My Story

Currently in the Tampa Bay Area, FL. and is proud to be a third generation deaf family member. My wife and I, combined, total 8 generations of deaf individuals who range in age from 8 to 88. Our family totals 21 members with hearing loss and use a variety of signed communication, with our primary language being ASL.

I was born in Jacksonville, FL to deaf parents. I am the oldest sibling with a deaf brother, a deaf sister and a hearing sister. I grew up attending public school in a mainstreamed program until I transferred and spent my senior year at Florida School for the Deaf.  A question I often get is, "Why did you attend a public school mainstreamed program instead of a residential deaf school?”. I wasn’t born deaf and could function just like any hearing child until the age of seven. It is suspected that my bout with ear infections when I was young and my family history of Hereditary Deafness both contributed to the decline of my hearing.

I graduated with in A.S. degree in Computer Engineering from Remington College in Tampa, FL. My years of working both in the commercial and residential arenas provided a rich foundation with hearing and deaf people in various settings including several VRS companies. I also taught American Sign Language for a combined total of 25 years at deaf service centers, continuing education, community college and university. I have often given public presentations related to deafness and deaf culture.

As an ASL instructor and member of a deaf family, I have a perspective based on unique experiences and instinctive abilities. I grew up in a household where ASL was the native language, with the use of gestures and "home signs" common elements of everyday communication. I had the advantage of aquiring these skills as a child, in a manor diffficult to reproduce when learning to sign in adulthood. I was often called upon to interpret for my parents, their friends, or other family members. Most of them were users of ASL in its older, purer form - before English had any influence on sign language. Communicating in ASL, through interpreting and transliterating, is an essential part of who I am. This is why I have chosen to use my talents as a deaf interpreter.