Deaf History Month :
Pulaski ’ s Joel Dowlen describes life at the Kentucky School for the Deaf
By Carla Slavey
Words have power . That is true whether they are spoken , written or signed . The meaning behind certain words may change throughout time , but the act of communicating is what brings us together as a society .
On a warm February day , Burnside resident Joel Dowlen sat down at a table with a reporter and off-handily mentions that after the interview he plans on picking up a shirt that says “ We all communicate differently .” He seems excited to be getting it .
The 63-year-old Dowlen is retired now , but he spent 35 years working for the state , helping people with disabilities . Most of that time was at Oakwood , with a few of his years spent at Adanta .
The people he worked with had an array of disabilities , he said , with some being autistic , some having other mental disabilities , some being blind and some deaf . And some were a combination of those .
Dowlen himself is hard of hearing . He requires hearing aids , but may also need to read lips to be able to understand what someone is saying . Dowlen notes that some people – usually women more than men – have a better time making direct eye contact with him and speaking in a way where he can see their lips .
Some , he said , may not realize they are looking down or away from him , making it harder for him to understand them .
National Deaf History month runs from March 13 through April 15 . The dates coincide with several important moments in history for people who are deaf or hard of hearing . The most recently recognized date is March 13 , 1988 , when a university catering to deaf students , Gallaudet University in Washington , D . C ., gained its first deaf president – but only after students protested the appointment of another in a long line of able-hearing people to lead the school . After a week of protests which became known as the Deaf President Now movement , the hearing president stepped down and I . King Jordan was named in her place .
Here in Kentucky , the state has a rich history for assisting those in the deaf and hard of hearing community which includes having the Kentucky School for the Deaf in Danville . As Dowlen , one of the school ’ s hundreds of graduates , points out , the school is celebrating its bicentennial this year .
Dowlen was born with nerve deafness that caused hearing loss . He received his first set of hearing aids when he was 6 years old .
He went to public school from first
through eighth grades , where he says he learned as well as he could , but couldn ’ t be given specialized attention because the Burnside Elementary classrooms were packed .
“ It was hard for a teacher at that time ,” he said . “ I always sat in the front row to make sure I could read lips . The teacher would explain the lesson on the chalk board . ... It would be hard if you had 50 students in a class . There ’ s no way you can sit down and talk with everybody . And I understand that .
“ Then , when I went to the deaf school , we had smaller classes . The teachers were very patient and made sure you understood before you left [ the classroom ].”
Entering a school where students were expected to live on campus might seem difficult for an eighth-grade youngster , and Dowlen admits that it was at first .
“ I was homesick . But I learned to adapt , and I learned to make friends . I made a lot of friends who live across the state ,” he said .
Students came from all across Kentucky , and stayed in dorms throughout the week unless they happened to have family living in Danville , he said .
The school takes in children aged preschool to high school , and those who
28 • SEKY - Life in Southeast Kentucky March 2023