This Texas boy is deaf, but he’s playing a character who can hear on ‘The Good Doctor’

A Texas boy who is deaf will play a character who can hear on an upcoming episode of “The Good Doctor.”

He also took the opportunity to teach sign language to some stars of the ABC series.

Zade Garcia, who lives in Georgetown, a city north of Austin, is appearing on an episode of the show on Monday, KVUE reported. He plays a character with an underdeveloped trachea who can’t speak but uses sign language, according to a Facebook post.

“The Good Doctor” is about a surgeon named Shaun Murphy, played by actor Freddie Highmore, who has autism and “uses his extraordinary gifts to save lives.”

Zade’s mom, April Garcia, told KVUE that two interpreters helped him while filming, and the directors used a vibrating alert to cue when he was supposed to begin signing.

For Zade, his favorite part was teaching everyone on set sign language, he wrote in a Facebook post. That included greetings such as “good morning” and “good night” as well as “ready to go.”

A video on Zade’s Facebook page shows Highmore and actress Fiona Gubelmann, who plays another doctor on the show, practicing their sign language.

In a Facebook post, Zade wrote that crew members greeted him with sign language, which made him feel special and supported.

“This was a very rare opportunity for a deaf actor,” Zade wrote. “I could not have done it without two amazing interpreters.”

Here’s a sneak peek at the episode airing 10/9 p.m. CT on Monday.

This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 3:59 PM with the headline "This Texas boy is deaf, but he’s playing a character who can hear on ‘The Good Doctor’."