Miss-Delectable
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http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...226&call_pageid=968350130169&col=969483202845
Dropping by a friend's house after school was once out of the question for Samantha Streczek.
Deaf from birth, she knew that not coming straight home would worry her mother.
"My mother also thought it was too dangerous for me to go to parties," says Streczek, now 17. "We had no way to contact each other in an emergency."
As she reached adolescence, a time when most students feel ready to take more independence from their family, Streczek remained locked into the same strict schedules that helped protect her in childhood.
It is a common pattern. As parents of deaf children continue to worry about their child's safety well into the teenage years, adolescent students are left increasingly isolated from their friends.
Shona Farrelly spotted the gap. As head of the deaf department at Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute five years ago, she called a meeting of students, parents and interpreters to address the problem.
"Some parents broke into tears when they discovered how frustrated their children were feeling," said Farrelly, now principal of Davisville Public School Junior Metropolitan Toronto School for the Deaf.
Somebody suggested wireless text pagers. But there were drawbacks.
Many of the students came from low-income families. Even if they saved for pagers they could never afford the monthly $50 service fees.
Literacy skills were lacking. Half of deaf high school students tend to be below a Grade 4 level. They might speak sign language but phonetically based text poses a challenge to deaf people.
The technology itself seemed a barrier, especially among the adults — parents, interpreters and teachers. Some weren't even comfortable with computers.
Conditions seemed less than ideal but Farrelly put together a pilot program, starting by asking wireless companies for help.
"Bell Mobility gave us 250 text message pagers and the promise of five years of free service, a donation valued at $600,000," she said. "We got the Motorola pager, older technology to them but still new technology for us."
Next she got York University involved. Connie Mayer, a literacy specialist and deaf-education professor at York, agreed to monitor the project over five years with Toronto District School Board psychologist Jane Akamatsu.
The Eglinton Rotary club paid for translators.
"We had all permission forms and instructions translated into 12 different languages," Mayer said. "Many of the parents don't have English as a first language."
Beginning in 2002, Motorola pagers went to deaf and hard-of-hearing programs at two schools, Danforth Collegiate and Northern Secondary. The pagers went to students, their parents, teachers and in-class sign language interpreters. If the student had only one parent, a sibling or other relative also got a pager.
Over time, some students graduated and others started, but the program has consistently involved about 40 students, 80 parents or other relatives and 15 staff.
"Right away we saw lots of benefits," said Mayer, who interviews participants every three months. "Students were getting out of the house more."
Streczek, who attends Northern Secondary, says she is allowed to go to parties now.
And the pager offers other advantages, she said in a joint interview at the school with fellow student Mehmet Islam, 16. Both took questions through a sign language interpreter and replied by speaking.
"When you're on a train or bus with a friend and you sign, people look at you," Streczek said. "So we message each other and it makes us look normal."
"It lets you keep a secret," Islam added. "When you sign, all your friends can see, but you can type a message to one person."
"If you have something to tell your parents and you can't tell them face to face," Streczek said of another use, "send them a message and give them time to calm down."
Nadia Petersen, head of Northern Secondary's deaf and hard of hearing department, says the ability to easily send messages to parents and staff has made students more accountable. "They have no excuses. If they are running late, they must message an interpreter or teacher.
"That goes for me, too," said Petersen, who is also deaf and is also in the program. "Now that I've got a pager, the principal can reach me at moment's notice — `Get down here. I need you.'"
Students who at first were sending 10 messages a month are now sending and receiving 3,000 a month, Mayer says, a sign to her that deaf students are becoming more comfortable with their writing skills. Parents and other adult novice users have grown adept at using the pagers, too.
The pilot project runs until 2007 but already the research is suggesting other ideas.
"We are beginning to see how (the pager) could be refined specifically for the deaf student population," she said.
A 911 function would be useful, for example. And perhaps a cheaper unit could be built, dropping functions important to business that offer little value to a high school student.
Ultimately, Mayer says she would like to see the pagers added to the provincial Assistive Devices Program to subsidize message devices for deaf people the way hearing aids now are covered.
Dropping by a friend's house after school was once out of the question for Samantha Streczek.
Deaf from birth, she knew that not coming straight home would worry her mother.
"My mother also thought it was too dangerous for me to go to parties," says Streczek, now 17. "We had no way to contact each other in an emergency."
As she reached adolescence, a time when most students feel ready to take more independence from their family, Streczek remained locked into the same strict schedules that helped protect her in childhood.
It is a common pattern. As parents of deaf children continue to worry about their child's safety well into the teenage years, adolescent students are left increasingly isolated from their friends.
Shona Farrelly spotted the gap. As head of the deaf department at Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute five years ago, she called a meeting of students, parents and interpreters to address the problem.
"Some parents broke into tears when they discovered how frustrated their children were feeling," said Farrelly, now principal of Davisville Public School Junior Metropolitan Toronto School for the Deaf.
Somebody suggested wireless text pagers. But there were drawbacks.
Many of the students came from low-income families. Even if they saved for pagers they could never afford the monthly $50 service fees.
Literacy skills were lacking. Half of deaf high school students tend to be below a Grade 4 level. They might speak sign language but phonetically based text poses a challenge to deaf people.
The technology itself seemed a barrier, especially among the adults — parents, interpreters and teachers. Some weren't even comfortable with computers.
Conditions seemed less than ideal but Farrelly put together a pilot program, starting by asking wireless companies for help.
"Bell Mobility gave us 250 text message pagers and the promise of five years of free service, a donation valued at $600,000," she said. "We got the Motorola pager, older technology to them but still new technology for us."
Next she got York University involved. Connie Mayer, a literacy specialist and deaf-education professor at York, agreed to monitor the project over five years with Toronto District School Board psychologist Jane Akamatsu.
The Eglinton Rotary club paid for translators.
"We had all permission forms and instructions translated into 12 different languages," Mayer said. "Many of the parents don't have English as a first language."
Beginning in 2002, Motorola pagers went to deaf and hard-of-hearing programs at two schools, Danforth Collegiate and Northern Secondary. The pagers went to students, their parents, teachers and in-class sign language interpreters. If the student had only one parent, a sibling or other relative also got a pager.
Over time, some students graduated and others started, but the program has consistently involved about 40 students, 80 parents or other relatives and 15 staff.
"Right away we saw lots of benefits," said Mayer, who interviews participants every three months. "Students were getting out of the house more."
Streczek, who attends Northern Secondary, says she is allowed to go to parties now.
And the pager offers other advantages, she said in a joint interview at the school with fellow student Mehmet Islam, 16. Both took questions through a sign language interpreter and replied by speaking.
"When you're on a train or bus with a friend and you sign, people look at you," Streczek said. "So we message each other and it makes us look normal."
"It lets you keep a secret," Islam added. "When you sign, all your friends can see, but you can type a message to one person."
"If you have something to tell your parents and you can't tell them face to face," Streczek said of another use, "send them a message and give them time to calm down."
Nadia Petersen, head of Northern Secondary's deaf and hard of hearing department, says the ability to easily send messages to parents and staff has made students more accountable. "They have no excuses. If they are running late, they must message an interpreter or teacher.
"That goes for me, too," said Petersen, who is also deaf and is also in the program. "Now that I've got a pager, the principal can reach me at moment's notice — `Get down here. I need you.'"
Students who at first were sending 10 messages a month are now sending and receiving 3,000 a month, Mayer says, a sign to her that deaf students are becoming more comfortable with their writing skills. Parents and other adult novice users have grown adept at using the pagers, too.
The pilot project runs until 2007 but already the research is suggesting other ideas.
"We are beginning to see how (the pager) could be refined specifically for the deaf student population," she said.
A 911 function would be useful, for example. And perhaps a cheaper unit could be built, dropping functions important to business that offer little value to a high school student.
Ultimately, Mayer says she would like to see the pagers added to the provincial Assistive Devices Program to subsidize message devices for deaf people the way hearing aids now are covered.