01
Deaf culture & accessibility
Advancing Deaf-centered thinking, civil rights, communication access, and stronger community infrastructure.
Nate Hergert
Portland, Oregon · ASL / English
Deaf advocate,
organizer, and
systems-minded builder.
I work across accessibility, community leadership, culture, and creative technology — with a focus on making complex systems clearer and more human.
About
“I like turning complex ideas into usable structures.”
I’m a Portland-based bilingual ASL/English community organizer and advocate whose work centers on Deaf culture, accessibility, and practical leadership. I’m interested in how infrastructure, communication systems, and technology shape everyday life.
I’ve led community efforts through Deaf disc golf and broader Deaf-centered planning work, and I approach each project with a mix of strategy, research, and creative problem-solving. Across aviation, event design, music technology, and civic thinking, I’m drawn to systems that make participation more possible, intuitive, and human.
Highlights
- President of the Deaf Disc Golf Club
- Bilingual in ASL and English
- Based in Portland, Oregon
- Focused on Deaf culture, accessibility & community leadership
- Interested in aviation, infrastructure, music tech & accessible design
Featured · Street Roots · October 2023
CymaSpace brings music to Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.
“With haptics, a deaf person reacts to the vibrations the same way a hearing person reacts to the sound.”
Through a $97,000 Oregon Community Foundation Creative Heights Grant, CymaSpace is developing haptic tools — including a dance floor synchronized to light and vibration — that let Deaf audiences experience music as a physical sensation.
Read the full article on Street Roots
Interests
How people navigate the world — through language, space, sound, systems, and culture.
02
Community leadership
Organizing programs, events, and spaces that bring people together with clarity and purpose.
03
Aviation & navigation
Exploring VFR planning, airspace logic, and the design of systems that support clear movement and decision-making.
04
Music technology & sound
Studying composition, sound design, audio systems, and how people experience sound differently.
05
Games, mapping & worldbuilding
Thinking about systems, environments, and interactive experiences with an eye toward accessibility and meaning.
Values
- 01
Accessibility should be designed in from the start, not added later.
- 02
Community knowledge matters as much as formal expertise.
- 03
Clear systems create better participation.
- 04
Culture is not a side note; it shapes how people live, communicate, and belong.
- 05
Curiosity is most useful when it leads to something practical.
Contact