For many students and staff on the campus of Gallaudet University the politics of being Deaf means that ASL should be the only means of communication on the campus of Gallaudet University for all students. That's what Ruiz is favoring in the Buff and Blue newspaper. But here's where it gets sticky with president Hurwitz. He recently celebrated the new ICED resolution on the global call to "accept and respect all languages and all forms of communication." Which is good or is it? But then it gets compounded with Federal laws covering communication accessibility.
According to Section 504, and since Gallaudet University is a recipient of federal financial assistance as a post secondary institution which has an obligation to ensure accessibility to students with disabilities, including those with hearing loss and the need for communication accessibility.
An important responsibility of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability against students with disabilities. OCR receives numerous complaints and inquiries in the area of elementary and secondary education involving Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 794 (Section 504). Most of these concern identification of students who are protected by Section 504 and the means to obtain an appropriate education for such students.
Section 504 is a federal law designed to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities in programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Section 504 provides: "No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . . ."
OCR enforces Section 504 in programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance from ED. Recipients of this Federal financial assistance include public school districts, institutions of higher education, and other state and local education agencies. The regulations implementing Section 504 in the context of educational institutions appear at 34 C.F.R. Part 104.Services you should be able to request at Gallaudet University:
* American Sign Language Interpreter
* Signed English Interpreter (SEE-Signing Exact English or PSE-Pidgin Sign English)
* FM Systems and Conference Microphones
* Voice interpreter
* CART
* Remote Captioning
* Cued Speech Transiliterator
* I-Communicator
* Typewell/C-Print
* Professional or Volunteer Notetakers
Even though Gallaudet University obviously supports ASL many are calling for the exclusive use of ASL for all or ASL at all times. That'd be if only the educational institution in question was a private educational institution that receive no federal funding then it wouldn't fall under the rules of Section 504. But since Gallaudet University receive annual federal funding for as long as it has been opened it must abide by Section 504 laws. Section 504 gives the power over to students who may request communication accessibility other than ASL.
That's a stark but humbling reality there.
Since president Hurwitz supports the new ICED resolution which does call for pluralism and to "accept and respect all languages and all forms of communication," and that Gallaudet University must follow the laws under Section 504, it would be interesting to see how president Hurwitz can reconcile these things in the midst of a call for "ASL at all times" along with changing campus demographics seeing more hearing students while competing with other universities and colleges on recruiting and retaining deaf and hard of hearing students.
Maybe Gallaudet University is slowly losing it's recognition as a Deaf Mecca?
Anybody want a HUG? (click on it!)
