Hypocritical U

“One student was the class valedictorian, while the other was enrolled in a program for deaf students with learning disabilities. “This is a university, not a community college,” she said.”

She has to be kidding, right...?

It is entirely possible for a student in a program for those with learning disabilities to also become class valedictorian. A learning disability is just that and has nothing to do with innate intelligence or dedication to becoming a top student.

One of the best graduate teachers I have ever had was the graduate of a learning disabilities program who went on to Stanford and became an accomplished professor at another elite university with his PhD from Stanford. Stereotyping the learning disabled is shameful and Gallaudet of all places should be beyond it.

I have followed this Gallaudet debacle very carefully precisely because Gallaudet is supposed to help uplift an otherwise specially challenged community, which is so much of what community colleges do as well. It is absolutely shocking to me the depth to which Gallaudet representatives will go to denigrate other groups of people (and even their own) with special challenges! Not to mention denigrating community colleges of which I am both an alumnus and senior administrator who thankfully transferred to far more tolerant private universities.

Shame on Gallaudet!

Kevin Drumm, College President at No. WY Community College District, at 12:10 pm EST on November 10, 2006

Gally: not universally stereotyping

Kevin Drumm:

As an alumna of Gallaudet University, I would like to request that you please kindly not stereotype the entire university as “hypocritical” or bigoted.

Yes, it is obviously an unfortunate fact that there is at least one professor there who doesn’t understand what “learning disabilities” are. And I, too, become angered when I see anyone in any context appear to equate learning disabilities with cognitive impairments.

But in my own experiences there, and based on what I’ve heard from Gallaudet students with a range of learning disabilities, the mix of non-understanding professors and understanding professors seems to be probably about the same as you would find at any other university.

I have attention deficit disorder, which was not diagnosed until I was in a master degree program at Gallaudet. I had no problems with any of my professors (all in the social work department, so you would tend to expect more open-mindedness toward diversity, including diversity in learning styles). Other students I have talked with had a mix of experiences from the negative to the positive. I have met both undergrad and graduate students. I also taught a few undergrad classes there myself and had a few students with learning disabilities. I certainly respected their intelligence.

Yes, I agree, Gallaudet of all places should aspire to something BETTER than the average university when it comes to understanding and accommodating a wide range of disabilities. But at least I don’t think it’s any worse.

And: please do consider that deaf people, and the people who work with them, are generally exposed to roughly the same range of stereotypes and mistaken beliefs about other disabilities as the general population. A deaf person who is otherwise non-disabled is not that much more likely than the general population to be taught much about other disabilities or that much more likely to meet people with other disabilities, with the possible exception of deaf-blind people (about 2 percent of deaf people have a condition called Usher’s syndrome — I’m greatly simplifying here because there are actually multiple types of Usher’s syndrome, but in one common manifestation the person is born deaf then starts to very gradually lose night vision in their teens or college age, progressing to tunnel vision by age 20s, and sometimes progressing further, possibly to total blindness).

Deaf people are not magically more knowledgeable about other disabilities just because they themselves have a condition that is commonly labeled a “disability.” And they are not magically more sensitive. They have to be TAUGHT about other disabilities just like everyone else. And, unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen — in the exact same way that many hearing, non-disabled people are ALSO not taught enough about disabilities.

It’s fine to criticize ignorance. But please don’t over-generalize from the ignorance of ONE person to an entire university community. Speaking as someone who is just as offended by this professor’s comments as you are, I find it offensive to be lumped in the same category as her just because I come from the same university. Thank you.

Andrea, at 11:50 pm EST on November 10, 2006