Long Beach City College held a conference at the L building for deaf and hard of hearing students to share their challenges and experiences that they faced throughout their lives.
The event opened with an introduction from the members of the deaf community at LBCC. The main focus of the event was to create awareness among students to show them the issues that the deaf and hard of hearing community face on campus.
Conference attendees who are deaf or hard of hearing shared their experiences, both positive and negative.
Teachers and people who are proficient in American Sign Language (ASL), also attended the conference. ASL is one of the most used languages in America. Sign language is the primary language of many North Americans who are deaf and hard of hearing and it is used by many hearing people as well.
LBCC English Professor J-son Ong was apart of the conference and is also hard of hearing. Ong came to America at a young age to look for a better future and has been teaching online courses for almost 29 years.
“I want to have my own classroom. I want to teach my class with the students asking me for questions. I love being an English Professor but I want to teach it physically,” Ong stated.
It has been a big challenge for English Professor J-sun Ong since he is hard of hearing. Ong has not had the opportunity to teach in a class with students.
“I spoke Chinese at home. I had to learn English when I came to America. I hardly speak so I prefer texting. Teaching online courses is good but I want to see students every day. They are discussing if I can teach in a classroom full of students,” Ong explained.
One of the main conflicts that the deaf and hard of hearing students shared was having the inability to access to a good job due to discrimination form others.
“Direct and uninhibited language and communication access to the curriculum, and all facets of the schooling experience are essential for deaf or hard of hearing students to achieve equality of opportunity and an appropriate education,” said college student Maynor Gutierrez.
DSPS department member Mia Vancil asked students apart of the community about the difficulties that they experienced while in college.
Trisha Saumweber, a hard of hearing student, moved to California from Minnesota and explained the differences between both states.
“I thought that coming to college was not going to be a big deal but I have seen a lot of issues. I am from Minnesota and I moved to California. I was very frustrated because it wasn’t the same. Things changed dramatically,” said Saumweber.
“I came to school looking for better things but everything wasn’t the same. I went to a technical program in Minnesota, they had good interpreters, they had a lot of accommodations for us. They just provide a lot of access for us,” Saumweber explained.
“Some of the teachers knew the sign language so I thought coming here was going to be the same that we would have interpreted and when I came in the teachers were different, they disrespected me as a deaf individual. They didn’t make me feel great. They have to support more to deaf people,” the student continued in a sad tone.
Sarah Lugo shared experiences that caused her to fight for the deaf community after she faced discrimination.
“I have more negative than positive experiences,” said Lugo.
“College has not been positive for me, I don’t see the same support that I had in high school. We want to fight for our rights, we need more support in our schools. Teachers need to learn ASL language to help us.”
Deaf students are trying to acquire more access to a better future for the deaf and hard of hearing community. Members of the community expressed how they would like more teachers to know ASL and are working to improve this.
LBCC will hold more conferences for the deaf and hard of hearing students so that they can express their feelings and thoughts about the improvements that they want LBCC to include.