Ana Arce: Soundless but not Voiceless

MANILA, Philippines - Ana Kristina Arce made positive stir a few years ago when, with a series of precise motions, gestures and facial expressions, she delivered the commencement address during her school’s graduation ceremonies. A voice that was not hers spoke throughout her message for the sake of the hearing people in the audience, as she was a deaf person, beautifully weaving words with her hands and giving a glimpse of her world. She began with a Bible verse from the Book of Isaiah, which described God as a potter who, with His divine hands, molds individuals in their own manner of perfection. From her memories, she recounted a life of obstacles and triumphs, outlined with an endearing balance of vulnerability and confidence. The story of her childhood is one that is not unique but one that is rarely given light. Arce was born deaf, like most individuals with the disability. There could have been a number of causes, and hers in particular was due to an unfortunate diagnosis of German measles while her mother was pregnant.

She was then educated in several elementary schools that taught her to lip read and where she had to use a hearing aid. She boiled with frustration. Why was it that the only way she could survive was through oral means alone??“It was difficult, at school and even at home. I didn’t doubt that my family cared but I often felt shut out, especially when I see them chatting during meals and in gatherings. What were they talking about? Could I be part of it one day?” she remembered asking. Eventually, she found her niche. Her parents enrolled her in a sign language school and she flourished, graduating valedictorian. In high school, she blossomed as well. Even the ones closest to her started to learn how to sign, in the most basic sense, and the communication boundaries started to chip away. However, frustrations came again in college. She sometimes felt useless in integrated classrooms, where the deaf were not as involved in group activities.

Misunderstood due to an invisible barrier of silence, her perseverance was once more tested, and she sought out an avenue to mold herself around her capacities. Along the way, she found a second home, with a curriculum and system that was truly responsive to her needs.?This led her to her shining moment –   reaching out to the world with memorable movements of speech, as she graduated magna cum laude at the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde’s School of Deaf and Applied Studies program.

Her inner fire was not extinguished but continued to rage on, as Arce’s academic and personal journey arrived at a new chapter – she became the first Filipina to be awarded the Nippon-Gallaudet World Deaf Leadership Scholarship and was accepted for graduate studies at the prestigious Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. The institution, named after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet by his son, Edward Miner, was started in 1864 as part of the United States Act of Congress signed by the great egalitarian Abraham Lincoln. The then US Postmaster General Amos Kendall donated the two acres of land to establish the initial avenue founded specifically for deaf and blind children.?

Now, it is a sprawling 99-acre federally chartered property prominently defined by a maroon 19th century building of brick and stone, with courses on business, performing arts, communication studies, physical education and over 30 masters programs for both deaf and hearing individuals.?Arce shared how its classrooms, halls, libraries and the cafeteria with its distinctive rounded tables have become part of her, as she adjusted to learning American Sign Language and earning her degree.

With her thesis “Deaf Studies: Cultural Studies,” she received the George V. Veditz Award, after the educator and social mover who fought for signing as a medium of teaching and understanding the deaf.?She related with candor how the world was tailor fit for people without disabilities. But gifted with intellect and an unfailing belief in herself, Arce fought through, with passion and a genuinely good heart and comprehension of the prevalent issues her community faces, and now has the perfect platform to speak for those like her.

“It was crucial for me to bring it out there in the open that we are people with an identity beyond our auditory conditions. We are human beings, like any other, with inviolable dignity, and dreams. Words have a certain power, spoken or otherwise. We are Deaf with a capital D, in recognition of our experiences of what makes us who we are in society, with a culture we can share,” she expressed.?

Arce now pursues the same path of her predecessors in Gallaudet as an educator and advocate, in a country whose realities are still harshly crafted against the needs of persons with disabilities.

Lack of data on their current conditions is a serious impediment to collectively address the present limitations. One indicator of state indifference is that even their estimated numbers are not well documented. Many buildings and transport systems are also not PWD-friendly.?

She is aware that her opportunities in life, to study and to have a loving environment to support her is not accessible to all PWDs, or any other marginalized sector for that matter. Her studies abroad heightened her sense of social justice, with the work of her South African professor Lindsay Dunn having a profound effect on her perspective of oppression and disempowerment – from racial war, to the systematic abuse of women – all different but all the same dehumanizing.?

A prominent voice despite her physical silence, Arce resonates in Philippine society as she teaches for a more intimate view of the Deaf and the universe they walk in, that their difference from the common person is not an issue of normalcy or disability, but an equal right to prosper, beyond Deaf or Hearing, as people who earn the space they deserve in humanity.