October 2, 2025 • 32 mins
Episode Title: Raised in Silence: Bridging Communities with Maria Gallucci
In this episode of the Two Piers Podcast, host Erica D’Eramo sits down with Maria Gallucci, a multi-award-winning Colorado Real Estate Broker, author, and lifelong advocate for inclusive communication and accessible housing.
Maria shares her story of growing up with deaf parents, her role as an “unofficial interpreter,” and how those early experiences shaped her mission to ensure that everyone feels accepted, valued, and included. Together, Erica and Maria explore the importance of empathy, the misconceptions that persist about the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, and the everyday actions that foster connection.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why empathy and effort matter more than perfection when it comes to communication.
- The social framework of disability, and how context can include—or exclude—people.
- How universal design benefits everyone, not just those with disabilities.
- The role of technology, from apps to voice-to-text tools, in bridging communication gaps.
- Common myths about the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community (including lip reading).
- Practical ways to build bridges: choosing curiosity over judgment, small inclusive gestures, and respecting cultural identity.
Maria also introduces her book, Raised in Silence, which offers practical tips and real stories for anyone looking to communicate more effectively across differences.
Resources and Links Mentioned in This Episode:
- Maria’s book: Raised in Silence
- Maria’s real estate practice: http://www.Galluccihomes.com
👉 Listen in for an inspiring and practical conversation about compassion, communication, and the simple choices we can all make to create a more inclusive world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erica D'Eramo (00:05):
Hello and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm
your host, Erica D' Eramo, andtoday we have Maria Gallucci
joining us. Maria is a multiaward winning Colorado Real
Estate Broker, author andlifelong advocate for inclusive
communication and accessiblehousing, with over 30 years of
experience, Maria specializes inworking with the deaf, hard of
(00:25):
hearing and LGBTQ, pluscommunities as well as builders,
investors and families acrossColorado and nationwide. As a
CODA child of deaf adults, Marialearned American Sign Language,
or ASL, before learning English.
At just 12 years old, she helpedher parents purchase their first
home serving as an unofficialinterpreter. This pivotal
(00:46):
experience shaped her mission toensure that clients from
underrepresented communities areseen, heard and respected,
especially in the home buyingand selling process. Maria is
here to talk to us today abouthow and why we should be
engaging with people who take usout of our comfort zone and the
power of love resilience andlearning and bridging the gap
(01:07):
between deaf and hard of hearingcommunities and the hearing
community.
Maria, so good to have you onthe podcast. Thank you so much
for joining us today.
Maria Gallucci (01:28):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm very
excited to talk with you andshare my story.
Erica D'Eramo (01:34):
Yeah, so what I mean I gave like a little blurb,
a little clip of your story, buttell me from your from your own
words, kind of what was, whatwas your origin story? This is
such a rich story with so muchdetail, I'm sure I didn't even
do it justice in that littleblurb. So tell me what brought
(01:55):
you here.
Maria Gallucci (01:56):
So I wrote the book Raised in Silence, and I
feel like it's about family,love and communication across
all differences, and it's just apersonal story, part like
cultural guide, partmotivational book, and like
you'll read about funny, hardand beautiful moments of growing
up with deaf parents, like whenwe had to interpret at the
(02:18):
doctor's appointment as a kid,or like our chaotic family
dinners and spaghetti dinnersand things like that.
Erica D'Eramo (02:26):
Yeah, well, can you, can you just give me, like,
a little snippet of the likefrom, from the get go, you know,
like your origin story? What wasyour, what's your, what was your
trajectory? How did you get tobe the Maria in front of us
today.
Maria Gallucci (02:42):
So there was six of us kids, and we're all
hearing, and both of our parentswere deaf, so we were raised in
the Deaf culture and then thedeaf community. And so I always
when we always interpreted formy parents, and I always saw
them struggling with like beinginvolved or being accepted. And
so I just, I remember seeing oneday when they're struggling with
(03:05):
other people accepting them. Ithought, You know what? I'm
never, ever going to makeanybody feel that way. And so I
just made it my, like lifelongmission to make sure everybody
felt accepted and everyone feltloved and felt unique in their
own way. Yeah.
Erica D'Eramo (03:19):
I mean, that was probably a very powerful
experience to witness as achild, and it sounds like you
really stepped up and became ago between to enable some of
that access that maybe yourparents were not were not
experiencing. What was thatlike? What what did you learn as
you were being that unofficialinterpreter?
Maria Gallucci (03:40):
I think I learned to have empathy and
communicate in a different waybecause it's the same language.
So I'm bilingual, basicallybecause I know ASL, which was my
first language, and then I alsoknow English. And so I just
wanted to bridge the gap betweenthe Deaf and Hard of Hearing
world and the the hearing worldand all all different languages,
(04:01):
because they all they want tofeel is just to be accepted and
not feel like they're anoutcast, and so I just made it
my mission to not have anybodyfeel like that.
Erica D'Eramo (04:10):
Yeah, so there's a really interesting framework
that for folks working in theaccessibility realm and in the
disability realm, they will bevery familiar with the social
framework of disability, right?
And I think that one of the mostpowerful examples that was given
to me as I was learning aboutthis was how we define
disability, and if we if Iattended a conference where
(04:34):
everyone was communicating withASL, and I was the only person
that didn't know ASL, because Iwas the only hearing person in
that situation. I am actuallythe one that is disabled by the
environment, because I don'thave access to ASL and I can't
(04:54):
communicate and I can't hear andthat really like flip flips the
script on this being anindividual issue versus it being
an accessibility issue. So letme just pause and just and just
get your your thoughts on kindof how we frame this.
Maria Gallucci (05:15):
No, I agree with that, and it's funny, because
ASL is my first language, sowhen I go to parties, like, if I
bring my friends and they'rehearing and you you forget that
it is two different worlds. Andso they they'll be they feel
left out, like the hearingpeople feel left out when I'm in
like a Deaf community. And so itis by vice versa. It's that the
(05:38):
Deaf world. And there's thingsyou could do as a hearing
person, which I have in the bookto just show tips and
everything, because you can textto the deaf person or hard of
hearing. You can use, there'sapps to communicate, there's
writing, but I feel like peoplefeel like they don't need to try
because it's out of theircomfort zone. And I think that's
(06:00):
where everything comes in andthat that's where, like the just
the unity of that, justeverybody just tries, everybody
can communicate and they wouldbe happy. Well, in a sense.
Erica D'Eramo (06:14):
Yeah, the just try piece. I do think that in
some cases, people are maybeworried about their own lack of
ability, right? We're not allbilingual. We don't all, we
don't all. I mean, actually,this is an interesting anecdote
my sister. My sister, has somesupport needs, and has been
(06:38):
lucky to have advocates in herrealm that made sure that she
had access to some of thosesupport mechanisms, but very
early, I think probably becauseof some of that empathy that she
felt she learned ASL very whenwe were very young. And that is
in spite of some fine motorskills challenges, some like
(07:01):
for, in fact, some verbalchallenges, but it was very
powerful for her to actually beable to communicate in different
ways that were was accessible toother people. So I don't know
why I just raised that, but itwas just
Maria Gallucci (07:16):
yeah, just like, yeah.
Erica D'Eramo (07:18):
Me, really, what excuse do I have to not have
learned different ways tocommunicate? It is feasible, but
that just try piece right, likewe can put ourselves outside of
Maria Gallucci (07:28):
We can exactly and we can put put ourselves out
there to make somebody feel moreincluded or not so self
conscious. We're teaching mygranddaughter sign language too,
because babies even communicatebetter in sign than they do like
speaking, because it takes thema while to speak. And so we're
(07:50):
teaching Nova like to signfirst, and she does. She's and
she signs and she the only 10%of parents who have deaf or hard
of hearing children actuallylearn sign language. It's a very
small percentage, and so I thinkthat's what I want to put
awareness out there, that theydo feel isolated. And I think
that's the most important thing,is not to have anybody feel
(08:12):
isolated, because in that like,if you were a hearing person
with the deaf community, theywould feel isolated as well. So
it goes, it goes back and forth,
Erica D'Eramo (08:22):
Right And I think that sometimes people lose some
of the purpose, like it can beboth to help make people people
feel included. I mean, that is agenuine good for the world, to
help make people feel included.
But ultimately, like I dobelieve it kind of goes beyond
that, even in that we have somuch brilliance out there in the
(08:46):
world and so much humanpotential out there in the
world. And if something assimple as using technology,
using written forms ofcommunication, could give us
more connectivity and access tosome of the brilliant ideas and
potential out there, then what awaste not to.
Maria Gallucci (09:10):
Yeah, I agree.
And connection isn't about Idon't feel like it's about
words. It's about presence. AndI think that's where, like, a
lot of the gap is. It's like,it's not about you being to be
able to communicate that theyjust want to see, like they just
want to feel seen and heard andtheir own language, you know?
Erica D'Eramo (09:30):
Yeah, I mean there. I think there's an
interesting element here too,that when you mentioned some of
these different methods thatyou, that you talk about in your
book, around how we cancommunicate with people, how we
can make that more accessible.
The concept of universal design,it doesn't just help folks. It
doesn't help like one subset ofpeople, right? It kind of the we
(09:50):
talk about, the rising tidelifts all boats, just like
putting in ramps for. You know,
Maria Gallucci (10:00):
Yeah, exactly.
Erica D'Eramo (10:02):
Instead of stairs was maybe intended to help folks
who are using wheelchairs. Italso helps people who have
strollers, or people who arecarrying, you know, like who
have a Rollie bag, who need toget up the stairs. Like, now,
when I visit places and there'snot a ramp, I'm usually like,
come on!
Maria Gallucci (10:19):
I know that I thought about that the other
day, actually, because I wasthinking, but because I had
actually a bag and there was noramp. I'm like, How is there not
a ramp here?
Erica D'Eramo (10:31):
Some of I We, we were traveling recently, and I
was, I was commenting on how, insome ways, we are quite lucky
with having had the ADA in theUS. And, you know, the Americans
with Disabilities Act in the US,that some of these elements, we
take them for granted, until wetravel and maybe visit other
(10:56):
places where they don't haveramps, or they don't have, you
know, where there are curbseverywhere, and you can't just,
you know, these little thingsthat we don't think about, the
beeping for the, you know, whenwe can cross the beeping. But I,
I think that as some as aneurodivergent person, or a
person with various elements ofneurodiversity, which I guess
(11:20):
everybody has neurodiversity.
But for me, having things inboth written form and audio form
is so so valuable, because I Istruggle with dyslexia and
dyscalculia, dyscalculia, and sobeing able to like read the
words as I'm listening to themreally changes how my brain
absorbs them. And so it's notit's it again, It's not just
(11:43):
about like, one group. It's goodfor that group in and of itself.
It's enough, and also it's goodfor everybody.
Maria Gallucci (11:54):
Yeah, I agree.
And I have that as well.
Actually have a learningdisability, and so I have to do
like and then I think that whenyou're deaf or hard of hearing,
all your other centuries arelike, they're like you can you
do it by expressions, you do byseeing. And I think with me,
being in that world made mecommunicate a little bit like
(12:16):
more, because I did know both ofthe worlds. Because you do use
all of your your your senses,because you have to overcome
compensate for something thatyou lost. So I couldn't even
imagine, like, when, before wehad all the ADA laws and for
because I advocated to haveinterpreters at closing, because
before long time to know theydidn't have those there, and so
(12:39):
they would have no idea whatthey're signing and like, and if
you are, like dyslexic or have alearning disability, even if
you're reading it, you can stillmiss, misinterpret it. And so,
like I, I fought for a long timeto make sure that there was
inter interpreters at the clipthe closing table. Even though
I'm fluent, we have interpretersthere. And so they so they can
(13:02):
understand fully what they'resigning.
Erica D'Eramo (13:05):
Well, that's another interesting point too,
because while being fluent inASL is valuable in and of
itself, that's actually quitedifferent than the role of
interpreting, because, as youmentioned, there's a lot more
that gets conveyed, right thanjust simply using your hands to
(13:29):
convey like it's a full body.
Maria Gallucci (13:32):
Oh, yeah,
Erica D'Eramo (13:33):
There's expression...
Maria Gallucci (13:34):
Expression, movement. Yeah, that's a whole
thing. And and we are, you haveto be certified to be an
interpreter, and then and so.
But I always find myself, eventhough I'm not an interpreter,
like, while the interpreters inthe closing I will, like, try to
jump in and try to sign. Soshe's like, Maria, stop doing
that. So I have to, like, sit onmy hands. I wouldn't be tempted
(13:57):
to, like, take over and sign.
Erica D'Eramo (14:00):
It's like trying not to answer in a language when
you can understand theconversation and you want to...
Maria Gallucci (14:07):
Exactly!
Erica D'Eramo (14:09):
Yeah, jump in and join the conversation, yeah. I
mean, I think that that's why,when I do see folks that are
interpreting at conferences,even music, like music, yeah,
like, it's so powerful to seebecause it it really does convey
(14:30):
that there's so much more thanjust the letters or the words
being conveyed. There's likefeeling that thing we I think
sometimes we take for grantedwhat signals we are actually
receiving from sound. Andthere's tone of voice, right?
There's cases of our voice.
There's so much more that goesinto it that is being put into a
(14:51):
visual realm with aninterpreter. And yeah, I don't
think people. Really understandthe full
Maria Gallucci (15:02):
I don't think so either. I think now, like
recently, they've been addingmore and more interpreters for,
like, the Super Bowl, or whichthey didn't have long time time
ago. And now, like, they'refinally, like, aware, and I
think that the the communityappreciates that so much the
deaf and hard, hard of hearing,because it makes them feel
valued. Like, look now, finally,they're having someone who can
(15:24):
speak our language, and it justmakes such a big difference if
you can see them sign whilethey're singing, and then
because they can feel like themusic and everything, but to
actually see what they'resinging, I mean, that's amazing
now. And they can do that withall the expressions,
Erica D'Eramo (15:39):
Yeah, with the expressions, I think one thing
that I've been advocating for atconferences is live subtitles,
or, like, live closedcaptioning, which is possible.
Yeah, I still think, like aninterpreter is even better. But
if you can't, if you don't havethe budget for that, if you
can't make it happen, if youcan, if you don't have the
(16:01):
resources, we still have otheroptions to at least make things
more accessible. And
Maria Gallucci (16:08):
Yeah, exactly.
Erica D'Eramo (16:09):
And I notice it now so much, because I find
myself reading the subtitleswhen they are there, like, I use
those, even though I don't needthem, like, I still use them. So
I notice so much more now whenthey are not accessible.
Maria Gallucci (16:24):
Yeah, I actually watched a movie last night in
subtitles. I can watch a movielike, with it off, like, I don't
even have to have, like, thesound on, and I'll just read the
closed captioning. Yeah, I'vedone that forever, and sometimes
I don't even realize that thesound is off, because that's
just what I've always seen andknown growing up.
Erica D'Eramo (16:48):
Yeah, that is fascinating. I have to have
subtitles on, I think because Ihave, like, it's funny,
sometimes I have, like, audioprocessing delays and it's,
yeah, it's not alwaysconsistent, but I find I can
just, like with listening, andif it's an audio book, like, if
(17:12):
I can listen and read at thesame time, I get so much more
out of it than just reading orjust listening. And the same
with watching any sort oftelevision like I always want, I
always want the subtitles on. Ithelps if there's any sort of
accent. But even in my it'sfunny. My husband and I joke.
When he I'll say, Can you wait?
I didn't catch that. What didyou say? And he'll, like,
(17:35):
rephrase what he was saying. AndI'm like, no, no, literally, I
don't need you to explain it tome. I just need you to literally
repeat the words one more timefor me. So I've stopped saying,
What did you say? And I'm andI'm working on saying, Can you
repeat that? It's not,
Maria Gallucci (17:53):
Yeah, different.
Yeah,
Erica D'Eramo (17:55):
understand is that I literally the it didn't
get from my ear to my brain. Itjust didn't work that way.
Maria Gallucci (18:01):
Yeah, you know, that's funny. And I had, like, I
stutter when I talk, and I hadto go to counseling when I was a
child, and I still stutter to tothis day on different stuff,
but, and I think because myalways said, because my brain
was processing more than I couldvocalize, but I don't stutter
when I sign. I'm perfectly like,fine when I sign, but it's just
(18:21):
like when I talk, because mybrain is just thinking too
quickly.
Erica D'Eramo (18:25):
Oh, that's so fascinating. I mean, self
observation. This is why when Isay like, oh, I'm
neurodivergent, and I am tryingto get away from using that
terminology, because it makes itseem as though there's like, one
form that is not divergent, andthen everybody else, and then
there's only like, those of usthat are different are divergent
from the norm. And yet, thereality is we are all so so
(18:49):
different. And that's great,right? There is no when people
say, like, Oh, these dayseverybody is neurodivergent, as
if it's some like dismissal, andit's like everybody is
neurodivergent. That is, we areall de we all have different if
you say, like, how many peopleare the average height, weight
and hair color and eye color andskin color, they were all hair
(19:12):
length, very few people are theaverage across all of those
measures, right? That's like,
Maria Gallucci (19:18):
Yeah.
Erica D'Eramo (19:18):
We are all Yeah.
So when we start taking in allthese different ways that our
brains and our bodies can bedifferent than, yeah, we're all
divergent.
Maria Gallucci (19:27):
Yep, exactly,
Erica D'Eramo (19:28):
yeah. We all just rarities...
Maria Gallucci (19:30):
Yeah, exactly!
Erica D'Eramo (19:32):
the norm, right?
So, so in um, what are like?
What are some of the biggestmyths that you wish people
understood that we can maybedebunk today.
Maria Gallucci (19:45):
I think that people so I can lip read, and so
we were taught to lip read, butnot all deaf and hard of hearing
people know how to lip read atall, and I think that that's a
really big misconception. And.
And so if and you have to lookat them when they're talking,
and it's really hard to talk,talk to people with sunglasses,
because we are very expressionbased and so and so, I think
(20:09):
that's a big misconception,misconception, because they
think that you can, that theycan lip read, and you could just
turn it either talk louder ortalk clearer. But not all of
them can can lip read.
Erica D'Eramo (20:23):
Yeah, wow, that is and that's interesting, too.
Just in terms of, I know, duringthe masking with Covid, there
was a lot of challenge with notjust being able to see people's
mouths, but I think a lot of usrealize, like, wait, I can't
hear you. And yeah, it wasn'tjust that we couldn't hear it
(20:45):
was that we were probablyabsorbing so much more
information by seeing the fullfacial expression and by seeing
the full or, like, even seeingpeople's mouths move.
Maria Gallucci (20:58):
Yeah!
Erica D'Eramo (20:58):
But, we didn't even realize how much of our
sensory input was non auditory.
Maria Gallucci (21:05):
Yeah, No, I agree.
Erica D'Eramo (21:09):
Yeah, yeah. It's one of the reasons that for the
Two Piers podcast, we have thefull transcript available, and
we also have a summary that weput together for folks for each
and every episode, because Irecognize that people might need
to absorb the information in amultitude of different ways.
But...
Maria Gallucci (21:26):
Yeah, I love that, it's true everybody
processes in different ways, nomatter if you're hearing, deaf,
hard of hearing, like we allprocess everything differently.
Erica D'Eramo (21:38):
So for the folks who are listening and thinking
like, okay, but now what likefor for an individual out there
who maybe doesn't know anyone inthe deaf or hard of hearing
community, what are some stepsthat you think people could take
in order to bridge some of thosegaps?
Maria Gallucci (21:59):
I think choose curiosity over judgment, like
little gestures, even learningthank you or even saying hi, can
make somebody feel seen andvalued. And I think that goes
for a lot of people. I thinkthat what our end goal is for
all of us would be that we justwant to feel understood and
seen.
Erica D'Eramo (22:20):
Yeah, I think, I mean, you're preaching to the
choir here, because in coaching,that's what we talk about all
the time, is just retainingcuriosity instead of judgment.
Yeah, that and even having it onthe radar, right? Even being
aware, because I think it was acouple of weeks ago maybe, but
in Costco, I was in Costco. I'mgonna give Costco a shout out.
(22:43):
And someone there was someonewho was, like, trying to find a
different size shirt orsomething like that, and the
person who is folding clothesand putting them away, they were
trying to get their attention,and they were getting frustrated
because they couldn't get theCostco person's attention. And
then they kind of, like, got intheir face, and then it became
clear they could see they had abadge that said, like, I, I'm,
(23:05):
I'm deaf or I or hard ofhearing. And I could tell that
the person who was trying to getthe attention and who was
feeling frustrated or flusteredfelt pretty embarrassed by the
way they like handled it once,like, oh, I can't I literally
can't hear you, and they foundthat the Costco person found
somebody else that could helpthe customer. But just like
(23:29):
realizing that we might not knowwhat's going on people, and I'm
guessing too that, and this isthe interesting thing about
disability is one of the fewit's one of the few experiences
that almost all of us will atsome point in our life, have to
deal with, right that like what,what society caters to as normal
(23:55):
from our physical bodies. Rightchanges, like our physical
bodies will change over time. Wewill have illness, we will have
injury, and suddenly we willfind ourselves needing some of
these support mechanisms. Isuddenly had to start wearing
glasses in my 40s.
Maria Gallucci (24:11):
I might have to start wearing glasses soon.
Erica D'Eramo (24:12):
My hearing. My hearing has changed. My
husband's hearing has changedquite a bit over over time. My
knees have changed. And so tosay at this point in my life,
like, Oh, these accommodationsdon't affect me, or I don't need
them. At some point, most of uswill need
Maria Gallucci (24:32):
Eventually need them, yeah, and we'll need some
resources. And in that case,because I happened to my mom a
lot when we were at the stores,and then people would get
frustrated because they thinkthat she's ignoring them, but
she can't hear them. So I wouldhave to tell everybody she can't
hear like she can't hear you andbut they would be mean about it.
I think that a lot of peopledon't realize what's going on in
(24:53):
other people's world. They takeit personal, or they take it on
on themselves, and like in thatcase, I would have. Well, I
would have signed, but I wouldhave suggested to, like my
daughter, my son, to pull outtheir phone and just just write
it on there, on the notes, likehere, do you have a size medium
and that means so much to thembecause somebody just tried to
(25:15):
communicate with them instead ofmaking them isolated?
Erica D'Eramo (25:20):
Yes. Yeah. Oh, and these days, I mean,
technology is both scary andwonderful, but these days,
especially with like, voice totext, there are so many
opportunities. Like, I'm workingwith somebody who is learning
English right now, and weleverage voice to text and
translation all the time, and wecan communicate really well
(25:44):
together, and, like, learn each,you know, learn each other's
languages. Um, but it doesn't,you know, I even if my eyes are
starting to feel tired, I don'tneed to be like, texting it on a
phone. I can still, there's somany ways now, yeah, to switch
mediums. Yeah, yeah.
Maria Gallucci (26:01):
I had one of my agents, she was showing she does
not sign, but she knows the deafculture, so she and I had her
show someone who was deafhouses, and she the deaf person
was so appreciated of her,because she would communicate
with her. There was an app, Ithink it was called Cardzilla,
or something like that. I'm notsure the app's name, but it was
(26:23):
on the phone, so she would talkon the phone, it would read it
out to the client, and theclient would see it, and they
would literally have aconversation back and forth with
their phones just doing that.
And it's so easy to try to dostuff, but I think that people
don't know what to do, andpeople so I think that's what
the takeaway of the book, thatwhy I wrote it, is to give
people tips, give people things,to make people feel inclusive,
(26:48):
even in no matter what communityyou're in.
Erica D'Eramo (26:54):
Yeah. So that is a great segue to, where can
people learn more? Where canthey find your book?
Maria Gallucci (27:01):
So my book is on all platforms, Amazon, Apple,
Google, and I also have awebsite called
raisedinsilence.com and thatwill have the links in there to
purchase it as well. And then ifanybody needs any real estate
needs, it's galluccihomes.com
Erica D'Eramo (27:18):
Awesome. I were I'm in Maine, but it did that
this conversation has promptedme to to chat with some of my
real estate agent friends andjust see how they support folks
from the the deaf and hard ofhearing communities before we
close out, though, I did want tojust ask follow up on one thing
(27:42):
that you mentioned, which wasculture. And that's where I
don't think people necessarilyrealize that there is a culture,
right? This is and this is apiece, so this might be another
myth, like, can you help explaina little bit about how what that
means the deaf and hard ofhearing community and culture.
Maria Gallucci (28:03):
So I think that it is, I think that for the
community, they feel they're alot closer, I think, and so like
the community is a very tightcommunity, and there's a lot
around in nationwide, it's abigger community than a lot of
people realize. And I feel likethey feel like they're by
(28:25):
themselves. So everybody, like,kind of like, connects with one
another. So it is a totally deafculture, because the way we
talk, the way we sign, theparties that that we go to, we
know how each other is being inthat community now. So I think
that that's where, and I feellike that's how it is with,
(28:46):
like, the Spanish speaking orthe the LGBTQ, plus they they
feel like they're each other,and they feel like they have
each other.
Erica D'Eramo (28:55):
Yeah, there's a book called um against techno
ableism, and it talks about likethe concept of curing deafness,
and how there's a lot of debate,right? Because, on the one hand,
sure, in this society that mightmake things easier for
individuals, and if given thechance, maybe somebody could
(29:19):
have an easier life in thiscurrent version of society, if
they have access to hearing andalso, there are people who do
not want that, because it's apart of their identity and a
part of their community and apart of their culture that would
then be erased. And this is,this is how they relate to the
world. And so one is notnecessarily better than the
(29:41):
other. It is, again, a measureof like, ease of navigating the
world. And we can't like, judgepeople's choices around one or
the other if they do want to bepart of the hearing community,
and they do want to, you know,like, either have surgery or or
pursue. Some of those differentmethodologies, but if they
(30:02):
don't, then that's okay too.
Maria Gallucci (30:03):
Then that's okay. Yeah, 100% I think we all,
we all try to go into our ownheads, I think, and then, but
not think about other people. SoI think if we just try to have
like, compassion and empathy, itwill go a long way to make
people feel secure and loved.
Erica D'Eramo (30:26):
Yeah, I think it's a big conversation right
now, especially in the autismcommunity. You know, these
concepts of curing things thatare different quickly kind of
goes down a path where we allend up being the same, and
that's not actually better foreveryone exactly. So instead of
trying to change all the humansso they are the same and have
(30:47):
the same abilities and the samesensory input, we can adapt the
environment to make it morewelcoming and more um accessible
to everyone. So
Maria Gallucci (30:58):
Yes, I agree 100%!
Erica D'Eramo (31:00):
Yeah. Well, we, we definitely have the links to
your website, to your websites,plural, to your to your book, in
the show notes and on ourwebsite. And I really appreciate
you coming on and sharing yourexperiences and how folks can
can start building some bridges.
And I appreciate you being abridge builder.
Maria Gallucci (31:22):
Yeah, thank you so much. I enjoyed it. I love
being on the show,
Erica D'Eramo (31:26):
yeah, thanks for the folks listening. Please do
head over to the show notes thewebsite, if you want a summary
or if you want the transcript.
And we appreciate you listening,and we will see you next
episode. You you
Hello and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm
your host, Erica D' Eramo, andtoday we have Maria Gallucci
joining us. Maria is a multiaward winning Colorado Real
Estate Broker, author andlifelong advocate for inclusive
communication and accessiblehousing, with over 30 years of
experience, Maria specializes inworking with the deaf, hard of
(00:25):
hearing and LGBTQ, pluscommunities as well as builders,
investors and families acrossColorado and nationwide. As a
CODA child of deaf adults, Marialearned American Sign Language,
or ASL, before learning English.
At just 12 years old, she helpedher parents purchase their first
home serving as an unofficialinterpreter. This pivotal
(00:46):
experience shaped her mission toensure that clients from
underrepresented communities areseen, heard and respected,
especially in the home buyingand selling process. Maria is
here to talk to us today abouthow and why we should be
engaging with people who take usout of our comfort zone and the
power of love resilience andlearning and bridging the gap
(01:07):
between deaf and hard of hearingcommunities and the hearing
community.
Maria, so good to have you onthe podcast. Thank you so much
for joining us today.
Maria Gallucci (01:28):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm very
excited to talk with you andshare my story.
Erica D'Eramo (01:34):
Yeah, so what I mean I gave like a little blurb,
a little clip of your story, buttell me from your from your own
words, kind of what was, whatwas your origin story? This is
such a rich story with so muchdetail, I'm sure I didn't even
do it justice in that littleblurb. So tell me what brought
(01:55):
you here.
Maria Gallucci (01:56):
So I wrote the book Raised in Silence, and I
feel like it's about family,love and communication across
all differences, and it's just apersonal story, part like
cultural guide, partmotivational book, and like
you'll read about funny, hardand beautiful moments of growing
up with deaf parents, like whenwe had to interpret at the
(02:18):
doctor's appointment as a kid,or like our chaotic family
dinners and spaghetti dinnersand things like that.
Erica D'Eramo (02:26):
Yeah, well, can you, can you just give me, like,
a little snippet of the likefrom, from the get go, you know,
like your origin story? What wasyour, what's your, what was your
trajectory? How did you get tobe the Maria in front of us
today.
Maria Gallucci (02:42):
So there was six of us kids, and we're all
hearing, and both of our parentswere deaf, so we were raised in
the Deaf culture and then thedeaf community. And so I always
when we always interpreted formy parents, and I always saw
them struggling with like beinginvolved or being accepted. And
so I just, I remember seeing oneday when they're struggling with
(03:05):
other people accepting them. Ithought, You know what? I'm
never, ever going to makeanybody feel that way. And so I
just made it my, like lifelongmission to make sure everybody
felt accepted and everyone feltloved and felt unique in their
own way. Yeah.
Erica D'Eramo (03:19):
I mean, that was probably a very powerful
experience to witness as achild, and it sounds like you
really stepped up and became ago between to enable some of
that access that maybe yourparents were not were not
experiencing. What was thatlike? What what did you learn as
you were being that unofficialinterpreter?
Maria Gallucci (03:40):
I think I learned to have empathy and
communicate in a different waybecause it's the same language.
So I'm bilingual, basicallybecause I know ASL, which was my
first language, and then I alsoknow English. And so I just
wanted to bridge the gap betweenthe Deaf and Hard of Hearing
world and the the hearing worldand all all different languages,
(04:01):
because they all they want tofeel is just to be accepted and
not feel like they're anoutcast, and so I just made it
my mission to not have anybodyfeel like that.
Erica D'Eramo (04:10):
Yeah, so there's a really interesting framework
that for folks working in theaccessibility realm and in the
disability realm, they will bevery familiar with the social
framework of disability, right?
And I think that one of the mostpowerful examples that was given
to me as I was learning aboutthis was how we define
disability, and if we if Iattended a conference where
(04:34):
everyone was communicating withASL, and I was the only person
that didn't know ASL, because Iwas the only hearing person in
that situation. I am actuallythe one that is disabled by the
environment, because I don'thave access to ASL and I can't
(04:54):
communicate and I can't hear andthat really like flip flips the
script on this being anindividual issue versus it being
an accessibility issue. So letme just pause and just and just
get your your thoughts on kindof how we frame this.
Maria Gallucci (05:15):
No, I agree with that, and it's funny, because
ASL is my first language, sowhen I go to parties, like, if I
bring my friends and they'rehearing and you you forget that
it is two different worlds. Andso they they'll be they feel
left out, like the hearingpeople feel left out when I'm in
like a Deaf community. And so itis by vice versa. It's that the
(05:38):
Deaf world. And there's thingsyou could do as a hearing
person, which I have in the bookto just show tips and
everything, because you can textto the deaf person or hard of
hearing. You can use, there'sapps to communicate, there's
writing, but I feel like peoplefeel like they don't need to try
because it's out of theircomfort zone. And I think that's
(06:00):
where everything comes in andthat that's where, like the just
the unity of that, justeverybody just tries, everybody
can communicate and they wouldbe happy. Well, in a sense.
Erica D'Eramo (06:14):
Yeah, the just try piece. I do think that in
some cases, people are maybeworried about their own lack of
ability, right? We're not allbilingual. We don't all, we
don't all. I mean, actually,this is an interesting anecdote
my sister. My sister, has somesupport needs, and has been
(06:38):
lucky to have advocates in herrealm that made sure that she
had access to some of thosesupport mechanisms, but very
early, I think probably becauseof some of that empathy that she
felt she learned ASL very whenwe were very young. And that is
in spite of some fine motorskills challenges, some like
(07:01):
for, in fact, some verbalchallenges, but it was very
powerful for her to actually beable to communicate in different
ways that were was accessible toother people. So I don't know
why I just raised that, but itwas just
Maria Gallucci (07:16):
yeah, just like, yeah.
Erica D'Eramo (07:18):
Me, really, what excuse do I have to not have
learned different ways tocommunicate? It is feasible, but
that just try piece right, likewe can put ourselves outside of
Maria Gallucci (07:28):
We can exactly and we can put put ourselves out
there to make somebody feel moreincluded or not so self
conscious. We're teaching mygranddaughter sign language too,
because babies even communicatebetter in sign than they do like
speaking, because it takes thema while to speak. And so we're
(07:50):
teaching Nova like to signfirst, and she does. She's and
she signs and she the only 10%of parents who have deaf or hard
of hearing children actuallylearn sign language. It's a very
small percentage, and so I thinkthat's what I want to put
awareness out there, that theydo feel isolated. And I think
that's the most important thing,is not to have anybody feel
(08:12):
isolated, because in that like,if you were a hearing person
with the deaf community, theywould feel isolated as well. So
it goes, it goes back and forth,
Erica D'Eramo (08:22):
Right And I think that sometimes people lose some
of the purpose, like it can beboth to help make people people
feel included. I mean, that is agenuine good for the world, to
help make people feel included.
But ultimately, like I dobelieve it kind of goes beyond
that, even in that we have somuch brilliance out there in the
(08:46):
world and so much humanpotential out there in the
world. And if something assimple as using technology,
using written forms ofcommunication, could give us
more connectivity and access tosome of the brilliant ideas and
potential out there, then what awaste not to.
Maria Gallucci (09:10):
Yeah, I agree.
And connection isn't about Idon't feel like it's about
words. It's about presence. AndI think that's where, like, a
lot of the gap is. It's like,it's not about you being to be
able to communicate that theyjust want to see, like they just
want to feel seen and heard andtheir own language, you know?
Erica D'Eramo (09:30):
Yeah, I mean there. I think there's an
interesting element here too,that when you mentioned some of
these different methods thatyou, that you talk about in your
book, around how we cancommunicate with people, how we
can make that more accessible.
The concept of universal design,it doesn't just help folks. It
doesn't help like one subset ofpeople, right? It kind of the we
(09:50):
talk about, the rising tidelifts all boats, just like
putting in ramps for. You know,
Maria Gallucci (10:00):
Yeah, exactly.
Erica D'Eramo (10:02):
Instead of stairs was maybe intended to help folks
who are using wheelchairs. Italso helps people who have
strollers, or people who arecarrying, you know, like who
have a Rollie bag, who need toget up the stairs. Like, now,
when I visit places and there'snot a ramp, I'm usually like,
come on!
Maria Gallucci (10:19):
I know that I thought about that the other
day, actually, because I wasthinking, but because I had
actually a bag and there was noramp. I'm like, How is there not
a ramp here?
Erica D'Eramo (10:31):
Some of I We, we were traveling recently, and I
was, I was commenting on how, insome ways, we are quite lucky
with having had the ADA in theUS. And, you know, the Americans
with Disabilities Act in the US,that some of these elements, we
take them for granted, until wetravel and maybe visit other
(10:56):
places where they don't haveramps, or they don't have, you
know, where there are curbseverywhere, and you can't just,
you know, these little thingsthat we don't think about, the
beeping for the, you know, whenwe can cross the beeping. But I,
I think that as some as aneurodivergent person, or a
person with various elements ofneurodiversity, which I guess
(11:20):
everybody has neurodiversity.
But for me, having things inboth written form and audio form
is so so valuable, because I Istruggle with dyslexia and
dyscalculia, dyscalculia, and sobeing able to like read the
words as I'm listening to themreally changes how my brain
absorbs them. And so it's notit's it again, It's not just
(11:43):
about like, one group. It's goodfor that group in and of itself.
It's enough, and also it's goodfor everybody.
Maria Gallucci (11:54):
Yeah, I agree.
And I have that as well.
Actually have a learningdisability, and so I have to do
like and then I think that whenyou're deaf or hard of hearing,
all your other centuries arelike, they're like you can you
do it by expressions, you do byseeing. And I think with me,
being in that world made mecommunicate a little bit like
(12:16):
more, because I did know both ofthe worlds. Because you do use
all of your your your senses,because you have to overcome
compensate for something thatyou lost. So I couldn't even
imagine, like, when, before wehad all the ADA laws and for
because I advocated to haveinterpreters at closing, because
before long time to know theydidn't have those there, and so
(12:39):
they would have no idea whatthey're signing and like, and if
you are, like dyslexic or have alearning disability, even if
you're reading it, you can stillmiss, misinterpret it. And so,
like I, I fought for a long timeto make sure that there was
inter interpreters at the clipthe closing table. Even though
I'm fluent, we have interpretersthere. And so they so they can
(13:02):
understand fully what they'resigning.
Erica D'Eramo (13:05):
Well, that's another interesting point too,
because while being fluent inASL is valuable in and of
itself, that's actually quitedifferent than the role of
interpreting, because, as youmentioned, there's a lot more
that gets conveyed, right thanjust simply using your hands to
(13:29):
convey like it's a full body.
Maria Gallucci (13:32):
Oh, yeah,
Erica D'Eramo (13:33):
There's expression...
Maria Gallucci (13:34):
Expression, movement. Yeah, that's a whole
thing. And and we are, you haveto be certified to be an
interpreter, and then and so.
But I always find myself, eventhough I'm not an interpreter,
like, while the interpreters inthe closing I will, like, try to
jump in and try to sign. Soshe's like, Maria, stop doing
that. So I have to, like, sit onmy hands. I wouldn't be tempted
(13:57):
to, like, take over and sign.
Erica D'Eramo (14:00):
It's like trying not to answer in a language when
you can understand theconversation and you want to...
Maria Gallucci (14:07):
Exactly!
Erica D'Eramo (14:09):
Yeah, jump in and join the conversation, yeah. I
mean, I think that that's why,when I do see folks that are
interpreting at conferences,even music, like music, yeah,
like, it's so powerful to seebecause it it really does convey
(14:30):
that there's so much more thanjust the letters or the words
being conveyed. There's likefeeling that thing we I think
sometimes we take for grantedwhat signals we are actually
receiving from sound. Andthere's tone of voice, right?
There's cases of our voice.
There's so much more that goesinto it that is being put into a
(14:51):
visual realm with aninterpreter. And yeah, I don't
think people. Really understandthe full
Maria Gallucci (15:02):
I don't think so either. I think now, like
recently, they've been addingmore and more interpreters for,
like, the Super Bowl, or whichthey didn't have long time time
ago. And now, like, they'refinally, like, aware, and I
think that the the communityappreciates that so much the
deaf and hard, hard of hearing,because it makes them feel
valued. Like, look now, finally,they're having someone who can
(15:24):
speak our language, and it justmakes such a big difference if
you can see them sign whilethey're singing, and then
because they can feel like themusic and everything, but to
actually see what they'resinging, I mean, that's amazing
now. And they can do that withall the expressions,
Erica D'Eramo (15:39):
Yeah, with the expressions, I think one thing
that I've been advocating for atconferences is live subtitles,
or, like, live closedcaptioning, which is possible.
Yeah, I still think, like aninterpreter is even better. But
if you can't, if you don't havethe budget for that, if you
can't make it happen, if youcan, if you don't have the
(16:01):
resources, we still have otheroptions to at least make things
more accessible. And
Maria Gallucci (16:08):
Yeah, exactly.
Erica D'Eramo (16:09):
And I notice it now so much, because I find
myself reading the subtitleswhen they are there, like, I use
those, even though I don't needthem, like, I still use them. So
I notice so much more now whenthey are not accessible.
Maria Gallucci (16:24):
Yeah, I actually watched a movie last night in
subtitles. I can watch a movielike, with it off, like, I don't
even have to have, like, thesound on, and I'll just read the
closed captioning. Yeah, I'vedone that forever, and sometimes
I don't even realize that thesound is off, because that's
just what I've always seen andknown growing up.
Erica D'Eramo (16:48):
Yeah, that is fascinating. I have to have
subtitles on, I think because Ihave, like, it's funny,
sometimes I have, like, audioprocessing delays and it's,
yeah, it's not alwaysconsistent, but I find I can
just, like with listening, andif it's an audio book, like, if
(17:12):
I can listen and read at thesame time, I get so much more
out of it than just reading orjust listening. And the same
with watching any sort oftelevision like I always want, I
always want the subtitles on. Ithelps if there's any sort of
accent. But even in my it'sfunny. My husband and I joke.
When he I'll say, Can you wait?
I didn't catch that. What didyou say? And he'll, like,
(17:35):
rephrase what he was saying. AndI'm like, no, no, literally, I
don't need you to explain it tome. I just need you to literally
repeat the words one more timefor me. So I've stopped saying,
What did you say? And I'm andI'm working on saying, Can you
repeat that? It's not,
Maria Gallucci (17:53):
Yeah, different.
Yeah,
Erica D'Eramo (17:55):
understand is that I literally the it didn't
get from my ear to my brain. Itjust didn't work that way.
Maria Gallucci (18:01):
Yeah, you know, that's funny. And I had, like, I
stutter when I talk, and I hadto go to counseling when I was a
child, and I still stutter to tothis day on different stuff,
but, and I think because myalways said, because my brain
was processing more than I couldvocalize, but I don't stutter
when I sign. I'm perfectly like,fine when I sign, but it's just
(18:21):
like when I talk, because mybrain is just thinking too
quickly.
Erica D'Eramo (18:25):
Oh, that's so fascinating. I mean, self
observation. This is why when Isay like, oh, I'm
neurodivergent, and I am tryingto get away from using that
terminology, because it makes itseem as though there's like, one
form that is not divergent, andthen everybody else, and then
there's only like, those of usthat are different are divergent
from the norm. And yet, thereality is we are all so so
(18:49):
different. And that's great,right? There is no when people
say, like, Oh, these dayseverybody is neurodivergent, as
if it's some like dismissal, andit's like everybody is
neurodivergent. That is, we areall de we all have different if
you say, like, how many peopleare the average height, weight
and hair color and eye color andskin color, they were all hair
(19:12):
length, very few people are theaverage across all of those
measures, right? That's like,
Maria Gallucci (19:18):
Yeah.
Erica D'Eramo (19:18):
We are all Yeah.
So when we start taking in allthese different ways that our
brains and our bodies can bedifferent than, yeah, we're all
divergent.
Maria Gallucci (19:27):
Yep, exactly,
Erica D'Eramo (19:28):
yeah. We all just rarities...
Maria Gallucci (19:30):
Yeah, exactly!
Erica D'Eramo (19:32):
the norm, right?
So, so in um, what are like?
What are some of the biggestmyths that you wish people
understood that we can maybedebunk today.
Maria Gallucci (19:45):
I think that people so I can lip read, and so
we were taught to lip read, butnot all deaf and hard of hearing
people know how to lip read atall, and I think that that's a
really big misconception. And.
And so if and you have to lookat them when they're talking,
and it's really hard to talk,talk to people with sunglasses,
because we are very expressionbased and so and so, I think
(20:09):
that's a big misconception,misconception, because they
think that you can, that theycan lip read, and you could just
turn it either talk louder ortalk clearer. But not all of
them can can lip read.
Erica D'Eramo (20:23):
Yeah, wow, that is and that's interesting, too.
Just in terms of, I know, duringthe masking with Covid, there
was a lot of challenge with notjust being able to see people's
mouths, but I think a lot of usrealize, like, wait, I can't
hear you. And yeah, it wasn'tjust that we couldn't hear it
(20:45):
was that we were probablyabsorbing so much more
information by seeing the fullfacial expression and by seeing
the full or, like, even seeingpeople's mouths move.
Maria Gallucci (20:58):
Yeah!
Erica D'Eramo (20:58):
But, we didn't even realize how much of our
sensory input was non auditory.
Maria Gallucci (21:05):
Yeah, No, I agree.
Erica D'Eramo (21:09):
Yeah, yeah. It's one of the reasons that for the
Two Piers podcast, we have thefull transcript available, and
we also have a summary that weput together for folks for each
and every episode, because Irecognize that people might need
to absorb the information in amultitude of different ways.
But...
Maria Gallucci (21:26):
Yeah, I love that, it's true everybody
processes in different ways, nomatter if you're hearing, deaf,
hard of hearing, like we allprocess everything differently.
Erica D'Eramo (21:38):
So for the folks who are listening and thinking
like, okay, but now what likefor for an individual out there
who maybe doesn't know anyone inthe deaf or hard of hearing
community, what are some stepsthat you think people could take
in order to bridge some of thosegaps?
Maria Gallucci (21:59):
I think choose curiosity over judgment, like
little gestures, even learningthank you or even saying hi, can
make somebody feel seen andvalued. And I think that goes
for a lot of people. I thinkthat what our end goal is for
all of us would be that we justwant to feel understood and
seen.
Erica D'Eramo (22:20):
Yeah, I think, I mean, you're preaching to the
choir here, because in coaching,that's what we talk about all
the time, is just retainingcuriosity instead of judgment.
Yeah, that and even having it onthe radar, right? Even being
aware, because I think it was acouple of weeks ago maybe, but
in Costco, I was in Costco. I'mgonna give Costco a shout out.
(22:43):
And someone there was someonewho was, like, trying to find a
different size shirt orsomething like that, and the
person who is folding clothesand putting them away, they were
trying to get their attention,and they were getting frustrated
because they couldn't get theCostco person's attention. And
then they kind of, like, got intheir face, and then it became
clear they could see they had abadge that said, like, I, I'm,
(23:05):
I'm deaf or I or hard ofhearing. And I could tell that
the person who was trying to getthe attention and who was
feeling frustrated or flusteredfelt pretty embarrassed by the
way they like handled it once,like, oh, I can't I literally
can't hear you, and they foundthat the Costco person found
somebody else that could helpthe customer. But just like
(23:29):
realizing that we might not knowwhat's going on people, and I'm
guessing too that, and this isthe interesting thing about
disability is one of the fewit's one of the few experiences
that almost all of us will atsome point in our life, have to
deal with, right that like what,what society caters to as normal
(23:55):
from our physical bodies. Rightchanges, like our physical
bodies will change over time. Wewill have illness, we will have
injury, and suddenly we willfind ourselves needing some of
these support mechanisms. Isuddenly had to start wearing
glasses in my 40s.
Maria Gallucci (24:11):
I might have to start wearing glasses soon.
Erica D'Eramo (24:12):
My hearing. My hearing has changed. My
husband's hearing has changedquite a bit over over time. My
knees have changed. And so tosay at this point in my life,
like, Oh, these accommodationsdon't affect me, or I don't need
them. At some point, most of uswill need
Maria Gallucci (24:32):
Eventually need them, yeah, and we'll need some
resources. And in that case,because I happened to my mom a
lot when we were at the stores,and then people would get
frustrated because they thinkthat she's ignoring them, but
she can't hear them. So I wouldhave to tell everybody she can't
hear like she can't hear you andbut they would be mean about it.
I think that a lot of peopledon't realize what's going on in
(24:53):
other people's world. They takeit personal, or they take it on
on themselves, and like in thatcase, I would have. Well, I
would have signed, but I wouldhave suggested to, like my
daughter, my son, to pull outtheir phone and just just write
it on there, on the notes, likehere, do you have a size medium
and that means so much to thembecause somebody just tried to
(25:15):
communicate with them instead ofmaking them isolated?
Erica D'Eramo (25:20):
Yes. Yeah. Oh, and these days, I mean,
technology is both scary andwonderful, but these days,
especially with like, voice totext, there are so many
opportunities. Like, I'm workingwith somebody who is learning
English right now, and weleverage voice to text and
translation all the time, and wecan communicate really well
(25:44):
together, and, like, learn each,you know, learn each other's
languages. Um, but it doesn't,you know, I even if my eyes are
starting to feel tired, I don'tneed to be like, texting it on a
phone. I can still, there's somany ways now, yeah, to switch
mediums. Yeah, yeah.
Maria Gallucci (26:01):
I had one of my agents, she was showing she does
not sign, but she knows the deafculture, so she and I had her
show someone who was deafhouses, and she the deaf person
was so appreciated of her,because she would communicate
with her. There was an app, Ithink it was called Cardzilla,
or something like that. I'm notsure the app's name, but it was
(26:23):
on the phone, so she would talkon the phone, it would read it
out to the client, and theclient would see it, and they
would literally have aconversation back and forth with
their phones just doing that.
And it's so easy to try to dostuff, but I think that people
don't know what to do, andpeople so I think that's what
the takeaway of the book, thatwhy I wrote it, is to give
people tips, give people things,to make people feel inclusive,
(26:48):
even in no matter what communityyou're in.
Erica D'Eramo (26:54):
Yeah. So that is a great segue to, where can
people learn more? Where canthey find your book?
Maria Gallucci (27:01):
So my book is on all platforms, Amazon, Apple,
Google, and I also have awebsite called
raisedinsilence.com and thatwill have the links in there to
purchase it as well. And then ifanybody needs any real estate
needs, it's galluccihomes.com
Erica D'Eramo (27:18):
Awesome. I were I'm in Maine, but it did that
this conversation has promptedme to to chat with some of my
real estate agent friends andjust see how they support folks
from the the deaf and hard ofhearing communities before we
close out, though, I did want tojust ask follow up on one thing
(27:42):
that you mentioned, which wasculture. And that's where I
don't think people necessarilyrealize that there is a culture,
right? This is and this is apiece, so this might be another
myth, like, can you help explaina little bit about how what that
means the deaf and hard ofhearing community and culture.
Maria Gallucci (28:03):
So I think that it is, I think that for the
community, they feel they're alot closer, I think, and so like
the community is a very tightcommunity, and there's a lot
around in nationwide, it's abigger community than a lot of
people realize. And I feel likethey feel like they're by
(28:25):
themselves. So everybody, like,kind of like, connects with one
another. So it is a totally deafculture, because the way we
talk, the way we sign, theparties that that we go to, we
know how each other is being inthat community now. So I think
that that's where, and I feellike that's how it is with,
(28:46):
like, the Spanish speaking orthe the LGBTQ, plus they they
feel like they're each other,and they feel like they have
each other.
Erica D'Eramo (28:55):
Yeah, there's a book called um against techno
ableism, and it talks about likethe concept of curing deafness,
and how there's a lot of debate,right? Because, on the one hand,
sure, in this society that mightmake things easier for
individuals, and if given thechance, maybe somebody could
(29:19):
have an easier life in thiscurrent version of society, if
they have access to hearing andalso, there are people who do
not want that, because it's apart of their identity and a
part of their community and apart of their culture that would
then be erased. And this is,this is how they relate to the
world. And so one is notnecessarily better than the
(29:41):
other. It is, again, a measureof like, ease of navigating the
world. And we can't like, judgepeople's choices around one or
the other if they do want to bepart of the hearing community,
and they do want to, you know,like, either have surgery or or
pursue. Some of those differentmethodologies, but if they
(30:02):
don't, then that's okay too.
Maria Gallucci (30:03):
Then that's okay. Yeah, 100% I think we all,
we all try to go into our ownheads, I think, and then, but
not think about other people. SoI think if we just try to have
like, compassion and empathy, itwill go a long way to make
people feel secure and loved.
Erica D'Eramo (30:26):
Yeah, I think it's a big conversation right
now, especially in the autismcommunity. You know, these
concepts of curing things thatare different quickly kind of
goes down a path where we allend up being the same, and
that's not actually better foreveryone exactly. So instead of
trying to change all the humansso they are the same and have
(30:47):
the same abilities and the samesensory input, we can adapt the
environment to make it morewelcoming and more um accessible
to everyone. So
Maria Gallucci (30:58):
Yes, I agree 100%!
Erica D'Eramo (31:00):
Yeah. Well, we, we definitely have the links to
your website, to your websites,plural, to your to your book, in
the show notes and on ourwebsite. And I really appreciate
you coming on and sharing yourexperiences and how folks can
can start building some bridges.
And I appreciate you being abridge builder.
Maria Gallucci (31:22):
Yeah, thank you so much. I enjoyed it. I love
being on the show,
Erica D'Eramo (31:26):
yeah, thanks for the folks listening. Please do
head over to the show notes thewebsite, if you want a summary
or if you want the transcript.
And we appreciate you listening,and we will see you next
episode. You you
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