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Deaf girl gets to talk to Santa for the first time thanks to elf who knows sign language

Holly the Elf made this holiday extra special.

via Gustavo Fring/Pexels

Santa hands a gift to a little girl.

It has to be incredibly frustrating to be a deaf child who can’t tell Santa exactly what they want for Christmas. That’s why a community’s work to ensure that Emily Andrews, 4, from East Yorkshire, England, had a British Sign Language (BSL) translator at a Santa event was so special.

A video shared by Southwest News Service shows Andrews speaking to Santa with the help of Melanie Boyeson, also known as Holly the Elf, who knows BSL. Through Boyeson, Emily could tell Santa that she wanted a doll, a stroller, earrings and a ring on Christmas morning.

"It was just a magical experience. Emily being able to communicate freely with the elf and tell Santa what she wanted was just amazing,” Tanya Ansrews, the girl’s mother, told SWNS.

Deaf girl meets Santa properly for first time - thanks to signing elf 🥰🎅🎁 | LOVE THIS

The moment was even more meaningful because on 4 occasions the family had been promised that a sign language worker would be present to help the young girl communicate with Santa, but it never worked out.

Emily’s brother goes to Airmyn Park Primary School, and when the head teacher, Natalie Dodd, heard about her struggles, she reached out to the community to find a translator for their school’s Santa event.

"Through the power of Facebook, we found Holly the Elf, whose real name is Melanie Boyeson, and she volunteered to visit our grotto and interpret for Emily," Dodds said. "Even though Emily isn’t a pupil here, she is part of our extended school family. As a small school, we are privileged to be able to embrace the wider school and village community, and we wanted to provide this experience for Emily."

Tanya told the BBC that there should be more holiday events with BSL interpreters for deaf children. “Everyone should be treated equally,” she said.

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The cool reason you won't hear baristas shouting drink orders at this Starbucks.

A new Starbucks in Malaysia is like no other.

Mohammad Aizad Bin Ariffin just got a promotion, and it means he's "well on his way to achieving [his] dream."

He wants to become the first deaf Starbucks store manager in Malaysia, and now — as the new shift manager at a location in Kuala Lumpur — that goal is in sight.

Photo courtesy of Starbucks.

Although Ariffin — who's worked for the coffee chain for three years — certainly deserves a pat on the back for movin' on up, his deafness isn't all that unique at the Starbucks location. It's actually the norm.

10 of the 13 employees at Ariffin's store are deaf. And that's a big first for Starbucks.

The store, which just recently opened in a shopping center, is the first Starbucks in the world dedicated to hiring deaf employees.

Photo courtesy of Starbucks.

The coffee chain partnered with the Society of Interpreters for the Deaf (SID) to hire, train, and coach new workers, as well as teach sign language to employees who are not deaf or hard of hearing, according to Starbucks.

So is this Starbucks only for customers who are deaf?

Certainly not. Anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing will find the store especially accessible, but a customer who doesn't know sign language can write their order on a menu card.

Each customer is given an order number, which will flash on a screen to let them know their drinks or food is ready.

Photo by Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images.

The biggest difference between this Starbucks and others might just be the fact that you won't hear workers yelling drink orders at one another — they'll be signing instead.

The new store is part of Starbucks' mission to expand opportunities for marginalized groups.

For the deaf community — a population that faces high rates of job discrimination and unemployment — it's a cause worth fighting for.

Three out of four people living with hearing loss reported having more limited employment opportunities than their hearing peers, according to a 2014 study by U.K.-based group Action on Hearing Loss.

Figures like that show why we need far more companies following in Starbucks' footsteps.

To Ariffin, his promotion isn't just about himself, either — now, he's able to help other workers in his shoes aim higher.

"It’s an incredible feeling to share my journey and help develop other deaf [workers],” he notes.

Incredible, indeed.

Cheers on taking a big step forward toward your dream, Mohammad Aizad BinAriffin.

Photo by Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images.


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Can you dance to a song if you can't hear the music? Watch and see.

You can't stop the beat. Even when you can't hear it.

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Smirnoff

Chris lives to dance but he can't hear the music.

Turn up good music, and you won't just hear it in your ears. It'll fill your whole being. You'll feel the bass thump in your chest. The hairs on your arms and the back of your neck will start vibrating in time to the beat. All around you, the air comes alive, moving. Pretty soon, you are too.

That’s true for Chris Fonseca too, with one small difference. Check it out or scroll down for more:

Chris Fonseca lost his hearing from a childhood illness. It hasn't stopped him from feeling music or from dancing.

All images and GIFs via Smirnoff Sound Collective/YouTube.

Chris's love of dance started young. He grew up watching '80s street dance movies like "Breakin'" and "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" and decided to teach himself the moves.

In college, he joined Def Motion, a hip-hop dance troupe whose members were all deaf.

Since graduation, he's immersed himself in learning the tricky genre of lyrical hip-hop, while teaching dance to deaf students at a studio in London.

Like all dancers who are deaf, Fonseca can't hear the lyrics or the melody. But he can feel the beat.

As two of his fellow dancers put it, "Deaf people always touch the wall and feel the beat and listen to what the music is and what the song is. They can feel the beat. And the skin as well; they can feel it. Especially the goosebumps."



Chris's students feel the same way. Two of his students, a pair of twins, love music and dance.

They dance for fun, for happiness, and to help dispel the idea that people who are deaf don't go out and get down on Friday night.


"But WE DO! We do it!"

And when they say that, they really mean it.

Dance is a huge part of our culture. It can't be reserved just for those who hear all the words to the songs.

Chris and his students know that dance has nothing to do with lyrics or melodies, and everything to do with rhythm and love. And they want everyone else to know that too.

And if you don't believe them yet, turn up your speakers and watch the video again.

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A Supreme Court justice said 4 words in American Sign Language. Here's why that's awesome.

On Tuesday, April 19, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts said, "Your motion is granted" in court. Sound typical? It's not.

Because for the first time in U.S. history, these words were spoken from the Supreme Court bench in American Sign Language.

To most people, that probably doesn't sound like a big deal. After all, it's just one little phrase, right? And it's not like he said something cool like "Awkward turtle" or "My hovercraft is full of eels" either.

He just said a thing that judges normally say in court.

Chief Justice Roberts. Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

But for the millions of Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing — including the 12 lawyers who were being sworn into the Supreme Court bar that day — it means a lot.

It wasn't until 1982 that a deaf lawyer was given an opportunity to argue in front of the Supreme Court. More than three decades later, there are around 200 deaf lawyers working in America. By contrast, licensed lawyers make up about 0.4% of the total U.S. population.

“Some deaf or hard-of-hearing lawyers doubt that they can actually practice law," Howard Rosenblum, one of the lawyers who was sworn in that day, told the Washington Post. “But the real practice is based on intellect and deaf people have that in spades.”

“I think the biggest challenge has been to get people to give me the opportunity,” added Teresa Curtin, another deaf lawyer sworn in Chief Justice Roberts.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

And that illuminates a real problem in our culture: The assumption that people with physical disabilities are somehow less qualified to use their minds.

There's another issue, too, with the way we tend to dismiss those who struggle to communicate in standard American English. But whereas we're willing to learn bits and phrases of other languages to help us move through the world — who doesn't know how to say "hello" or "where's the bathroom?" in at least one other language? — we're much less accommodating of communication barriers like deafness.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

It's easy to assume that all deaf people have a supernatural ability to read lips, for example. But lipreading is a pretty ineffective form of communication. Even if you think you're doing a good thing by speaking slowly and oh-ver-ee-nun-see-ate-ing eh-vuh-ree sill-uh-bull, most lip-readers can still only understand about 30% of what's being said.

American Sign Language, on the other hand, is actually an incredibly efficient way to connect with people. It's clear, it's concise, and there are less complicated verb conjugations to worry about. You don't have to worry about talking over someone in order to be heard. You can communicate with anyone in a crowd as long as they're in eyesight, and that's pretty cool!

Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images.

Deaf people, like anyone else, are capable of amazing things. But if we're going to make them find their way in the hearing world, the least we can do is talk to them on their terms.

By speaking those four simple words in ASL, Chief Justice Roberts demonstrated a willingness to embrace the Deaf community and meet them where they are. Instead of sitting back and watching as they climbed across the hearing barriers, that one simple signing action communicated something much more than words. It said, "I see you, and I acknowledge that you matter just as much as anyone else."

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