Sean Forbes with TedxNASA

"Def" has been a part of the hip-hop lexicon since the early 1980s, but for Sean Forbes it means something different. A profoundly deaf musician, Forbes suffered permanent hearing loss at the age of one, yet pursued a lifelong aspiration towards a career in the music industry. He co-founded the Deaf Professional Arts Network (D-PAN), a non-profit organization dedicated to making music and music culture accessible to deaf and hard of hearing audiences. To increase access to music for the deaf community, he conceived the idea of American Sign Language (ASL) music videos. To date, D-PAN has created ASL music videos of songs by John Mayer, Christina Aguilera and Eminem. A 28-year-old deaf rapper from Detroit, Forbes is making waves in the music world.