Miss-Delectable
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KWCH - Kansas News and Weather - The Kenny Walker Story
He played as a force unleashed, creating collisions which brought entire stadiums to their feet. As the Big 8 defensive player of the year at Nebraska, Kenny Walker's praises were constantly sung. A song it turns out, he never heard.
"I am profoundly deaf. I'm 103 decibels, that's really very deaf...I'm totally deaf. I don't know how in the world I got through it."
Five years of pro football followed, a man trying to make it in the most unforgiving of professions with a handicap that should have been disabling. But as it turns out, he would have never given up football even for the chance to hear.
"I would go on and play football and be a deaf man. That is the reason why I am here. That's the reason God put me here."
Hard to imagine but the game has gotten tougher. Life beyond football often is, even for a well educated, often overly qualified gentleman.
"It just takes a lot of patients; it takes a lot of effort and time. To work with a person who is deaf, one on one. You just have to have patience. They have to be willing to deal with the problem. A lot of times they won't look at you face to face when they are talking. Hearing people tend to look all around when they are talking, look over here and over there. But with deaf you have to look face to face it is a big problem here, it's a big problem everywhere."
Trained in graphic arts, Walker is just looking for a chance to compete fairly in the open market.
"I thought it would be with his degree, his experience and qualifications, I thought it would be just a pretty quick placement, and now we're finding we're struggling to get interviews. There is a lot of frustration on his and mine, we're very frustrated at times. It's always positive and he's not going to give up," says employment consultant Shane Neal.
Like sight or sounds some of us take our ability to communicate for granted. How would you use a phone if you couldn't hear a potential employer calling you back?
"Try to learn to open communications with them, and don't be afraid. That's the one big thing, they won't hurt you. Teach each other."
Still a young man, Walker has already accomplished more than many of us dream of in an entire lifetime. But always driven, he expects more of himself, so he pushed people to learn, to understand and to appreciate.
"I need to continue to be a model for the deaf and hard of hearing...for young children. Let them know that if they believe in themselves, they can do it."
Walker is one of many in the Wichita deaf and hard of hearing community who've experienced difficulty finding work.
Kathy Stewart has spent years working with the deaf. She feels too often a person's intelligence and abilities are unfairly judged by their difficulty communicating.
"If you have a deaf person who uses ASL or American Sign Language, it is a foreign language. It has its own sentence structure, its own grammar all of that. And what you are expecting them to do is be able to speak perfect English or write perfect English having never heard it before. And how many hearing people do you know still don't have good grammar?"
Stewart adds that with a little research and effort... hiring and working with a deaf person can be a positive experience.
If you have questions regarding issues in the deaf community, contact Stewart at kathy.stewart@wichita.edu. You can also call her at (316) 978-6972.
He played as a force unleashed, creating collisions which brought entire stadiums to their feet. As the Big 8 defensive player of the year at Nebraska, Kenny Walker's praises were constantly sung. A song it turns out, he never heard.
"I am profoundly deaf. I'm 103 decibels, that's really very deaf...I'm totally deaf. I don't know how in the world I got through it."
Five years of pro football followed, a man trying to make it in the most unforgiving of professions with a handicap that should have been disabling. But as it turns out, he would have never given up football even for the chance to hear.
"I would go on and play football and be a deaf man. That is the reason why I am here. That's the reason God put me here."
Hard to imagine but the game has gotten tougher. Life beyond football often is, even for a well educated, often overly qualified gentleman.
"It just takes a lot of patients; it takes a lot of effort and time. To work with a person who is deaf, one on one. You just have to have patience. They have to be willing to deal with the problem. A lot of times they won't look at you face to face when they are talking. Hearing people tend to look all around when they are talking, look over here and over there. But with deaf you have to look face to face it is a big problem here, it's a big problem everywhere."
Trained in graphic arts, Walker is just looking for a chance to compete fairly in the open market.
"I thought it would be with his degree, his experience and qualifications, I thought it would be just a pretty quick placement, and now we're finding we're struggling to get interviews. There is a lot of frustration on his and mine, we're very frustrated at times. It's always positive and he's not going to give up," says employment consultant Shane Neal.
Like sight or sounds some of us take our ability to communicate for granted. How would you use a phone if you couldn't hear a potential employer calling you back?
"Try to learn to open communications with them, and don't be afraid. That's the one big thing, they won't hurt you. Teach each other."
Still a young man, Walker has already accomplished more than many of us dream of in an entire lifetime. But always driven, he expects more of himself, so he pushed people to learn, to understand and to appreciate.
"I need to continue to be a model for the deaf and hard of hearing...for young children. Let them know that if they believe in themselves, they can do it."
Walker is one of many in the Wichita deaf and hard of hearing community who've experienced difficulty finding work.
Kathy Stewart has spent years working with the deaf. She feels too often a person's intelligence and abilities are unfairly judged by their difficulty communicating.
"If you have a deaf person who uses ASL or American Sign Language, it is a foreign language. It has its own sentence structure, its own grammar all of that. And what you are expecting them to do is be able to speak perfect English or write perfect English having never heard it before. And how many hearing people do you know still don't have good grammar?"
Stewart adds that with a little research and effort... hiring and working with a deaf person can be a positive experience.
If you have questions regarding issues in the deaf community, contact Stewart at kathy.stewart@wichita.edu. You can also call her at (316) 978-6972.