APU first inclusive Deaf-friendly TED talk!

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Last Wednesday, 16 January 2019, I had the honor to speak at TEDxAPU with other inspiring speakers. The talks topics range from mental health, self-esteem, social media to inclusion for people with disability. I had the honor to share my story about turning the values I am raised with and influenced by, into an idea that make a difference, Fingertalk. The best part is, I was able to deliver the talk in front of both hearing and Deaf audience. Yes, for the very first time ever, TEDxAPU offered sign language interpreters and opened its doors for our Deaf friends to attend!

I am always curious of learning sign language of different regions and countries. Since I am in Beppu, Japan now, I am exposed to Japanese sign language more than ever. Thus, when TEDxAPU team contacted me to join the event as one of the speakers, I immediately thought of the local Deaf people, the Oita Deaf community! As I planned my talk to include how diverse sign languages are, how I learned so much from the Deaf communities I have met, and also how Fingertalk is working with people disabilities in Indonesia, I wanted to meet the local Deaf community and share this story with them. But, how can I invite them to come?

I was lucky that two of my Japanese teachers are actually learning Japanese sign language and they have the contact of 大分県聴覚障害者協会 (Oita Ken Chokaku Shougaisha Kyoukai) – Oita Deaf Association. I reached out to them right away and received super positive feedback! The people from the association would like to come for the talk! They announced the event to their members and organized two sign language interpreters to come along too, to help out the Deaf understanding the talk.

Then I realized something…

Most of the talks will be in English…

That means the interpreters have to translate the talk from English to Japanese first before translating them into Japanese sign language for the Deaf audience. That’s..a lot of work!


Luckily, my university is called Asia Pacific University for a reason – there are bilinguals (and multilingual) students who can help out with the on the spot interpretation! So, the TEDxAPU team helped me to find a staff that can help the interpreters with simultaneous translation, which reminded me of international Deaf conferences I have attended before. Whoa, way to go APU!


So, there you go, for the very first time ever, APU has created an event with sign language interpreter and opened its doors to Deaf audience! I was very happy that I got to share my stories with the Deaf people from Oita (including the leader of Oita Deaf Association!). Thanks to all of the sign and spoken language interpreters, the Deaf audience were able to see my talk, but also other inspiring talks from prominent speakers from different backgrounds of life. TEDxAPU has made a history of bridging the Deaf and hearing while creating an inclusive environment for all.

May this be the first of many!

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