September 14, 2000

Options, aids for deaf increase in Iowa schools; technology more available

Seth Harrington
digital iowa staff reporter
Drake University

DES MOINES, Ia. -- Since schools are supposed to be for everyone, they often have to learn how to work with people who don't have the same abilities as everybody. Schools across Iowa, including three in Des Moines, have looked for ways to help deaf students participate in class as normal students would, using special devices and special training.

Recent years have seen an increase in the technological aids that the deaf have available to them in school and elsewhere. Both the Iowa School for the Deaf and public schools in Des Moines have installed visual warning systems in case of fire, tornadoes or other emergencies, as is required by law. The schools are also gaining more access to telephones designed for the deaf.

"TTYs (teletypewriters; phones for the deaf) aren't new, of course," said Tom Mitchell, supervisor of the deaf and hard of hearing program in the Des Moines community school district, "but we're starting to equip the schools with them." Two parties who have a TTY can communicate voicelessly with each other over the phone by typing their messages on a small keyboard.

While almost every deaf student can count on some time in classrooms full of hearing students, they will also be spending time one-on-one and in classrooms of only deaf students with certified teachers of the deaf.

"We try to look at each student on an individual basis to see what they need," said Mitchell. "If a student is simply hard of hearing, they may only need amplification equipment; hearing aids and things like that, some speech and language assistance, or part-time attention from a teacher of the hearing-impaired. Some may need more than that. They are put in classes taught by a teacher of the deaf. The classes are small; we try to limit them to five or six."

This is what is called a "self-contained classroom." They were the norm in the education of the deaf until the early 1980s, when "mainstreaming" was introduced. Mitchell said that sometimes these classes are even taught by a deaf teacher. The district currently employs one hearing-impaired teacher and one deaf psychologist.

"If there is a student who we think can profit from being in a mainstream class, we put them in the main program," Mitchell said. Deaf students in Des Moines must attend Brooks-Lucas Elementary, Hiatt Junior High, or East High. In classes where most of the other students are hearing, a sign-language interpreter will be present. Mitchell would not disclose how much interpreters are paid, but he said it is less than what a teacher is paid and that interpreters work days that are shorter by about 15 minutes. The programs are paid for out of the schools' special-ed budget.

Some deaf students choose to go to a school designed specially for them -- The Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The school goes from grade one through 12, and is the only residential, publicly supported school for the deaf in Iowa or Nebraska. The school enrolls hearing-impaired students from Nebraska who choose an all-deaf environment, as well as those from Iowa.

The school has 17 students from Nebraska, according to school superintendent Bill Johnson. "The students from Nebraska are all residential," Johnson said "I have 155 students from Iowa, who receive most of the program on the main campus. Of them, 115 are residents. Plus we serve 100-115 students in public schools in southwest Iowa, places like Griswold, Shenandoah and others." These students commute to a few classes, in addition to taking mainstream classes at their towns' schools.

One advantage of going to the school for the deaf, Johnson said, is getting direct instruction from teachers trained in working with deaf students, instead of having to get information through an interpreter. The professional services, including psychologists and counselors, are all certified in teaching the deaf. The support staff, including a psychologist and a social worker, are also trained in deaf work. Twenty percent of the staff at the school are deaf, including 51 percent of those who work in the residential program.

"It makes for great role models," Johnson said. "Ninety percent of my students are above the national deaf average. However, compared to hearing kids, we're in the 25th to 50th percentile."

Those living at the school are starting to have an easier time calling out for pizza. A recent improvement now available to everyone is the "relay service," which is a phone service that connects deaf customers with even people who don't have the TTY system.

"Even with TTY, a deaf person could only call someone with a TTY," Mitchell said. "Back then, if a deaf person wanted to order a pizza, they were pretty much out of luck. TTY functions like an interpreter. First, the deaf person calls the relay service, and gives the number of the pizza place. The relay service then calls the pizza place. Then the deaf person types in a message (with a TTY system) and the relay service would voice that. And anyone can call a relay service, so anyone can call a deaf person, whether they have a TTY or not."

Another recent advance has been "real-time captioning," a system that prints out what is being said on a screen for a person to read. Whether to use a real-time captioner or an interpreter is left up to the deaf person, Mitchell said.

"Often in professional settings, it works for one-way communication," he said. "In a workshop, it's usually just going to be someone talking. Of course, if the deaf person wants to ask a question and they don't have speech, it's back to 'what do we do now?'"

"We teach the kids about all the adaptive devices," Mitchell said, "like smoke alarms for the deaf and the thing where the doorbell rings and a light flashes."

Deaf students still have a ways to go before they are up to par with the general public, however. Johnson said that 60 percent of deaf students are unemployed after graduation. Still, there appear to be winds of change in Iowa. Among graduates from the Iowa School for the Deaf, the figure is only 5 percent. Also, 85 percent of graduates of the school go to post-secondary school.