Oxnard College celebrated Deaf Awareness Month with a lecture presented by two hearing-impaired community residents, Tali Dagan and Ignacio Ponce, who told the stories of their lives to students, faculty and community members gathered in the Clock Tower auditorium on September 27.

Both Tali Dagan and Ignacio Ponce work for Tri-County GLAD, the Ventura regional outreach of the greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness, Inc. Ponce is a community advocate, providing peer counseling, employment placement and referral, advocacy, independent living skills, and information and referral to deaf and hearing consumers.

Ponce and Dagan told their stories to the audience.

“I was born in Mexico and lost my hearing at age 18, from unknown causes,” he said. “Within one year, I was completely deaf.” He later moved to the United States.

“I got my GED in the United States after I earned my high school diploma in Mexico. I had to learn English, without my hearing, in order to continue to pursue my education. After I received my AA from LA Trade Tech College, and enrolled at CSUN and got a bachelor’s in deaf studies and human services. I am currently working on my master’s degree in Public Administration at CSUN.

Deafness and hearing impairedness affects millions of Americans – although the exact number is not known. Various definitions of deafness are used in the polling, which leads to different estimates for the number of deaf people in the United States. About two to four of every 1,000 people in the United States are “functionally deaf,” but only 1 out of every 1,000 people in the United States became deaf before 18 years of age.

Hearing impaired students in the Ventura County Community College District can receive assistance at Oxnard College by calling the Educational Assistance Center Office:(805) 986-5830 or TTY (teletypewriter) for Deaf Callers only: (805) 488-8022; at Ventura College, call (805) 654-6300 or TTY: (805) 642-4583 or by e-mail at [email protected].