College Chops Interpreters' Pay. Interpreters Quit. Deaf Students Suffer.
Wednesday December 3, 2008
When the Kern Community College District cut interpreters' pay, interpreters not surprisingly quit in droves. The result? Deaf students failing courses or dropping out. Interpreters' pay was cut because of revision of the interpreting job description. Another reason for the cut was an "invalid" form of payment (the article is not clear on what is meant by "invalid.") Pay dropped a whopping fifty percent, and interpreters quit. The college is attempting to cope by looking into technological solutions.
Comments
They saw a demo of our CART system at the fair last summer. They liked it.
Someone needs to file a lawsuit against the college for not fulfilling their Obligation to the public by providing Equal Access to students under the Americans With Disability’s Act.
The interpreters will get their pay rather than have the college suffer a HUGE legal penalty.
CART reproduces English. It does nothing for the student who’s language is American Sign Language. ENGLISH and ASL are two separate and independent languages with both idiomatic and grammatical differences. ASL has no printed form and CART is useless for students who prefer an INTERPRETATION between two complete and different languages.
Encourage the students to communicate clearly regarding their access needs. Under the ADA they are entitled to appropriate access to their education. A university here in Central Washington recently implemented similar cost cutting measures. It has been a nightmare for the students and heartbreaking to witness what the university now considers “adequate technological access.” Speak up students!! You have the power here to take a strong stand for what you need to access your education.
The school must get those interpreters back if that is what they prefer. The ADA calls for “effective” accommodations, meaning that students must be provided with accommodations that best match their needs. To provide CART when it is not appropriate is a waste of money and time.
I have been dealing with the same mentality at Central Washingtun University for a year now, and we are finally (maybe) seeing the solution coming about. It has been a huge problem for me as a student.
Uh-oh.
Pognyc- foreing students are required to demonstrate English proficiency in order to attend college here, why should deaf students be any different? Translating English into another language should not be necessary, only to change it to a form that they can use based on the disability. I understand that CART may not be adequate, but it should not be because of a language barrier, but because it is too slow or for another reason.
What about an instant immersion program, or Naturaly speaking? I know it’s expensive for individuals, but for a class? Why can they not dispay what the speaker says on a screen simular to closed captioning, So everybody can read it. In a large classroom or auditorium, are you telling me all students can hear that speaker?? I think it would benifit people to start using a program like this. I don’t understand why that is not available.
tarosaij , your remark is ridiculous. Spoken languagues are soley based on sound. Deaf persons who do not have enough ACCESS to sound do not become fluent in English. This is why it acceptable for DEAF HIGHS SCHOOL STUDENTS TO GRADUATE WITH AN AVERAGE 4TH GRADE READING LEVEL.
Your comment makes as much sense as telling someone who uses a wheel chair that they must climb the stairs anyway.
If your line of thinking made any sense, all of us hearing people would be fluent in every language we could hear.
Regardless of opinion, there is a LAW and GOVERNMENT MANDATE that entities, especially those entities that get government funding are OBLIGATED BY LAW to be ACCESSIBLE to persons with “disabilities”.
Your type of thinking is ignorant and harmful by spreading attitudes based on false beliefs.