OCEAN CITY — New Class I and II officers and some seasoned police and fire department personnel worked on their communication skills May 12 ahead of the summer season.
Community Emergency Response Team members Annmarie Buraczeski and Kathleen Reese, with the help of American Sign Language interpreter Emily Krause, explained the importance of first responders knowing the signs that a person is deaf during a crisis or in simple day-to-day interactions.
The statewide CERT program helps train people to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations in their communities. During a crisis, CERT members provide critical support to first responders and immediate assistance to victims and organize spontaneous volunteers at a disaster site.
In 2011, Buraczeski, Reese and five other members of the deaf community joined the Ocean City CERT team, which was able to secure grant funding for interpretation services.
“To my knowledge, they were the first members of that community to come through the CERT program in the state of New Jersey,” said Frank Donato, chief of the city’s Office of Emergency Management.
Since then, they have been working with the New Jersey Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to conduct training throughout the state to first responders and other organizations.
The training came in handy almost immediately, during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 that destroyed many homes and businesses on the island.
Buraczeski, who only recently moved to Somers Point after spending 33 years in Ocean City, said she realized when her home was destroyed that deaf people need extra help during a crisis because of their communication barrier. She said she felt it was necessary to educate first responders about American Sign Language and some simple ways to break down the barrier.
Buraczeski and Reese, of Marmora, work with Upper Township resident Emily Krause to conduct training sessions in ASL 101 for law enforcement, firefighters, first responders and CERT volunteers.
“It’s crucial for first responders to be able to recognize when you encounter a deaf or hard-of-hearing situation in one of your traffic stops,” Donato said. “Seconds are precious in your line of work and to be able to recognize there is a communication barrier and how to manage to get around it is key.”
He said the goal of the program was to “impress on people tonight how to recognize those issues and how we can communicate, whether administering further aid or getting the correct resources to the scene.”
Donato said it is important to bring first responders into the training.
“In order for the deaf citizen to be able to communicate properly to the first responder and vice versa to figure out what the problem is, how to get the proper help there, how to administer the correct aid, the class is designed to help provide some basic information to both sides as to how to properly communicate what the emergency situation is,” he said. “They can immediately identify there is a communication barrier and resort to this training to remember either some basic sign language skills or having a pen and pad prepared to be able to effectively communicate.”
Buraczeksi, who retired from Thomas Heist Insurance in 2019 after more than 20 years, said she is still very active and enjoys fighting for advocacy for the deaf community.
Reese said amid the aftermath of Sandy, she was able to help deaf individuals at a shelter in Upper Township.
“It was a really great experience for me to be able to help out during that situation,” said Reese, who now works with young deaf children.
She said there are about 850,000 deaf and hard of hearing or deaf/blind people in New Jersey, about 10 percent of the population.
Reese said Ocean City has a lot of deaf tourists and there are a lot of deaf gatherings in Ocean City and they wanted to make sure they had access to emergency services.
“We would like for you to be aware and have a better understanding of working with deaf individuals, so when you come into contact with these individuals you have this information in the back of your mind,” Reese said.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff