 Meet Israel's first Deaf Parliament member. Hello, my name is Shirley Pinto. I'm from Israel. I'm a Deaf person. And first of all, I'm a mother for two Deaf children. And my husband is also Deaf. All my family are Deaf people. In Israel, there are more than 850,000 people who are Deaf or hard of hearing. That's roughly 9% of the population facing daily challenges, from communication barriers to a lack of accessibility in public spaces. Of which, about 15,000 speak sign language. My mother and my father, they both Deaf. My mother, she's Deaf and blind. And both of them, I remember when I grew up, I saw how much they fighting to take an equal part in the Israeli society and they never succeed. Not because they are Deaf, because the Israeli society was pushing back. And I grew up in this shuttle. I saw them trying very hard to take a part. And I was wondering if my future would be the same. I didn't want to accept that. Because of her upbringing, Shirley was motivated to dedicate her life to improving the situation for Deaf and hard of hearing people. Today, she is bilingual, speaking both Hebrew and Israeli sign language fluently. She even joined the IDF at age 18, even though she was exempt from the country's compulsory service due to her disability. But remarkably, she has achieved something that no other Deaf person in Israel has achieved before. She became Israel's first ever Deaf Parliament Member, even swearing into office using sign language. As a Parliament Member, part of her mission is to reach members of the Deaf and disabled community here in Israel and across the world. Just watch her teach Israel's national anthem, Hatifah, in Israeli sign language. And since October 7th, Shirley is also being a voice to the Israeli hostages currently in Gaza now who are unable to speak for themselves. Shirley is making videos for social media in international sign language. These videos communicate to the Deaf world about what is going on here in Israel and in Gaza. A nine-month-old baby who is now in Gaza, a baby kidnapped by ISIS Hamas. Accessibility is everything to Shirley, and that even means accessibility to the news. Accessibility. It's a word we used a lot in this video. But what does it really mean? It's how you build a bridge between two different worlds. The world with people with disability and the world with people without disability. They both need to build this bridge and meet in the middle. Not one society coming to the other. They both need to work together. That's how we can change this world to be a more equal place. Shirley's work is a reminder that every voice, heard or unheard, matters. And she is making sure the Deaf community can be heard. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time. I'm Israel Chai.