12.09.2017
When 29-year-old Katie Winder joined a new gym recently in her hometown of Orem, Utah, she received a free personal training session. She was excited for the one-on-one time—especially since she’s a trainer herself, and she was curious to be on the other side of things, getting a client’s perspective.
But when she met the trainer and he realized that she’s deaf, he freaked out. As in, sped-off-like-a-cartoon-rabbit freaked out.
Another gym-goer knew sign language and was working with a different trainer, so she got shuttled over to them while her original trainer disappeared. The experience wasn’t entirely surprising for Winder, who was born with profound bi-lateral deafness, but it was definitely disappointing.
“There are communication barriers,” Winder tells SELF. “But that shouldn’t prevent deaf and hard of hearing from being involved in fitness, nor should it prevent trainers from working with them.”
Overcoming the kind of communication issues she saw at the gym that day was one of the reasons that Winder became a trainer in the first place. In 2011, she moved from a small town in rural Nevada to Utah to pursue a computer science degree at Utah Valley University, but she switched her focus to exercise science after getting more active in sports and going on hiking adventures on weekends.
The more time she spent in the fitness industry, the more she noticed the glaring communication barriers for the deaf and hard of hearing in most gyms and group fitness classes. So in 2016, she decided to become a trainer so she could help make fitness a reality for those people.
Today, Winder trains both hearing and deaf or harding of hearing clients. Though she's always been confident that she could help other deaf people reach their fitness goals, she was initially nervous about working with hearing clients (she was worried they would balk at the idea of a deaf person training them). Turns out, the communication tactics she uses daily in her life—reading body language, using written notes, and doing plenty of demonstration—work well for all her clients, whether they're hearing or not.
For Winder, fitness has transformed her approach to nutrition, self-care, and happiness, and she knows that some who are deaf and hard of hearing could see those same benefits—as long as they get the communication they need.
“I want to help people accomplish their goals and overcome their personal barriers toward leading a healthy lifestyle and enjoying fitness,” she says.
Winder's not the only trainer working to make fitness more accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Here are two more women who are also making an impact:
Meet the fitness blogger who started working out to get over a heartbreak and ended up as an accessibility advocate.
After breaking up with her boyfriend, 26-year-old India Morse, a U.K.-based fitness blogger who was born deaf, was looking for a way to get over her ex and re-channel her energy. Drawing on her love of sports—she used to play soccer in the U.K. as a kid—she decided to start working out several times a week.
Her new routine kicked off a love for healthy living and led her to become a nutrition coach and fitness blogger with an emphasis on supporting those who are deaf or hard of hearing. She’s also studying to become a trainer and is working with gyms in London to set up free fitness classes for deaf people.
"It’s time that somebody stand up and make the world a better place for deaf people," she says. "They deserve so much better in life, but it’s easy to give up because of so many barriers.”
Morse is not a giver-upper, she emphasizes, so she challenges others to follow her lead. Most of all, she encourages those in the fitness industry to work harder at addressing the needs of their students and clients.
Meet the trainer who says that her deafness makes her a better communicator.
“We all have sucky suck times, but I believe in human potential too much to think we can stay stagnant,” says Anne Reuss, a 28-year-old trainer based in Chicago, who’s been deaf since birth. Reuss started her career in marketing but switched to fitness to boost her own confidence, as well as help others who are deaf and hard of hearing. She started with a job at a rock climbing gym and is now a personal trainer at Equinox.
Fitness, she tells SELF, is the perfect platform for people to learn how to embrace obstacles and view them as opportunities—a mentality that applies to many life experiences like dating, changing careers, or going to college. Those have all been areas where being deaf was more challenging for her, she notes. Even her first day working at the climbing gym was a heart-in-throat moment that she calls both terrifying and exhilarating.
Now she’s all about inspiration, and her Instagram is an excellent example. She blends gym selfies, adventure travel, Spartan training, and of course, pizza and wine.
What she’s learned through becoming a personal trainer is that her deafness allows her to be a better communicator. “The client is faced with fewer distractions working with me since it requires more effort to have me as a trainer—in a positive way,” she says. “They are able to internalize the mental and physical connection to fitness rather than become distracted by overly wordy explanations.”
A major part of her passion has been a relentless quest to get those who are deaf and hard of hearing involved in fitness, and to inspire other trainers and fitness professionals to dial up their empathy.
“Becoming a deaf trainer has challenged me to function and thrive in an environment fractured by a lack of empathy,” she says. Many times, she still feels left out while in the "hearing world," but she’s driven by a single purpose: to help others find self-assurance and strength through training.
How can fitness be more accessible to those who are deaf and hard of hearing? Let us count the ways.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders, one in eight people in the United States—about 30 million people—have some level of hearing loss in both ears.
Unfortunately, not every gym, studio, or fitness center has someone like India, Katie, or Anne ready to assist those with hearing issues or deafness. The result might be classes and training sessions that fit into the category of "sucky suck times."
For example, Morse says that some classes are held in a darkened room where it’s impossible to lip-read, which is a problem if the teacher is doing a lot of talking. If those who are deaf or hard of hearing sit in the back—the usual spot for anyone who’s nervous about being new—plenty of visual cues could be missed. It becomes even more challenging if the instructor chooses music that doesn’t have much bass, making it harder to "feel" the beat instead of hearing it.
But what puts those classes into the "what not to do" category can also be instructive for what gyms and trainers should be doing: play music with more bass, invite those with deafness or hearing issues to come to the front at the beginning of class, add in much more movement and demonstrations, and most of all, don’t freak out.
"I’ve attended so many classes, and very few of them have made much effort at accessibility," says Morse. Then she found a gym with trainers who made the kind of thoughtful tweaks she needed—like showing her how to change speed on a treadmill in the lower lighting of a class setting.
For personal training sessions, some sign language can be helpful, even if it’s only a few words, like “lift” or “press.” It really only takes a quick YouTube search to learn a few of the basics. More use of gestures, demos, and even facial expressions can be incredibly helpful, says Winder, as well as writing down instructions or having printed images about certain exercises.
Reuss adds that just asking the question, “How can we make this a better experience for you?” can be a game changer. She says this simple question helps a client and trainer feel like they’re on the same team, and working together toward the client's goals.
All of these are just simple tactics, but they go a long way toward the type of communication that’s crucial for helping those who are deaf and hard of hearing to embrace fitness.
"Have some confidence in your abilities as a trainer to adapt and work with all clients," advises Winder. “We appreciate others seeing us as normal, and we appreciate being included and involved. Don’t feel sorry for us. Just learn to communicate with us."
