People are talking
By Alice Felts
People are talking.
Word around town is that the American Sign Language courses offered in the high schools are in danger of being eliminated.
Currently, there is a very active program at both Fauquier High School and Liberty High School. Instructor John Krpan, a Maryland resident, goes back and forth between the two schools to hold ASL classes for students who have opted to take sign language for their foreign language requirement. His classes are packed. There seems to be a need for an additional ASL instructor, even if Kettle Run High School decides not to offer the program.
While the Modern Language Association found in 2006 that ASL is the fourth-largest language enrollment in colleges (up almost 30 percent since 2002), there is still a problem for some colleges during the admission process.
According to Amy Ternois, Fauquier County's instructional coordinator for foreign languages, a lot of colleges are not recognizing sign language for language requirements.
That reminded me of my work days at The University of Georgia. I was producing satellite teleconferences on various special needs of students. Not only where those working on the projects philosophically driven, we were also under a federal mandate to make our program and materials accessible to those with disabilities.
This meant that our materials had to be produced in various media: audio tapes, large print and braille.
The university had one braille printer, stored in a closet somewhere. I contacted the person in charge of the closet and asked if she would print our materials in braille. We needed a large number and maybe it sounded like a daunting task. The “closet” manager said that the machine was too loud and “it was a whole lot of trouble.”
This happened to be in the days of my raging hormones, and I quickly responded, “Well, I think it's a whole lot of trouble being blind.”
The comment didn't make me any friends...and it didn't get me any braille copies, either. But it changed how I felt about accessibility. It wasn't just a federal mandate. It was a real-life issue.
How can we make it better for people with disabilities? Maybe communicating effectively would be a good start.
The school system is currently “considering the parameters of the ASL program.” Ternois said the ASL instructor position is hard to fill. I certainly understand that.
But people are talking. They can hear one another.
How lucky for them it isn't a whole lot of trouble.
E-mail the reporter: afelts@timespapers.com