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TAYLORSVILLE — A free festival provided an opportunity for a community of deaf and hard of hearing to connect Saturday.
Those who participated in the festival, held twice a year, said it's a great tool to help connect people who may walk in different worlds. Hundreds packed the Robert G. Sanderson Community Center in Taylorsville.
"When I come here it's a different world for me," said festival participant Carol McNickel. "Everyone uses American sign language. I have 100 percent access to what everyone is saying."
McNickel sold hand-made earrings, pins and other knick-knacks she created with her sister. She said they were pretty hot sellers.
She said she's raising money for a baby boy she is adopting next week.
"We let deaf people get booths and show off all the things they've made and sell them," said event organizer Marilyn Call of the Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Seventy booths included crafts as well as important tools like captioned telephones and alert systems to help a deaf mom hear her baby cry.
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"It's Hellen Keller who said that being deaf and blind she thought the harder of the two disabilities was to be deaf because that cuts you off from people," Call said.
Approximately two percent of Utahns identify themselves as deaf and about ten percent as hard of hearing.
