Title: Vivecca Hartman- Hopes for Local School Districts


VISUAL DESCRIPTION: Images of Vivecca with her son, are shown while she is speaking.  


VIVECCA HARTMAN:
Being the parent of a deaf-blind child,
I didn't know how to parent him when he was born to us.
I had to learn.
And I had an awesome school district that worked with us
and they were willing to learn with us
because we were committed to make it work in our community.
The challenge was that it took both of us, the family
and the school district, a long time to learn
about deaf-blindness, and that time was lost to my son.
His education was delayed because we had to learn to catch
up to be able to help him.
And honestly, I think it took about 10 years
because when he was 10 things were --
started falling in place, and that is so unfair to him.
I would hope that every school district would have somebody
trained and ready for when a deaf-blind child comes
into their school district because it's not fair
to the child to have to make them wait while we all learn
what his needs are.