Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community of Santa Barbara

06/10/2026

Come join the lot of us!

You're invited to SB Deaf and Hard of Hearing Family Event - Click here to RSVP

05/29/2026

Alexandrea Gil grew up in Santa Barbara and shares her story which has a very important straddling two worlds for many people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

You can find her book "She's Ready: A Deaf Woman's Journey from the Fringe to the Center" at Amazon here and read the prologue below: https://www.amazon.com/Shes-Ready-Womans-Journey-Fringe/dp/1067282505/

I stopped outside the Disabled Student Services office at Santa Barbara City College, sunlight reflecting off the glass door, when a poster on the wall caught my eye. The campus perched high on its mesa above the Pacific, the air salt-bright and the horizon washed in light. On the poster, a young woman in an evening gown, bouquet in her arms, a crown glinting against her hair. Are you the next Miss Deaf America? The words seemed to lift from the paper and hover.

For a long moment, the world narrowed to that question. I was nineteen—still straddling two worlds, half in the hearing universe I'd learned to navigate, half searching for something that might finally feel like home. I didn't know it yet, but this poster would open a door whose threshold I'd spend years learning to cross.

05/04/2026

Tonight!