Prologue

Renee Lewis, my cousin, is who I decided to interview for this oral history project. While sitting in her kitchen, we discussed what it was like for her throughout school while having a hearing impairment. Renee is partly deaf in her one hear and completely deaf in the other. She is able to hear you, sometimes! My main goal for this interview was to capture Renee's perspective of learning how to read and write. I believe that I have successfully reached my goal with this assignment. Not only was I able to get to know my cousin better, but everyone is able to see a different perspective on learning. Today, Renee has a beautiful daughter, Alexis, who is two years old. Also, she has just recently graduated from PB Beauty School and is now working at a well-known salon in Cherry Hill, NJ.

In the video above Renee describes how she was taught, how she overcame obstacles, how her family was influenced by her hearing impairment, and also about her social life. Within the next video you will be able to see her as a child and will get a sneek peak of her experiences. You will notice that she was able to do everything that any other child was able to do.

Afterword

Even though I ran into several technological problems with this project I really enjoyed doing it. It made me open my eyes and see my cousin as a completely different person. I always knew that she had a hearing impairment, but I never took the time to learn about what she had to go through to get to where she is today. Overall, I think that this project is a great learning tool, not only for the learning of technology and interviewing, but also to open your eyes to see that everyone has a story to tell and each one is as important as the next.