In the dairy aisle, right in front of the milk cooler, Narkita Cooper tapped a store employee on the shoulder to ask for assistance.
The employee signed that he was deaf.
His face lit up when Cooper signed back, and their communication shifted from accommodation to connection. Cooper shared she was learning American Sign Language through her work as a minister serving the Deaf community at The Faith Place (also known as First Apostolic Faith Church), a West Akron multicultural, Christian church rooted in Pentecostal-style beliefs…