Happy Black History Month 2025, DHH community!

We hope that our Black students are celebrating Black joy and enjoying moments of rest this month. In honour of Black History Month 2025, we wanted to share some information about two incredible Black Deaf/ hard of hearing activists who you should know about: Tremmel Watson and Nakia Smith. Both Tremmel and Nakia are Black Deaf/ hard of hearing activists who are currently making history and pushing for better access for Americans. While there is much to learn about the amazing achievements of the many Black trailblazers in history, we wanted to spotlight Tremmel and Nakia for the outstanding work they are currently doing in the DHH community. 

Read and watch below to learn more.

Meet Tremmel Watson, a hard of hearing activist, who has been pushing for equal rights for Deaf and hard of hearing people in the state of California. He has been pushing local governments to have CART (Captioning Access in Real Time) readily available in meetings, classes, and in public forums like political debates. Mr. Watson has also been meeting with politicians in California to increase funding for people who don’t have a lot of money to be able to afford hearing aids. Check out Tremmel Watson’s journey below.

Nakia Smith is a TikTok influencer who advocates for the acknowledgement and amplification of Black American Sign Language (BASL). She was interviewed by Speech Language Pathologist Melanie Y. Evans about the importance of breaking misconceptions and embracing diversity within the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community. Watch the interview using the first video link below.

In the second video released by Netflix, Nakia explains the history of BASL and how it is different from ASL (in just over two minutes). Enjoy!

Thank you to both Tremmel and Nakia for all of the important work they are doing to improve accessibility for the Deaf/ hard of hearing community!