The halls of Vincennes University’s campus on the north side may sound silent to people who can hear.

That’s intentional. Students who want to become American Sign Language interpreters need complete immersion into a world where most communication is already happening through ASL. That’s why the campus is located at the Indiana School for the Deaf.

�վ��Գ���ԲԱ��’ program is unique: Professors are deaf and teach classes in ASL; and students are also surrounded by Indiana School for the Deaf teachers and students, especially at events outside of class.

“The second that we walk in these doors and we walk into a classroom, our voices have to be off,” said Abigayle Suding, a first-year student. “It’s all sign language.”

Vincennes professors know ASL is more than a means of communication. By sharing their lived experiences of being deaf, faculty help bring students who can hear into the Deaf community and culture.

“Without one, you cannot understand the other,” department chair Bonnie Conner said through an ASL interpreter. “That culture is ingrained in deaf people, and therefore, they are the only ones who can truly and authentically teach it to other people.”

Learning Deaf culture

Though Vincennes University’s main campus is in southern Indiana, Indianapolis has a large and vibrant Deaf community. In 2020, Marion County was home to over 78,000 deaf and hard of hearing people, .

Faculty wanted students to be able to interact with the community and attend events in Indianapolis, which gives students insights they can’t learn in the classroom. Knowing that culture will ultimately help students become better at ASL, Conner said.

“You can teach it and teach it and teach it all day long,” Conner said. “However, when it’s time and you can actually see and witness it and be involved in it in real time, that is something that cannot be taught.”

�վ��Գ���ԲԱ��’ program, which has about 40 students, offers associate degrees and certificates, as well as some dual credit options for high schoolers. A majority of the students go on to receive their bachelor’s degrees in ASL interpreting.

Learning ASL as a language goes far beyond signing the alphabet. The language has its own grammar and syntax, which includes using facial expressions to communicate your tone.

As part of the program, students also take Deaf culture and community classes. In addition to Deaf history, students learn about cultural nuances, such as turning lights on and off to get attention.

For Conner, it’s important to communicate to her students that deaf people are not broken and live independent, fulfilling lives.

But she also wants to highlight the barriers she and other deaf people face every day, trying to communicate in a world that’s set up for people who can hear.

“Teaching these hearing students that it is their jobs to be working alongside us instead of against us, and how to learn how to be advocates for us as well,” she said, “That’s the main goal.”

Many of the students in the program are pursuing careers as ASL interpreters, hoping to fill a critical shortage of interpreters both nationwide and in Indiana. In Indiana, there are only about 200 nationally certified interpreters, according to .

“We are in desperate need of interpreters, and we need them, at least to communicate,” Conner said. “It’s very difficult because so few hearing people actually know American Sign Language.”

Bridging the gap

For Suding and Ethan Akamu, another Vincennes first-year student, signing doesn’t end in the classroom.

“We sign the majority of the time,” Akamu said. “We probably sign more than we talk. Even in public, people think we’re deaf because we sign.”

Akamu took ASL in high school, where he “fell in love with the language.” As a hearing person who’s involved in the Deaf community, it’s important to him to share it with the people in his life.

“Not a lot of hearing people know how to communicate with the Deaf culture and Deaf community,” Akamu said. “I want to help bridge that gap so that there’s not as much of a communication barrier.”

Like Akamu, many students in the program have previously taken ASL in high school. But some have even deeper connections to the community.

Marybeth Goodwin, 25, is a child of deaf adults. Her first language was ASL, and she’s been signing all her life. She’s hoping to become an interpreter to continue to serve the community her parents raised her in.

Goodwin, a first-year student, hopes more schools will start offering ASL, especially to young kids. As a hearing person, she wants the world to be a more inclusive place for the Deaf community, which has always welcomed her with open arms.

“We’ve always got to keep up with that,” she said, “and learn and be an ally for them.”

About �վ��Գ���ԲԱ��’ Indianapolis campus

Vincennes University’s ASL and Deaf Studies program is located at the Indiana School for the Deaf, 1200 42nd St.

You can .

Vincennes also has a flight school located at , where students study aviation technology.

Mirror Indy reporter Sophie Young contributed to this story.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

American Sign Language will count as a foreign language credit in Mississippi high schools, under a law that goes into effect July 1.

The force behind Senate Bill 2339 is Pearl Rver County high school teacher Loveless. Loveless teaches art and ASL at Pearl River Central High School. She fell in love with ASL as a teenager, which led her to becoming a special education teacher.

“My hope for this new curriculum is not just for our students whether they are hearing, hard of hearing, or deaf. My hope is that we can grow as a community to accept everyone no matter their hearing abilities,” she said.

The new law calls for the state Board of Education to develop a curriculum related to the study of sign language and for any such class to count as an academic credit for a foreign language to meet high school graduation requirements.

Loveless got the idea for the bill after learning that there’d never been an effort in the Legislature to make ASL a foreign language in Mississippi schools. She reached out to state Sen. Angela Hill, R-Picayune, through the lawmaker’s grandson, who took one of Loveless’ sign language classes.

Hill said the law can incentivize hearing people to become translators. “The hope is that more young people will learn to communicate sign language and lead to potential careers in the field as translators for the hearing impaired,” she said in an email.

There is a problem of children with disabilities lacking sufficient accommodations in Mississippi schools. Chauncey Spears, whose daughter is deaf, says the new law will help deaf students who use ASL as their first language.

Spears says there is a lack of support for deaf students who use ASL as their first language. Many teachers lack proper training, making it easier for students to fall behind.

He said parents and leaders at the Mississippi School for the Deaf started a movement to allow the state to classify deaf and hard-of-hearing students as English language learners. ASL is not English, and there is no written ASL for students to access written content in courses required for graduation.

Deaf and hard-of-hearing students must learn written English, the language of most textbooks and other instructional materials.

Spears hopes this curriculum change will be the first step towards change.

“We are learning that there is untapped potential in these students and that their needs and potential can be better met with the proper investments and training and educational practices that can prove to be successful,” he said.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Moved by his cousin’s plight, Juarez designed a tool to help the deaf community — a device that uses a camera to translate sign language into a written and spoken form.

Through the first-ever this Saturday, April 13, Juarez will be one of to present their inventions and research projects that address solutions to critical global issues.

The festival will showcase student innovators from numerous nationwide competitions, including EXPLR’s where more than 2,500 students in grades 6-12 conceived and submitted STEM projects across six categories: Environmental Stewardship, Future Foods, Health & Medicine, Powering the Planet, Tech for Good and Space Innovation.

“All of these kids are so cool and have such incredible projects that it’s going to be bananas,” Kari Byron, co-founder of and director of the festival, told The 74.

Byron said the festival idea grew out of a conversation she had with the U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.

Byron, who previously hosted the Obama administration’s , pitched a plan to design a larger version of the former event.

“I looked at him and said ‘What if we built it for you? What if we make it bigger and better than it has ever been before,’” Byron said. “So it’s not a continuation of the White House Science Fair — it’s a completely new festival that’s going to be so much bigger because we want a national conversation about STEM 365 days a year.”

Jenny Buccos, co-founder and chief executive officer of EXPLR, said the festival is a great way for school leaders and decision makers to learn more about “what kids are interested in and what we might not be teaching in schools.”

“How are they learning to make patent pending medical devices? How are they learning about protecting their IP? Where is this happening, and if it’s not in the traditional classroom, how do we bridge that gap,” Buccos told The 74.

Students like Juarez, 17, are excited to have the platform to present projects centered around what they are passionate about.

“This opportunity is confirmation that people care about the hearing impaired and deaf…and is a great way for me to continue to educate more people,” Juarez told The 74.

Buccos said the public has the opportunity to meet the students and see their inventions through more than 100 and events in Washington, DC.

“If you are in desperate need of inspiration and hope for the future, come to the events…this is the opportunity to meet some of the most brilliant young minds working in the country,” Buccos said.

“Everybody says kids are the future,” said Buccos, “but these kids are literally solving problems now.”

To check out the National STEM Festival this Saturday, the public must to secure their spot.

Comments and questions from the justices seemed to lean toward yes.

“All she wants is to be compensated for what she says occurred to her during the period of her education,” Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said, offering a hypothetical example of a senior who wants to drop out. “Does she have to sit in front of a hearing officer and talk about ways in which her education could be changed?” 

While the arguments in the case are complex, they come down to whether Congress meant for students to give up their rights under IDEA — which does not provide monetary damages — in order to bring a lawsuit seeking a financial award under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Advocates for students with disabilities argue that was never the intention of the law, while those representing school districts are concerned about the potential for “dual-track litigation” under both IDEA and ADA.

“That could be extremely expensive for districts,” said Sasha Pudelski, advocacy director for AASA, the School Superintendents Association. A ruling in favor of the plaintiff, she added, “has the potential to shift parents’ and districts’ focus to money rather than educational needs.”

The case, , focuses on a deaf immigrant from Mexico, now 27, who entered the Michigan district in 2004, when he was 9. The district assigned Miguel Perez to an aide who didn’t know American Sign Language and invented hand signals to communicate with him. 

“This shameful conduct permanently stunted Miguel’s ability to communicate with the outside world,” said his attorney Roman Martinez. 

The family sued and agreed to a settlement under IDEA that allowed Perez to attend Michigan School for the Deaf. But his parents also sought monetary damages for emotional distress and lost income under ADA.

Shay Dvoretzky, representing the school district, said Congress didn’t want families to do an end run around the administrative process outlined in special education law — such as attending a resolution conference and filing a formal complaint — in order to seek damages.

“Congress carefully crafted those procedures, and it wanted parents and school districts to go through them” in order to ensure the student receives appropriate services, he said.

But Justice Elena Kagan, one of the liberals on the court, said it’s unlikely families would pass up services for a child under IDEA in order to reserve their right to sue.

“It’s the parents that have the greater incentive to get the education fixed for their child,” she said. 

‘Cannot remedy the harm’

Rebecca Spar, an attorney with the New Jersey-based Education Law Center, who has argued special education cases, said a key issue is Perez’s age. His parents brought the case after the district told him he would be eligible only for a certificate of completion, not a diploma.

If a child is denied services at a young age, the educational relief provided through IDEA can make a real difference in the child’s future, she said. But the options for older students are far more limited. 

“When you get older, there are all kinds of complications,” she said. ”Then you cannot remedy the harm.”

Kagan and Dvoretzky also exchanged words over the meaning of relief. Dvoretzky suggested it doesn’t necessarily mean money and that it was sufficient for the district to address Perez’s loss of an appropriate education by getting him into the school for the deaf.

“It’s … a situation where you may not get what you ask for, but you get what you need,” he said.

But Kagan said it’s clear what the family is seeking. 

“It’s relief in the normal sense: What did you get? How much money was put on the table?” she said.

If the court rules for Perez, it’s possible districts would include language in any IDEA settlement that parents are giving up their rights to sue under other laws. 

“That would close the door for ADA relief,” Pudelski said.

Martinez said he can’t predict whether the court will allow Perez’s ADA lawsuit to move forward, but the decision has “important implications not only for Miguel, but for parents and students across the country.”

A lower court ruled that Miguel Perez, now an adult, is not entitled to sue for monetary damages for emotional distress or lost income under the American with Disabilities Act because his family settled the case under special education law. 

“The parents were really over a barrel here,” said Mark Weber, a law professor at DePaul University in Chicago who co-wrote to the court on behalf of the plaintiff. “They needed to get services right away for this kid. The kid’s not getting any younger.”

While the case, , delves into the complex procedural rules that govern special education, it speaks to the frustration many families whose children have disabilities feel in systems that often seem stacked against them. Navigating that legal landscape is even trickier for immigrant families, who are “likely unfamiliar with U.S. school systems” and are unused to the “idea of children with disabilities having a right to education,” said Cady Landa, a researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who has the obstacles immigrant families face when seeking special education services. 

Immigrant parents, she said, are often unsure how to talk to school staff and may have “smaller social circles that are less likely to include other parents who have navigated special education for their children.” 

The Perez lawsuit asks whether families can sue for damages under other federal laws that prohibit discrimination even if they haven’t exhausted their rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Act, or IDEA. Perez’s petition argues that there’s a conflict in the lower courts over this issue. 

But lawyers for the Sturgis district disagree. They also note that the Supreme Court ruled last year that the Americans with Disabilities Act for emotional distress and that Perez changed his request to ask for lost income.

“Now he says in his reply that he wants to amend his complaint,” they wrote. “Too late.”

‘Academic and social outcast’

Perez, now 27, entered the Sturgis, Michigan, school district in 2004 as a 9-year-old deaf English learner from Mexico. The district assigned him a classroom aide who didn’t know sign language and even made up hand signals to try to communicate with Perez, according to court documents.

“There was one other deaf student, but we couldn’t communicate with each other,” he said in a statement provided through an interpreter. 

As he got older, the assistant would often leave Perez alone for hours, “rendering him unable to learn or communicate with others and making him an academic and social outcast,” according to his lawyers.

Despite not being able to read or write, Perez received A’s and B’s and made the honor roll every semester. But just weeks before he was set to graduate in 2016, the district told his parents that he would only be eligible for a certificate of completion, not a diploma.

The case, Landa added, points to the need for more translation and interpretation services, specifically for newcomer families whose children have disabilities.

In 2017, the family filed a complaint with the Michigan Department of Education, arguing that the district violated IDEA, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, as well as two state laws.

In 2018, they settled the IDEA claim. The district agreed to place Perez in the Michigan School for the Deaf, pay for additional services and provide the family with sign language instruction. The district also paid the family’s attorney’s fees.

But that left the remaining complaints under the other laws unresolved, leading the family to file a lawsuit in federal district court, asking for social work services and additional financial relief. 

“I wish I could have gone to college,” Perez said. “I don’t have a job, but I want to have one. I want to make my own choices.”

The 6th Circuit ruled the family wasn’t eligible to sue because their IDEA complaint never went to a hearing.

‘Trying to settle’

The special education complaint process allows parents multiple opportunities to avoid drawn-out legal battles so children can be served as soon as possible. Districts automatically hold and can offer settlements before parents go to court.

“All the way, you’re trying to settle,” said Rebecca Spar, a special education attorney with the New Jersey-based Education Law Center. 

In in support of the school district, administrator organizations — such as AASA, the School Superintendents Association and the National Association of School Nurses — argued that a decision in favor of Perez would “undermine the collaborative nature of the IDEA process, and will shift the parties’ focus to money rather than the student’s education needs.”

Another issue is the cost of litigation, which often discourages families from suing.

“If you decide not to settle with them, they just start running up the legal bills. Our trial was eight days,” said Hayley Grunvald, a San Diego-area parent who is awaiting the outcome of the Perez case. “It’s unaffordable for any parent. I don’t buy Prada bags. I shop at Walmart.”

She filed a complaint against the San Dieguito Union High School District, arguing that officials didn’t evaluate her son Adrian for special education even though they knew he received accommodations and services for ADHD in a prior district.

In December, a judge agreed that the district should have assessed Adrian, but the family lost on other technical points and plans to appeal.

Experts expected the Supreme Court to settle the issues before the court in Perez back in 2017 when they heard . In that case, the Supreme Court found in favor of another Michigan family who sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 when officials wouldn’t allow a service dog to accompany their daughter to school. 

The girl has cerebral palsy and the dog helps her stay balanced while using a walker, opens and closes doors and provides other services that help her be more independent. The family sought monetary damages, saying their daughter experienced “emotional distress and pain, embarrass­ment, [and] mental anguish.”

The appellate court had ruled that the family would have to exhaust the IDEA process before suing under other laws even though it wasn’t a special education case. The Supreme Court disagreed, but left open the question of whether a family still has to seek relief under IDEA given that monetary damages aren’t available under that law.

“Had it clarified everything,” said Weber at DePaul University, “we probably wouldn’t have this case.”