International Week of the Deaf (IWDeaf) is an initiative of the World Federation of the Deaf, celebrated during the last full week of September every year. IWDeaf raises awareness about the deaf community by uniting the deaf community and promoting the human rights of deaf people. Each year, IWDeaf has a new theme to promote a cultural topic facing the community. This year’s theme, “Sign Language Rights for All!” emphasized the importance of sign language in the growth and development of deaf individuals and included specific days and activities that focused on minority groups within the deaf community.
Pinnacle’s Molly McGiles, an Asset Integrity Analyst, was asked to participate in IWDeaf this year by speaking with students from the Illinois School for the Deaf about literacy and communication in the workplace. Molly’s presentation, which was communicated completely in sign language, covered the skills needed to become an engineer, what it’s like to work at Pinnacle, and the different benefits of using both written and face-to-face communication in the workplace. The event organizer said that the students were so excited for the presentation; and that they stayed engaged throughout the entire presentation.
“For me, the best part of the presentation was being able to give back to the community and help encourage the youth to consider the engineering industry,” said Molly on the experience. “These students have such bright futures ahead of them and I can’t wait to see what they do in the future!”
To learn more about the World Federation of the Deaf or about the International Week of the Deaf visit https://wfdeaf.org/iwdeaf2019/.
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