West Central Reporter

Gubernatorial candidate Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville) held a town hall for the deaf community in Jacksonville On Oct. 10.

Interpreters assisted Bailey and the attendees during the conversation.

"Every community in Illinois deserves access to communication with their elected officials," Bailey posted on Facebook. "That’s why I was honored to host a meet and greet and town hall at the Jacksonville Community Center for the Deaf. Thank you to our interpreters who help bridge the gap and make it possible for all to hear, and be heard in their own way."

On a cached web page, the JCCD posted that one of its priorities was for the Jacksonville City Council to "acknowledge JCCD as the center for general information on the deaf and referrals for the public and visibility of the deaf community at events, council workshops, meetings, and others." 

Deaf children reported having significant problems during mandatory masking in schools at the height of the COVID pandemic. One parent noted it wasn’t until masking began that the effects of her son’s deafness became more noticeable.   

“Children who have single sided hearing loss, they have a hard time tuning out background noises because they're missing one sensory input," Erin Bourke told Chicago City Wire of her 4-year-old son, Bobby. "So if they're in a noisy environment, a noisy school classroom, it's harder for them to tune out all this background noise. And then you add a mask ... now it's a very, very difficult for him to understand language and speech.”