Jo Larson has been an American Sign Language instructor at the University of Oregon since 1996.  Her courses include linguistic instruction along with teaching the principles of the Deaf Culture. Her experience as an interpreter has lent itself well in preparing her to communicate with and speak on behalf of people within the Deaf community.

Q: Does it surprise you that there are no Deaf students attending the University of Oregon at this time?

A: The fact that there are no Deaf students on campus surprises me a little bit because of my role as an ASL instructor. But also because the University of Oregon is a flagship for the state and one would think then that Deaf students wanting to go to college would choose the university. And because laws are in place to provide services to Deaf students, you would think that all of those kinds of services would be well entrenched here at the university.

Q: Do you think that Deaf students and faculty feel discouraged to come here because adequate services are not made available to them at the University?

A: I think both Deaf students and Deaf faculty are discouraged from being here because things are not interpreted as a matter of course…We have one full-time Deaf faculty member and two part-time Deaf faculty members and we do not have any interpreters available to them unless it’s by a special request. So if faculty as well as students wants to go to…lunch time lectures and other events that happen…and they just found out about that in the daily emerald, that’s not enough time to secure an interpreter…I certainly think that if all ASUO events were interpreted…then the Deaf public would start realizing that yes things are accessible.

Q: What can the University do to better assist Deaf students and faculty on campus?

A: I would treat Deafness like any other minority, linguistic or cultural minority. So the university, as part of its mission to reach out to diverse populations, would be well served to reach out to the Deaf population and to serve that community in the same capacity as other linguistic and cultural minorities. Instead of treating Deafness as a disability that only requires services in the classroom. There’s a lot more to being a student than just what occurs in a classroom…There are things available on campus that should be interpreted as a matter of course not simply through special requests…So if we would as a university think a little more globally; think a little bigger than we think we’d attract many ‘many’ more Deaf people here and change the face of the university.