Founder of center for deaf honored
\nTiller dedicates 28 years of work to hearing impaired<\/p>\n
By Heather Ann White Caller-Times
\nNovember 30, 2006<\/p>\n
Some people want their name in lights, but Susan S. Tiller, founder of the Corpus Christi Area Council for the Deaf, is honored to have hers in stone. <\/p>\n
Tiller, 66, is considered a hero in the hearing impaired community after establishing a center in 1978 to provide services that included interpreting and recreational programs. <\/p>\n
In honor of her work, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center will be renamed the Susan S. Tiller Building at 5:30 p.m. today. <\/p>\n
Tiller has dedicated the past 28 years to the Corpus Christi Area Council for the Deaf at the center. She served as executive director of the center – the only facility for deaf and hard of hearing clients in South Texas – for 27 years before retiring in December 2005. <\/p>\n
Simon Capetillo, a local resident who frequents the center for the senior citizen programs, said he enjoys the facility and the camaraderie. Capetillo couldn’t remember what he and the others did before the center was created, he said. <\/p>\n
“There’s so much we do here,” he said through an interpreter. “We play card games. We also play dominos. We take trips. We’ve been to San Antonio, A&M, Galveston, we’ve been on the gambling boat. I really like it here.” <\/p>\n
Tiller said the reason for her work is her daughter Teri, who was born severely hard of hearing. <\/p>\n
“It was very frustrating as a parent,” Tiller said. “She wasn’t hearing enough for regular school, and she wasn’t deaf enough for deaf school. There were no services in the area we could go. We didn’t know what to do.” <\/p>\n
Teri Garrison, 41, started wearing hearing aids at 3, but wasn’t accommodated at school, Tiller said. Her daughter couldn’t speak in complete sentences and had to repeat the first grade. She was also placed in special education classes. In the fifth grade, Teri was admitted into a local school for the deaf where Tiller and her husband Larry met other parents who were just as frustrated, Tiller said. After meeting with other parents, the center was established offering interpretation services and a program for senior citizens. <\/p>\n
Tiller, who learned sign language with her daughter, started as a volunteer and became the executive director, helping expand the facility’s services. She also relocated the center to its location on McArdle Road. <\/p>\n
“When my daughter was admitted into the deaf school, she was really admitted into the deaf world,” she said. “I learned sign language with her. I became immersed in it – I went to all the classes and workshops I could.” <\/p>\n
The center tries to accommodate any need the hearing impaired might have, Tiller said. <\/p>\n
According to the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, about 70,000 people in the Coastal Bend area suffer from significant hearing loss. The center makes about 18,000 new contacts each year, Tiller said. Clients come as far as the Rio Grande Valley to take advantage of the services. <\/p>\n
“We have anything and everything that helps the deaf and hard of hearing to make a connection with the real world,” she said. “We have interpreters that go to the doctors’, courts, jail, the ER. We have a health\/nutrition system, an employment program and a job readiness program. There are recreation programs. They say one deaf person is lonely, and two deaf people is a party – we facilitate that gap.” <\/p>\n
Jacqueline Wright, financial director for the center, said that the facility is one of a kind. <\/p>\n
“It impacts me because I’m deaf. There’s no other agency like it in the area. The closest ones are in Austin or Dallas,” she said through an interpreter. “We offer more of a variety of services. Here, we have a deaf club, deaf chat parties at Starbucks – things you can’t get anywhere else.” <\/p>\n
Garrisonsaid she is grateful for her mother’s work. <\/p>\n
“I think it’s very important to have a place like The Corpus Christi Area Council for the Deaf. All the services the center provides are important,” Teri said. <\/p>\n
Tiller retired last year to spend more time with her husband, daughter and sons Greg and Shane and her four grandchildren Authumn, Kyle, Gavyn and Gage. <\/p>\n
But, her retirement has been more like a full-time job. <\/p>\n
Tiller, who is a court-certified interpreter, offers workshops on legal terminology. She serves as an evaluator for the state’s interpreter licensing program and continues to interpret for the center during the week. She also volunteers in San Antonio for four days each month helping the hearing impaired place phone calls that are relayed through video phones. <\/p>\n
“I’ve been an interpreter for so long. I don’t want to lose my skills, and I don’t want to lose my contacts,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of these people grow up. I’ve seen them have babies. I’ve seen them have grandbabies. I’ve interpreted weddings, and I’ve interpreted funerals.” <\/p>\n
Contact Heather Ann White at 886-3794 or HYPERLINK mailto:whiteh@caller.com whiteh@caller.com<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.caller.com\/ccct\/local_news\/article\/0,1641,CCCT_811_5179992,00.html<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.caller.com\/ccct\/local_news\/article\/0,1641,CCCT_811_5179990,00.html <\/p>\n
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Founder of center for deaf honored Tiller dedicates 28 years of work to hearing impaired By Heather Ann White Caller-Times November 30, 2006 Some people want their name in lights, but Susan S. Tiller, founder of the Corpus Christi Area…<\/p>\n