Miss-Delectable
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Deaf Talkabout: Universities need to be accessible for all - Opinion - News - Belfast Telegraph
Educating Rita was shown again recently on TV with Julie Walters in the leading role and I was as enthralled as ever.
The film about a young married woman abandoning her working class background to join the Open University brings back all the joy and excitement I, too, experienced as a mature student all those years ago when higher education was out of the reach of most deaf people.
Queen's University had been nonplussed at the idea of a deaf student in the English department and the professor who interviewed me said they didn't have the funds or facilities to provide help for a person like me with communication problems.
Attitude
He advised me to apply to the OU and I'm glad I did as their attitude towards deaf and disabled students was wonderful and they continued to provide unfailing help and support through the entire six years of my degree course.
In those days we didn't have the professional interpreting service we now enjoy to help with communication at the tutorials, so the Open University paid for part-time help from a clergyman and social worker with signing skills. Most of the tutorials took place at rooms about the Queen's campus and we all got on quite well ? but how I longed for the opportunity to enter into passionate debate with other students in the way Rita demonstrated so vividly on the film.
It was also a time before mobiles and computers when most people relied on phones for communication and OU students were encouraged to ring their tutor or classmates to discuss problems experienced during the writing of the monthly TMAs (tutor marked assignments).
I was quite unable to contact anyone this way and it was difficult to confer about a problem - so I often felt lonely and isolated - quite unlike the effervescent Rita of the film who barged into her tutor's room at the university every time she had a point to argue. Keele University in central England was the allotted place for my first summer school and I spent a week in the company of other deaf students with a feast of communication aids set up for us.
As well as excellent professional interpreters, we had a speed text operator typing out the lectures on screen and full-time note-takers. The tutor wore a microphone round her neck to facilitate the hard of hearing students and everything possible was done to help us fit in. We spent the whole week on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and had a wonderful time.
During my last year of studies the tutor at Queen's noticed I was having problems with some TMA questions and invited me to her home with my interpreter for some extra revision. It is easy for deaf students to miss out on the nuances of words because we are cut off from the cut and thrust of arguments in class debates and can easily miss the importance of certain words in an examination paper.
It's good to have a teacher who notices and cares - as Rita had in the film, even though her tutor was often irascible and drunk.
Computer
We now have 11 fully-qualified interpreters in Northern Ireland as well as note-takers and computer operators to help deaf students cope with any level of further or higher education. It seems that apart from myself only two other Irish deaf students have graduated through the Open University.
Universities now need to be more cognisant of deaf awareness and the many variations in severity of hearing loss. Our new interpreters have to cope with all the variations of hearing loss, from sign language in either British or Irish forms, to others who get by with Powerpoint and the latest digital aids. Deafness is no longer seen as a barrier to further and higher education for those with the ability and desire.
Educating Rita was shown again recently on TV with Julie Walters in the leading role and I was as enthralled as ever.
The film about a young married woman abandoning her working class background to join the Open University brings back all the joy and excitement I, too, experienced as a mature student all those years ago when higher education was out of the reach of most deaf people.
Queen's University had been nonplussed at the idea of a deaf student in the English department and the professor who interviewed me said they didn't have the funds or facilities to provide help for a person like me with communication problems.
Attitude
He advised me to apply to the OU and I'm glad I did as their attitude towards deaf and disabled students was wonderful and they continued to provide unfailing help and support through the entire six years of my degree course.
In those days we didn't have the professional interpreting service we now enjoy to help with communication at the tutorials, so the Open University paid for part-time help from a clergyman and social worker with signing skills. Most of the tutorials took place at rooms about the Queen's campus and we all got on quite well ? but how I longed for the opportunity to enter into passionate debate with other students in the way Rita demonstrated so vividly on the film.
It was also a time before mobiles and computers when most people relied on phones for communication and OU students were encouraged to ring their tutor or classmates to discuss problems experienced during the writing of the monthly TMAs (tutor marked assignments).
I was quite unable to contact anyone this way and it was difficult to confer about a problem - so I often felt lonely and isolated - quite unlike the effervescent Rita of the film who barged into her tutor's room at the university every time she had a point to argue. Keele University in central England was the allotted place for my first summer school and I spent a week in the company of other deaf students with a feast of communication aids set up for us.
As well as excellent professional interpreters, we had a speed text operator typing out the lectures on screen and full-time note-takers. The tutor wore a microphone round her neck to facilitate the hard of hearing students and everything possible was done to help us fit in. We spent the whole week on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and had a wonderful time.
During my last year of studies the tutor at Queen's noticed I was having problems with some TMA questions and invited me to her home with my interpreter for some extra revision. It is easy for deaf students to miss out on the nuances of words because we are cut off from the cut and thrust of arguments in class debates and can easily miss the importance of certain words in an examination paper.
It's good to have a teacher who notices and cares - as Rita had in the film, even though her tutor was often irascible and drunk.
Computer
We now have 11 fully-qualified interpreters in Northern Ireland as well as note-takers and computer operators to help deaf students cope with any level of further or higher education. It seems that apart from myself only two other Irish deaf students have graduated through the Open University.
Universities now need to be more cognisant of deaf awareness and the many variations in severity of hearing loss. Our new interpreters have to cope with all the variations of hearing loss, from sign language in either British or Irish forms, to others who get by with Powerpoint and the latest digital aids. Deafness is no longer seen as a barrier to further and higher education for those with the ability and desire.