What do you do if someone touches you inappropriately, but you can’t see or hear them?

Students at our Karten CTEC for People with Deaf-Blindness benefit from one on one instruction from our teachers, most of whom are themselves deaf-blind, deaf, deaf-severally visually impaired, or hard of hearing-blind. They are fortunate to have good quality equipment, thanks in large part to the Ian Karten Charitable Trust. Skills taught enable direct, effective and independent communication with family, friends, bureaucracies, financial institutions, schools, help centers/hot lines, police or other authorities, as well as access to information. With that, the information found on-line is designed for the sighted-hearing public and does not focus on the specific dilemmas this population faces. As a result of this and other factors, our clients and staff are sometimes less well informed, and therefore find it even more difficult than their peers, to define, identify and report incidents of sexual harassment.

This is particularly problematic as they are at least as vulnerable as their hearing-sighted peers. Even in our Karten CTEC we must be alert and aware, especially as much of the communication is in tactile sign language, which naturally requires tactile (hands on) contact. The deaf-blind person puts their hands on those of the person signing in order to communicate, but not everyone is clear on where to draw the line between communication and undertones of sexual intonations or even harassment. While most teachers prefer the illumination provided by a portable spotlight funded by the Ian Karten Charitable Trust, one visually impaired Braille teacher prefers to teach in the dark, which makes it more difficult for sighted staff to see what’s going on.

Clearly, there is a real need for open discussion and education as to the border between communication and harassment. For example, in the hot Middle Eastern summer, if a client and/or teacher are lightly dressed and of different sexes, misunderstandings could occur. If someone, perhaps a visitor or another student or teacher, interacts with them in some way, the deaf-blind person may not know who it was or who – if anyone -may have witnessed the interaction.

We decided to organize a special half day seminar to address these and other issues. All of our current students and teachers, as well as many graduates, together with members of our Social Recreation-Rehabilitation Groups, other clients, Support Service Providers, communication facilitators (who copy the signs from the main interpreter into tactile sign language at events), interpreters as well as social workers and senior government officials attended. Of the 213 people present, 110 were deaf-blind and 65 were deaf.

One of our deaf-blind staff members paired each deaf-blind participant up with the appropriate Support Service Provider, communication facilitator or met their specific accessibility needs. Thanks to this and other measures the event was fully accessible, from beginning to end. Even students with a notoriously short attention span were spellbound throughout the entire five-hour event. Several hearing-sighted participants, unused to being in the minority, watched the deaf-blind participants with amazement. They wondered aloud how over a hundred deaf-blind individuals could get to our center in Tel Aviv, participate actively in the talks, enjoy the show and more.

Our Karten CTEC coordinator opened the event, followed by one of our social workers, Yonah, and then a presentation by a lawyer. In the course of 45 minutes, the lawyer touched on the relevant laws as well as differences between courting and harassing and more. At the end of her talk, and during the break that followed it, she answered the many questions that individual participants raised.

Next onstage was a play “Zipporah keeps a secret”, which presents the subject of sexual harassment in a light hearted but serious way, via the story of a bird who is harassed one day by her “friend”, a lovable white cat. The cat tells her to keep it a secret so her family won’t be angry with her. The whole concept of secrets, the damage they do and how to reveal them, is emphasized and examined from different perspectives. The audience understood and internalized the message.

The lead actress, a psychodrama therapist and group mentor who developed and wrote the show, then led a discussion about coping with harassment and talking about it. Here too she stressed how secrets empower themselves and how important it is to tell, and not to feel guilty about their reactions, whether they froze, or tried to flee or fight.

The final part of the event was a wrap up by our social worker, Yonah. She talked about the various elements of the seminar, from the more theoretical talk by the lawyer, through the more practical and emotional sides of the play and then specifically about tactile sign language. With the help of a Power Point presentation she discussed potential pitfalls, where tactile ISL can cross the border to sexual harassment. She then invited comments, questions and examples of potentially problematic situations.

Issues raised included those in which a man and a woman communicate in tactile sign language, especially facing each other in casual situations, such as at a party, in a swimming pool or at the beach. Sometimes the Support Service Provider, teacher or interpreter are friends with the client and might hang out together in the evening after the activities on an overnight trip. What is the status, what boundaries should be set and kept in mind in such a situation? Another example was describing and demonstrating the actions of a person/people dancing. This could be the case in our Karten CTEC, as well, if a teacher wants to explain what is on the screen and it happens to be a video of people dancing, for example at a Bar Mitzvah party. One of our deaf-blind staff members explained that in such a situation the person describing the dancing should demonstrate with their hands on their own body and the deaf-blind person’s hands on theirs.

Much discussion centered on the question of communication when both parties are seated, as in a computer lesson. The most comfortable position, and the one which is easiest to maintain, is to sit opposite each other with alternating knees, so that the knee of one person is between the other person’s knees, as can be seen here. This caused quite a storm, with many people contributing their opinions. The gist was that yes, it’s more comfortable, but if it’s a man and a woman it provides a perfect opening for sexual harassment. The conclusion was that if the two individuals are not the same gender, or don’t feel comfortable sitting like that, they should both keep their knees together.

Operatively, we are in the process of creating formal guidelines and ethics, for example that interpreters need to wear shirts with sleeves and not spaghetti straps.

This is a very important subject, which needed to be recognized and openly discussed, not only around the world but also at our Center. One student at our Karten CTEC was interested in the subject of sexual harassment and had used her new skills to research it online. The seminar was her only opportunity attend a fully accessible event focussed on the issues that concern deaf-blind individuals and learn more.

Overall, everyone learned that no undertones or atmosphere of sexual harassment should be tolerated. Participants learned to identify the signs, and that they have the right – even the obligation – to say no, and who to turn to if something should happen. Part of being empowered and gaining self-confidence is to learn to identify what makes you uncomfortable. The ability to say no, I’m not transparent, I’m here. The seminar helped to give them strength, strength that can be used in other areas of life. One woman opened up for the first time about a relevant experience.

Should such a situation arise in our Karten CTEC, our teachers and students are now equipped to identify, report and stop any such behaviour. Unlike other subjects we cover, we hope that this one will remain theoretical.