The first hearing impaired America's Next Top Model contestant has been hailed as the winner on the last series of the show.
Nyle Dimarco, 26, took the prestigious stop by impressing the judges with his striking poses during the photoshoot.
'I strongly believe that being deaf gives me a huge advantage because of my native language, American Sign Language (ASL),' Nyle said during his interview in Washington Life.
During the competition, the contestants were given only three seconds to change their poses. However, Nyle could not hear the countdown of the photographer's way to convey the time instruction. So, he ended up at the bottom after the challenge. He also said that the photo shoot in the dark made it more difficult for him to execute some poses.
"I'm deaf, but shooting in the dark also made me blind! I've never been so frustrated in my life because I knew that I could do it," he said.
Despite the difficulties he encountered during the competition, Nyle managed to strike a series of poses that impressed the judges. And he never expected that he would win with those. He also told the Dailymail that the competition as well as living in the house together with the other models was fun. But America's Next Top Model is not an ordinary competition and taking every challenge is pretty tough.
"The inability to use my language, American Sign Language and the lack of communication, information access and the general connection to the world was difficult," Nyle said.
"It was an amazing feeling to win," he added. For Nyle, winning in that kind of competition would break down disability barriers.
America's Next Top Model was launched in 2003 by Model Tyra Banks together with Janice Dickinson, Twiggy, and Nigel Barker who are the judges. Model and reality TV star Adrianne Curry and actress Analeigh Tipton were the first contestants of the show.
