ASL performer Justina Miles on Deaf Awareness Month

Justina Miles is a Deaf performer who went viral during her performance at Super Bowl LVII. Her mission is to show the world more authentic representations of Deaf people. For September’s Deaf Awareness Month, Miles writes about the beauty of sign language—and why accommodation needs to be viewed as a step closer to unity, not extra work.

Music was always blasting through our house growing up. My mom, a Deaf performer, would crank up MTV and let loose. I was in awe of the way her hands and body moved to our favorite Mariah Carey songs. Mom would film herself performing, and then upload the captioned videos to YouTube, so I could rewatch and follow along. It helped me gain a deeper understanding of the songs as she conveyed them.

As I got older, I learned to navigate my own style of signing songs, incorporating beats and rhythms and modulations. Today, I perform ASL with all kinds of musical acts, all over the world. Earlier this year, I had the honor of becoming the first Deaf woman to perform ASL at the Super Bowl halftime show. When I’m on stage, I like to identify and embody every nuance—every emotion of a song, just like my mom did. One of the biggest misconceptions about our community is that we can’t feel, hear, or enjoy music. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Our experience is different, but that’s what makes it beautiful.

justina milesCourtesy Justina Miles

Miles, age 1, with her mom.

There are countless Deaf and hard-of-hearing people whose identities are not understood, or accepted. Most times we find ourselves in only-oral environments, which can be dangerous and cause language deprivation. We capitalize the word “Deaf” to highlight that our identity is existential, and important. Our languages enrich the world. Our history runs deep. We are thunderous, with absorbent eyes. We produce change makers. We are a powerful community, both resilient and brilliant.

There are so many talented Deaf creatives leaving their mark. Warren “Wawa” Snipe is a brilliant rapper providing hip-hop through Deaf eyes. Nakia Smith is an aspiring actor, who is shining a light on Black ASL, a dialect of ASL used most commonly by Black signers. Through YouTube vlogs, That Deaf Family, a Deaf Latinx family, brings awareness to Deaf culture and lifestyle.

There are so many others influencing the next generation of Deaf creators, allowing them to dream big. I’m in awe of my peers, Deaf performers like Raven Sutton, Julian Ortiz, and Shawn Self, who are making concerts, festivals, and events accessible. Seeing us on world stages, like the Super Bowl halftime show, creates much needed representation for our community and culture. We need more unifying opportunities like this to show the world that Deaf and hard-of-hearing people are multifaceted and diverse.

September is Deaf Awareness Month and, too often, accessibility remains an afterthought. Social media can be an incredible tool to move the needle—it’s how I’ve built, maintained, and amplified relationships with people in the Deaf community all over the world. Sadly, it can also perpetuate the sharing of misinformation, misappropriation, and false realities.

There are millions of social media videos that members of the Deaf community can’t understand or follow along with due to the lack of closed captions. There are people who participate in audism, the discriminatory belief that the ability to hear makes one superior to those with hearing loss, by knowingly and publicly confiscating accessibility to information. People faking sign language is another form of audism. That kind of discrimination hinders the well-being of Deaf people, and sometimes gets written off as a playful joke. But accessibility—any accessibility is not a punchline. Our language is easily glamorized, but our need for accessibility is not. As artist Valerie Rose wrote on her recent mural: “Sign language is as necessary as it is beautiful.”

Let’s look at accommodation as a step closer to unity, rather than extra work.

When I gave birth to my first daughter, our initial moments were filled with pure bliss, unconditional love, and admiration. While embracing that precious moment, I was also dealing with hospital staff asking me multiple times whether I still needed my interpreter to transmit information or if we could just proceed without an interpreter. While frustrating and unfair, I believe these disheartening moments can encourage positive dialogue.

To make this world a better place, accessibility must be a priority. Captions are a necessity for all social media, television, and public spaces. Interpreters need to be mandated at events, conferences, and the workplace. Let’s look at accommodation as a step closer to unity, rather than extra work. I hope people continue to get educated and move forward to help ensure that all environments remain accessible for all. My mom taught me to experience the world at full volume, to be loud or the world will silence you. There is great beauty in being different, however. It is all of our jobs to help people thrive in their diversity.

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