Deaf students overcome difficulties

Brian Day Carr, 27, sign language interpretation major, works with deaf students. Jose De Castro / MOUNTAINEER

For most students, passing an algebra class is a challenge, but for deaf student Stacey Marlene Valle, 22, psychology major, the challenge was a bit more difficult. Valle lost her hearing at the age of 2 due to a serious ear infection.  Some deaf individuals, like Valle, can speak sometimes through practicing.  “Despite the communication barrier, I still would write down what I want to say or type it down on my cell phone’s text box and show it to them,” Valle said.  Since the start of the eighth grade she took standard classes.

Valle would have an interpreter to communicate with her classmates and teachers. “The interpreting program and the interpreters are great.” Valle said, “They are like my family. They are amazing, and they always try their best to keep their students doing their best in class,” Valle said.

Mt. SAC’s Disabled Student Programs and Services provides students that are deaf and hard-of-hearing accommodations such as sign language or oral interpreters; note takers for class lectures and priority registration. Brian Day Carr, a 27-year-old fulltime interpreter for the program and a major with a focus on sign language interpreting, said that being an interpreter is not easy.

“The one thing I learned my first year of interpreting is the language aspect of it is half the battle, the other half is dynamics with the environment,” Carr said.  “It could be the teacher’s speed, speak style, the loudness of the room.”

Researched by William Stokoe, American Sign Language became an official language during the 1960s and a decade later became available to colleges and universities.

Mt. SAC has been providing Sign Language classes since the late 1970s. However, the Sign Language/Interpreting Program began in the early 1980s.

“There are two hearing professors that teach sign language, myself and a part-time professor, Dave Sladek, who has deaf parents,” according to Bob Stuard, 54, department chair of the sign language/interpreting department. The program was created to provide interpreters and to communicate with deaf people, according to George Dorough, 61, professor of finger spelling and deaf prospective. For the past 20 years, Dorough has been teaching sign language to deaf and hearing students.  “ASL is a beautiful language and I like to teach hearing people about deaf signs and their expressions,” said Dorough.

Dorough added that being identified as being deaf is acceptable and that “hearing impaired” is actually a term that many do not like in the deaf community.

For Danae Carrano, 21, sign language interpreting major, taking sign language was just another class to take. However, as the semester went on Carrano became enamored.  “I took it because language was a requirement and then I just fell in love with it! I actually changed my major from child psychology to sign language interpreting major,” said Carrano.

- Jose De Castro
Staff Writer