Accessibility for the Deaf and Deaf Culture

This week’s topic that I planned out since week 1 aligns well with the accessibility lesson from last week! Last week we focused on a broad scale of how to utilize accessible technology for neurodiverse students, and I want to know general ways to differentiate or make learning more accessible for deaf students in my classroom. As much as I love learning ASL and will continue to practice, I am nowhere near fluency (yet), and I want to be prepared for how to create an inclusive classroom for all students. Below, I am going to put some resources I have found/used as well as some of my key takeaways!

This Ted Talk by Nyle DiMarco is a really interesting insight into the experience of a deaf person who primarily attended deaf schools and his experience of attending public school for a year in grade 5. Nyle was born deaf, and talks about how he never knew anything different, and comes from a family with a history of deafness. Nyle talks about how he had a great experience in his deaf school growing up, but when he began attending public school, everything shifted for the worst. Not only was it difficult for him to interact socially with other students (who did not know how to sign), but teachers treated him differently and excluded him from activities and sports. This heartbreaking story illustrates the harm of isolating a student for any reason, or assuming they are not capable of achieving the same things as hearing students. Furthermore, Nyle talks about visiting deaf schools later on in life, and being shocked by the lack of resources and quality of education. Nyle urged the audience to advocate for better funding of deaf schooling, to better support the deaf community and provide accessibility to equal education.

One of my takeaways from this Ted Talk is another aspect of accessibility that I have not spent a lot of time thinking about. As much as I have learned and spent time thinking about accessibility of integrating students into the public school environment and advocating for accessible resources and tech use, I hadn’t really considered the importance of having other options for students when the public school environment is not beneficial for them. If there was better funding for deaf schools and they could hire great teachers to sign, is that not an equally as important form of accessibility? Obviously I agree that students should be welcomed and given the tools to achieve in any environment, but I do wonder what might accompany having more deaf schools and resources in that aspect available? Would deaf students receive a better quality education? Would this foster a more comfortable learning environment? Or could this potentially become isolating where deaf students and hearing students have minimal interaction? I am honestly curious to know because I do think the ideal situation is for a deaf student to have an interpreter and be given all of the resources the need and be held to the same standards as other students… but what if those resources don’t exist in the public school setting? I clearly have more research to do…

WOW! What an amazing talk by Glenna Cooper. Glenna has opened my eyes to the history of the deaf community and the systemic oppression they have faced (continuing to today). Glenna first gives some hilarious insight into deaf culture, specifically the bluntness of their speech. I have heard this before, but the ways she talks about it is too funny. She insists that hearing people are incredibly polite, and would never say something like “you’ve gained weight, are you okay??”. She also talks about how much deaf people like to talk and how they are a bunch of social butterflies with each other! This made me think back to my first post with the interpreter at the rap concert, and how fast that woman was able to sign. I know some people who talk incredibly fast, and I don’t think my hands could ever move that fast-even if I wasn’t signing anything!

Glenna also talks about the dark history of oppression the deaf community has faced. She says that deaf schools and communicating were really normal many years ago but in 1880 there was a conference held that deemed oral education superior to signing and banned all sign language in schools. As a result, deaf students were forced to learn to lip read and make-do with the oral teachings in the schools. As you can imagine, this drastically reduced their education and deaf students were put at a complete disadvantage, and their resulting lack of education was devastating.

There are many things I learned from Glenna’s Ted Talk, but I will list a couple more below:

• ASL is its own complete language with unique phrasing, syntax, and vocabulary. ASL is not based on English and should be thought of as its own completely unique language.
• Long after the ban on ASL, researchers observed the patterns in how deaf people communicated with each other, and ‘discovered’ that they were communicating in their own unique language.

To conclude her Ted Talk, Glenna poses an interesting question: if the ban on ASL in schools in 1880 had never happened, would we all be able to communicate in ASL today? It was so normal and accessible, it makes me think of how it would be beneficial to have it be incorporated in schools as a language to learn, like French or Spanish!

To conclude the post for this week, I am going to link two YouTube videos in a series on how to teach deaf students in an inclusive classroom. I will link part 1 & part 2. Initially, I was a bit skeptical since the videos are 10 years old, but I did learn some important tips for creating a more inclusive classroom environment for deaf students.

1. Address the student directly. Even if the student has an interpreter, it is so important that the teacher addresses the student and talks to them, not solely the interpreter. Don’t ask an interpreter, “can you tell them this…”, it belittles the student and isolates them. Just as we have learned time and time again… relationships, relationships, relationships!
2. Hold deaf students to the same standard as other students. We have learned about this for students with neurodiversitites and how all students should be held to high expectations. Just because a student cannot hear, dow not mean they cannot learn! Deafness is not associated with being any less capable to learn.
3. Get to know your student and their history. Do their parents/home-team use ASL with them at home? What kinds of things do they like? Connect with them!
4. Face the student in the classroom and use facial expressions. Not all deaf students can lip read, but they can read your expressions! Before the school year starts, work with the student, their family, and their interpreter to find the best spot in the classroom for them to sit. It should likely be near the front but not too close, so they can see what is going on with other students in the class.
5. Give think time! It may take a little time for the student to process what another student has said before responding. Don’t be in a rush to assume they do not understand-give them time!

Many of these seem like common sense, but I imagine that when dealing with 30 students, some of the mindfulness of giving the student what they need could be swept under the rug. I think it is a good reminder to take a breath and a moment to remind yourself of who you are in the classroom for and what the priorities should be (the wellbeing of your students)!

Finally, listening to these speakers has given me so much to think about and it makes me think that maybe I jumped into learning signs too quickly, and maybe I should have started with educating myself about deaf culture and the experiences of the deaf community. I feel like this has given me a deeper appreciation for what so many people go through and the struggle to receive the resources and support they need. I think moving forward in this inquiry and beyond, I would like to do a better job of integrating my learning of new signs with articles, Ted Talks, and videos from the deaf community so I can work towards having more mindfulness as I learn more ASL.

Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Ms. J