Time to End the Colonialism

Dr. Davis’ article does a fine job of detailing the issues and the process.

What the “non-disabled” community always fails to see is the tradition of paternalistic colonialism that dominates all “special education” in the US — and how this directly impacts students. The idea that the President of the leading Deaf educational institution could not (or would not) speak to students and faculty effectively — and in their own language — is critical. The problem that I see in almost every primary and secondary special education class that I visit — that teachers can rarely understand their students understanding of language, locks humans into a spiral of failure and dependence.

But to me (as illustrated in the conversation about the news story from yesterday here) the “Deaf Enough” is only partially about language — it is largely about the question of whether people with “disabilities” need to be “fixed.” Now, Dr. Davis is right — there aren’t “bad guys” — just well-meaning types who truly feel the world would be easier if we were all the same. But it has taken much of centuries for those of us who are different to break through the “born wrong” assumptions, and many of us prize the uniqueness our differences afford, and don’t want to be “fixed.” Dr. Fernandes, by never deeply learning ASL, fell (intentionally or not) into the “fixer” camp and thus into the role of Colonial administrator — hoping to “turn us all into good Brits-Americans-whatever” and that made her unacceptable.

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 8:56 am EST on October 31, 2006

Is there a presidential candidate out there that would even WANT that job now?

S.D., at 10:18 am EST on October 31, 2006

More than one note in this song

I have followed the Gallaudet events closely in the news, and have discussed them with politically active members of the deaf community. Davis’ article is a fine one in explaining one aspect of the controversy, but I take exception to its singleminded focus, and I warn readers to avoid generalizing or otherwise jumping to conclusions about students’ reasons for opposing Fernandes. To suggest that all GU students are ‘elitist’ and discriminatory is to do an injustice those students who had valid and well-considered reasons for opposing Fernandes’ appointment.

Based on what I have read, GU students had a variety of reasons for the positions they took, and many positions had nothing to do with her abilities. For example, GU students noted other things about Fernandes that they thought would make her less than effective as president, including her lack of a warm and politically savvy personality. That’s not news or a disabilty issue. It happens on campuses across the nation.

From the perspective of organizational change, it strikes me that the real issue is not whether the GU trustees made a poor choice, but that they made it without understanding the expectations of their constituencies. That’s not news either (or a disability issue). It happens on campuses across the U.S., including my own. So let’s stop generalizing about the student protests and start talking about how boards effectively fulfill their obligations as representatives of their constituencies.

Hoosier Prof, at 1:11 pm EST on October 31, 2006

We tried this, didn’t we?

“The difficulty might be easier to understand if you imagined deciding to elect a president of the United States who spoke with a heavy accent and whose command of English was less than perfect.”

Peter, at 2:20 pm EST on October 31, 2006

this article is generally good but i’d like to dispute the part about ASL only campus and the “not deaf enough” issue: The protesters never brought up the deaf identity issue: it was Fernandes who threw the first punch and continued to play it up to distract from the real issues: failed leadership and shared governance. Recently, Gallaudet University’s Public Relations spokesperson Mercy Coogan told Inside Higher Ed that: “(Gallaudet University) weren’t spinning the ‘not deaf enough’ issue — we were pushing it” Yes there has been calls for sign language courses to be required for everybody, even for native or not native signers. Some people have likened it to “teaching english in english-speaking schools” “making french a requirment in a university in france” ... only at Gallaudet it was mostly a matter of culture enrichment and understanding ourselves better, not imposing a language upon people. I took one class under a teacher who had been teaching at Gallaudet for thirty class. The teacher was hearing and used a method of “simulateous communication” (SimCom), which means that the person is speaking with voice and signing at same time. Studies done by linguistics professionals have shown that if a person is signing and speaking, it would considerably slow down the sign language fluency and have shown that it is vastly confusing way to communicate because ASL grammar and English speaking grammar is different, which makes the speaking outcome understandable but the signing is indecipherable. even worse, she would only sign one word for every five or seven words she spoke. in an university class, deaf students were struggling under this environment while hearing undergraduate students found it easy. this is not accessibility. i only found that class easy because the subject was a personal hobby for me — but in any other situation i’d have found it difficult to learn under a teacher who was SimComming. Even worse, only 33 percent of the faculty is deaf. The rest is hearing. SimComming is much more common than you think on Gallaudet’s campus and it is simply not an accessible way to educate deaf people. Encouraging teachers to sign ASL would solve some problems of accessibility (interpreters are always provided for people who can hear, but not always provided for deaf people who have difficult time understanding their professors). i dispute the notion that ASL only campus would be exclusive. Gallaudet has always been inclusive and included people from vast variety of backgrounds. Encouraging ASL to be implemented in classrooms by teachers and adding ASL courses for everybody would help make the campus more friendly for people who rely on their eyes and sign language for life.

being deaf is complicated — there are alot of issues to deal with. but it gets so unbearable when people take one little thing and spin it out of control, portraying deaf people as something else than what they really are — a very inclusive community open and willing to invite anybody in. — leah

leah, at 4:55 pm EST on October 31, 2006

Another real issue

I’m surprised that no one has mentioned the difficulties the next administration at Gallaudet will face in trying to convince students and faculty that protest is not an effective way to make policy at a university without resorting to confrontation. The more protest is used, the less effective it will be, and confrontation is not a good way to negotiate workable solutions that benefit everyone. The new president will have to figure out how to include the major parties on decisions that affect them without paralyzing the university. Not an easy task. The students will need to learn how to work within a structure (harder than protesting). And after two presidential selections that were overturned by protest it is clear that the Regents haven’t paid attention (as in most of academia) to their constituents. They perhaps more learning to do than anyone.

phred, at 9:10 pm EST on October 31, 2006

Vlogs

To the Poster Curious about Vlogs:Video logs (vlogs) are preferred over blogs for Deaf individuals because it allows the individual to freely express themselves in the manner that they feel most comfortable—-American Sign Language (ASL). For many Deaf individuals, ASL is their first language, and English is their second. That being said, it is much easier, as well as being a representation of one’s culture, to choose to communicate via sign language rather than written English. I personally feel that vlogs are better for an additional reason: they allow us to see body language and facial expression, which are very important parts of ASL. It is far easier to hide behind written language, which can be misconstrued or ambigously toned.

Rebekah, at 1:45 pm EST on November 2, 2006

The “Real” reason for a new search.

I read with fascination the various perspectives of the events that occured during the Gallaudet protests. The aftermath of what will be done to rectify the relationship between Administrators and Students remains to be seen. However, I wanted to add a spin to all the comments I have seen. No one has spoken of the “Real” reason the Board of Trustees decided to back-off their decision not to interfere with the Search Committee’s appointment of Dr. Fernandes. It didn’t matter to them that the students and faculty had a high “no confidence” opinion. It didn’t matter to them that the students were drawing unwanted attention to the University. It didn’t matter to the Board when it was known that a “hunger strike” was occuring AND lasting more than two weeks. The Board of Trustees only took action when it was discovered that talk of withholding financial contributions would be in danger did they act. This is exactly in line with what is occurring across the country today. Damn the people! Where’s the MONEY! Because of the short-sightedness of the Trustees and the total disregard for students safety it will be a certain challenge to repair the riff between administration and students. All the other issues raised were just smoke screens and scare tactics. Typical in America today.Cindy Woodie-CODA/Interpreter/Advocate

Cindy Woodie, CODA/Community Interpreter, at 11:05 am EST on November 7, 2006