Eyepoetic Services
ASL & Deaf Consultant
ASL & Deaf Consultant
Services provided: advocacy, language mentoring, and cultural education. As an ASL & Deaf Consultant, I support Deaf and hearing individuals of all ages in their home or work environments. Our goal is to increase communication effectiveness and cultural awareness between hearing individuals and Deaf individuals who live or work together.
Members of both the Deaf and hearing communities benefit by increasing their cultural and linguistic awareness. In my experience, I’ve seen communication and interaction improve within a variety of contexts: a Deaf child within a hearing family, an individual with increasing hearing loss/late-deafness and their family, Deaf professionals and their colleagues, and the community at large.
ASL & Deaf Culture Educator
I began teaching from an early age. As a Deaf person born to Deaf parents, I enjoy sharing my heritage, culture and language from a native perspective. I hold a Master’s degree in Sign Language Education from Gallaudet University and I have decades of experience in teaching ASL and Deaf culture in K-12 environments, college/universities, and community-based settings. I offer ASL classes to any age group. This instruction can include ongoing weekly classes, specialized individual instruction, and intensive workshops to explore ASL, Deaf culture, ASL linguistics, and the artistic use of ASL. I offer beginning levels through advanced levels of instruction.
Ruthie's presentation at ADEC (Articulating Deaf experiences at conference) in Rochester, NY. (2019)
Performing Artist
Being a performing artist is my passion and I seek to inspire and share my journey as a heritage sign language user. I perform in ASL, intertwining Deaf experiences, artistically exploring the language, and sharing Deaf perspectives through different types of art modalities.
I use my background with National Theater of the Deaf (NTD), and I have experience in writing, directing and producing theater, film and other artistic productions. I offer my services in all of these areas. My performances are designed for all ages and themes to share my creativity and expression.
Workshop Facilitator / Designer
Workshop Facilitator/Designer
For over two decades, I have provided a wide variety of workshop topics, serving children, adults, educators, interpreters, and community members. I am able to design workshops around a specific topic, and have a number of workshops that I’ve already developed. These topics have included classifier use within "everyday" through advanced academic applications, Deaf culture, audism, power, privilege and oppression, ASL linguistics and more. I offer instruction through a Deaf lens and Deaf-centric perspective. The workshops can be offered in-person or virtually.
Motivational Speaker
Motivational Speaker
As a motivational speaker, I share and inspire people, sharing my journey through triumphs and challenges. The audience will be inspired and gain a greater perspective as they learn from a lifetime of experiences and perspectives. I value sharing my journey to offer encouragement and greater understanding of others. Members of the audience can apply this awareness as they face challenges and triumphs of their own. Topics include sharing about being a member of the diverse Deaf community, as well as my wide variety of experiences in theater, film, the arts, education, human rights and other passions. The picture provided is from my presentation of a Women’s March in Jan 2017.
Ruthie's motivational speech at Women March 2017 in Denver, Colorado:
After my motivational speech in 2017 at the Women's March, a person gave me this note at a restaurant. "Great poem today. Beautiful Contributor."