On Cue Volume 24 Issue 1 Spring 2010
http://www.cuedspeech.org/PDF/OnCue2010forward/OnCue_Spring2010.pdf
Deaf individuals caught their first glimpse of freedom in when Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and later the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) were signed into law.
Michael Argenyi is a living example. Unable to receive Cued Speech services for his education as a first-year medical student at Creighton University, he has taken the issue to the United States District Court. He alleges in his preliminary statement that Creighton University violated the ADA by denying him accommodations that would enable him to fully participate as a medical student.
Argenyi declined to express his views on the matter because the case is pending, so On Cue interviewed three other deaf cuers who also faced difficulties acquiring Cued Speech services for their education. Editor’s note: Responses from the three deaf cuers were edited for space, but not for grammar or spelling.
Nicole Dugan: Nicole filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against Rochester Institute of Technology in 2003 after RIT failed to provide her with cued language transliterating services for two years of her education. In 2004, RIT modified its policies and granted Dugan CLT and C-Print services for her remaining years at RIT
Ben Lachman: Ben’s parents, Mary Ann and Ron Lachman, filed suit against East Maine Illinois School District No. 63 in 1986 after school dministrators refused to provide Ben with a CST for his education. After they lost and the case was rendered moot, the Lachmans, teachers and other parents gathered together to found Alexander Graham Bell Montessori School in Wheeling, Illinois.
Michael Poore: In 1985, Michael’s mother filed suit against the Arlington Independent School District in Texas for not providing him with a transliterator. The case later became Poore v. State of Texas public schools znd resulted not only providing Cued Speech services for Poore’s education, but also set a precedent for providing Cued Speech services for deaf cuers in zll public schools in Texas.
On Cue: Tell me about yourself in 3-4 sentences. What have you been up to?
ND: I am living in Rochester, NY working towards a MS in Human Resource Development. I first came here in 2001 for college and have been here ever since! I love Rochester for its networking, resources, and diversity in people.
BL: I have been living in downtown Chicago for the last year or so and enjoying it thoroughly. I am currently helping rebuild SmartTouch Biometrics, a company that manufactures and sells biometric personal security items such as fingerprint accessible safes. My favorite hobbies are hibernating in the winter and hanging out on the lake and enjoying Chicago in general in the summer.
MP: I own ILTSource.com, which is an online e-commerce store selling products for people with disabilities as well as hospitals and schools. I started this business in 2006 and it has grown to where I have 5 people working for me now and broke the $1 million in sales/ year. I am further expanding this store to add about 10,000 more products.
OC: How has Cued Speech affected your life?
ND: As most deaf cue adults would say, Cued Speech has made an impact in every area of my life since I can remember. It has hardwired my brain in the early development of language and given me the chance to reach my full potential and open up a myriad of opportunities.
BL: It has enabled me to be responsible for my own needs rather than relying on others around me, thanks to the communication tools that I have at my disposal. I am profoundly deaf with no benefit whatsoever from hearing aids or cochlear implants, even though I had an implant at 5 years old. Nonetheless, I still live my life among my all hearing family and mostly-hearing friends. I have learned to coordinate my interactions with everyone around me for maximum comprehension and that’s a mindset that I don’t think I would have received had I not grown up with Cued Speech.
MP: If it wasn’t for Cued Speech, I would not have had the skills/language to own a business much less manage my employees as well as the financial records and the overall running of the company. I would not be able to accomplish all that I have accomplished up to this point. I am very grateful that my parents chose Cued Speech and even more grateful for Dr. Cornett for inventing it.
OC: Have you ever had to forgo using Cued Speech services? If so, what services did you have in place of Cued Speech and what was it like?
BL: The only time I did not have a CST was at the outset of my college career. I had to alternate between temporary Cued Speech Transliterators and CART. I used CART for maybe 10 days in my entire college career. It was used in an emergency situation, such as if my CST was ill. I only had one CST through my entire college career and she powered through many situations that would have been deemed unacceptable by many of the current standards put in place for CST’s. Example: 6-8 hour days. I have so much respect and gratitude for her. CART was mildly acceptable, to put it nicely. The benefits were the ability to print entire lectures and re-read them at a later date but the drawback was the exhaustion factor of reading a word document one word at a time as well as
the inaccuracies that would sometimes arise from real-time captioning.
OC: (Nicole), what was it like not having Cued Speech transliterating services at RIT?
ND: It was hard adjusting to RIT my first two years. It took me a long time to become very fluent in ASL so I felt “boxed” in with glass walls for a long time with not being able to have full access in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom. Just about every person I shared my story with was very sympathetic and understanding, but in the end it was really my fight to fight alone. I had heard about prior attempts to get CST services at RIT but all had failed pretty much because they knew sign language well enough to receive ASL interpreting in the classroom. That tidbit alone deterred me from becoming fluent in ASL for two years so that I could have real chance of winning my case and opening up more doors for others like me.
OC: What do you think should be done to resolve the issue other deaf cuers like you face in receiving reasonable accommodations for their education?
ND: This is a hard question because there isn’t one clear-cut answer for this. It all depends on where you are, what kind of resources there are, and most importantly...the availability and quality of CSTs. Rochester is one of the few cities that screams “Cued Speech!” with a mix of all kinds of cuers whether they’re deaf, hearing, a newbie, native, parent, teacher, or friend. So when a university in Rochester tells you, “Oh, we can’t find anyone to cue for you,” it’s bull. Each situation is unique and I would look everywhere for support and additional resources because it’ll help you a great deal in the long run.
BL: There needs to be a shift from allowing schools to dictate methodology to having the families themselves be responsible for the type and method of education that their child receives. It is basically unethical for schools to dictate life-affecting decisions onto children and their families. Educational institutions often fall into a mindset of, “we’ve seen this 100 times more than you have so we’re the experts.” So there needs to be a fundamental shift in responsibility from schools to families. Educational institutions are a service provider and students are their customers.
MP: I believe that every student should not have to pick and choose when it comes to accommodations for their educations, my parents strongly believed this which is why they fought hard with a lawyer for over two years to ensure this. I was too young to have it affect me in any way though.
OC: Is there anything you’d like to say to deaf cuers with issues receiving reasonable accommodations for their education?
ND: Don’t give up or take the alternative way out (aka the “easy way out”). If you feel something is unjust, put up a fight because it’s likely that no one else is willing enough. However, choose your path wisely. I took the long hard way and it came at a great cost. It took me three years for RIT to finally agree to give me CST and C-Print services without any questions (due to some mismanaged handling in the US Dept of Education/Office of Civil Rights... to name a few instances: one manager passed away and my case was transferred to another city). It took a toll on me and I ended up changing majors twice and didn’t walk with my bachelor’s until 2008, seven years after I first came to RIT.
BL: Always stand up for yourself. Become an expert in self-advocacy. Do not let anybody tell you what the situation should be. The decision is yours. You may have to go to extra lengths to assist the school in finding a CST but as long as there is a spirit of cooperation, it will get done. If the school stubbornly refuses to allow CST’s based on “everyone else uses so and so,” they are in clear violation of your rights as a human being to access the world around you.
MP: All I can say is don’t give up because Cued Speech is worth it and without Cued Speech I would not be where I am today.
http://www.cuedspeech.org/PDF/OnCue2010forward/OnCue_Spring2010.pdf