The American actor Troy Kotsur made history as the first deaf man to win an Academy Award for acting. He won for his role in CODA (2021).
Credit: © DFree/Shutterstock

American actor Troy Kotsur has had a busy few years. Between winning an Academy Award, starring in two “Star Wars” television series, and performing the national anthem at Superbowl LVII, Kotsur is everywhere! Kotsur signed the lyrics to the “Star-Spangled Banner” as American musician Chris Stapleton sang to a crowd of nearly 68 thousand fans in person and millions more watching elsewhere.

Kotsur became the first deaf man to receive an Academy Award when he won best supporting actor for his performance in the motion picture CODA (2021). He was the second deaf performer to win an acting Oscar, after Marlee Matlin won best actress in 1987.

Troy Michael Kotsur was born July 24, 1968, in Mesa, Arizona. He was born deaf to hearing parents. Kotsur began acting in high school, performing in pantomime (without words). After graduation, Kotsur briefly studied theater at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., but left after two years.

Kotsur has primarily acted on stage. As a member of the National Theater of the Deaf, he performed around the United States from 1991 through 1993. He played Hamlet in Jeff Wanshel’s Ophelia (1992), based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and he was a cast member in the company’s adaptation of Treasure Island (1991), based on the Robert Louis Stevenson story. As a member of the Deaf West Theater in Los Angeles, California, Kotsur played leading roles in productions of Cyrano (2012) and A Streetcar Named Desire (2000). On Broadway, Kotsur performed in Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (2003).

Kotsur has appeared in episodes of the television series “Criminal Minds” and “CSI: NY.” In 2013, he directed the comedy film No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie. Kotsur developed a sign language for the Tusken Raiders in the “Star Wars” universe, which has been used in the series “The Mandalorian” (2019-…) and “The Book of Boba Fett” (2021-…). In “The Mandalorian”, Kotsur played a Tusken Raider who communicates with the title character through sign language.

Sophomore Joshua Cypert, left, signs to freshman Xavier Gamboa, right, members of the Cubs, the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, varsity football team, during their game against the Desert Christian Knights in Riverside, Calif., on Friday night, Nov. 12, 2021.
Credit: © Adam Perez, The New York Times/Redux Pictures

In a true underdog story, the varsity football team from the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, in Riverside, California, made its way to the division championship for the first time in the 68-year school history this fall. Riverside is the only school for the deaf in southern California. It ranges from preschool through high school and only has 168 students. The football team plays in an eight-player league designed for smaller schools.

The California School for the Deaf (CSDR) Cubs rely on American Sign Language to communicate in huddles and on the field. Coach and physical education teacher Keith Adams is also deaf and has two sons on the team. The team’s closeness and mastery of coded hand signals led them through the record-breaking season.

The CSDR coaches and players have switched the narrative. Instead of hearing impairments being an obstacle to the game, they view them as an advantage. Some of the coaches have explained that hearing impairments lead to heightened visual senses, enabling players to take in more of what is going on around the field. Playing against hearing teams, they also do not have to make calls or run to the sidelines to get instructions from their coach.

The Cubs were undefeated 12-0 until they faced the Faith Baptist Contenders on Nov. 27. While the Cubs lost to the Contenders 74-22, the team counts it as a win for their school and the deaf community. The team is still reeling after the unprecedented season. With 21 of their 23 players eligible to play again next year, the Cubs are looking forward to next season, making plans to become an even stronger team.

June 1, 2018

Fifty years ago today, on June 1, 1968, American activist and author Helen Keller died at age 87 at her home in Easton, Connecticut. Keller was an outstanding example of a person who conquered physical disabilities. A serious illness, which her doctor called “acute congestion of the stomach and brain,” destroyed her sight and hearing at the age of about 15 months. Because of this, she could not speak and was entirely shut off from the world. But Keller rose above her disabilities to gain international fame and to help disabled people live fuller lives.

Helen Keller “listened” to others speak by putting her middle finger on the speaker’s nose, forefinger on the lips, and thumb on the larynx. With Anne Sullivan, she demonstrated the method for the American actor Joseph Jefferson. Credit: Bettmann Archive

Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. For almost five years, she grew up, as she later said, “wild and unruly, giggling and chuckling to express pleasure; kicking, scratching, uttering the choked screams of the deaf-mute to indicate the opposite.” Then Helen’s father took her to inventor Alexander Graham Bell. He advised Keller to write to the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston (now Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts). Shortly before the child was 7, educator Anne Sullivan arrived from Boston to teach her. Sullivan had been nearly blind during childhood, but surgeries in 1881 and 1887 partially restored her sight. She remained with Helen Keller until her death in 1936. Then Mary Agnes “Polly” Thomson, who had been Keller’s secretary, took Sullivan’s place.

The Alabama state quarter features an image of Helen Keller, an untiring supporter of people with disabilities. The coin includes Keller’s name in the braille alphabet, a writing system that can be read by touch. Credit: U.S. Mint

Sullivan was able to make contact with the Helen’s mind through the sense of touch. She used a manual alphabet by which she spelled out words on Helen’s hand. Gradually, the child was able to connect words with objects. Once she understood, her progress was rapid. Within three years, she knew the alphabet and could read and write in braille. Until she was 10 years old, Keller could talk only with sign language. She decided she would learn to speak and took lessons from a teacher of the deaf. By the time she was 16, she could communicate well enough to go to preparatory school and to college. She chose Radcliffe, from which she graduated in 1904 with honors. Sullivan stayed with her through these years, interpreting lectures and class discussions for her.