So recently I've been going through the application process for some internships. I just want to contrast two different situations that have happened. A little bit of background information first. BYU constantly has different tables set up in the student center, the Wilk, for companies looking for interns.
The first company was Holland America and Princess Cruises. I had picked up a few brochures because there wasn't a person sitting at the table in the Wilk at the time. When a representative showed up I walked over to talk to her. I typically don't speak orally, so I pulled out pen and paper to talk to her. My first question was the all important one, what accommodations do you make for Deaf people. You should have seen her face. She went from excited to talk to a possible intern to disappointed in about five seconds flat when she realized that I couldn't hear her. She began by listing the jobs that I can't hold with their company and then said she didn't know what accommodations if any the other jobs had. I wanted to make sure it was competely clear and so I asked her if I couldn't be hired for those jobs just because I can't hear. She wrote back that, that was the exact reason. I have to admit I was really angry at that point. Before walking away I spoke orally telling her I thought that was interesting because denying me a job just because I can't hear is blatant discrimination and completely illegal.
The other situation could not have been more different. I went to the Disney College Program presentation on campus. Like normal I had two interpreters with me to make communication easier. The staff from Disney worked with me to be set up for the presentation. They kept the lights up during two movie clips so I could watch the interpreter. The recruiter is also learning ASL, he practiced signing to me. He let me know that there were a variety of jobs available to me regardless of whether I can hear or whether I speak orally. He also let me know that Disney would make all the necessary accommodations for my living arrangements. Disney would provide things for the doorbell, fire alarms all of that at no charge to me if I was selected to work for them.
It's always interesting to see how people deal with my deafness especially with jobs. These are just two of the many experiences I've had but I think they show the best and worst scenarios.
Rachel
Friday, January 27, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Winter Semester
Ok so I still haven't finished writing about Christmas. Sorry, I'm working on it but we had a very busy Christmas break. So in the meantime ( by the way totally didn't know meantime was one word until today) I'm going to update all of you on how this semester is going.
I'm currently taking ASL 102, New Testament (Part 1), Statics, Calculus 1, and Technical Writing. Thus far I've had a pretty good start to the semester. I've only encountered a few problems. The most prominent one came from my English class which is on technical writing. As everyone knows I use interpreters during class. This means that I normally sign and the interpreter will voice for me ( for more information about voicing check out my last blog, I know shameless plugging). For this class we have to do several presentations. The problem occurred when I asked my teacher after class how he wanted to time me. He had been using his watch, which obviously wouldn't work so well for someone who can't hear the alarm.
My teacher then made a rather grave mistake. He asked me to present orally, meaning he didn't want me to use ASL during my presentation. He went on to say that he felt that using an interpreter for the presentation made it the interpreter's presentation and not mine. Many people will read this and wonder ok, where's the problem I don't see it. The problem is that is completely inappropriate and flat out illegal to ask that or bring that up with a deaf or hard of hearing student. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it's just flat out illegal for a teacher to do that. One of the ironic things is that my teacher uses in the canal hearing aids.The other ironic thing is that my husband had been encouraging me to do the presentation orally and I had been considering. After the mistake on my teacher's part I've decided to present using ASL. I want to stand up for my rights and do what I'm most comfortable with. My husband is fully supporting my presenting in ASL, mostly because the teacher made him mad.
On a funny note, a very funny situation happened in my religion class. Every day we start with a prayer. If you pray then you have to introduce yourself to the class and answer three random questions. The class asked me how I met my husband, my major, and then my teacher walked right into a huge no-no. My teacher asked me what is the most important thing we should know about "hearing impaired people". I signed back instantly, (without trying to be snarky) not to call us hearing impaired. The entire class including both of my interpreters and my teacher burst out laughing.
Being Deaf at a hearing school certainly has it's ups and downs, it's funny moments and it's hard moments. But all in all, it's not half bad. Next time more about communicating with hearing people (when I don't speak) and eventually I'll post about Christmas.
love you all
Rachel
I'm currently taking ASL 102, New Testament (Part 1), Statics, Calculus 1, and Technical Writing. Thus far I've had a pretty good start to the semester. I've only encountered a few problems. The most prominent one came from my English class which is on technical writing. As everyone knows I use interpreters during class. This means that I normally sign and the interpreter will voice for me ( for more information about voicing check out my last blog, I know shameless plugging). For this class we have to do several presentations. The problem occurred when I asked my teacher after class how he wanted to time me. He had been using his watch, which obviously wouldn't work so well for someone who can't hear the alarm.
My teacher then made a rather grave mistake. He asked me to present orally, meaning he didn't want me to use ASL during my presentation. He went on to say that he felt that using an interpreter for the presentation made it the interpreter's presentation and not mine. Many people will read this and wonder ok, where's the problem I don't see it. The problem is that is completely inappropriate and flat out illegal to ask that or bring that up with a deaf or hard of hearing student. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it's just flat out illegal for a teacher to do that. One of the ironic things is that my teacher uses in the canal hearing aids.The other ironic thing is that my husband had been encouraging me to do the presentation orally and I had been considering. After the mistake on my teacher's part I've decided to present using ASL. I want to stand up for my rights and do what I'm most comfortable with. My husband is fully supporting my presenting in ASL, mostly because the teacher made him mad.
On a funny note, a very funny situation happened in my religion class. Every day we start with a prayer. If you pray then you have to introduce yourself to the class and answer three random questions. The class asked me how I met my husband, my major, and then my teacher walked right into a huge no-no. My teacher asked me what is the most important thing we should know about "hearing impaired people". I signed back instantly, (without trying to be snarky) not to call us hearing impaired. The entire class including both of my interpreters and my teacher burst out laughing.
Being Deaf at a hearing school certainly has it's ups and downs, it's funny moments and it's hard moments. But all in all, it's not half bad. Next time more about communicating with hearing people (when I don't speak) and eventually I'll post about Christmas.
love you all
Rachel
Friday, January 6, 2012
"Voicing"
I know I've been a slacker lately about posting, sorry I'm trying to do better. This post is going to be a little out of sequence because I'm also working on writing all about the holidays. My posts about Christmas break are going to go up after this one. So no one shoot me for being out of order.
With the start of the new semester I'm assigned interpreters for my different classes. Some of the interpreters I've worked with before and others I haven't. But the interesting phenomena I want to talk about in my post is "voicing." When a person does not speak, whatever the reason, and only signs the interpreter will "voice" for them. Essentially the interpreter is interpreting everything that person is saying for other people who don't sign.
Normally with my classes and interpreters I speak for myself but not always. Sometimes it's easier to sign what I want to know and often it just feels so much more natural. It also depends on the interpreter and how familiar we are with each others signs. I find that the more I use ASL the less inclined I am to speak orally.
It's just a very interesting thing to watch someone speaking like you (not for you, it's an important difference). When an interpreter voices for someone they are speaking as that person, never for that person. There are many different views on the use of voicing especially for late deafened adults. A lot of people think that if you can speak you should. Thus they believe that voicing promotes a certain level of laziness. I disagree with that idea. An interpreter voices for me because I make a linguistic choice, I choose to use a different language that I'm frequently more comfortable with. Also it's very hard to switch back and forth from ASL to English. If I'm already watching my interpreter and conducting the class in ASL it's unnecessary to switch back to English to ask a question then back to ASL to receive the answer.
For example today in my technical writing class we introduced ourselves to another member of the class. I signed the entire time and allowed my interpreters to voice for me. I felt much more comfortable doing that and it was a much more enjoyable experience for me. Take my very biased opinions about voicing with a grain of salt and think about it. Would you choose to have someone voice for you?
Rachel
With the start of the new semester I'm assigned interpreters for my different classes. Some of the interpreters I've worked with before and others I haven't. But the interesting phenomena I want to talk about in my post is "voicing." When a person does not speak, whatever the reason, and only signs the interpreter will "voice" for them. Essentially the interpreter is interpreting everything that person is saying for other people who don't sign.
Normally with my classes and interpreters I speak for myself but not always. Sometimes it's easier to sign what I want to know and often it just feels so much more natural. It also depends on the interpreter and how familiar we are with each others signs. I find that the more I use ASL the less inclined I am to speak orally.
It's just a very interesting thing to watch someone speaking like you (not for you, it's an important difference). When an interpreter voices for someone they are speaking as that person, never for that person. There are many different views on the use of voicing especially for late deafened adults. A lot of people think that if you can speak you should. Thus they believe that voicing promotes a certain level of laziness. I disagree with that idea. An interpreter voices for me because I make a linguistic choice, I choose to use a different language that I'm frequently more comfortable with. Also it's very hard to switch back and forth from ASL to English. If I'm already watching my interpreter and conducting the class in ASL it's unnecessary to switch back to English to ask a question then back to ASL to receive the answer.
For example today in my technical writing class we introduced ourselves to another member of the class. I signed the entire time and allowed my interpreters to voice for me. I felt much more comfortable doing that and it was a much more enjoyable experience for me. Take my very biased opinions about voicing with a grain of salt and think about it. Would you choose to have someone voice for you?
Rachel
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