Welcome to DeafDaily

My name is Samuel Cartledge and this is my very stereotypical first blog, not that I want it to be. Let me get the stereotypical things for a first blog out of the way to start off with, the all important who, what, why, where and when? Well other than my name which i’ve already disclosed, I was born profoundly deaf in December 1993 and was implanted with a cochlear implant on my left ear when I was two years old. In my pre-school years I went to the Shepherd Centre which is an early intervention program agency who specialize in enabling children who are deaf and hearing impaired to develop spoken language. Technically speaking due to my two infant years before implantation, I was 2 years behind everyone else with my language and speech development. So fast forward a bit and thanks to the amazing work of the Shepherd Centre, by the time I was due to hit school for Kindergarten, I had age appropriate speech and language. Sounds good right? So thats a bit about my childhood. I go through primary school and high school, graduated and now I’m in the middle of studying a bachelor of Arts in Architecture at the University of Canberra.

I know I’m flying through this all very briefly but hopefully you’ll understand why at the end of this blog. So as for what, like I said I’m deaf, studying a bachelor, living away from home, trying to earn money and playing basketball. What is this blog? Well to be honest, I don’t completely know all the fine details yet but I have a vision of what I want to do. Growing up deaf in a hearing world, I’ve been exposed to many different situations where I’ve felt uncomfortable, exposed, unaware, left out and misunderstood. Just to make myself clear, I’m not asking for you to feel sorry for us deaf people or if you are deaf I know  for sure that you can relate to what I am saying. I want to write to not only express on behalf of what we go through daily but to inform people in need of crucial information that they may not be aware of for deaf students, children, newly borns or even adults. Information is so important yet it is so hard to find the right information, the right people to confide in, pathways to plan ahead for our future and technology that can assist. 

Why am I doing this? Because I want to, and I believe that there is a vital need for this information. I am 20 years old and I believe that through my experiences growing up my parents, the guardian angels that they are have sourced as much information as they could for my wellbeing, future and ambitions that we don’t want others to waste as much time as we did, looking for information where it should be easily found, known and passed on. Sure, you guys have the internet, a vital tool that I didn’t have as much when I was younger, you can find information yourself but your bypassing someone who tells of their experience, thoughts and opinion. That, I believe is a vital tool in itself. Now of course I’m not the know it all, no one is, but growing up I have made plenty of contacts, connections and relationships with people who have gone through and are still going through the same situations as myself or even you. I want to help the deaf youth of today, advocate for them and let them know that they are not in it alone. People have gone through it all before, survived and become successful in todays world. It’s all about setting goals and going out and achieving them.

So the final two W’s, where and when? Well this is a blog so obviously I will be posting here as much as I can and it will take time for me to write as much as I would like and when I do I want to put as much detail into it as I can so that you reading can benefit from the information. Even if its just for light reading or your reading this because I have linked you to it on social media, I want to raise awareness and this of course is the best way to do it today so bear with me, I’m not trying to hassle you and if I am, please understand my passion from where you stand in the world today.

So that you don’t think that I’m a bit crazy or unschooled, yes the five W’s are mainly used for writing narratives throughout primary school, but I used them so that you all get an understanding of what I want this blog to go, stand for and be. Also because I thought it would be the easiest way to attempt to explain my ideas for this blog. 

To explain and clarify the name for this blog, DeafDaily. I want to do something captivating to prove that Deaf people have no limitations, that they have the ability to do anything provided that appropriate cooperation is provided with all parties. This reminded me about a trend on facebook, instagram and twitter that I have seen over the past year called 100happydays or perhaps better know as #100happydays. It involves people taking a picture each day, 100 days in a row with a small caption explaining why it makes them happy and so on. I want to emulate that however instead of happy posts as posts about anything relating to Deaf people. I aim to try and post something each day, however I acknowledge that there may be some days where I can’t access the internet or find the time (I am a uni student!) but in order to help myself in this matter sometimes I will publish twitter like posts with links to external websites with a short explanation. This way you can get information, the ball keeps rolling and I can move onto new resources to share. Thus the name DeafDaily. In the future I look to the name further but for now this a start. At the moment I am gathering enough information and write up a few articles to further explain and clarify some issues that deaf people face so that I can attempt to clear the foggy air before I start posting daily. So give me a week or two to prepare before I put the show on the road.

If you want to contact me for any reason related to my posts or request any information find below my email address or comment on the blog. I may not have the information or knowledge but I am certain that I know people who do who also want to help.

Samcartledge1@gmail.com