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We all collect a varying assortment of skills and knowledges over the years. Some we need because they are directly relevant and necessary to our daily lives, some are useful for a specific time or place, and some we pick up because they seem interesting and might potentially be useful someday. And sometimes these talents and capabilities can suddenly become important or even lifesaving. We never know, life can be surprising that way.
Two Hand Manual is a form of communication developed for people with both visual and auditory impairments. It is a tactile alphabet which enables you to spell out messages on the other person’s hand by touching their palm at certain points in certain ways. Many people with this kind of double impairment are often also fluent in conventional sign language, as degenerative conditions which affect both tend to diminish auditory functioning first. Two Hand Manual is easier to learn and use than more fulsome sign language and thus the first to be taught to support workers.
I had the privilege and adventure of spending two summers working at a camp style resort run by…