Central Lakes College Hosts Deaf Culture Event

Central Lakes College in Brainerd recently hosted a “Crash Course in Deaf Culture” event at Chalberg Theatre. The event was free and open to the public. The main objective was to make people more aware of the Deaf community and understand that they’re just as human as anyone else.

The presenter of the event was Brainerd’s own Emily Smith-Lundberg, who serves as a deaf mentor for the Minnesota Lifetrack Deaf and Hard of Hearing Family Services. Audience members were taught about the history of Deaf culture and how to interact with someone who is deaf. Another important topic discussed was that members of the Deaf community just want to be treated like regular people.

“The biggest thing that deaf people want hearing people to know is that really we don’t want pity, we are deaf, we are very proud of being deaf,” said Smith-Lundberg. “My goal really here with this presentation is to show people that we are all human, we want hearing people to please try and communicate with the Deaf community, it doesn’t matter how you look, don’t worry about being silly, the point is that you’re attempting to communicate.”

Smith-Lundberg was also the former governor-appointed board member of the Minnesota Commission of Deaf, Deafblind, and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans.