Gallaudet University is the world’s only liberal arts university for Deaf people. It’s a wonderful place, and definitely more accessible for a Deaf scholar than most, but chances are you don’t go there.
Most Deaf teenagers in America and around the world go to non-deaf universities and colleges. In discussions and interviews certain themes about getting through that first week are nearly inescapable but often, Deaf people are isolated in such situations.
They don’t have the opportunity to develop the kind of connections with more experienced, older Deaf students; there may not be any.
This is part of the reason that a study performed in 1997 showed only 25% of Deaf or hard of hearing students in college in America graduate, whether it’s a two- or four-year program.
As a Deaf adult who’s currently working on my PhD, I’ve gone through the process several times, as have my peers. We have a lot to learn from each other. One piece of advice stands out:
Start early.
Contact disabilities offices. Contact professors. Let people know you want to be a full participant in the class, so you need X, Y and Z.
In 2002, Harry Langpublished a study showing most professors know very little about the needs of Deaf people and may not understand what’s happening in their classroom.
There are tons of strategies Deaf people use to make the classroom more accessible.
The number of strategies grows exponentially when university professors partner with those students and make genuine attempts to differentiate their classrooms.
In a 2006 study, Mark Marschark found that services in the classroom can make a world of difference. Strategies like ASL (or in the UK, BSL interpreters), Communication Realtime Access Translation (CART), induction loops, microphones, and even slight alterations to how groups work and lectures proceed can have a huge impact, but professors are usually unaware of them.
Disability offices and departments know more but since they serve a huge range of needs, departments may not be fluent in finding and providing these services.
Once you’ve started early, what problems tend to crop up? What can you expect?
No services for the first week. This can quickly become a horrible experience. Most college classes explore their syllabus during that time period, and establish ground rules and expectations for the course.
Not participating in these early activities can totally throw off a student’s academic experience for the semester.
Social opportunities can also become frustrating. Unfortunately, there’s not much research on what services in college are successful, so most of the data guiding this advice is from experience and anecdote. Being prepared for these glitches in service, however, can save you.
Having to explain oneself and one’s needs and communication modes, again and again, to students, college staff, faculty, and administration.
Sometimes people become Deaf at birth. Sometimes they use ASL. There’s a huge variety of Deaf people.
We are often asked to explain who we are and what we can do, to the point where it becomes our identity as individuals and overall as students!
Lang, in the same study mentioned above, points out that the first year of college is the most challenging socially and academically for Deaf and hard of hearing students. Which leads to another problem:
Having to deal with stereotypes and desectionalization.
Stereotypes are preconceived ideas about Deaf people, sign language, and speaking. Desectionalization occurs when those stereotypes limit ones vision and understanding of people’s sectionalized identity.
We all identify along intersectional ranges of sexuality, gender, race, religion, etc. Deaf people do as well and we have as many languages and perspectives as the rest of the world.
When I was a college student, my first week of the school year was often spent without interpreters. I even recall my administration asking if I could teach fellow students enough signs so that they could interpret for me in subjects we were all just beginning to learn!
Now, as a teacher, I have graduating students contact me to tell me the same thing that their participation in college has been limited due to lack of access for the first week.
My professors became my best allies while I was a student. They recognized my intellectual ability, thanks to the work I turned in. They helped advocate for me, and between their advocacy and mine, I was able to ensure full access.
This happened because I learned, because I put emphasis on “staying ahead of the game,” and tried to anticipate the problems that would appear.
It was a challenge, and I did feel I wasn’t able to fully relax because of that.
Where other students were enjoying a class shopping period, I was working with interpreters and professors to make sure communication was clear.
But I do think, because of that, my campus community came to respect me and I had an undergraduate college career where I was fully involved in all of my classes and which led to many interesting experiences and careers.
A final piece of advice: if things don’t go well your first term/semester, learn from the experience. Plan to improve it the next semester.
I have had students “give up” after encountering the first or second hurdles, or become so depressed about mistakes and challenges that they forget to try. Every semester is a new chance to get things set up the way that’s best for you.
Works Cited
Lang, Harry (2002). “Higher Education for Deaf Students: Research Priorities in the New Millennium” in J. Deaf Stud. Deaf Educ. (2002) 7 (4): 267-280. doi: 10.1093/deafed/7.4.267
Marschark, Mark (2006). “Benefits of Sign Language Interpreting and Text Alternatives for Deaf Students Classroom Learning.” In J. Deaf Stud. Deaf Educ. (2006) 11 (4): 421-437. doi: 10.1093/deafed/enl013
Walter, G., Foster, S., & Elliot, L. (1987). “Attrition and accommodation of hearing-impaired college students in the U.S.” Paper presented at the Tenth National Conference of the Association on Handicapped Student Service Programs in Postsecondary Education
This article was first published on Noodle, and can be found here: http://www.noodle.com/articles/navigating-the-first-week-of-college-while-deaf
Joseph Santini is a writer, social worker and educator. He’s worked in public schools and adult education for the past fifteen years. He is an expert on Deaf education for Noodle, and has written about education for the New York Times LessonPlans blog, DeafEcho, a Deaf-oriented political blog, The Odyssey and The Endeavor, the magazine of the American Deaf Children’s Society; he recently gave a TEDx presentation about intersectionality and Deaf education. He is currently doing Ph.D. research in the area of bilingual education and evaluation atGallaudet University where he works in the Office of Bilingual Teaching and Learning and, in his free time, writing screenplays.
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Tim
August 27, 2014
University was hell for me. The irony was that I came direct from one of those marvellous oral schools, where they, ahem, expertly prepare you for mainstream life…. by shutting us away from mainstream life.
“Start early.
Contact disabilities offices. Contact professors. Let people know you want to be a full participant in the class, so you need X, Y and Z.”
Hmmmm. Isn’t it the responsibility of the university to do everything to be inclusive of Deaf students, to let these students know that they are welcome there. This sounds to me like fumbling the ball into the wrong court.
Natalya
September 8, 2014
UCAS – disclose aka tell them you are deaf etc
Disclose as deaf on UCAS along with any other disabilities, specific learning difficulties (dyslexia etc) or long term health conditions. This should trigger universities to contact you but…
UCAS subtitle all their videos AND have BSL interpreted videos which explain stuff a bit better (also CCed) so I recommend them to hard of hearing students too. http://www.ucas.com/how-it-all-works/explore-your-options/individual-needs/students-disabilities
Contact disability services as soon as you can
Contact your disability services once you know your first and insurance choices or as soon as you can. The sooner the disability adviser knows you’re coming the sooner they can talk to you about YOUR personal experience of deafness (I hate guessing people’s needs at the last minute) and advise you about deaf-suitable university accommodation with fire alerters in it etc (university accommodation often has a deadline in May or so!), DSA, choosing modules, getting support and providing your tutors with deaf awareness!
Apply for Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs)
Apply for Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs). Even if you don’t identify as disabled, it’s what funds interpreters, notetakers, printing/photocopying etc for you! Text information at http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/applying-disabled-students%E2%80%99-allowances-dsas
Playlist of videos about DSAs and university with BSL interpretation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndmEx8F8QhM&list=UUApAGTUUhDCeTOIiULUW-IA&index=1
Other things you can do!
Ask for your tutors to be given deaf awareness training – it’s the university’s job to arrange this. Ask for it to be linked to your needs whether you sign, use hearing aids, speak, lipread etc etc.
Practice reading academic journal articles and citing them for deaf awareness
If nothing else read this paper yourself and send your tutors the link as it’s freely downloadable at http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/28388/55742_1.pdf?sequence=1
The full citation (you’re university students, get used to papers!) Hyde, M. et al (2009) “The experiences of deaf and hard of hearing students at a Queensland university: 1985-2005” Higher Education Research & Development Volume 28 Number (1), pp85-98.
Talk to your university people
Give feedback to your tutors and disability officers and not just negative. Obviously problems need to be resolved and problematic things and people need to be dealt with and may take a little time, but it’s also nice to be able to say nice positive things to academic departments when they do things right! Carrots often work better than sticks.
Don’t assume your disability adviser has been told anything
Where I work is a large university, often I don’t know what is happening if a student doesn’t tell me directly.
If you want interpreters or notetakers for an extra class at the start of term, tell me yourself as soon as you can (I’d rather get told twice than not at all!). Once your support is up and running I hope my students have some flexibility and can request extra support directly themselves.
Work out how you’ll make and manage friendships
Most of the other students will be hearing. Think about how you plan to manage your social life. You may need to teach friends some signs, or how to speak more clearly to you. Unfortunately DSA doesn’t fund interpreters for social events, so that is a difficult area. Try and connect with other deaf students and find out how they manage or have managed in the past.