I’m Dottie, 22, and I’m hard of hearing. My best friend Maya is completely deaf, and we communicate through sign language every chance we get. One day, we were at our favorite café, chatting and laughing as usual, when an entitled mom suddenly demanded we stop signing. She said it was “disruptive” and “inappropriate.”

Maya and I have been friends for seven years, and sign language is our natural way of talking it’s how we connect beyond words. But this woman wasn’t interested in understanding. She told her son to stop copying us and then marched over to tell us our “hand waving” was disturbing her child.

The whole café went quiet. I looked her in the eye and said this was a perfect chance to teach her son about diversity and that sign language is a beautiful, legitimate form of communication. She laughed it off and called us selfish, but before things could get worse, James, our waiter, stepped in. He calmly told the woman she was the one causing a scene and explained that sign language is used by millions of people and deserves respect.

The other customers started clapping, and the woman’s face turned red. Her son, Tyler, then bravely came over, signed “I’m sorry” to us, and asked Maya to teach him how to sign “friend.” James later told me his brother is deaf, which is why he stood up for us. That moment the kindness from strangers and Tyler’s innocent courage reminded me that everyone deserves to be accepted exactly as they are.