SimCom can work. Lisa doesn't have strong ASL skill so when we were together I signed PSE and spoke English at the same time. As a result she understood what was going on and we had a smooth conversation. Should I have signed ASL or only spoken she would not have understood as much and with as much ease.
In my opinion if SimCom is what will help her understand her classes and get an accessible education then that is what matters. I used SimCom my first year and I would have died without the ability to speech read. Now I just use ASL and that works really well for me and that is great, but I couldn't do my first year with just ASL.
So - I guess my point is that what works for Lisa works for Lisa. There are also MANY students in our Toronto Universities who are requesting interpreters to sign and mouth at the same time. This isn't a rare request by any means. If it helps the student understand the content that is what is important.
Thanks Jenny! yes, if I had ASL interpreter I WOULD NOT UNDERSTAND MY CLASSES. I am not trying to replace learning ASL, i am taking classes and learning as much as I can on my own with my friends. Ideally, in a year or two I would hope to be able to use ASL interpreters in classes, but for the moment that would not help me any more than what I am getting right now.
I am currently trying to find a method that works for me because I find using my FM/lipreading the prof and other students to be EXTREMELY tiring. I used to be okay with just my FM, and could even take notes while just listening. However, lately I have been finding it necessary to use my FM AND lipread the prof, making it nearly impossible to take notes. I am spending so much concentration trying to understand what is said that I can't stop and write anything down without missing a couple sentences (which is obviously problematic).
My profs give me their powerpoint slides, but I have difficulty writting what they have verbally added to the slides. My school has peer note-takers, but unfortunately they are only trained to write down information on the board (i believe they are mostly used by students with LDs who find taking notes hard but understand/can hear the lecture okay). I have a 'computerized note-taker' in one class who I have asked to take notes 'verbatim', however, she just isn't fast enough and ends up having to summarize what is said (assuming she understands because the prof is Chinese).
Basically, I'm trying to find a way to get access to the lecture that works. My school doesn't seem to understand that reading a summary of a lecture is not the same as reading the lecture word-for-word (or hearing it). However, I don't learn by reading summaries, i learn by making my own summaries. I also don't get any of the information when students ask a question, because by the time I have located the speaker they have finished the question. One of my profs is good at repeating the question, but some aren't and either forget or don't rephrase it very clear.
Now if only my school can find someone here that does sim-comm... even proper verbatim note taking would be good, but it would not help me learn ASL signs in the long run.
Anyway, thanks for your help everyone,
*EQL*
**edited the last paragraph a bit for clarity**
