While serving a 57-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter at California’s San Quentin prison, Tommy Wickerd found purpose in an unexpected way: teaching fellow incarcerated people and corrections officers American Sign Language.
Growing up with a deaf older brother, Wickerd witnessed the isolation of a world without proper accommodations. So when legal advocates won a 2019 petition to move a group of deaf men from underresourced prisons to program-rich San Quentin, Wickerd created his class.
ASL Interpreters can be requested since it is a state government public event. If you wish to attend one of their events, call (302) 744-2740 to request an interpreter.
More information:
Delaware Office of Highway Safety (OHS) Town Halls information
Arrive Safe DE (Main OHS site)
Atrium Health cardiac care experts worked tirelessly to creatively adapt an alarm-based mechanical heart pump for a deaf patient, enabling him to feel the alarms instead of hearing them.
Patient advocacy is at the core of Atrium Health care. This is especially important when patients have disabilities and require creative solutions to health challenges.
Connie Bowling, a 75-year-old deaf patient from Forsyth County, received a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) in March 2024. He became the first Atrium Health patient — and one of only a handful of hearing-impaired patients in the U.S. — to receive an LVAD.
