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Refugees immigrating to the United States can encounter many hurdles acclimating to their adopted home.听

Adapting to a new way of life is much harder when they鈥檙e deaf. Sign languages used in other parts of the world differ greatly from country to country.

Pamela Wright, a graduate student in , is not a refugee, but as a deaf person, she saw the need and wants to gather resources to make their transition better.听

Wright uses American Sign Language (ASL) and a translator to facilitate her communication with hearing people. She has a master鈥檚 degree in deaf education and volunteers in local schools and around the community, helping deaf refugees develop communication skills so they can grow and thrive here.听

鈥淚 feel like this is an area of knowledge that is entirely untapped,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e really can learn a lot about people by learning their language.鈥�

To establish a starting point for the process, Wright learns enough of the person鈥檚 native language to be able to communicate. She has worked with eight refugees.听

One of them is Taw, who emigrated from Myanmar. His father was killed by Burmese soldiers, and Taw, who is 18, spent years in a refugee camp, afraid to use any sign language for fear of being punished.听

The sign language he used in his native country is vastly different from ASL. Since he didn鈥檛 know English or ASL when he was evaluated for placement of services after arriving in Colorado, Taw was thought to have no language ability and was regarded as severely mentally deficient.听

Wright began working with the high school senior last June. When she met Taw, he had just arrived into the system, a system that Wright claims is ignorant of the needs of deaf refugees. Their communication began at a rudimentary level鈥攗sing photos and videos online to find common ground. Simultaneously, Wright was learning his Myanmar sign language.听

As Taw learned to communicate with Wright, his intelligence and personality began to show.听

鈥淚t was a slow process,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ecause I couldn鈥檛 teach him ASL or English without being able to understand him. I don鈥檛 know if there鈥檚 a written record of the sign language he was using, so I had to learn it from him first. If they have to work harder cognitively to process information to understand me, then I feel like I should work harder to understand together.鈥� 听

Over three weeks, the two of them were figuring out ways to communicate. 听The first thing Taw conveyed to her was the violence that took place in his country. From there, the story-based interaction of his being able to tell Wright his story opened up their communication and he began to progress.

鈥淚 was scared and shy when I first moved here,鈥� Taw said. 鈥淚鈥檝e become a much more courageous and confident person now.鈥�

Signed language doesn鈥檛 follow the spoken language of the countries some refuges are from. It鈥檚 a separate language. Using International Sign Language, which is Eurocentric, is a good starting point for communication, but it鈥檚 not used in all countries.听

The inspiration for Wright鈥檚 volunteer efforts with refugees developed after meeting Sushil, who is deaf. He emigrated from Nepal in 2008. Wright met Sushil at a deaf event in Boulder.听

Sushil knows six languages, owns a computer company in Nepal and has traveled around the world. In the U.S., he discovered there were few local deaf services available to him. Deaf-specific services put him into programs with people who were labeled as 鈥渃ognitively delayed.鈥澨�

Being unable to fluently communicate with ASL, Sushil struggled to find work that matched his skills and experience. He lost jobs because of his lack of communication. When he met Wright in 2012, he had picked up enough ASL to easily communicate with her.听

鈥淢y work experience is very different from the work I am doing here,鈥� Sushil, 38, said. 鈥淚 have experience in the tech industry, design and photography. I think people look at me and don鈥檛 believe I have skills because I鈥檓 deaf and obviously not American. That鈥檚 a challenge I face.鈥澨�

By combining her linguistics background, an ability to quickly learn languages and her master鈥檚 degrees, Wright wants to put her unique skill set to use. She is setting up a nonprofit organization to serve the deaf refugee population.听

鈥淚 want to see where this project goes,鈥� Wright said. 鈥淓ventually, I would like to have some kind of lab for refugees and to teach in a university setting. With this new passion I鈥檝e discovered, I鈥檓 trying to figure out how I can mesh听those two together. I see a need and would like to work with that. I鈥檓 not here to save them. They鈥檙e strong people, but I don鈥檛 feel it鈥檚 right to leave the system the way it is, because it鈥檚 failing people. I believe in human rights and this is a human rights issue.鈥澨�