Our drive east is extremely different than our drive west. Rather than skimming through the South-West and going through many different cities, we are resigned to spending the next week driving through God’s backyard: the Midwest and all the farmland that comes along with it. We spent almost 10 hours driving before arriving in Boise to briefly meet with the Deaf community. People in Boise figured that we would be driving through Boise on our way to Mount Rushmore and Campvention, so they asked if we could stop by and meet them for a little bit on our way East. They suggested Outback Steakhouse and sure enough, we pulled up to almost 20 Boise Deaf people at the restaurant to chat with them for an hour before getting back on the road.

We learned from the Boise people who were not to our surprise, almost all grassroots, that the Deaf community there was tiny and practically nonexistent. Again, this is no surprise coming from a state that is in the top ten in terms of land size and holds a population of just 400,000 people. There are just 400 estimated Deaf people in the entire state, and because of that, Deaf services and cultural awareness is nowhere to be found. Talking with all of the people there, we soon found that all their stories were the same. All had experienced discrimination at some level frequently, ranging from being denied interpreters to not being hired for jobs. Such is the case for Hugo and Shelly Contreras, who have lived in Boise for less than one year. They were denied interpreters at their hospital when Hugo was diagnosed with serious health problems. Shelly estimates that they have been discriminated no less than 10 times in their year in Boise.

Making a simple fast-food order turns into a complicated chore when the cashier at the restaurant has never met or even heard of a Deaf person before. A 15-minute doctor’s visit turns into a 45-minute hassle when the doctor refuses to hire an interpreter, and entire conversations of medical lingo and questions and answers are slowly written on paper, and as a result, the doctor usually ends up shortchanging the patient. People who answer the phone and encounter the relay services slam the phone, and employers never call back following job interviews because of the fact that the applicant is Deaf. Boise has a serious problem, and not a single person we met denies it. President of the Boise Valley Deaf Club, formerly the Sphinx Club, Ginny Kimbro says that generally, the Deaf community in Boise is on their own. “Advocate services in Idaho are extremely lazy and they do nothing,” explained Ginny. “The Deaf community here however, has had enough and we’re ready to fight back.” Ginny, while hard-of-hearing, is many people’s best option when it comes to obtaining interpreting services. While Ginny says she doesn’t like interpreting because she simply isn’t qualified and doesn’t have enough time to come close to meeting people’s demands, she feels she needs to because there is nobody else to do so in Idaho. “The government here in Idaho basically ignores us because they’re so far behind in the rest of the world,” continued Kimbro.

Randy Smith, who is the third of four Deaf generations who have lived in Idaho, offers the explanation that Idaho-ians are generally very proud people. They have always refused to ask for help or services through time, so as a result, they have never gotten any help or services. “The people who demand these services,” observes Smith, “are people who move here from other states and have seen what other people are being offered and aren’t used to being so self-sufficient. The rest of the world has moved on in their understanding and services, and we have stayed in the same place for many years.”

In the recent time that has passed, the Idaho community has desperately cried out for help, landing these cries on deaf ears. A small movement has started however, as the Idaho School for the Deaf is currently undergoing a protest, demanding for a Deaf superintendent to fill the position’s vacancy. They have been deadlocked in a struggle with the government for months, all over who will run a school with less than 50 kids from K-12. It’s a small school, almost trivial compared to the rest of the nation’s Deaf schools, and yet it’s a cause the community has been passionately fighting for these past months.

Better late than never, isn’t it?