Insight: Life at University for a deaf student feels twice as hard (BSL)

I am a University student, currently in my second year and I am also deaf. My preferred language to communicate in is BSL although English is probably my first language due to growing up with a hearing non-signing family. I became deaf at the age of 3 due to meningitis and have had cochlear implants since then.

I wanted to raise awareness of the current injustice in the education system at University for deaf students. I strongly feel that deaf students are expected to do twice the work and spend more time than their peers on their studies, because the way things work at the moment is really not designed for us.

The first point I want to raise is the additional time and stress deaf students have in order to sort out their communication support at University. There are emails, meetings and paperwork about this and also, we have last minute cancellations when interpreters or note takers are unavailable, yet we are still expected to attend lectures or catch up ourselves when we have not been able to take part in seminars.

My hearing peers can just roll up to a lecture or seminar and expect to take part regardless of who turns up or not. I don’t have that sort of independence unfortunately. If there was a way that all lectures could be automatically captioned this would be brilliant for me and would also reduce the need for note takers to be there in person.

Secondly, there is clearly a barrier between BSL and English in the University system. Lectures aren’t designed for BSL at all. To be honest, when my interpreter relays information, several times I have to ask him to clarify which word the lecturer used.

Lots of BSL signs seem to have generic meanings, so it means through an interpreter I miss out on the exact english that my lecturer is using. From watching my interpreter, I also then have to translate what I’ve been watching into my English notes as my work is all submitted in written english. Again, this is extra time and effort that my peers do not even have to consider.

One of my favourite forms of support is palantypists – they type into a laptop and the words appear as they are typed on my screen. I can save these notes and use them in future, which is really useful.

The only issues here are firstly, there aren’t enough palantypists at all so they can’t cover all of my lectures. And secondly, the terminology used in the lectures means the information typed does contain typos or certain words get omitted. It isn’t perfect, but I find it the most helpful.

I have asked if I could deliver presentations in BSL in the past, to which my lecturer agreed. But I soon found that in order to ensure the English was voiced over accurately I had to write the presentation in English as well as deliver it in BSL, so it felt like I was doing twice the work!

Finally, social life at University still feels hard with the BSL/English barriers. Outings are often in dark dimly lit places and there’s just a real lack of deaf awareness on campus unfortunately. It still feels like I have to make the effort with everyone else instead of them meeting me half way or making an effort for me. My only options though are to either make an effort and exhaust myself lipreading or to be by myself. Not much fun really!

Courses aren’t written or delivered with deaf students in mind and the lack of consistent support means deaf students – like me – either have to accept the extra hard work that is required to succeed or admit defeat and be prepared to fail. I would like to see University’s having more deaf friendly accessible options that lessens the need for the same interpreter or palantypists at every lecture.

To be honest I have had my doubts about whether University is the right place for me but I love my subject very much and I am hopeful it will lead me to the career that I want. Maybe all of the double time and effort will pay off eventually, who knows.

But one thing is for sure, more awareness needs to be shared because University life as it is is not plain sailing for me and I imagine it may be the same for other deaf students.

This blog has been written anonymously as part of the Insight series – where readers are invited to share their story or news about their interesting job with The Limping Chicken. If you have a story to share please email rebecca@rawithey.com 

Image courtesy of i-stock photos.