When the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world last year, the Caribbean was faced with the daunting task of attempting the first large-scale e-learning project at all levels, under less than favourable conditions. For the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community, the challenges created by the onset of digital learning have been unique and largely unstudied. Noor-ud-din Mohammed, a student of the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (DMLL) at The UWI, decided to take on the task of uncovering what some of these unique challenges are, and help to shed some light on the issues facing Deaf and Hard of Hearing students when it comes to learning in a pandemic.
On June 14, in collaboration with the Deaf Empowerment and Advancement Foundation, Noor-ud-din shared some of his findings and held a discussion on the needs of DHH students with parents, teachers and interpreters who are part of or working within the DHH community.
According to the World Federation of the Deaf, “Deaf people, like other marginalised groups, face greater and unique vulnerabilities during this time of crisis, particularly concerning equitable access to information and education.”
As Noor-ud-din presented some of the data from his research, which has now been published in Deafness and Education International in an article entitled “Deaf students’ linguistic access in online education: The case of Trinidad”, it is striking how these accessibility challenges can have a lasting impact on DHH students and their ability to learn, communicate and develop at the same pace as their peers.
The Zoom discussion, which is available now on the Deaf Empowerment and Advancement Foundation’s Facebook page, was interpreted into Trinidad and Tobago Sign Language (TTSL) by Dr Ben Braithwaite, lecturer at the DMLL. Niobe Rodrigues interpreted questions from Deaf participants from TTSL into English for non-signers; and her husband Bryan Roderigues, who made history as the first Deaf president of the TT Association for the Hearing Impaired, mediated the session. Despite a relatively small sample size comprising mainly primary school students from the Cascade School for the Deaf and the Audrey Jeffers School for the Deaf, as well as parents, teachers and translators from both primary and secondary school level, there were many issues raised that require our attention as a Caribbean community.
In addition to the widespread problem of lack of reliable access to devices, which is especially prevalent in working-class communities, e-learning has restricted the abilities of Deaf students to pick up and practice their primary language, TTSL. As one of the participants described, sign language is a “3-D language in a 2-D setting.” Within the limited space of a computer screen or, in some cases, a tiny smartphone, the nuances of signs can be lost—far less for devices which have internet connectivity issues that can cause lag or blurriness.
For many of our Deaf children with hearing parents, their first access to a sign language comes at the age of five or six, when they enter school. Their parents often do not sign, and so they are cut off from communication with their family and lose valuable time when young children are picking up the basics of language from those around them and learning the cognitive skills that they can build upon later in life. Now, with their only access to teachers and their peers being through a screen, they are also losing out on social activities like spending recreational time with friends at recess, which is an important part of how children practise socialisation and communication.
For teachers and interpreters, who are now being relied on more than ever as Deaf students’ main line of contact, they are learning how to use these online systems through trial and error, and without much support from the Ministry of Education or community resources.
“We are so far into the pandemic and there is still a great need for workshops for teachers and interpreters,” says Noor-ud-din. Techniques such as multi-pinning, side-by-side mode and closed captions are all available on platforms like Zoom, but in order to learn what works best for DHH students, there needs to be a lot more structural support and training. Students have learned methods to circumvent this, like using two devices, one for the teaching session and one for the interpreter, but this is a financially limiting solution because it requires access to two usable devices.
Noor-ud-din, who first became interested in working in the Deaf Community and Deaf Linguistics in 2018 when he had his first class with Dr Braithwaite, learned about the community by engaging with DHH persons who were willing to help him and his classmates learn sign language and Deaf culture through hands-on practice.
“We realised that right here in the Caribbean, and in Trinidad and Tobago, there is a separate, rich sub-culture that is the Deaf community,” he says.
And a crucial aspect of this culture is TTSL. In order for young Deaf students to become immersed in their own culture and history, as well as for hearing parents and family members to understand the breadth of this culture, signing needs to become more widespread and to be recognised as a hugely underutilised resource that we must tap into. It is essential for the growth and well-being of our Deaf children.
“Right now, I’m in the process of writing letters to the Ministry of Education and the head of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of the Hearing Impaired and also thinking about creating sign language learning materials, and I spoke to some students and teachers who would like to work together as a team to create those resources. But we may need grant funding to get a project like that off the ground,” says Noor-ud-din.
As the pandemic continues to change and shape the way we live, we must ensure that the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community, and all marginalised communities, are not left behind in the process.
