National Technical Institute of the Deaf- The Underdog.

I recently saw a very interesting film, named 'The Hammer', focusing on the story of Mark Hammon, a deaf wrestler, who went to NTID or National Technical Institute of the Deaf to those who do not know the acronym (RNID? No. RNLI? TIND?). This university is a lesser known section of RIT or Rochester Institute of Technology (can you see why I am confused?), that caters for deaf and hard of hearing students. After visiting Gallaudet, it was interesting to compare the two universities but as it turns out they are both very different. 

We booked a tour to see the grounds and were met at the visitor reception by a chap in a bright orange -shirt, named Ben. Ben had a cochlear- sorry this definitely should not be the first thing I mention about him- Ben is a student ambassador and is in his fourth year of studying bio-mechanics at NTID. Ben also had a cochlear and signed in a manner that used some lip pattern, showing his mainstream background. I had not seen this much in ASL but he still had less lip pattern than people that use BSL. His fluent signing had regional signs that were specific to Rochester meaning that I had to work hard to try and decipher what the signs meant and string them together to create meaning in my head. He told us he learnt to sign before he came to university and further developed his signing when he first came to NTID.

The NTID campus alone was humongous, and that was only a small part of the wider expanse of RIT. It took us an hour and a half to get round it all and I cannot express to you how terrible it made UCLan look. Does UCLan have a ice rink? You're joking. A hot tub? Ha. A rock climbing Wall? Nope. A shopping Mall? No. Underground tunnels like in James Bond? No way. Have doctors in their service that know sign language? Now you are in the realm of fantasy. More importantly, there was a Ben and Jerry's stall on campus. The gym services were like something from the SAS, their support systems much have a million pound thrown at them a year and their campus was a flipping holiday park. Excuse me, while I go cry in a corner and wonder why I choose UCLan. Also, why am I not deaf? I could have gone to Rochester Deaf School and then NTID. Of course, I am only joking. It is clear to see, however, that England is a lot further behind America when it comes to deaf studies and the services available for deaf people. England has three universities that have deaf studies courses and no specialized university that accommodates for the deaf or teaches in sign. The tour was interesting and informative but meeting and conversing with the staff was truly mind blowing.

For starters, we had the meeting in a real life deaf research lab, cue: second fan girl moment. Sitting on the big leather green couch was like floating in a bubble filled with quiet intellectualism, where the academic giants of the deaf world are scattered around us, sat at their desk busy creating history or the next book of research I will read for my dissertation next year. There were academic posters on the walls describing the cognitive processes of deaf children. We were basically in the magical dream world of deaf studies  A man and a woman came and sat down opposite us and introduced themselves as Peter and Kim, Peter was a researcher at the lab, researching the cognitive development of deaf children and clever things like how a deaf child acquires language. Kim was the director of interpreting studies at NTID, catering for the students that went on to interpret for RIT and for the outside world. Peter was hard of hearing, and he sometimes he used his voice whilst signing ASL, meaning I could pick up most of what was being said, Kim was a pure signer of ASL and I could understand most of what was being signed. I think. She could suddenly start talking about aliens in hats and I would still be nodding along. The conversation was made a little bit more confusion by the two signers of ASL trying to finger spell in BSL to help us out, which was a lovely gesture but confused me a lot. 

We then met Matt and Matt was interesting. Matt was obviously proud that he signed and he signed beautifully and knew some BSL because he was originally from England and had learnt BSL before moving to America to learn ASL. The hearing contingent of our group also got a shock when Matt stood up and started speaking to a colleague, we had no idea he was hearing! Matt had worked at the Bristol research institute with a lot of famous people in the deaf world such as Paddy Ladd and Bencie Woll and he explained about how difficult it was adjusting to being in a deaf world as a hearing person, voice-off, twenty four seven. I now also realized where his fantastic ASL skills had come from- he had worked for the likes of Paddy Ladd. He explained to us that if you have a basis of one sign language then it is easier to learn another. Apparently, as a hearing man in a deaf world, he was continually vetoed over making decisions despite knowing sign language and being part of the team. He also said Bencie Woll was very difficult to work with but said it was incredible working there. It made me wish that the Bristol centre was still up and running today and that more people could have benefited from the influential work and ideas that the centre pushed forward. 

Matt's department at NTID was simply named 'Liberal Studies' and when asked what this was, I could not make out a clear answer. It seemed to me like his whole job was to take in deaf students that didn't have good enough academic skills to get into NTID or the 'big university', so it was Matt's job to help them bring their English and math skills up to scratch. A sort of half way college to get into a college, if you will. In his job, he catered for those who signed fluently and for those who knew no sign at all, sometimes the two different groups being in the same class. He then went on to state he used simultaneous communication in these cases. So this loud and proud signer walks in and tells us that he used a communication method that is not a certified language to teach deaf children. Interesting. Matt also told us some hard to swallow facts about NTID, the one that shocked me most was that out of 1400 hard of hearing, Deaf, oral deaf  and deafblind students, 600 were implanted. The wave of 90s babies that were the first to receive cochlear implants back when they were new and brilliant are growing up and going to university. This is a clear reminder of the direction, whether the deaf power like it or not, that the deaf world is going.

I am not sure which I would choose between Gallaudet and NTID. NTID  was a lot more accepting of the variety of communication methods that deaf people use. Gallaudet seemed to be aimed slightly more at the 'elitist' deaf, those from deaf families or whose first language is ASL. Those who do not fit this criteria seemed to be judged or frowned upon, probably why there were not many CI's at Gallaudet. NTID however, did not seem like a university that wanted to move the slowly trundling wagon of deaf acceptance forward but rather assimilate the deaf people in with the hearing world. It seemed to spread the message that deaf people can not in fact do, but needed lessons so they can go to a mainstream university like their hearing peers. It seemed like a helping hand but in a way that did not allow for deaf people to stand on their own two feet. Saying that though, the deaf research lab was an enlightening insight into the pioneering research that despite the state of deaf affairs in the world, is still continuing. It was a gift to have met the people in the deaf research lab and for them to impart their knowledge to us.