The Third (and most memorable) Moment I became an Accessibility Advocate
This story wouldn’t exist without the first time I heard someone talking about Sign Languages. A chain of occurrences lead me to occasionally learn how to sign (the proper verb as a synonym to “use sign language”) and become an interpreter.
The process was interesting, motivating, full of potential, something that made me more open — similar to other occasions of acquiring a new language.
Meanwhile, this story became a core memory in an unusual way: the dychotomy of being surrounded by friendly and open people, while also feeling lonely and excluded, just burnt into my brain and became a game-changer, a food for thought for later.
But let’s start at the beginning.
After the memorable first university lessons about Sign Languages, I was hungry to learn more. Life gave me the time and opportunity very quickly.
I took a semester off from my busy university schedule to work in Spain as a babysitter — a typical way of getting native language classes “for free” back then. Well, it turned out soon that I’m not the ideal personality to live in the same household where my employers live, so I learnt the lesson and soon I returned home, earier than expected.
