"From Where I Sit" Video Series

Gregoire's Story — Video Transcript

I was born in a small town in Cameroon. I contracted mumps when I was eight. I didn't really understand what was going on. When the school year started again, my father went to my school and met with the principal and he let him know that his son had become deaf. And would his son still be allowed to go to school. The principal was really quite concerned, "Your son is now deaf? He can't come here to school." My father said, "Well you know I was deaf but other than that I was fine".

Well, my father came back home he was very sad. In our community there wasn't a school for the deaf. So my dad went back to my hearing school and talked to the principal again after four months. "He can still communicate through reading and lip reading and you should be able to try and see if that works. He's staying at home right now and all of the other kids are going to school. He can read and he can write just like all the other kids can." Well the principal relented and let me go back to school.

So after I graduated, I went off to the University of Cameroon. When I was studying at the University of Cameroon, I was contacted and got an offer of sponsorship to study in the United States. I heard that the educational system in the United States was not only an excellent system for hearing students, but it was also equally good for deaf students because they provided interpreters and a variety of services for deaf students to get the same education that the hearing students did.

A deaf student can't depend on the interpreters 100% of the time to get the information that the instructor offers in class. So if the instructor could make an effort to make the information more visual I think that would be a huge benefit to all of the students. Sometimes, an instructor will bring a video tape to class and the video tape won't have captioning. The instructor will put the tape in the TV and the deaf student really should be able to watch the captions in order to understand and participate just the same way the hearing students do.

If the teacher knows there is a deaf student in class and they bring a video tape, the video tape really should have captioning so the deaf student can access that information and not feel frustrated and left out. The captions on the video tape not only benefit deaf students but they also benefit any international students who are learning English as a second language. They can improve their English skills too.

Sign language is very complex. If an outline can be given to both the interpreter and the deaf student beforehand they'd be privy to any new terminology that they'd be exposed to in the classroom and have an opportunity to prepare for the class beforehand and make decisions about what's the best way to convey complex information and also to lessen opportunities for misunderstanding.

I'm pursuing a degree in Spanish in the CSU system. With a degree in Spanish I can teach Spanish maybe first, at the high school level, to deaf students. Teaching is one of my professional goals. It's something that I love.

Cal State didn't have any available interpreters in the area who were fluent in spoken Spanish and interpreting at the same time. So for the lack of an available interpreter or several interpreters, instead I use Assistive Technology. There is a person offsite who uses a headset and the teacher has a lapel microphone and when the teacher speaks, the person offsite can hear the teacher's voice through their headset and type into their offsite computer. And that information goes through an Internet connection to my laptop in the classroom. And I read the captions on the laptop while the teacher is lecturing in real time.

When I tell people that I am pursuing a degree in Spanish, their reaction is one of complete and utter disbelief! "But you're deaf" they say. "And you're majoring in Spanish?" "How can that be?" "I don't understand how that could work."

If only hearing people could see a deaf person as someone who is really just like everyone else then deaf people would feel really that they did belong... that they were the same as any hearing person. People need to know that deaf people really can do anything a hearing person can do... with no limitations. I want people to see that my major in Spanish is an example of what deaf people can do.