Deaf students filing lawsuit against USU
Ellen O’Hara wants to graduate in two years with her master’s degree. That dream might not come true. The USU junior majoring in elementary education and deaf education is almost deaf herself. She said she finds it hard to be competitive in her classes when she doesn’t have an interpreter and notetaker and often feels isolated from her classmates.
This is one of the reasons she and 11 other students and former students filed a lawsuit against USU for discrimination. O’Hara said she thinks USU needs more qualified interpreters to provide for the deaf students’ needs. She said it can be hard for people who can hear to understand the challenges students who are deaf or hard of hearing face when trying to get a college education.
“Hearing people can get a good education, why can’t we?” O’ Hara asked. “Why do we get a low grade or no education? We want to excel. If there’s a barrier, we want to break it down. But we need help. We are a minority and need help from the majority.”
Angie Olsen, the deaf services coordinator for USU’s Disability Resource Center, said there are between 15 and 20 deaf students at USU, but only seven or eight use interpreters.
For those students, the university has notetakers and interpreters available. But O’Hara said the problem comes because only two of the interpreters the university has available are certified as level two
interpreters with the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. A level two interpreter is qualified to sign in university level courses, where the other interpreters are level one, meaning they have limited signing
experience. O’Hara said it is difficult and frustrating for both the student and the level one interpreter to work with each other because the interpreters “don’t know enough terminology that hearing people use.”
The student who was interpreting for O’Hara’s interview, Miriah Griffith, a sophomore at USU, said, “Teachers ask me to sign in class, and it’s not fair for me or them. If I have to sign things like huge terminology, I’ll have to spell things out or miss things. I get frustrated, and the student gets angry.”
O’Hara said she is worried about her graduate courses if the university does not get adequately trained interpreters for deaf students. Two interpreters are not enough to stretch between all the students who need them, she said.
Dale Boam, the lawyer for the students, said, “Students brought the case based on the feeling they are not getting adequate service. Students in 1999 protested and we have been trying to negotiate ever since then. The point of the lawsuit was that students were not getting adequate numbers of sign language interpreters, which excluded students from participation in classes.”
USU is trying to fill a third position for a level two interpreter, but there is a shortage of skilled interpreters, Olsen said. She added she is trying to create a dialogue with students to better address their concerns. Boam said he believes the students are on a brink of a resolution to the lawsuit.
While O’Hara acknowledges USU is trying to work with deaf students more, said said they need more help. She said classes are difficult as a deaf student because notetakers miss things, and if a deaf student tries to take notes while watching an interpreter or lipreading a professor, the student is behind after looking back up from her notes.
“Several times students get lousy grades because notetakers don’t get the assignment or interpreters miss something,” she said.
The social isolation that deaf students feel can often be just as hard as falling behind in classes, O’Hara said. She said it’s hard to participate in class discussions, approach other students as friends or even attend a play or lecture if the student doesn’t have access to a qualified interpreter.
“If people come up and talk to me, that’s what I like. Even if they only know a few signs it’s good. I feel recognized,” O’Hara said.
She said people who are deaf know how to act but “can’t function to full potential” in the hearing world without help.
O’Hara recognizes the lawsuit as a way to work toward a solution of helping deaf students excel. She said she thinks a solution to the problem with USU and the isolation she and other students feel is in sight, but it’s “not easy to come by.”
She said when USU has better skilled interpreters, deaf students will feel more comfortable approaching other students socially and as part of the academic world. Once the hearing and nonhearing world begin interacting, O’Hara said she thinks it will eventually reduce the dependence on interpreters and “will unite hearing and deaf.”
“We can work together,” she said. “It’s a long process, but I know it’s possible.”
Ultimately, the question is one of discrimination, Boam said. By not providing the services deaf students need, USU is compromising their education.
“I know USU really believes in diversity, but you need to meet those needs,” O’Hara said. “You can’t restrict that to the hearing world or American culture.”
-dilewis@cc.usu.edu