Oklahoma organization helps deaf and blind people achieve their potential

After cancer took Oakes' friend, who was deaf and blind, she felt the need to take action to help the community of people who are deaf and blind in Oklahoma.

In 2011, Oakes, who is deaf and blind, founded the organization Sight-Hearing Encouragement Program to ensure that people who were deaf and blind would have an organization focused on helping them achieve their potential.

“It's to help people who really need help to develop a positive mind and attitude about their lives and about themselves,” Oakes said. “There are so many deaf-blind people who have just given up on life, and they're just depressed and frustrated, and they feel like there's no one to help them, and they're just trapped at home and shut off. They just close the door on their lives.”

The organization is co-sponsoring the conference to help fix that exact problem, and it plans to continue hosting events for people who are deaf and blind.

The Saturday portion of the conference begins at 9 a.m. Oakes said she hopes that a diverse group of people will attend the conference and learn about the gifts that people who are deaf and blind have within them.

Oakes, a mother of four and grandmother of six, started losing her vision in her late 30s.

Oakes has Ushers syndrome, the most common condition that affects both hearing and vision, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

Oakes said it's important for people who are deaf and blind to not get caught up in negativity. People who are deaf and blind often suffer from loneliness, in part because they don't always know about the resources available to them, she said.

“They have a right to experience life just like anybody else, just like any normal people in the world,” she said. “It doesn't matter if they have problems or not. They need to be out, and I need to show people what they can do.”