Archives for October 2006

Protests 1,000 miles away have local ties

October 26, 2006

This article originally appeared in the Faribault Daily News, Faribault, MN.

FARIBAULT – More than 1,000 miles away from Faribault, protests at Gallaudet University, the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf people, in Washington, D.C., have been of keen interest to local residents.

When Dr. Jane K. Fernandes, a deaf woman, was chosen as the university’s ninth president, protests erupted on campus in May and again this month. Students and faculty shut down the school’s main academic building and blocked entry to the campus before being arrested.

The protests stem from claims that the presidential search process was flawed, and faculty, staff, students and alumni have pointed to Dr. Fernandes’ turbulent track record as provost and drastic drops in academic achievements during her administration. On Monday, 82 percent of the faculty voted that Dr. Fernandes resign as president or be removed; last spring, 68 percent of the faculty voted no confidence in Dr. Fernandes. Current university president Dr. I. King Jordan has insisted that the president-select will not step down.

Faribault has a large number of Gallaudet alumni and prospective students who have kept a close eye on the events in Washington.

“I support the protest because Gallaudet needs a capable leader. Jane Fernandes has proven she cannot lead,” said Bobby Siebert, a senior at MSAD. “When the protest first started, it took maybe more than a week before Jane came in contact with the protestors. She didn’t take action and preferred to talk with the media instead. What kind of leader is that?”

His sister, Amy, is a MSAD graduate and a freshman at the university.

“There are so many reasons the protests are happening. The process in selecting the next president was flawed,” she said, referring to objections that the selection process was rushed and unreasonable. “The protest has been going on for a long time. This is pretty frustrating. And Jane has done nothing. This is not something a president would do.” The Sieberts’ parents are also graduates of the university.

One week ago, upon Dr. Jordan’s orders, 135 protesters were arrested, including several Minnesotans, such as Priscilla Saunders’ sister. Saunders, a Gallaudet alumna whose 5-year-old son is seventh-generation deaf and attends MSAD, said, “My sister asked me first if she should join the people getting arrested, and I told her it wasn’t a good idea but the more people I knew who were getting arrested, I then encouraged her to be involved. When she was bailed out, she e-mailed me saying it was worth it. My heart was set on attending Gallaudet since I was three, four years old. Now my heart’s aching on how the president and the upcoming president have been handling this situation.”

The mother of three deaf children and a Gallaudet graduate herself, Lisa Skjeveland explained the impact of the protests. “Gallaudet University is part of our Deaf community and we have the duty to help protect the futures of our deaf children. Gallaudet was and is still very much part of my life. It has opened up a world of friends and connections with many bright deaf people.”

Bobby Siebert added, “Gallaudet has a major impact upon MSAD. Some of our students aspire to be future Gallaudet students, and many teachers and faculty members are Gallaudet alumni. So much of the Faribault community has ties to Gallaudet. I admit I do feel uneasy. Gallaudet’s my future college, and to have its future in doubt frightens me. Still, I feel that the protest’s cause is justified and I want it to continue until we find better leaders at Gallaudet.”

Filed Under: Culture, Gallaudet, Language

Deaf Instructors in ITPs: An Investment in the Community

October 21, 2006

This article originally appeared at i711.com.

There’s a new interpreter training/preparation program (ITP) in Quincy, Ill., at Quincy University where my grandmother worked for 35 years. When I learned of this ITP’s establishment, I was flabbergasted for a number of reasons.

First, Quincy only has about 20-30 deaf people in a population of 40,000. The town is also surrounded by farmland and the Mississippi River; it’s not a bustling metropolis or anything of that nature. What this means is that students in the ITP base their skills on a very small handful of Deaf people, who might not always have time to socialize for “silent suppers” or to be part of these students’ immersion in the language or culture. Besides, there’s MacMurray College in Jacksonville, which has a prominent ITP and is a short drive away on I-72. Jacksonville is also where the Illinois School for the Deaf is, and has a large community of native, fluent signers.

To add insult to injury, the Quincy University ITP has only one Deaf teacher. While I won’t get into the politics of the administration there, this trend of ITPs with a few or no Deaf teachers is disturbing. We’re in an age of awareness, where so much has been discovered about the wealth of American Sign Language (ASL), the Deaf community and its culture, and the profession of interpreting.

I recently learned about an ITP here in Minnesota with no deaf teachers; there are deaf teachers at the college, but they teach ASL, not in the ITP. In the past, this college had Deaf teachers in the ITP, but has pretty much pushed them aside in favor of hiring hearing teachers—some of whom don’t really have the best interpreting skills.

This again disturbs me. In an earlier column, I wrote about how ASL teachers must have three traits: fluency, the right attitude, and teaching skills; this, I believe, also applies to ITP instructors. Before I go into that, let’s get one thing clear: without the Deaf community, there would be no need for interpreters and no need for ITPs. Period.

ITP teachers—Deaf or hearing—should be fluent in ASL and English, have an intricate knowledge of the interpreting process, have an outstanding attitude of respect, and yes, teaching skills. Yet, ITPs (and ASL programs) around the country consistently hire hearing teachers over deaf teachers; many of those hearing teachers lack some or all of the aforementioned traits. This isn’t due to a lack of qualified Deaf teachers; there are plenty. And it’s not because deaf people don’t understand the finer points of interpreting and the process, either. There are plenty of Deaf people—Deaf interpreters, for instance—who have all the qualifications and qualities that an ITP instructor should have. Any ITP coordinator who believes otherwise shouldn’t be in that position.

Besides, Deaf instructors bring such valuable insight into the interpreting classroom. They can teach ethics courses, voice-to-sign courses, interpretation courses, and an array of other topics. In situations where they may need someone hearing to be involved—for instance, to listen to voiced interpretations—why not bring in a hearing team teacher? There are plenty of solutions to listening-based units or activities in these situations.

I’m not saying that Deaf instructors should always be chosen over hearing instructors; quite the contrary. I simply think that ITPs need to stop hiring for the sake of convenience, and begin to proactively recruit Deaf instructors. It’s so important to have a balanced, diverse staff. When an ITP has an all-hearing staff, regardless of the hearing staff’s involvement with the Deaf community (i.e., CODA or spouse of a deaf person), it’s imperative to bring in deaf instructors to alleviate this stark gap. We all can agree that Deaf people bring a unique perspective to an ITP, since they themselves are consumers of interpreting services and can bring distinctive insight to the hearing students’ perceptions of the Deaf community and ASL. More importantly, when an ITP has a balanced staff, the ITP invests in its own future and community.

It saddens me to see so many ITPs returning to the Dark Ages when Deaf people weren’t considered valuable parts of an ITP’s curriculum and identity. Without Deaf people, there is no need for interpreters. ITPs must remember this, and must practice what they teach students: that Deaf people are independent, intelligent and dare we say, typical people. How better to illustrate this than to employ Deaf people at every level?

Copyrighted material. This article can not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.

Filed Under: Community resources, Interpreting, Language

Deaf in Delhi Offers Rare Perspective of Being Deaf in India

October 8, 2006

This article originally appeared at www.deafprofessional.net.

The cover of Deaf in Delhi features a stunningly handsome, dark man, complete with fashionable scarf around neck. I couldn’t help but marvel at the black and white picture, which is reminiscent of a different era, yet resembles a modern-day Banana Republic advertisement.

Deaf in Delhi details growing up deaf in India during the 1940s and 1950s. Author Madan Vasishta – who is the 21-year-old man on the cover, now in his 60s – says he wrote the book because he knows of many deaf people in India who have very little hope for their futures. “Growing up, I never met another deaf person until I was well into my 20s,” he says over coffee and rolls at Washington, D.C.’s Union Station. That is a concept I find difficult to grasp, given the opportunities I have had as a born-deaf American.

I had corresponded with Vasishta for many years, starting with when he wrote stories for a publication I edited. I had pictured him to be a tall man, full of confidence and arrogance. We finally met at Union Station in the summer of 2006. What I wasn’t prepared for was that I was taller than Madan; the power of his words makes him larger than life. He wasn’t at all arrogant; rather, he was kind-hearted, energetic and easy to chat with.

“Over the years, whenever I told stories about my growing up in India to friends, they would say, you need to write all this down,” Vasishta says. “They’d say that these stories would make a good book. I laughed these suggestions off for 30 years. However, after my retirement, I decided to take the pen, or as I say, hit the keyboard.” His stories have evolved into a witty and heart-warming memoir of a life shaped by the experience of becoming deaf after a two-week typhoid fever and mumps at the age of 11. “It amuses me to look back and think about how many cures I had to experience before we all finally accepted I wasn’t going to regain my hearing,” he recalls with a twinkle in his eye. He adds that he grew up in an era where poverty existed among most people in India, who relied upon family ties, tradition and faith for strength.

This 216-page book is full of charming anecdotes, quirky memories and a tongue-in-cheek style. Ideal for Deaf culture and/or Deaf studies courses and for leisurely reading, this easy-to-read book is a fascinating look into deaf life in India. After becoming deaf, Vasishta tells of his frustration at not being able to attend school, and his refusal to accept the fate of being a cattle herder. Determined to educate himself, he moved to Delhi.

“The train hurtled in. The second-class bogies were not only full but literally bursting at the seams with people,” he writes. “I managed to jump onto the nearest door and hung to the door handle while standing on the first step. As the train moved, I managed to get my two feet on the main floor of the bogey. There I stood for seven hours as the train sped by fields where farmers were sowing corn. I smiled. I was done with farming! A new life was waiting for me…”

Vasishta attended photography school and met a cast of deaf characters who eventually became his life-changing connection to the deaf community. He also remembers with pride how, after he left his photography job, he beat out over 80 hearing people for a much-coveted government job.

My favorite parts in the book, by far, were the cultural misunderstandings upon his arrival at Gallaudet University. He writes, “As time went on, I learned more American English. Americans do not sell garages or yards when they advertise garage or yard sales. An African friend went to a professional photographer for a new photograph of himself since his counselor had recommended that he ‘present his best picture’ at an upcoming job interview. I had already learned that Americans played ‘football” with their hands (and no foul was called) and rarely touched it with a foot… When a boy and a girl take their car to “park” behind a building, they usually have some other purpose in mind. The list is endless.”

Vasishta’s amusing honesty emerges often. “In India, you can ask an acquaintance how he paid for a certain item, what his salary is, and whether he is happy with his wife. Such questions reflect your concern for the individual,” he writes. “In America, my polite inquiries about people’s personal affairs generated shock and annoyance. The nicest response to my questions was ‘none of your business.’ Sometimes, people would also interject some other words before the word business. I acquired a pretty good vocabulary of four-letter words while checking on my new friends’ general welfare.”

Despite cultural and emotional adjustments, Vasishta achieved milestones beyond even any American’s wildest dreams. It is remarkable to think of how far he has come – especially during an era when today’s technology didn’t exist. He earned his doctorate, served as the superintendent of the New Mexico School for the Deaf and the North Carolina School for the Deaf, and is currently an associate professor in the administration and supervision graduate program at Gallaudet University. He authored an Indian Sign Language dictionary, had two children with his wife of 39 years, who he met through an arranged marriage (also detailed in the book). He is also working on a historical fiction novel book based on Gallaudet during the 1880s, and writing a sequel to his memoir.

Deaf in Delhi is worth the buy and read. Vasishta’s story is a story of self-propelled determination and achievement, one that Americans can learn from.

Deaf in Delhi is published by Gallaudet University Press, and is available for $29.95.

Copyrighted material. This article can not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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