SHEP’s Connection Corner - December Newsletter

SHEP’s Connection Corner

December 2025

Season Greetings with meetings!

We need a song about November. What a doozy, but thankful we are and forever will be. Cassandra, SHEP’s founder and president, was a guest speaker for fifth graders and taught them the alphabet in sign language. Just think... The more people know at least the alphabet it will make a huge difference in bridging the gap in the communication barrier between the hearing-sighted-DeafBLind world. It’s such a beautiful thing!

Shep even had the pleasure of further educating the community about our services and the needs of the community in general at OSU. We met some amazing people who even decided to be active in future shep events!

We didn’t have a Deafblind community event in November. Instead, Cassandra also took time to see family in Texas. She always has a can-do attitude and stays connected. We encourage you to do so as well!

We have great news! Our SSP program is now back to accepting SSPs requests. With the government shut down, it slowed things down a bit, but we are back in the swing of things just in the nick of time. We do pray you all had a very happy Thanksgiving and the love you received warmed you over for days and days to come.

Remember to follow us on social media and stay in the loop with what is going on and our partnered networks and organizations.

Oklahoma NewsHuman ResourcesDecember 7, 2025december, OKC, deafblind, braille, tulsaComment

SHEP’s Connection Corner - November Newsletter

SHEP’s Connection Corner

November 2025

Wait, The President On A Bull?

You read that right! Our president, Cassandra Oakes, rode a bull at the pumpkin patch at our October IamDB event. We had to wait out the rain, but when there’s a will, there’s a way. As soon as the showers cleared, it was on time! Connect with us on social media to see pictures and how the deafblind made meaningful connections and used tactile and full sensory awareness

November has crept up on us, or rather, ran up on us. Cassandra also enjoyed the camp in louisiana. It was an amazing time to connect outside of oklahoma. There are so many wonderful people to meet and things to do.

We have been moving forward full force with our first responders program with iamdb, educating our community’s emergency personnel about this merge of communities. Awareness is key!

Guess what is coming up!

SHEP’s camp! Start saving and planning and preparing for this fun and sensory loaded event. Have an idea for a theme for 2026? We’d love to hear it!

A lot is going on in the media and we are here to share hope and inspire. When you can’t smell the roses it’s just because we have to go a little further to get to the garden. Stay refreshed in the word. Know that the church is the people, not the building.

Oklahoma NewsHuman ResourcesDecember 7, 2025november, OKC, deaf, deafblindComment

Disability agency serving 3,424 jobseekers transferred from waiting lists since January 1

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Department of Rehabilitation Services has transferred 3,424 job seekers with significant disabilities from waiting lists to active caseloads since January 1.

DRS’ Vocational Rehabilitation and Visual Services staff began providing career planning and employments services to 505 new clients in the most recent group moved from waiting lists on November 7.

In 2017, VR and VS staff helped 2,014 clients successfully prepare for and find employment and served 11,765 Oklahomans with disabilities working towards that goal. The new taxpayers earned an average of $22,212 per year and paid $3,332 in average taxes, while reducing or eliminating dependence on disability benefits and government services.

DRS’ waiting lists have been in place since March 13, 2017, due to prior year revenue reductions.

Oklahoma NewsHuman ResourcesNovember 30, 2018Accessibility, dhs, OKC, deaf blindness, accessibility, drs, deaf blind, ablednotdisabled, abilityComment

OU's new American Sign Language program inspires communication across campus

On Tuesdays and Fridays in Collings Hall 223, an entire class period goes by without a single word spoken.

The classroom is completely quiet — at no point do the students speak out loud to professor Gary Davis, and he doesn’t speak out loud to them.

That’s because Davis is deaf and is teaching his students sign language.

The silence is only ever broken by students’ laughter — usually when Davis pokes fun at a student’s sloppy use of a sign and shows the student the correct sign, much like a Spanish professor correcting the pronunciation of a word.

Davis, an adjunct professor, is teaching one of the first American Sign Language courses offered at OU — a program administrators have pursued for many years that finally came to fruition fall 2017.

Info

Action