WASHINGTON - A year-old food market in a Washington, D.C., neighborhood has become a unique hub of shopping and dining for the city's Deaf community.One feature that draws many hard of hearing customers to Union Market is the ability to communicate with staff members like Thadeus Suggs. The 23-year-old lunchtime food vendor from Seattle interacts with them easily because he is fluent in American Sign Language.
Suggs, who also is Deaf, began working at the historic market weeks after it opened in September 2012, following a major renovation.
Since then, Suggs has been on leave from his undergraduate studies across the street at Gallaudet University - the only university in the world specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students.
With the help of Gallaudet interpreter Carolyn Ressler, Suggs explained what he likes about his job.
"One nice thing is it is so close to Gallaudet, which by the way is the 'Deaf Mecca'," he said. "And with that, we are providing services to the Gallaudet community as well as the community at large. I think they benefit from it, as do I." Read more http://www.voanews.com/content/washington-food-market-becomes-hub-for-deaf-community/1762302.html
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