Embracing his deafness through art

Coral Wilson

Casey R. Weber walks, eats and studies alongside his classmates at

Orange Coast College, but because he is deaf, he said, he lives in a

completely different world.

“I have always wondered about who I really was,” Weber said.

“Sometimes, I ask myself, ‘Who am I? What is the purpose of my being

alive?’”

People shy away from him or walk away, embarrassed and awkward,

leaving him feeling lonely. The 25-year-old student is young, healthy

and goal-driven, but he said the feeling of separation is sometimes

overwhelming.

Weber was raised in a hearing family. People could not accept him

for who he was, he said. They tried to change Weber instead of trying

to understand him.

After taking sign language and deaf culture classes with John

Yingst at Golden West College, Weber said, he came away from his

studies with new dreams and a clearer understanding of himself.

“I finally realized who I really was. I’m Casey R. Weber and I’m

deaf,” he said.

With renewed passion for life, Weber is now on a mission to help

others understand the unique deaf culture.

“We have a culture of our own,” he said. “We have our own

language, values and culture. It need not be changed.”

He will be directing and performing in a one-act play that he

wrote called “My World and Yours.” The play will be presented during

Orange Coast College’s annual spring One-Act Play Festival from May

21 to May 25.

During the play, Weber will be singing and signing his poem, “As I

Dreamed ... “ He will play the lead role of Ryan, a deaf man who

falls in love with a hearing woman named Grace. The play portrays

Ryan’s struggles to be accepted by Grace, her father and the hearing

world.

In real life, Weber is in love with a deaf woman named Jennifer

Sieber, an art student in St. Louis, Mo. On a larger scale, the play

is about what it is like to be deaf in America.

“This play is 75% me and 25% fiction,” Weber said. “My goal is to

help the hearing world understand that many deaf have been facing

oppression.”

Some mental health service officials make the claim that deaf

people suffer from aggression, he said. And a speech therapist once

told Weber that the deaf should speak instead of using sign language.

“Some people have no respect for other cultures,” he said.

He said when parents have implants put in their deaf children, it

is a form of oppression. Instead of learning the child’s culture,

parents force them to conform, he said.

“I will not tolerate anyone calling the deaf hard-of-hearing or

hearing-impaired because it makes it sound like we can’t do anything

at all,” Weber said. “To us, it means damage, destroy, handicap, hurt

or ruin.”

Weber said he only understands 25% to 45% by reading lips versus

95% to 100% by reading sign language. But he said even his own family

never learned to sign, leaving him feeling like an outsider.

“In a family home, how can a deaf person handle all that family

matters without sign language?” Weber said. “Gestures work, I guess,

but I am talking about being in the heart of the family. Getting to

know Mama more was something special for me. If she knew sign

language, she would be my best friend.”

It happens again and again when people come over to talk. Once

they discover that Weber is deaf, they quickly make excuses and walk

away. Weber spent a lot of his life trying to fit in and feeling

lonely, until he found his true family.

“The deaf is my family,” Weber said. “Anybody who understands and

participates in the deaf culture are considered family, too. Without

the deaf language, there’s no bond. Without the deaf -- I’d be lost.”