Spotlight on the Deaf-Blind Community
Email this pageHands, Heart and Soul
Photo Caption: William Suggs raises his hands and his soul to the heavens.
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By Elizabeth Spiers
Mr. Suggs, from Baltimore, MD, is one of the major participants in the choir of the Baltimore-based Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf (UMCD). The all-deaf choir has traveled around the country, including New Jersey, Virginia, New York, and Texas. This past spring, the group traveled to Florida, and performed at the Maryland Deaf-Blind Camp in Churchton, MD (just outside Annapolis) in June. During the fall, the choir performed at churches in the Baltimore area and in Southern Maryland.
Also, in March 2008, Mr. Suggs led the deaf choir one evening at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. The service was unique in that Mr. Suggs, the choir director, and the minister who preached that night, the Rev. Dr. Bob Walker, were both deaf-blind. This was the first time in the seminary's history that two deaf-blind people took leadership roles in a church service, in a largely hearing setting.
Mr. Suggs, who has Usher Syndrome Type 1, joined Christ UMCD in 2001. Shortly after joining the church, he was invited to participate in the choir. "I was able to communicate with everyone at church," Mr. Suggs said. "It was hard to communicate with my hearing coworkers in my job, or in my family's church, since my family members are all hearing. But at the deaf church, my needs are met. I enjoy singing in the choir and the trips we've taken over the years."
Mr. Suggs alternates between close vision, tracking, and tactile signs depending on the situation. He participates in the choir, church services and other large meetings with the assistance of interpreters who stand in front of him to relay instructions and information.
Mr. Suggs graduated from the Maryland School for the Deaf in 1987, and underwent a food service training program for one year. Soon afterwards, he found a job in food service at Owings Mills Mall, where he worked for nine years. He left this job because his vision was decreasing. He had no job for six years. Eventually, he found a custodial job with Goodwill Industries and worked there for three years. "I felt that this job was easier and safer for me to do. I worked there for about three years, but then my vision got worse and it got harder and harder for me to see well enough to clean the bathrooms properly." Mr. Suggs was eventually let go from this job.
He realized then that he needed additional training in communication and independent living skills. After a very long wait, he finally went to Helen Keller National Center in New York in 2004. He stayed there for one year to learn skills like orientation and mobility, braille, tactile communication and computer literacy, which he later used to keep in touch with deaf and deaf-blind friends all over the country.
"HKNC was great," Mr. Suggs said. "I learned so much there. I felt that I could do anything I tried even though I couldn't see well. I had many deaf and deaf-blind friends, and we still keep in touch with each other today."
Mr. Suggs completed his training at HKNC and returned to Baltimore. There, he found it very difficult to keep up his skills. "I am studying braille and working on the computer on my own. I use a Screen Braille Communicator for communication, a CCTV for reading and the computer for the Internet (I use Zoomtext to help me see the computer better). But it's hard sometimes to keep up the skills in such things like braille on my own. And the most frustrating thing for me is not having a job."
William Suggs signs "Halleluia" during his singing.
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Mr. Suggs very much wants to work. He has been looking for a job, mostly in the data entry or clerical field, since 2005, and hasn't yet had any luck. In the meantime, he keeps busy with his church work and with the Baltimore Association of the Deaf-Blind (BADB), where he serves as Vice President.
He became involved with BADB shortly after his return from HKNC, and was soon chosen to be the Vice President. He still serves in that office today. "It's hard for deaf-blind people in Baltimore to meet each other because we live so far from one another. This is a way for us to get together so we can make friends and support each other. I'm not really used to being Vice President yet. It's a little awkward because I'm so new, but I enjoy it. We are very busy right now, planning social activities-we meet for socials, camping trips, and group tours. A group of us went to Hershey Park in April to enjoy the amusement park there. In June, we went to the Maryland Deaf-Blind Camp."
Other events that Mr. Suggs and the BADB members planned were a yard sale in September; a Halloween party in October, and parties planned for the upcoming holidays They just had a fundraiser to raise money for the Maryland Deaf-Blind Camp in 2009, and plan another fundraiser in December, in conjunction with a holiday shopping trip.
"I believe in staying positive and doing the best I can," Mr. Suggs said.
