TEXAS (KXAN) — After several years of working as a deaf education teacher, Texan Karlie Waldrip is teaching sign language to a new generation of readers, all with the assistance of her pup, Rhett.
Waldrip said she was born deaf but her family didn’t find out until she was about 10 months old. Growing up, Waldrip went to a school with a deaf and hard of hearing program, where her deaf education teacher had a deaf therapy dog.
“Us deaf kids, we would learn ‘oh my gosh, there’s a deaf dog just like me,'” she recounted. “And [my deaf education teacher] would teach us that deaf kids — we might do things a little bit differently, but that’s okay.”
Waldrip said it was that exposure that made her a dog lover and also inspired her to adopt a deaf dog, leading her to Rhett. Once he was adopted and he had acclimated to his new environment, Waldrip taught Rhett about 25 different signs, communicating things like “good job,” “food,” “walk” and “treat.”
“I use a lot of facial expressions, a lot of body language, praise,” she said.
For four years, Waldrip worked as a deaf educator teacher before she felt her next calling: a children’s author.
She wrote her book, “I Deaf-initely Can, Rhett the Heeler,” with the story told through Rhett’s point of view. The tale centers around his journey at the animal shelter, meeting Waldrip, learning sign language and sharing his story with others.
Waldrip spent just under a year writing the book and collaborated with artist Lucy Rogers, who’s also deaf, on illustrating signs throughout the book. Since publishing, Waldrip said the book has reached people around the world, including in Australia, Canada and Italy.
She said she’s also heard from teachers, school districts and parents on the impact the book has had, especially for those with deaf children in their lives.
“I’ve gotten some parents who say my child just loves this book, they read it every night, they take it to school,” she said. “That just makes my heart so happy.”
For Waldrip, she said the biggest takeaway she wants people to have is to know that deafness doesn’t mean people can’t do and achieve all the things that people with full hearing can accomplish. In addition to her book, Waldrip runs an Instagram account, @rhett_the_heeler, to help educate people on deafness, sign language and the status of deaf dogs in shelter systems that are in need of fostering or adoption.
“We try to educate people about our deafness and what he can do, what I can do and all the things we can do in this world,” she said, adding: “I just hope that people just look at us like we’re just normal people, because we are.”
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