Deaf Role Models

Saudamini Pethe is a prominent feminist role model, actively involved in supporting deaf women across the country. She is the first deaf law student from the country and is a pioneer in making legal awareness accessible to deaf women, she organized along with other lawyers a 12 part series for deaf women last year (2020) demystifying various laws and legal procedures. Saudamini is an avid reader, loves to travel and watch movies & sitcoms in her free time. Saudamini has completed her M.A. In English Literature from the University of Mumbai and has done the Freelance Journalism and Authorship course from The British Council. She is currently pursuing LLB in Institute of Law and Research, Faridabad, MDU after securing DLAW fellowship.   Saudamini was born on 26th Sep 1977 in Goregaon (Mumbai) and brought up in suburbs of Mumbai (Dombivli, near Thane – Maharashtra). She contracted meningitis at the age of 9 and overdose of medication led to deafness. Her father is now retired ...

Ashley Jain is a technology wizard who is fascinated by the world of sign language that he discovered late in life. He loves travelling the world, he has been to 22 countries and has a weakness for long drives. Ashley stands out as he is one of the very few deaf engineers from India. He graduated from the world renowned Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD) completing the Bachelor of technology (B.Tech) and Master of technology (M.Tech) in Computer Science on 2019. He has designed the famous Access Mantra website (https://www.accessmantra.com/), which is widely popular in the deaf community as the 'Google for the Deaf'. He has been working as Data Scientist at Rakuten in Tokyo, Japan from 2019 right after he graduated from college. Ashley Jain was born on 8th September, 1995 at Delhi, India. There are four members in his family. His father is businessman in traditional women garments at Chandi Chowk, mother is housewife. There are only two deaf members in his family - hi...

Mr. V. Gopalakrishnan is a renowned Indian Sign Language Expert and Consultant, he is one of the first teachers of Indian Sign Language (ISL). He is currently serving as the General Secretary (GS) of All India Federation of Deaf (AIFD). Gopalakrishnan was born with profound deafness in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, on 14 December 1940. Due to complications during pregnancy, the doctors had to use forceps, which is suspect of causing this deafness. As is the case with more than 95% of deaf people, his parents were both hearing. His father was the proprietor of a bookstore selling books on medicine and law in Trivandrum, Kerala. His mother was a Carnatic musician and a housewife. He has 4 siblings, one younger brother and three younger sisters, all hearing. His formal education started only when he was seven years old! Since there were no schools for the Deaf in Trivandrum at that time, he was sent to Madras (present day Chennai) for his primary education at the Little Flower C...

Bilal Chinoy is a charismatic, creative and vibrant role model, who has the ability to instantly impress and connect with a cheering crowd of deaf students with his stock of stimulating stories and discussions. Bilal works as the Multimedia Designer in Gallaudet University's Office of Communications and Public Relations and an Adjunct Professor for Web Design. The focus of his job is to make the stories on Gallaudet University's website come alive by designing visuals. With the power of ' chai ' (tea) in his veins and a love of adventure, Mr. Chinoy finds himself recharged by biking, trekking, running and traveling. He is a step closer to achieving his dream of bridging the gap between education and employability of Deaf youth in India by co-founding Young Achievers, an organization that aims to provide quality bilingual Deaf educational services. Bilal was born Deaf in Mumbai, India.  Because his parents and brother were also Deaf, he didn’t see being Deaf as s...

Babloo Kumar, is an enterprising youth leader. He is well known for his abstract metaphors in Indian Sign Language and his strong leadership skills. He is the President of the  Youth Association of the Deaf, India (YADI)  and has formerly worked as a  Mobilization Specialist  for ' Deaf Empowerment ' at the Centum GRO Initiative and ISL Teacher at NISH, Kerala . He actively participates in the conferences at national and International level. He has already traveled to Turkey, Denmark, Singapore and wishes to travel more! Babloo had very humble beginnings. He was born in a small village called 'Hatiya' in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Later, his family moved to Moradabad, UP. His family is all hearing, except his elder brother Dabloo. His father worked at a Government Office in U.P. and mother was a house-wife. He grew up in a society, where sign language had no place. His brother mostly lived apart, so there was limited interaction while growing up. He recounts his ...

Sachin is an enigmatic, industrious and accomplished youth leader. He works as an Instructor, Sign Linguistics at Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center, New Delhi. He is an international deaf youth representative at Disabled People International (DPI), and is also actively involved in various research projects. Sachin was born deaf. He spent most of his life in Lucknow, U.P.  His mother and elder sister are deaf, along with many other relatives from his maternal side like his uncle, aunt and many others. However, none of them knew sign language. They have been managing with gestures and limited speech, which is what Sachin received as his first language input. Despite having so many deaf members in his family, he never received the Sign Language support that was needed. He studied in a mainstream school. He was the only deaf student there. He understood absolutely nothing in his classroom. Year after year, teachers came and delivered lesson after lesson -...

Abigail Beilfuss is a free-spirited traveler , a deaf interpreter , who knows multiple sign languages - Indian Sign Language (ISL), American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (BSL), German Sign Language (DGS), French Sign Language (LSF) and International Sign (IS). She is an independent single mother. She is the General Secretary (Woman), Goa Association of the Deaf and  Vice-President of the newly established National Youth Association of Deaf (NYAD) , India. She is fascinated by the power of sign languages in transforming deaf lives, giving an identity, sense of self-confidence and a way to express the most complex of the ideas and feelings with ease. Abigail was born in Calcutta , India and spent most of her childhood in Delhi, India. She became deaf due to meningitis when she was 6 months old. Initially, she was put for the speech therapy, better known as the ‘ Oralism ’ approach.  But she found it dull, and highly inadequate. She was introduced to the wor...