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Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of inclusion, belonging and societal transformation. Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world without? Remember, everyone not only belongs, but thrives. You're not alone. Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge the status quo and share storeys that resonate deep within. Ready to dive in. Whether you're sipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let's connect, reflect and inspire action together. Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too.

Reach out to jo.lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk to share your insights or to join me on the show. So adjust your earbuds and settle in. It's time to ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites.

And today is episode 195 with the title Bridging Silent Worlds. And I have the absolute honour and privilege to welcome Maria Gallucci. Maria is a multi award winning Realtor, Altcoder stands for Child of Deaf Adults, and author of Raised in Silence. She also builds accessible home buying experiences and championing, I can never say championing, championing empathy between deaf and hearing communities. And when I asked Maria to describe herself, she said that it is radical empathy that bridges deaf and hearing worlds. Hello, Maria, welcome to the show. Absolute pleasure. Absolute pleasure.

And we were chatting in the green room before we went live about your ancestry, where are you from and where do you descend from in the past?

So I'm Italian and we live in Denver, Colorado now, but we're second generation Italians in the United States. And I was born in New Hampshire but basically raised in Colorado because we.

Were talking about how the pronunciation of your name is. People see the Cs and they pronounce it kind of an American way, but not in the Italian way. So Gallucci. So CH is the C. Yeah, exactly.

And everyone always just did Galu sea, which it's actually. Gallucci.

Yeah, that's really. Yeah. And I was, I was wondering the other day, you know, historical character Julius Caesar, should he be really Julius Cheeser?

Yeah, that's true.

I always wondered that. Rewrite history books the world over.

Yeah. To redo all the class stuff that we learned.

Yeah. Hail Cheeser and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, so it's. Yeah, I always wondered that. But. So Maria, you, as I said in the intro, you're the child of deaf adults and you grew up in a. In a world where silence was the norm for them. But obviously You're a hearing child.

That must have been a challenge because you must have also had to be their sign interpreter or their interpreter from the hearing to the not hearing world.

Yeah, we were always the gap between the hearing and the non hearing world and so we always had to interpret for their medical appointments or any financial things. And there's six of us kids and we're all hearing and both of our parents were deaf. So ASL was our first language. And then my mom always said we learned how to speak through the TV and obviously school and things like that. So ASL is all we've known since we were kids.

Asl, that's American Sign Language.

Yes, American Sign Lang language. Every country has their own signs.

Like, because it's not a universal language, you don't translate, do you? It's a completely independent language.

Yes, Yep. And we always say things, we reverse things like Spanish, how they do the reversal, that's how we sign as well. Where English is the different.

So ASL and bsl different syntax and context. Is it?

Yes. Yeah, it's all, it's. It's different. Like in, I think my mom always said in the Philippines, I think it was, they would actually like use their hands to do signs. Like their bodies to do. Do the signs. Where in AASL we do. We do it with our hands.

Wow. So there's no universal sign language.

No, no. But every, every has, everyone has their own. It's like having accents too.

Yeah. Wow. So different parts of the country have different signs for different words, do they?

Yes. Yep. Yep, they do. It's completely different.