Very shortly after losing his hearing, Josh’s mother saw Dr. R. Orin Cornett on a televised PBS program. Dr. Cornett spoke of a revolutionary new method of communication that enabled its users to see-hear spoken language in any dialect. She was quickly sold on Cued Speech because she wanted Joshua to be able to comprehend, and speak English or any language with relative ease, something she felt sign language could not afford him.

By age four, Joshua was able to read cues, and he picked up right where he left off learning English. Joshua was mainstreamed his entire life, aided by a speech therapist, teachers who learned how to cue, and a Cued Speech Transliterator. Cued Speech gave him the training he needed to become a proficient lipreader, and as he got older, he started to rely more on lipreading for communication. Josh received his BS in History and the Law from Suffolk University in Boston, MA and is currently working as a data specialist for the Alumni/ae Association of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge MA. He is a glassblower in his spare time and follows baseball and plays as much golf as possible. He lives with his hearing girlfriend, Maisie and his dog Thai in Somerville, MA.