ASL Accommodations at GFU

By: Mckenzie Gerdes        

Illustrated by: Carla Cieza Espinoza                                                                                       

Universities need to be informed about the accommodations they should have available for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. In this piece, we present the accommodations available at George Fox University (GFU) and assess the missed marks.

I spoke with Assistant Director of Disability and Accessibility Services, Andrea Byerley, who works with students in finding the right accommodations for their academic experience. Byerley said tools universities usually offer for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students include ASL interpreters, captioning and transcription services, and housing accommodations. GFU offers ASL interpreters, preferential seating, live or Zoom transcriptions of lectures, and the use of FM systems. 

What could be added in the future? Byerley suggested a more-conducive environment for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students could be achieved by “having all videos be captioned” and “making sure that podcasts have transcripts.” Every major residence should be equipped with technological upgrades for deaf and hard of hearing students, such as smoke alarms with strobe lights. Additionally, Byerley believes an increase in education and awareness about this demographic at GFU could help make their experience easier.

As someone who has studied ASL, I have seen firsthand the bridges built between communities when we take the time to learn. For example, at track meets, my teammates and I were able to talk with students from Oregon School for the Deaf. That connection couldn’t have happened if we weren’t studying ASL and learning about the experiences of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community. Byerley said, “ASL is really beautiful.”

Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, coordinator of individualized education plan at Maryland School for the Deaf, said in a Youtube video by AJ+, “ASL, American Sign Language, is a language, a language that has its own formal syntax, grammatical structure. It is a formally recognized language aligned with any other language like Spanish or French.” Though GFU doesn’t offer ASL classes on a regular basis, I hope the university would follow Western Oregon University’s example in offering both majors and minors in ASL.

If you want to become more familiar with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community, there are numerous resources available online. If you are interested in learning ASL, LifeWire has compiled 17 free ASL learning resources. For investigating the historical and cultural background of ASL, documentaries like “Signing Black in America” and “What It’s Like to Be Deaf” are available on Youtube.

Illustrated by Carla Cieza Espinoza