Often people assume that disabled access is a matter of providing or modifying a building. It’s not. Access starts with awareness that all people are connected; that we all need help of some kind for some things.
Nick Conway is just like every other kid on the practice field at Taft High School. He horseplays and talks trash. He carries himself with the same cheeky bravado. His grimy uniform could use a good washing too.
It would seem being born deaf could have been a problem. But the team shrugs it off. He’s one of them, they say. Some are even learning sign language.
“They’re family to me,” Nick, 16, a defensive lineman, said of his teammates. “They have welcomed me as a brother. They learned my language. They have learned to communicate with me.”
At Taft, the Woodland Hills school designated by the Los Angeles Unified School District for deaf or hard of hearing students in the San Fernando Valley, athletics are becoming a way for deaf students to make themselves part of the campus community, said Assistant Principal Robert Clarke.
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