Members of the Flagler College Deaf Awareness Club (DAC) creating collages at a club event on Nov 3, 2022. The club hosts many events, some of which are “silent” and only use ASL, with the purpose of creating more Deaf culture spaces on campus.

The DAC executive board making collages and working on club logistics and planning on Nov. 3, 2022. DAC has a low but consistent attendance number at club meetings and events. Most of its participants are already involved in Deaf culture through ASL classes, the deaf and elementary education major, the master's program in deaf education, or being Deaf and/or Hard of Hearing. It is rare that others outside of these programs join the club.

The DAC executive board making collages and planning the last few events of the fall semester on Nov. 3, 2022. The events with most attendance are the club's teaching of different holiday signs. They started this tradition on October 2021, with Halloween vocabulary and followed it with Valentine's Day and the winter holidays.

Tutors at the Flagler American Sign Language (ASL) lab during a group tutoring session on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022. While DAC and the ASL lab are different entities independent from each other, many members of both groups overlap. "There’s a lot of overlap between DAC and the lab because we both share similar goals. Also, some members are tutors, so it’s easier to make it a group collaboration," said Erin Ramey, 21, (top left) who is the treasurer of DAC and gets tutoring from the ASL lab for her ASL minor.

Flagler ASL students during a tutoring session on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022. ASL students are required to attend a certain amount of tutoring hours depending on their language level, ranging 2-6 hours per semester. "The ASL lab has been a life saver. I have been able to go in there and get a lot of assignments done while practicing. My grades on my receptive tests have gone up thanks to them and practicing with them," Ramey said.

Makenzie Friend, 22, current secretary of DAC signing "I love you" in front of the ASL lab schedule board. Friend is also a tutor in the lab but will be leaving her positions after graduating in December 2022. She also teaches ASL at Beachside High School.

DAC executive board members rehearse the signs for the song "Believe" from the 2004 film, "The Polar Express", on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022. DAC plans on filming holiday songs in ASL and posting them on their social media throughout December.

Bryn Lamanna, 19, rehearses for the first holiday song DAC will be releasing, on Dec. 1, 2022. Lamanna, who is majoring in deaf education at Flagler, is in charge of DAC's social media pages.

DAC board members filming part of their first holiday songs video in front of the Lightner Museum at 75 King St, on Nov 29, 2022. The DAC board continues to stress that Flagler students do not need to be deaf education majors, minors or know ASL to be a part of the club.

DAC board members filming part of their first holiday songs video Plaza de la Constitución, on Nov 29, 2022.

DAC board members taking attendance at their "Holiday Signs" teaching event taking place at the only ASL-oriented classroom at Flagler on Nov. 30, 2022. The teaching holiday signs series remain DAC's most popular events, this one focusing on Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.

DAC club members and ASL students at DAC's "Holiday Signs" event on Nov. 30, 2022. All teaching ASL events must be taught by a Deaf person. Therefore, DAC invites different ASL professors from Flagler to teach at these events.

DAC board members signing "Happy Holidays" for a group picture after the teaching event they hosted on Nov. 30, 2022. This was DAC's last event of the semester. They gathered submissions from club members suggesting terms to learn during the event.

Allie Masterson, 19, signs "snow globe" for video compilation with holiday signs for DAC's Instagram page on Nov. 30, 2022. Masterson is a second year student with a deaf education major and an ASL minor. She will be taking over as secretary of DAC for the spring semester after Friend, who is graduating in December 2022.

Posters and t-shirts at the ASL classroom commemorating Deaf Awareness Day and emphasizing the classroom being an "Audism Free Zone". Audism was first coined in 1977 by Tom Humphries, a professor at the University of California San Diego, who became Deaf in childhood. He defined audism as "the notion that one is superior based on one's ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears".

The entrance door to the ASL lab on Flagler's Kenan Hall. The door says the tutoring schedule and the rules of the lab, including that a tutor must be present for others to use the space and a silent space where ASL must be used.

The ASL classroom at Flagler College's Kenan Hall. The lab is connected to the main ASL classroom, which is unique because the desks are organized in a "U" shape to allow students and professors have optimal visual communication with each other, necessary for ASL.

Group tutoring session after DAC's "Holiday Signs" event on Nov. 30, 2022. "I am involved with DAC to learn more about Deaf culture and enhance my sign language capabilities. To me, it’s really important since that was one of the factors that made me choose Flagler. It’s different and no other school really has a deaf education program or amazing ASL professors", Ramey said.