In an endeavour to provide dignified lives to the physically challenged, Mr & Ms Deaf Fashion Competition was organised by Deafeasy at Deaf and Dumb School, Lions Club, Sector 18, Chandigarh, on Saturday. The competition was the first of its kind to be held in the region with participants not only from Tricity but also from parts of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh as well. As many as 27 contestants took part. The event, which had two categories, married and unmarried, was attended by 150 attendants. The competition had three rounds. The first round had a ramp walk followed by a traditional round. The final round had Q&A which questioned their intelligence. Ankush and Jyoti won becoming Mr Deaf & Ms Deaf 2018. Married people also participated. The event also allowed separate single entries. Eish emerged winner in the married category and was titled Mr Deaf while Seema was titled Mrs Deaf 2018. All the volunteers engaged in registration, choreography, photography and even cheering the contestants were either deaf or hard of hearing. Another surprising feature of the event was that the organiser himself, Vivek Mehta, a software born and brought up in Chandigarh, is a US entrepreneur. And, he himself is deaf. Vivek is the founder and creator of Deafeasy, an innovation with a mission to use artificial intelligence to help people with hearing disabilities become independent.
