Advocacy

OPEN LETTER to CHARLIE KIRK

A good education is paramount in learning how to read. According to the Special Education Research and Development Center Program, “about one in three deaf students who graduate from high school have reading skills between the second and fourth grade level” (Lederberg, 2012). Instruction is key for these children to have interactive and abundant access to language to be on par with their hearing peers. However, “most early education providers for young Deaf children have backgrounds in speech-language pathology instead of Deaf education” (Snoddon, 2012). A quick explanation of the differences: Speech-language pathology is a field that specializes in diagnosing and treating speech and language disorders. On the other hand, Deaf education is centered around providing educational support, teaching sign language as the primary mode of communication, determining how it correlates with spoken language, and addressing the cultural and linguistic needs of students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Learning to read is a skill that relies on spoken language. Lacking access to spoken language is why Deaf and hard-of-hearing children struggle to learn to read. Add to this the fact that the (hearing) education system forces these children into special education classes with no opportunity for language acquisition, i.e., no Deaf teachers to help them grasp the concept of English, and you can see why their literacy levels are so pitiful. ASL is the bridge to connect their visual language with both spoken and written language. Without this channel, there is minimal hope for meaningful access.

According to the National Literacy Institute’s 2024 statistics, 54% of American adults (hearing) read below a 6th-grade level, with 20% below a 5th-grade level (Grant, 2024). So, why is there such a low literacy level among hearing adults? What if there was no sound on the television screen during an emergency broadcast and hearing individuals had to rely on captions? Could they?

According to the National Institutes of Health, one in eight people in the United States, ages 12 or older, are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. That is 12.5% of the American population (2024). Couple this data with the literacy rates of the Deaf/HH community, and you have a problem with understanding closed captioning, which is rarely accurate, especially during live broadcasts and/or emergency briefings. Not being fluent in ASL compounds the difficulty of mastering English. A brief note on another demographic not addressed above would be our Deaf immigrants who have come here from other countries. The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) wrote a position paper calling on all governments to ensure language access, “including access to instruction by sign language-proficient teachers and the provision of visual learning materials” (Schwartz et al., 2022). Many Deaf immigrants do not read or write in English but are able to learn ASL. However, if we cannot even provide language access to our youngest, how are we expected to ensure language access to any of our Deaf community?

Let us examine the Deaf community as a linguistic community. The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Section 616, (42 U.S.C. 5196f), FEMA P-592, May 2019, requires that any information disseminated by the agency is available in accessible formats that are understood by “populations with limited English proficiency” (2019).

Ableism is particularly problematic when it comes to attitudes towards the Deaf community. Many Hearing individuals believe that they should not have to make accommodations for the Deaf, even in situations where lives may be at risk.

Parents and educators often encourage children to manage their focus. Can we not teach the Hearing to focus only on the speaker instead of removing language access to the Deaf?" Are we, the Deaf community, less deserving of potentially life-saving information during an emergency than the hearing community?

References:

FEMA.gov. (2019, May). Stafford Act, as amended, and related authorities. Stafford Act 2019. https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/stafford-act_2019.pdf

Grant, S. (2024, March 7). Literacy statistics 2024- 2025 (where we are now). The National Literacy Institute. https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-statistics-2024-2025-where-we-are-now

Lederberg, A. (2012, July 1). Special Education Research and Development Center on Reading Instruction for deaf and hard of hearing students. National Center for Special Education Research. https://ies.ed.gov/ncser/RandD/details.asp?ID=1325#:~:text=Purpose:%20Poor%20literacy%20skills%20have,deaf%20or%20hard%20of%20hearing.

Schwartz, M. A., Elder, B. C., Chhetri, M., & Preli, Z. (2022, January 7). Falling through the cracks: Deaf new Americans and their ... ERIC-Education Resources Information Center. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1324958.pdf

Snoddon, K. (2012). American sign language and early literacy: A model parent-child program (pp. 1–27). essay, Gallaudet University Press.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2024, September 20). Quick statistics about hearing, balance, & dizziness. National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing