Deaf students reflect on college challenges, triumphs during International Week of the Deaf

When Bianca Selena Mendoza, a freshman at Gallaudet University, did not hear a woman asking her to move at a supermarket, the woman hit her with her shopping cart. When Mendoza’s cousin explained that Mendoza was deaf, the woman replied that she heard Mendoza talking so she was lying.

“Hearing people in today’s times are not very educated on deaf culture because they think that just because one is deaf they cannot talk,” Mendoza said in an e-mail. After 13 years of speech therapy Mendoza can read lips and speak, but only if a person is facing her.

Sept. 22 to 28 is the International Week of the Deaf. The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) created the International Day of the Deaf in 1958, which was extended to a week, to educate the public about deaf and hard-of-hearing people.

A common misconception is that deaf and hard-of-hearing people cannot go to college.

“I am not mentally challenged or anything like that and a lot of people misunderstand that,” Felix Dickerson, a student at Atlanta Technical College signed using an interpreter through a video relay service.

Historically, many deaf and hard of hearing people were unemployed said Greg Livadas, a senior communications specialist at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

However, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibited discrimination against deaf and hard of hearing people in jobs and at schools.

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RIT, which has more than 1,300 deaf and hard-of-hearing students out of a total of 15,000 students, hosts hundreds of workshops every year teaching employers about accommodations for deaf and hard-of-hearing employees.

Alec Satterly, a hard-of-hearing third year student at the Rochester Institute of Technology who uses hearing aids, said his internship employer Anexinet this past summer was very considerate of his needs.

“I do better in a quieter environment so there’s not as much noise. I had my own office which was good. They just kind of asked what do I need,” Satterly said.

However, Gerry Buckley, president of NTID at RIT, said some companies still recovering from the recession are concerned about accommodation costs.

“The country has come a long way in its attitudes on hiring deaf employees, but we have a long way to go,” Buckley said.

While federal law mandates all colleges provide accommodations for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, deaf and hard of hearing students still face challenges at mainstream colleges.

“For example like at nighttime, I don’t have an interpreter so I have to write back and forth with people to talk and communicate with them,” Dickerson, who is the only deaf student at his college, signed using an interpreter through a video relay service.

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Some deaf and hard of hearing students decide to go to colleges like RIT and Gallaudet University that have a large number of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. In addition to having more services such as interpreters available, students report that they are able to socialize more.

“I attended mainstream school and many students set me aside as different from who they were,” Mendoza said in an email of her high school experience. “It was difficult to make friends. But here everyone is just like me.”

Rogan Shannon, a fourth year student at RIT, also enjoys socializing at large events with deaf people, which he wasn’t able to do growing up.

“It really helps me with my social skills with both deaf and hearing people,” Shannon signed using an interpreter through a video relay service.

In the end, all deaf students emphasized that being deaf doesn’t hold them back in their studies or in life.

“Most of the time, people look at a deaf person as if they need to be pitied and they don’t,” Dickerson signed using an interpreter through a video relay service. “I can do anything anyone else can.”

Monica Venditouli is a senior at Wheaton College. 

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.