How a deaf woman fooled the hearing world. Beth Maren John was born deaf but did not tell anyone until she was 68. She is a life long educator and advocate for the deaf and children with disabilities. She holds a doctorate in SE Asian Speech/ Language Studies and an MSc in Speech Pathology and Audiology and teached behaviourally disturbed children. She began her career with a teaching practicum at the Allegany Indian Reservation in New York, working with multi-handicapped and behaviourally disturbed students, and later at the prestigious Montreal Oral School for the Deaf (MOSD). Her innovative teaching practices won her the love of her students and the esteem of school administrators.