RICHMOND, Va. -- For Dr. Shantell Lewis, helping people with hearing problems has been a passion since her freshman year of college.
"I had an internship with an ear, nose, and throat doctor and I always wondered what the audiologist was doing over in a separate room. And I spent a day with her and that was it. I loved it. And ever since then, I've been an audiologist working with deaf and hard-of-hearing people," said Lewis. "It's the best career ever. One, because you're helping individuals, but at the same time, you're doing a lot more, not only preventing but also treating, helping people to hear better communicate better."
Along with her work as an audiologist, Lewis has also helped underserved deaf and hard of hearing populations in the Richmond and Tri-cities area over the past 13 years through her non-profit "Here2Hear."
"Our mission is to help prevent poor hearing health. So we have a number of free programs to include heat for hearing screening, hearing exam, hearing aids," said Lewis. "But we also want to reach down to look at advocacy for deaf and hard of hearing, as well as educational programs and a teen program to help teens to prevent hearing loss."
And this year, Lewis and her non-profit will help the community in another way by helping to share the story of the deaf and hard-of-hearing African American community through a Black History Month event at the Virginia Museum of History of Culture: "Black History: Learning from the Past and Inspiring the Future."
"Our organization was very excited to celebrate Black History Month," said Lewis. "We created three main exhibits that focus on one, history makers that have hearing loss. We also wanted to tell the story of Black Deaf schools. And then last, but not least, we wanted to focus on an aspect of Black history in Richmond, which is the Richmond Slave Trail. Bring it indoors and make it accessible for everybody."
On the schools, Lewis said there were 17 of them created between the late 1800s and desegregation, with one of them in Hampton, Virginia.
"We, actually, for the event, we have a researcher and a professor coming from George Mason that will come into a presentation of Black Deaf schools as well as the history of Black [American Sign Language] because that's where it came from," said Lewis. "Just like in Black culture, we have certain terminology and terms and in Black sign language there's certain terminology. So, there are certain signs that are specific to Black culture and for Black individuals that are using American Sign Language. So that's why this is all exciting because there's a lot that I'm learning as well, but we wanted to share that for free for the public."
Lewis said as of Monday, around 200 people had signed up for the event and she hoped that people can take something away from it.
"I would say the main thing for attendees at this event, is to look at Black history and understand that it's very dynamic. We want everyone to just take in the fact of the Deaf culture, as well as individuals with hearing loss and that culture, and think about the history that's behind it," said Lewis. "So, there's a lot of information that a lot of us really don't know or haven't heard of, but that's the reason why we need to tell the story."
The event runs on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
