A poster hangs along the back wall of Kelly Coplin’s American Sign Language classroom at North Eugene High School while students work on the day’s lesson. The wall is covered in posters with symbols of deaf culture and ASL conventions. Coplin is the only ASL teacher in the Eugene or Springfield school districts.
By: Becca Robbins
Access to education for deaf people has been debated for as long as education has been around. What is the best way to educate a deaf child? Should the child go to a deaf school where he or she will learn American sign Language and be surrounded by other deaf people and only other deaf people, or should the child work through his or her disadvantage in a public hearing school with the aid of accommodations like hearing aids or interpreters?
Every state except Wyoming, Nebraska and Nevada has at least one school for the deaf. Even Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have one institution each. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which was updated in 2011, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are the two main government policies that outline the rights of a deaf person according to the provision of a free appropriate public education. According to the U.S. department of education, separate schooling is a last resort for when a traditional school would be a detriment for the student. This leaves room for states to eliminate schools for the deaf due to budget constraints so long as they acknowledge the special needs of the child when mainstreaming him into another institution.
If a child goes to a deaf school his entire life, he risks not socializing in the hearing world and not knowing how to communicate outside of the bubble created at school. According to an article published in the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, deaf schools are much more expensive than accommodating a child in a public school. If a child goes to a hearing school and takes advantage of tools to lessen the barriers, the child risks never knowing his own culture and not knowing how to communicate with other deaf people. He also might not feel as if he belongs because he can’t communicate perfectly with hearing people or deaf people. It is a decision every parent of a deaf child must make and every child has different needs.