Martin Price, director of Utah's School for the Deaf and Blind. Photo credit: Mike Anderson, KSL TV.
OGDEN, Utah — Some members of Utah’s deaf community said they are beyond grateful that this year’s Oscar’s Best Picture winner, “CODA” is shining a light on their everyday lives.
“I am a deaf individual that has hearing children,” said Martin Price, director of Utah’s School for the Deaf and Blind. “And yes it was a very accurate representation of the world that we live in.”
Through a translator, Price told KSL NewsRadio that children of deaf adults, also known as CODAs, often live in both the hearing and deaf worlds.
“With an individual who can hear, beating around the bush to get to the point — that’s their norm. Deaf people are very direct,” Price said. That directness illustrates the difficulty CODAs can have in balancing those two worlds.
“CODAs are very special…they’re able to do a lot more of those cultural situations.”
Price’s interpreter, Andrea Rathbun, is a CODA herself.
“I relate to the movie so much,” said Rathbun, who works with the school. “It had an emotional impact, I cried, I laughed, it took me back to when I was growing up having some of the same struggles.”
Rathbun said her parents are deaf and she has two deaf siblings.
“Going and applying for a loan at 5 years old for my parents to buy [a] car, these were things that I grew up with, that I thought were normal,” Rathbun said.
Price said he’s grateful this movie shines a light on what he goes through as a deaf man with a hearing wife and children. He said even he often forgets what his children go through.
“I’m hoping that many parents who actually have a deaf child can see, that yes, the sky is not the limit,” said Price. “It is open. That a child who is deaf — they can become whatever they want to.”