This week I have been taking a training course at work. It has been rather stressful, because the way it is taught is deaf-unfriendly. Speedy lecturing, flashing powerpoint slides so quickly that I could not read them and follow the interpreters, and giving out valuable information about upcoming tests only verbally with no visual information. Telling too many long stories that made it hard for me to know when to tune in and when to tune out as watching interpreters is exhausting (the hearing students had the same problem). At one point I even privately requested of the instructors that they put at least some key info on the black/white board to help me follow (they didn't do it).
Plus I have had a very hard time keeping up in group activity. The instructors give the groups little time to accomplish its tasks, and the result is that the group has to work so fast that I can not keep up. There is so much talking going on by multiple people that the interpreters don't know what to interpret, adding to THEIR frustration.
How have you coped with a deaf-unfriendly class? I will pass the course, but my frustration index went through the roof.
All the time. When I worked in the hearing community the last ten years, there were frequent meetings and trainings that even with interpreter support, were very difficult to follow. The speed was one thing, presenting a screen demonstration of software and talking at the same time while people were expected to follow along on their own computers (three things to watch, counting the interpreter, at the same time) was about the worst of it. People talking over one another, asking questions or adding onto questions were impossible for the interpreter to keep up with. Also, the interpreters were not familiar with the technical terms or concepts.
Supervisors and teammates were often reminded of the need to slow down meeting dynamics, but tended to forget or dismiss it as not important to the topic.
Truthfully, working in the deaf community, even with the greater responsibility heaped on a deaf professional, was easier than working in a job in the hearing community due to this one factor.
It helped to be already trained before being hired, to be a heavy reader of the changes in the software, and to remember that training is only a small part of the work.
The same can be said about hearing people working as captioners for TV programs. A political panel like “McLaughlin’s Group” every Sunday morning is more often than not hard for a captioner to follow because of too many overlappings in panelists’s discussions. It sometimes happens at “Meet the Press” when the moderator has four or five guests.
I’d say that sounds like a bad class even by hearie standards, since you mentioned even the hearing students were having difficulty, too. It sounds like it was taught at a for-profit training center (like University of Phoenix, perhaps?) where teachers basically “phone in” their teachings, rather than actually *teach*. I have had better luck with classes offered by major corporations like Microsoft and AT+T.
If it’s any consolation, I’m a hearing-impaired ASL learner who works for a large corporation, with a steady agenda of the dreaded “meetings.” Most of the people who speak up at most of the meetings just like to hear the sound of their own voices. In classes or presentations, the presenter is rarely doing more than reading the highlights and the brief script. If you’re given written materials or a syllabus, you’re probably covered. These “pro presenters” usually don’t even care much if the hearing attendees get anything out of the session. So don’t think that it’s necessarily a situation in which the hearing walk away with gold and the hearing-impaired or deaf leave with stale cake. Incidentally, my employer is actually very good about having interpreters on the site whenever needed. I often find myself watching the interpreter instead of paying close attention to the speaker (with hearing aids, I can get most of the speech). Really: corporate meetings are rightfully the subject of derision, both in-house and in the comics.
I just gave up. I got SO darn bored at the university that I chose to not change majors and just graduate, instead of keeping on with Master Degree. Anyways, there was a lot of chatting among the students with he professor, instead of having an actual class. And hearing persons still keep telling me that most people just talks trash and gossip. Too boring.
Just asked the instructure to slow down Please.