Gallaudet hosts Zoom meeting with NAD and CSD on COVID-19 crisis
Today Gallaudet University hosted a live Zoom meeting with Gallaudet President Roberta “Bobbi” Cordano, National Association of the Deaf CEO Howard Rosenblum, and Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD) CEO Chris Soukup. The meeting host was Dr. Khadijat Rashid, the Dean of Gallaudet’s School of Education, Business and Human Services. The topic was “Navigating the COVID-19 Crisis.” The meeting lasted just over an hour and I will recap it.
Rosenblum said the NAD has been very busy with more calls than ever before. He said there are systemic flaws in that many press conferences and information that are distributed about COVID-19 are not accessible to deaf people because they are not providing interpreting. He said there are issues with interpreting at hospitals because they do not have PPE equipment (masks, gloves, gowns). The NAD is working on developing guidelines on what hospitals should do if a deaf person shows up. He is also working on telehealth policy guidelines. Rosenblum also said he was concerned about access to interpreters for deaf children who are in mainstream K-12 programs or postsecondary programs as they shift to remote classes.
Soukup said CSD is working with other organizations to provide accessibility to White House press briefings and that CSD has established an ASL coronavirus hotline with deaf agents available to provide support to the community if they have questions or concerns. CSD is also providing grants to organizations affected by COVID-19.
Cordano said she was proud of the deaf ecosystem for providing resources to support each other. She said Gallaudet is still adapting to the challenge of being remote but that students are still working towards their degrees. She said it was an overnight change that students had to go home from an environment rich in ASL and sign language to a remote setting.
Dr. Rashid said the coronavirus crisis has hit the U.S. economy like a bomb with over 22 million Americans losing their jobs. She said the actual numbers were likely to be much higher because not everyone can report the they lost their jobs. She said the impact on the deaf population was likely different and wondered what the numbers were for deaf people because many already don’t have jobs, or work part-time while collecting Social Security benefits.
Rosenblum said he notices that deaf people who have office-based jobs still have their jobs, but face barriers because they no longer have access to in-person interpreters or CART captioning that they had before for their meetings. He said online video meeting platforms such as Zoom tends to highlight people based on who is speaking (audio) and that if there is an interpreter, it was difficult or impossible for the deaf person to “pin” the person or enlarge their screen. He said the NAD is talking with tech companies to ask for changes and to develop policy guidelines for office based jobs.
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Rosenblum said he suspects that the numbers of applications for Social Security benefits has skyrocketed and encouraged any deaf person who have lost their jobs and can’t find another to go ahead and apply for benefits “right now,” so they can support themselves and their families.
Rosenblum said he has seen that for deaf people who still work on the front lines such as at food stores, in transportation, or for Amazon, that there are breakdowns in communication because of the use of masks, shorter meetings, and social distancing. The NAD is developing guidelines for employers on how they can give communication access to deaf employees.
Soukup said CSD is working with organizations to develop an online job fair and provide career development resources for the deaf community. He said CSD is providing online training courses with certifications so those who lost their jobs can gain new skills to make them more marketable to new employers. He said they are trying to connect employers who are looking for deaf employees with talent that exist in our community.
Cordano said that those who have a BA degree earns $1 million more in lifetime earnings than those who don’t. She said after COVID-19, some companies will not survive while others will thrive. She thinks the winner in the new economy is small businesses. She said that COVID-19 is now creating huge opportunities for research and policy development and new ideas that will benefit deaf people.
Dr. Rashid said deaf people have been ahead of the curve because we have used remote communication technology such as TTY, texting, or video calls long before others did. She said the District of Columbia is proposing wider sidewalks for social distancing but that deaf people have already done that at Gallaudet (Deaf Space). She said the situation is serious but we can look at opportunities.
Rosenblum said there are many challenges for DeafBlind individuals with tactile interpreting and access to SSPs. He said he is worried about the development of deaf children because they lose out on interacting with other children and encouraged mainstream programs to work with deaf school programs on providing opportunities for social development.
Cordano said one of their DeafBlind students is working on looking at pandemic preparation policies for those who require physical closeness. She said we all were caught off guard by the pandemic. Cordano also said we have to think of deaf people in nursing homes who might be cut off from visitors who know sign language and might not understand what is going on. Cordano said we need to understand what equipment is needed for DeafBlind or older deaf adults or others to thrive. She encouraged organizations to keep track of information and data on the impact of COVID-19 on deaf people because it will count in the future for policy changes.
Rosenblum said the NAD is working on collecting data and expects for more information to come up when things subside because there might be deaf people in hospitals who are too sick to make reports. He said we have to change the world for the better, such as making sure all hospital masks are clear/see-through or making sure hospital or nursing home employees can sign.
Rosenblum also said they are monitoring and asking people to report if there are any issues with Vocational Rehabilitation — on how VR is supporting remote learning.
Cordano said Gallaudet is seeking responses on a survey on how much deaf people know and understand things that have come up during the COVID-19 pandemic. I will link to the survey in the transcript.
That’s the recap of the meeting. If you want to watch it, the link is above or in the transcript.
Dr. Rashid said Gallaudet would host more Facebook live meetings in the future.
Facebook Zoom Panel: https://www.facebook.com/gallaudetu/videos/182369956125346/
Survey: https://survey.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5px3yda3VeSVAUJ