Christian Miranda is on the team as a chef at one of Disney’s major attractions, the Star Wars’ Galaxies’ Edge. Miranda began working at the Dock 7 restaurant there during the summer of 2021 as a busser, clearing and cleaning tables. He moved up from there through food preparation to cook and chef, all while working with hearing staff. Most recently Christian worked as Steward and had to apply for another position to move up. An ASL interpreter was provided for his interview and he got the job! His skills expanded, his confidence grew, and he learned enough to be promoted to chef. His co-workers are picking up ASL while working together and they’ve devised a creative system using photos and a whiteboard to make the workplace accessible. He hopens to move onto fine dining.

A new app in Calgary now allows emergency services workers to communicate through sign language interpreter. This allows police officers who can now communicate with Deaf people.

The European Union recently advanced a proposed EU-wide law that aims to combat violence against women. Some parts of the proposal are specifically inclusive of those who identify as Deaf. The proposed law criminalizes 1) rape based on lack of consent, 2) female genital mutilation and 3) a variety of online crimes – “revenge” porn, stalking, harassment, and incitements to violence or hatred. It also improves access to justice for victims with disabilities. It would also ban any form of sterilization without consent.

A Deaf man named Prince Nahimana was successful in getting an Arts degree. He looked around, saw his Deaf peers were struggling to find work and decided to do something about it. This led him to create the Kigali Deaf Art Gallery four years ago. As he put it, “I started the gallery to show that disabled persons have talents.” Today the gallery employs 13 people who produce products that are artistic and useful, including beaded pots, jewelry, ornaments, multimedia, fashion, paintings, drawings, murals and sculptures.

During the National Forum of Mexican Sign Language Interpreters, Mayor Enrique Francisco Galindo Ceballos announced that it has been his goal since he became Mayor to teach Mexican Sign Language (LSM) in basic education schools. He also thanked staff members who prepared the proposal and that “you are a vehicle for the city council to be more inclusive, in this case with Deaf people.”