Needs not addressed
Recommendations in last week’s report on improving educational outcomes do nothing to address the needs of deaf and hard of hearing students, an advocate says.
Recommendations in last week’s report on improving educational outcomes do nothing to address the needs of deaf and hard of hearing students, an advocate says.
Nicole Marsh, who lost her hearing when she was six years old, knows from experience the kind of barriers deaf children can face in schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. She began her education at a mainstream school in Bishop’s Falls, where she faced both educational and social challenges, before moving to the now-closed Newfoundland and Labrador School for the Deaf.
Marsh was one of many stakeholders who consulted with the Premier’s Task Force on Improving Educational Outcomes gathered information for its report.
She wrote a personal letter to the taskforce, and another letter on behalf of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of the Deaf (NLAD), advocating for access to greater language and education resources for students who are deaf and hard of hearing, including centralized education for students who are deaf and hard of hearing, with the ability to opt out, and making ASL as a second language an option to all students.
NLAD also requested an inquiry into deaf education in the province.
When the taskforce released its report last week, including a chapter on inclusive education and an overall list of 82 recommendations, several disability advocacy organizations raised concerns.
But Marsh said the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing community were completely left out.
“While other groups in need of inclusive education are angry/upset with the report, deaf/hard of hearing education was basically not considered at all,” Marsh told The Telegram. “There were no recommendations made, compared to possibly the ‘wrong’ recommendations for other disability groups.”
She said the task force doesn’t understand the unique nature of education for deaf students, and added there has been no representation for the deaf and hard of hearing community in the K-12 Education and Early Childhood Development — Student Support Services Division level for the past 2 ½ years.
“The lack of representation there means that current teachers of the deaf do not get to bring their concerns to government. They do not have a voice and deaf/hard of hearing education suffers,” she said.
Marsh said when the NSD closed in 2010, then-education minister Darin King promised students would continue to receive the same range of services. But she said that’s not the reality for the 325 deaf and hard of hearing students in the K-12 system today.
“From experience, the promise for full range of services was either limited to previous NSD students and not other deaf and hard of hearing students, or the full range of services was not provided at all,” she wrote. According to the taskforce’s report, 18 instructional resource teachers are allocated to assist students with hearing loss, based on the number of students the previous year (the total in 2016-17 was 280 students). The department allocates instructional resource teachers based on a 7:1,000 ratio.
Marsh is advocating for a return to a centralized education system where students can learn among peers who speak the same language and learn the same way. She says it is heart breaking to think there are students today in the same situation she was in before attending NSD; at her former mainstream school she felt isolated and tormented, and had difficulty when teachers spoke as they faced the blackboard.
“Before I attended the NSD, I felt like something was wrong with me. I felt like something needed to be fixed, and no matter how hard I tried, I still wasn’t trying hard enough. I still didn’t fit in. NSD taught me I wasn’t broken — the system I was educated in was (and is),” she wrote in her letter to the taskforce. “NSD taught me social skills I may not have gained otherwise. NSD taught me how to be a friend. NSD taught me much more that can go into a planned curriculum, it opened doors for more incidental learning to occur. The School for the Deaf showed me that having English skills is important, but having an accessible language to learn and socialize in is also invaluable.”
Marsh said she has been trying to contact her MHA, Education Minister Dale Kirby, to arrange a meeting about the subject.
The Telegram contacted Kirby’s office, but he was unavailable for comment.
“While other groups in need of inclusive education are angry/upset with the report, deaf/hard of hearing education was basically not considered at all. There were no recommendations made, compared to possibly the ‘wrong’ recommendations for other disability groups.”
Nicole Marsh
The Telegram’s “Inclusion Now” series, published in July, looks further at accessibility and inclusion for persons with disabilities in Newfoundland and Labrador. The series is available in its entirety online at thetelegram.com.