Deaf actress and activist Marlee Matlin was the final speaker for the Bellin  Health LifeLines Series at the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts in  Wisconsin. She charmed the audience with her almost-magical tales of her Midwest  youth, and stories of how she deals with challenges now in Hollywood. Her speech  was interpreted into English by Jack Jason, her  interpreter/manager.

“Life is challenging, but the real handicap of being  deaf lies in the mind,” Matlin told a Weidner Center audience. “I want to help  the general public understand that deaf people not only deserve to be respected,  they deserve to be heard.”

Matlin lost her hearing at 18 months because  of an illness. She said that although her parents were devastated and didn’t  know what to do, they defied those who advised them to send Matlin to a boarding  school for the deaf.

Matlin described being raised in Morton Grove, Ill.,  by parents who instilled in her that her deafness made her all the more special  and adored. “Every day, they opened the door and let me explore,” she said of  her parents, describing being allowed to grow up like any other kid, riding her  bicycle, meeting new children and making friends and playing in the  park.

“It was all about me, not my deafness,” she said, adding that it’s  a whole lot healthier to focus on one’s abilities rather than one’s perceived  disabilities. “My parents treated me with love and respect.”

Matlin has  helped produce two Baby Einstein educational DVDs that help in the teaching of  sign language to babies.

She played a key role in 1990 in getting  Congress to pass laws requiring American television manufacturers to equip their  TVs with closed-captioning capabilities.