Joseph Lara, president of the Deaf Association of San Antonio, hosted the city’s first Deaf Festival in years to bring his community together.

“We originally started holding this festival back in the 1980s,” Lara said. “We really wanted to do this for Deaf Awareness Month during the month of September.”

The World Health Organization estimates that about 430 million people are experiencing hearing loss worldwide. However, it’s challenging to accurately track the number of deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals in Texas.

In San Antonio, a community exists to help support those individuals.

“I would like to see more things happen more often that are accessible for all people, whether they’re hearing or they’re deaf,” said Kristy Prado, a teacher at a deaf school.

According to the National I

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