Art and Advocacy: Local Artist Advocates for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community

FLORISSANT – For those who are deaf or hard of hearing, visual communication is essential.

At the Deaf Visual Arts Festival at St. Louis Community College's Florissant Valley Campus Saturday, artists from across that community presented their works. Many of the works featured themes iconic to the community, such as various portrayals of American Sign Language symbols. One artist, Angela Botz, hails from Pontoon Beach and works across the Riverbend to bring advocacy and accessibility through Alton-based IMPACT-CIL. Her art was on display Saturday as well. She gave a presentation and featured a work she did in which she arranged hearing aid batteries around a depiction of an ear. She said she wanted to bring awareness to some of the difficulties – and expenses – of being deaf or hard of hearing.

“They were expired hearing aid batteries donated to me by the Red Cross,” Botz said through the help of a sign language interpreter. “It represents people with hearing loss. I wanted to show that battery is a lifeline for many people. It makes me think of how many batteries used throughout someone's life.”

Botz has a cochlear implant, which she said has helped her for more than 15 years, but other folks with hearing loss still do utilize hearing aids. She said some even sleep with them active for a sense of security. Some others wish they could, but do not, due to the expense of new batteries. Botz said the duration of batteries depends on the users, but said people often have to switch batteries every five days.

That piece was one of many presented by Botz at the events. Others included small pleasant scenes painted on small flooring tiles and a piece of ceramic made to look like a bit of driftwood featuring a small owl. She also painted on driftwood. Botz said she has worked through many media since starting to do art as a child.

“My mother was an artist,” she said. “One time, she asked me to paint something on the wall with an airbrush. I was a little worried, but I did it, and she said I had some talent and should keep doing it. So I did. I kept making art and the murals and pictures got bigger and bigger.”

Eventually, that talent became a career for Boltz who worked in art design and screen printing shirts for major iconic St. Louis brands like the Cardinals and Blues. She said that work became overwhelming, though. She wanted to spend more time with her friends and family and be able to do more advocacy work for the deaf and hard of hearing communities.

To focus more on her advocacy, she retired from professional art and design work and took a position with IMPACT-CIL in Alton as its community outreach director and independent living coordinator for folks who are deaf and hard of hearing. She also served as the President of the Illinois Association for the Deaf.

Her work takes her to several places in the community, such as libraries, schools and various businesses. She said she works with nursing and dental schools to assist future healthcare providers with some basic tips to be accommodating for patients who are deaf and hard of hearing.

She also works to lobby for accessibility to the Illinois General Assembly, recently gaining unanimous support in the Illinois Senate for a bill requiring closed-captioning to be on display on screens playing in medical settings. She said local Sen. Rachelle Crowe assisted with that bipartisan initiative.

Overall, Botz approaches her art and advocacy with a sunny demeanor. Her infectious smile is constantly beaming. She said she works to overcome communication barriers as well as other potential setbacks through being a positive person. She said she rarely has anything negative to say and instead works on converting the negative to positive.

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