Grace Lester

Grace Lester

Grace Lester is a late-deafened writer, researcher, and advocate whose work challenges the ways that deaf people disproportionately experience violence in the carceral system. She has led community education on carceral audism nationwide through panels, presentations, workshops, and seminars- her research findings can be found in JADARA, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, and in her upcoming debut book, Deaf Row: Carceral Violence Against Deaf People, with Fernwood Publishing. 

 Grace is a volunteer with disability solidarity networks and language justice centers, and has led efforts for uplifting language access by advocating for the preservation of endangered sign languages worldwide. Grace has extensive clinical experience supporting the mental and emotional wellbeing of deaf people from a variety of backgrounds as a mental health therapist. She currently works as an advocate for Chicago Hearing Society. 

 Grace uses live captions in her daily life and recognizes captions access as a means of staying connected. She vouches for captions as one of many access measures to embrace the wide variety of deaf experiences, including those who sign and those who don’t.