Signing her classes away: Mrs. SallyAnn Emilius teaches American Sign Language at NPHS, and as a deaf person herself, she has embraced her role in the worlds of both the hearing and the deaf. (Credit: Silas Winship)
Emilius teaches American Sign Language at NPHS, and as a deaf person herself, she has embraced her role in the worlds of both the hearing and the deaf.
For teachers, communicating with teenagers can be tough. For North Penn’s Mrs. SallyAnn Emilius, it takes a whole different level of communication to connect with her students. She is a deaf ASL (American Sign Language) teacher, who is simultaneously communicating and teaching a language unto its own. With a strong sense of self-worth, she balances her life being deaf and an active member of the deaf community through teaching ASL, while also being the sole deaf person at NPHS. Just like anyone, Emilius’ childhood greatly affected her life as an adult.
“It has been said my mother may have had a slight case of the German measles while she was pregnant with me.” Mrs. Emilius said, explaining the cause of her hearing loss.
Being the only deaf child of three siblings the household, she adjusted as best as possible, learning sign language and helping her to speak. Starting at the age of five, Emilius began learning to sign. This continued throughout her schooling until she found herself to be the only deaf person in a school full of hearing students.
“It was very noticeable that I was different. Kids today making fun of others and bullying is the same as back then,” Emilius stated.
Being the only one like you in a school full of people who are all the same is an unimaginable burden to bear. In turn, Emilius masked that part of her life as an attempt to be like everyone else, covering her hearing aids, rarely speaking, and not signing. This carried on throughout the years until her senior year of high school when she met someone confident with her deafness who completely turned the tables.
“She blew me away. She was outgoing. Assertive. She signed. She had no fear. And most of all… she was happy.” Emilius explained.
Emilius didn’t take that moment as a yearning to wish she was like the girl, she took it as an inspiration to embrace that previously shunned part of herself. After that change, Emilius entered college planning to go into Deaf Education. Switching from one major to another, she tried to find the right fit until landing on a Communications degree. When she got her first job, she volunteered to teach the staff ASL, from there her love for teaching sparked and she went back to college to obtain a master’s degree in adult education, with a focus on ASL.
“We deaf individuals are balancing our lives every day. We don’t have a choice,” Emelius said.
Emilius, along with all deaf people, have to balance being deaf in a world of verbal communication and to \Emilius the people involved in the deaf/ASL community are what make that balance possible.
“One thing that I feel fortunate about is I get to live in two worlds. A deaf world and a hearing world. I met and know so many people in both worlds. I wouldn’t have known it back in elementary school as I tried to hide my deafness. Now today,.. I am truly proud of it,” Emilius said.
