learn in an environment
that was designed for me.

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At that time, all of my peers,

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and teachers,

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and even the superintendent was Deaf.

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So, I was still in my perfect world.

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I was in an environment where I could grow
and where I could thrive.

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And I had no problems;
it was perfect for me.

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And many people
don't believe that, but it's true.

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For me, the Deaf community, our world,
was the perfect world for me.

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And I remember in the summer
before fifth grade,

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I was ready to go back to school,

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and I asked my mom
to go to a public school.

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She thought I was crazy.

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She said, "What?! No!

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Public school, it's all hearing kids.

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The Deaf school is a perfect fit."

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And I said, "No, I want to learn
what those students are learning.

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I want to see what
their classrooms are like.

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What are public school teachers like?"

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So upon my insistence she enrolled me.

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And after two weeks of frustration,

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I came home pleading
to go back to the Deaf school.

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She listened very sympathetically
and told me, "Nope, too bad."

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I was floored.

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She told me I needed
to stick it out for a year

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because I needed to learn how
to interact with my hearing peers,

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and that if I gave it a little patience,

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I would learn so much
about the world around me.

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Because the reality is
the world is hearing.

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I was the only Deaf kid
in the entire school.

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Of course, I always had hearing friends,
but they could sign like me.

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So that year I gained a lot of insight.

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I couldn't be involved
in any of the school organizations.

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My friends never learned
enough sign to communicate.

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And every time I tried
to play a sport, I'd get benched.

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The basketball coach told me a Deaf kid
could never help the team win a game.

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And I was athletic.

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So after a year,
I went back to the Deaf school

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where I realized that's my home.

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That's my community.

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And my community is where I can thrive.

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I got involved in the classroom again,

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joined a bunch of school organizations,

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and got back on the basketball team,
where I helped win many games.

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So it's without hesitation that I can say
the Deaf community is in fact my home.

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After graduating high school,

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I was accepted into
the only Deaf university in the world:

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Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

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It was there I gained
my degree in mathematics

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with the intention
of becoming a better teacher

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than the ones I had growing up.

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Like many of you, I sat through
some math teachers who seriously sucked.

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(Laughter)

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I wanted to be a good math teacher.

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But I also wanted to be
a good role model for those students.

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So as time got closer to graduation,
of course I was nervous.

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I started questioning
if I had made the right decision.

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And I decided to get out -

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to get out of my comfort zone
and to travel the world.

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Since then, I've been
to over 43 countries.

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And the funny thing about when I travel

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is that I'm constantly meeting
hearing people who say,

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"Nyle, you are so brave.
How do you travel like this?

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Isn't it hard to be Deaf and travel?

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It looks impossible."

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And let me tell you,
traveling as a Deaf person, I think,

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is actually much easier
than traveling for hearing people.

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Because sign language is something
that gives me access

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to a much larger world.

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I'll tell you one of my favorite stories.

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A few years ago, I was in south Sicily
perusing a flea market,

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when I walked into a butcher shop,

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and standing there is an American tourist
trying to ask the butcher

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where the meat he was slicing
is sourced from.

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So the Sicilian man, speaking
no English, is gesturing, right?

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And you know Italians gesture.

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He's trying to explain
where the meat comes from,

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and it's going right
over the head of the tourist.

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So watching this very comical
breakdown in conversation,

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I'm understanding everything perfectly,

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so I pull out a paper and a pen,

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and I translate
what the butcher is saying,

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and I hand it over
to the tourist and explain,

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"This is what he's trying to tell you."

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So there I am, the Deaf person
translating for two hearing people.

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And in that situation,
they're the ones disabled, not me.

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(Laughter)

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While that story is ironic,

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it happens so many times
when I meet people in other countries.

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I'm always amazed
to meet locals in other countries,

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and their ability to gesticulate
and communicate with me,

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often quite easily.

190
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And I would always tell myself
to visit the local Deaf schools

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and to make time to meet Deaf locals.

192
00:10:49,738 --> 00:10:52,174
But with every new Deaf school that I saw,

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I was sad to see that their schools
were in terrible condition,

194
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and their education was greatly lacking.

195
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Often, I just couldn't believe my eyes.

196
00:11:03,558 --> 00:11:08,128
When I would meet Deaf adults,
I realized a common thread very quickly.

197
00:11:08,128 --> 00:11:11,508
They either didn't have
the same level of education I did

198
00:11:11,508 --> 00:11:15,640
or their language was incomplete,
making it hard to communicate.

199
00:11:16,869 --> 00:11:19,689
They'd often complain to me
that the system had failed them,

200
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and now they struggled to find work.

201
00:11:22,100 --> 00:11:23,358
And I kept asking myself,

202
00:11:23,358 --> 00:11:27,549
why is this happening,
and why is this happening so often?

203
00:11:27,549 --> 00:11:30,270
Why am I somehow more fortunate?

204
00:11:30,459 --> 00:11:33,470
Growing up, I thought every deaf person
in the world was like me

205
00:11:33,470 --> 00:11:36,098
and had the same opportunities that I did.

206
00:11:37,059 --> 00:11:38,838
So in returning to the United States,

207
00:11:38,838 --> 00:11:41,240
I decided to do
some research on the topic.

208
00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:43,500
And what I found shocked me.

209
00:11:43,668 --> 00:11:46,719
There are currently more
than 70 million deaf people in the world

210
00:11:46,719 --> 00:11:51,120
with only two percent of them having
access to education in sign languages.

211
00:11:51,439 --> 00:11:54,538
Which means millions
upon millions of deaf children

212
00:11:54,538 --> 00:11:56,882
not receiving the education they need,

213
00:11:56,882 --> 00:11:59,390
also known as education deprivation.

214
00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:04,309
I also learned that over
75 percent of hearing parents

215
00:12:04,309 --> 00:12:07,090
don't sign to communicate
with their deaf children.

216
00:12:07,289 --> 00:12:08,858
Which is astonishing.

217
00:12:08,858 --> 00:12:11,618
Again, imagine millions
and millions of deaf children

218
00:12:11,618 --> 00:12:14,798
without an education, without a language.

219
00:12:15,848 --> 00:12:18,799
Those children without language
and access to education

220
00:12:18,799 --> 00:12:20,919
exhibit signs of brain damage.

221
00:12:25,020 --> 00:12:26,738
In my research, I also found

222
00:12:26,738 --> 00:12:29,448
that I'm a part of an even smaller group.

223
00:12:29,828 --> 00:12:33,088
Ten percent of Deaf children
come from Deaf parents like mine.

224
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Only 10 percent.

225
00:12:34,833 --> 00:12:36,699
I'm incredibly lucky.

226
00:12:36,699 --> 00:12:39,640
I had access to language, an education,

227
00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:43,161
and I had parents who loved me
and put me on a path to success.

228
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I wouldn't be who I am today
without any of those things.

229
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So it was clear to me
that something needed to be done.

230
00:12:50,878 --> 00:12:53,409
I got to work in setting up
my own foundation -

231
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the Nyle DiMarco Foundation -

232
00:12:55,258 --> 00:12:56,999
with the goal of improving the lives

233
00:12:56,999 --> 00:12:59,362
of millions of deaf people
around the world.

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00:12:59,362 --> 00:13:02,969
We've since partnered with another
Deaf organization in the United States

235
00:13:02,969 --> 00:13:04,838
to introduce legislation -

236
00:13:04,838 --> 00:13:08,369
a bill that requires all deaf children
have access to language

237
00:13:08,369 --> 00:13:10,670
between the ages of zero and five,

238
00:13:10,670 --> 00:13:13,118
setting up benchmarks for their success.

239
00:13:13,329 --> 00:13:14,850
Because before the age of five,

240
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children have the ability
to acquire a foundation in language,

241
00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:21,678
readying them for the classroom
and for a successful life.

242
00:13:21,830 --> 00:13:26,139
After the age of five, that critical
language acquisition window closes.

243
00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:30,869
I'm working to give every deaf child
in the world a future

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00:13:30,869 --> 00:13:32,210
filled with a rich language

245
00:13:32,210 --> 00:13:35,259
and the opportunities
I was lucky enough to receive.

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But the Deaf community cannot do it alone;

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we need you to become our allies

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and join us in making
the world more knowledgeable.

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We need you to join us,
to fight with us and for us

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in the ongoing battle of affording
children what they need to thrive.

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So before I go, I want to teach you
two very simple but important signs.

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The first is "love."

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The second, "yourself."

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Follow me:

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Love

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yourself.

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Brilliant!

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A-plusses all around!

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Thank you.

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(Laughter)