Q&A: School

What was school like for you?

I wasn't raised with ASL and I didn't attend a school for the Deaf, I was mainstreamed. 
I attended hearing public schools from Kindergarten until High school. I had zero equal access or accommodations other than attempting to sit up front so I could read the teachers' lips. I didn't have note takers, interpreters, stenographers, captioned movies, nothing. Back then, I thought ADA only applied to wheelchair accessibility. 

How did I get through public school? Barely. I hated school. Sure, I was good at homework, I loved reading and learning new things, but reading lips strained my eyes. Staring at the same object (teacher's mouth) is difficult physically and mentally. Trying to read lips of a teacher that's always moving around the room combined with guessing the individual words being said and trying to process the information I'm learning was asking too much. Most of the time, I'd fake that I was paying attention and would try my best to get my homework/reading done while I was in class.  I had to teach myself 90% of everything I learned in school. Nobody ever realized my struggles and how much I was doing on my own (because one-on-one, I usually communicate just fine), but I didn't realize I had alternatives.

I spent my time in school waiting to go home and learn things solo. The auditory process my peers got from school gave them a head start because teachers can explain the book in alternatives ways that makes the information click. Eureka!! I wasn't able to get the eureka moments at school unless I personally figured out why the teachers wrote (whatever) on the chalkboard.

My frustrations with public mainstreamed school is the reason I graduated a year early. After I begged, my parents took me out of the High School in 10th grade and enrolled me into a charter public school.
It was all self-taught. The school gave me a stack of paper, I'd finish them, then my parents would drop them back at the school. This change meant I no longer had to waste time pretending I was getting benefits from being inside a classroom. I was still teaching myself, that was the same. I didn't have limits for how many credits I completed so I finished High School a year early.

After High School, I attempted to go to college and I immediately flunked out. Self-teaching no longer worked with more complex materials, and seemed to require unfair efforts on my part when the education was no longer free. But I still didn't know about equal access. I decided to drop out, focus on working minimum wage jobs and I pushed school off until later.

This second time I attempted college, I learned about disability department. I registered with them and they provided me with a note taker. This note taker was a volunteer from my classes (only one) who would write on carbon copy paper. I got a left-handed male with terrible handwriting that I could barely read. This still wasn't adequate enough for me to stick with school. I still had to self-teach, read lips, and crossed my fingers my classmate's notes would give me additional information I didn't catch in class. It didn't work. I finished the semester but I got Cs and an F. I knew I was capable of better, but I didn't know what else I could do. I dropped out again, saved up money, traveled around North America, and came back for a third attempt for school during my early 20s.

Was the third time the charm? Yes. Because this time the new counselor at the disability department set me up with CART/Stenographer without me specifically asking for it. I didn't know what it was at the time. I went into that school semester thinking I'd get another awful note taker, but what else could I do? Work minimum wage forever? ( Job prospects as a deaf person can be severely limited unless you have specialized skills, which I didn't have) I couldn't use ASL interpreter and I didn't know CART existed. I knew about equal access, but I figured note takers and captioned movies were the best that I could get. I no longer remember who that counselor was, but she made a tremendous and positive impact on my life by informing me about alternatives.

After obtaining CART services, I thrived in school. CART/stenographer/live captioning services is the closest thing I can get to having equal access in education. For once in my life, I was able to follow along with lectures. I didn't have to miss out on information when I looked down to write notes, everything the stenographer heard, I could read. It's not perfect, I could probably list a dozen imperfections or difficulties, but it's a phenomenal improvement from my other educational experiences. This is the best I'll ever be able to get.

My educational journey is still in progress. After my 3rd time attempting college, I only attended part-time. Now however, I am currently full-time and I hope to get my pre-requisite courses done by Summer 2014. One of the downsides of attending part-time is that a lot of professional programs require the science classes to be within 5 years. Mine have started to expire and I have a couple of courses I need to re-take. I've applied to 2-year Bachelor's degree nursing schools and I'm on the path towards applying for Veterinary and possibly Pharmacy schools as well.  What can I say? I have a variety of interests and these fields have an overlap of pre-req courses. When I get on an official path to professional school, I will certainly have even more stories to share as a deaf student in the hearing world. How many Deaf medical professionals do you know? I've never met any but I know they are out there. It'd be nice to have more positive and well-known role models for career fields. Particularly for people outside of the Deaf community because there are a lot of deaf/HOH who didn't get to grow up with Deaf culture and regrettably, are still not involved (myself included).

More than likely the best way I can explain what school was like for me until my 3rd time in college is that it felt like I was transplanted into a school where everyone else spoke French and I didn't. Life can't always be like an episode of the Simpsons where you just one day: Eureka! and you suddenly speak and understand French perfectly. My experiences with hearing aids and Cochlear Implant is perhaps similar, it's not an overnight switch, which is what most people subconsciously expect from CI surgery. You don't understand everything the first time it's turned on (all those youtube videos? Exaggerations). Things may never change when it comes to interacting with the hearing world at the same pace they can communicate with each other. What can change is my interactions with people who are fluent in ASL.