Deaf student association tries to increase awareness
Answer: Lips.
Question: What part of the body is most important for a deaf person to see?
The Deaf Education Student Association of Utah State University held a Deaf Culture Jeopardy on Thursday night to increase awareness about the deaf culture at USU. Some awareness notes: if you’re talking to a deaf person, make sure they can see your lips.
“There are a lot of deaf students on campus,” said Brandon Dopf, a sophomore majoring in business information systems. “Hearing students don’t know how to interact with us.”
The event put on by DESA was part of National Deaf Awareness Week. According to a handout put out by DESA, their goal is “to provide the community of Utah State University and Cache Valley opportunities to learn more about American Sign Language, the deaf community, deaf culture, and deaf education.”
“We want to let them know we’re here,” Dopf said.
Tina Mendenhall, a senior majoring in deaf education and a committee member for DESA, said, “The purpose of Deaf Education Week is to make people more aware and to encourage people to recognize deaf as a culture.”
Deaf culture awareness is important for the same reasons that raising awareness for any minority is, said Justin Howell a junior majoring in communication disorders. He said there should be more awareness, more acceptance, and less ignorance of the deaf culture.
The jeopardy questions Thursday helped participants learn the correct protocol for interacting with deaf or partially deaf individuals. In coming in contact with a deaf person, always look at them when speaking to them and not just to their interpreter. Also, let the deaf person see your lips when talking, especially when talking in groups. If you need to communicate with a deaf person and don’t know sign language, use writing to communicate.
About 40 attended the activity, and the room in the HPER Building was silent in the beginning except for a few bouts of laughter. People were communicating from across the room using only American Sign Language. A mother was disciplining her child using ASL.
DESA held other events this week such as deaf panel discussions dealing with dating and family relationships Tuesday and a captioned movie “What a Girl Wants,” on Wednesday.
The questions were asked in sign language, but there was an interpreter for those who do not sign. Questions ranged from information about deaf technology to well-known people in the deaf culture.
DESA will hold more events during the year including a street painting and a float for homecoming. Signing Saturday will be on Oct. 18, when members and nonmembers of DESA will be teaching basic signing to hearing children. There will also be a silent Thanksgiving Dinner on Nov. 20.
The department of communicative disorders and the deaf education program are in charge of DESA. Jan Kelley-King, instructor of communicative disorders and deaf education, said USU offers five levels of sign language classes from beginning to a teaching level. She said they have teacher training in the last level to help those who are going to be deaf education teachers. Kelly-King said they have students in their classes from all different majors and disciplines.
For more information visit the DESA Web site at www.coe.usu.edu/comd/desa.html.
-lindsaychild@cc.usu.edu