WEBVTT

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Bien: When I look back on my life,

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thinking about how and where I grew up,

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I didn't know anything.

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In terms of my education, you know.

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I didn't go to school because I was deaf.

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So there was no education
for people who were deaf

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in the Dominican Republic,
or at least not for me.

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So I went through my life not really
having a way to communicate.

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[music plays]

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Rosanna: A person who is born blind,
visually impaired or DeafBlind

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is born into a very different situation

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than their average counterpart.

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They have to learn skills
that are very, very different

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in order to compete with their counterpart
in the sighted world.

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Thinking back in my own life,
my parents really did not know what to do

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or how to really work with a child

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that was blind, and they were
kind of at a total loss.

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Like, “okay, where is this child going to fit in?”

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The doctors told
them that I was going to be

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what they call an “LD child” at
that time, “learning lisabled.”

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My mom really was very strong

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and did not believe that the doctor

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or psychiatrist at that
time was right about that.

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And so she spent a lot of time
doing puzzles

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with me and educational toys
to develop my brain.

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I went on to nursery school
where my mom worked, by the way,

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just so that I could be in nursery school
and be in an educational environment.

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Bien: I was taken from my grandparents
to the Virgin Islands

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to an island of Saint Croix
where I was put in school.

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I mean, I'm saying this now.

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I don't know what that meant.

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It was a school for the deaf.

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I was embarrassed.

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I didn't know sign language, which is what
these folks were doing around me.

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I didn't know how to answer questions.

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And the teachers really tried
to convey information to me,

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but it was really, really difficult.

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I tried to learn words, quote unquote,
like the alphabet, and they would

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show me pictures of the letter A
and then show me that in sign language.

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But when I finally connected
what they were trying to do,

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it was like a fire was lit inside of me.

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I thought I was disabled, like I thought
really I had a developmental disability,

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you know, at that time they called it
mental retardation.

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And I didn't know what was going on.

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But when they gave me this
visual language, this way to communicate,

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I was like, “okay, bring it on.”

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I guess I was like nine or ten years old
that I finally made the connection.

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Learning began.

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I had classes like
everybody else, math and gym

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And with all of those classes,
so did my sign language expand.

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So I really tried
to look forward, not back.

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[music plays]

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Bien: My mom then told me that I had
to go to New York, and I was like,

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“Mommy are you sure?” and she convinced
me that this was the right thing for me.

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So she bought the plane ticket
and I'm not going to lie, I cried.

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But I got on the plane
and I flew to New York

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and they put me in the Lexington School
for the Deaf.

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Rosanna: I went on to public school.

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It was only myself and one other girl
that was in the public school system

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who were at that time
considered legally blind.

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So I then began the challenge

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of advocating for myself, of growing up.

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I wanted to be like everybody else,
and that was my goal.

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I wanted to be like my sighted friends.

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I wanted to do what everybody else did.

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I didn't want to be treated differently.

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Bien: I'm not going to lie. It was hard.

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But once I got it,
I really felt like I could fit in here!

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I remember meeting the principal

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and introducing myself and saying,
“Hi, my name is Bienvenido Batista.

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Yeah, it's nice to meet you.”

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And just sort of
taking everything in visually.

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Everybody there was a signer.

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And so my language grew there.

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And I stayed there.

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And I learned so much.

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And, you know,
I just was where I belonged.

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And I was with people
that I could be with.

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And then I came to the
Helen Keller National Center

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and coming here, man,
sent shivers up my spine.

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I felt like this is where I needed to be.

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I’m like, oh, this
is what a cane does?

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And this is what Braille is like?

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Let’s go, bring it on. Come on.

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I want to learn everything
that I need to learn.

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And I was excited to do so.

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Rosanna: When I was in high school getting ready
to go to college, I had a state counselor

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who honestly did not believe in me.

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“I don't think you're college material and
I don't think you should go to college.

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You might want to pursue

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another avenue in your life.”
So he honestly

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did not believe in me and like,
“no, you're not going to go to college.”

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I went on, did very well in college.

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You know, I graduated with a 3.5,

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then decided to go on to graduate school.

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They said, “really?

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You really want to go to graduate school?”
Yeah, that's what I'm doing.

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I did some work in the area of theology

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at Saint John's University
for a couple of years.

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Completed that, when on, later on

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after I started working at JPMorgan Chase,

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I decided to go back
to school again in 2008

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and went on and did my MBA concentrating
in human resource management.

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So I kind of not only surpassed the

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stereotype that, Oh no,

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you’re not college material to proving that,

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Hey, I'm going to do this.

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If you really want something
and you desire

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something, you're going to
reach that goal.

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But you really have to want it.

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And if you really want it,
you can achieve it.

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If there's any message
that I would send out

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to the blind or DeafBlind community,
that is the message

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that I would give.

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[music ends]