June is Deafblind Awareness Month, a time to support and learn, while celebrating the community.
Ryan Riehl is a deafblind person in Saskatchewan. He won awards in waterskiing and likes to keep himself busy. He recalls when he first took up the sport.
“It was kind of amazing. Within probably a week, two weeks, I was up skiing by myself.”
Riehl had an injury to his back and isn’t able to water ski anymore. Now, he paints, mostly sunsets.
“It’s finding things to keep busy, you can’t just… go on the phone and call a friend.”
“My mother got me into painting. She thought I could do it and be able to put images that I see in my head onto canvas. So, I started to paint and an image that I remember when I could see really well, was a sunset. And I thought they were really beautiful to be able to see sunsets and trees.”
As a nine-year-old, Riehl had a tumor on his optic nerve. Then in his 30’s, he started to go deaf. Doctors couldn’t explain it.
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More than 600,000 people in Canada over the age of 15 identify as deafblind. This month is about creating understanding and awareness for the community.
“Awareness is important because it helps people understand the deaf-blind community. It reduces barriers and there’s lots of different avenues for miscommunication, misconceptions, but this allows for inclusivity in the community,” said Patricia Spicer.
Spicer, who is deafblind herself, works with deafblind people as a vocational counselor and early childhood and family services worker. She says there are many misconceptions about the community.
“Many people think people in the Deafblind community are fully deaf and fully blind. That’s not true. A lot of people think that deaf-blind people can’t communicate. That’s also not true. A lot of people think deafblind people can’t live independently or that they can’t hold a job, but they can.”
Spicer says people can help end the month by taking time to learn and educate themselves about the community, while being supportive.
“It’s important to have an open heart and realize that people in the Deafblind community have all these possibilities and can do it. It’s really important to just learn about the community as a whole.”
“It’s important that everybody knows that we’re out there. You might not see or hear us a lot, but we’re out there,” said Riehl.
The City of Regina will light up the City Hall with blue lights June 26-28, in recognition of Deafblind Awareness Month.
Watch the video above for more on why this month is important and how you can help support.