The Deaf CSUNians Political Action Committee will host a self-advocacy workshop in Fall 2006, said a committee member.
The workshop will attempt to improve services offered to deaf students on campus as well as educate deaf students about what services are available to them, said Joshua Josa, freshman and committee member.
It is still a work in development, Josa said.
PAC, a subcommittee of the Deaf CSUNians, which is a charter organization under Associated Students, wants to create a deaf-friendly environment and make the campus more aware of its deaf student population, said Alicia Wolfson, graduate student and member of PAC.
Deaf CSUNians that serves about 250 deaf students, according to the National Center on Deafness.
“We want to become more visible and participate in more hearing activities as well as have hearing students participate in our activities,” Wolfson said.
One way they are looking to improve deaf services is by creating equal access on campus, which includes interpreter availability at events, said Carlos Aponte Jr., senior management studies major.
He said activities held by campus organizations should list on their event flyers that interpreting services are available.
If notified by a student that an interpreter is needed, they should then contact the NCOD to request an interpreter.
“We need to also educate our deaf students to make them aware that they need to request interpreting services, so they can go to certain events,” Aponte said.
Wolfson said improvement is really needed in this area because deaf students are in low attendance at hearing events.
“They are not as involved with hearing activities because of frustrations of not having an interpreter there,” Wolfson said.
Aponte said they always provide voice interpreters at their events so others should accommodate deaf students at theirs.
He also said the organizations that have the events pay for the interpreter out of their budget.
He also said some organizations may not have the money in their budget to provide for an interpreter.
Darren House, freshman and member of the PAC, said interpreters are also needed at sporting events, such as the intramurals many deaf students participate in.
“At intramurals sometimes we don’t really know what’s going on. We can’t stop playing when the referee blows the whistle because we can’t hear it,” House said.
Although there are still improvements to be made on campus, the PAC has been successful in creating equal access in other areas, Aponte said.
“Many TVs on campus did not have captioning, so we met with people to get this changed and we did,” he said.
The PAC is also looking to increase interaction of hearing students with deaf students, so they can learn more about them, Wolfson said.
“Deaf people have their own culture and identity,” she said. “Being a diverse campus, we shouldn’t have a problem with communication.”
She also said there are a lot of things people do not know about deaf people.
“We do not like the term hearing impaired, we prefer to use the term deaf,” she said. “Students can learn this by hanging around us more.”
Wolfson said if students were to communicate with each other more, than perhaps hearing students would also inform the PAC of any issues involving deaf students that need attention.
“We’re also not just specifically for deaf students. If hearing students and staff have issues they can come to us as well,” she said.
Wolfson said as far as the changes are concerned, they may take some time and hopefully by next year, there will be more deaf student involvement in hearing campus events and vice versa.
“Our committee will be a strong force on campus and hopefully our goals will be met,” she said.
De’Juana Mallory can be reached at de.juana.m.mallory@csun.edu.
