in the news

Deaf Culture Celebrated in Talent Show

By Luciana Morales
Staff Writer

Publication date, November 2, 2009

An impersonation of President Barack Obama, two superheroes, dances, song mimes and a number of comedy sketches and personal testimonies delighted the standing-room-only crowd at the American Sign Language Talent Show.

The event, held Oct. 24 in the Education and Business Complex’s Salon Cassia, concluded UTB/TSC’s observance of Accessibility Awareness Week, which included a panel presentation, a fair, an open house and exhibits at the REK Center and two screenings of the disability-themed movie, "The Soloist."

Disability Services Counselor Steve Wilder said more than 230 students turned out to both showings of "The Soloist."

Manuel Reyna/Collegian

Staff interpreter Patricia Palomino, with assistance from Dede Weeks, performs Gloria Gaynor’s disco hit “I Will Survive” during the ASL Talent Show Oct. 24 in the Education and Business Complex’s Salon Cassia.

"I thought the week went very well," Wilder said. "The whole idea was to celebrate abilities, to talk to ourselves about how respectful we are about all of our students with different abilities and disabilities and to showcase what can be done, what is being done, what they can do and what they are doing to achieve."

Interpreter Coordinator Rosemary Landa estimated that about 140 people attended the third annual American Sign Language Talent Show.

"We are coming together to celebrate the ASL language, to celebrate the deaf culture," Landa said the evening of the show. "It’s like a big powwow to reinforce the idea that deaf people and hearing people are equal."

The show, which served as a fundraiser for the Sting ’em Sign Club, consisted of 19 acts, with jokes by master of ceremonies Eric Martinez in between. Staff interpreter Julie Armendariz translated for the audience.

Sting ’em Sign Club Vice President Isidro Ramos’ comedy acts included jokes about hearing aids and a smart-aleck interpreter. The freshman drafting major was admittedly "very comfortable and enthusiastic about performing in sign language."

"Sometimes the deaf have a hard time at school and we are here to support each other and encourage each other," Ramos said. "We don’t want to put sign language down; we want to be proud of [it]."

Landa’s father, Emigdio Linan of San Benito, also performed onstage. He narrated how he met the woman to whom he has been happily married for 34 years.

"I came from San Antonio many years ago and when I moved here in 1979, I noticed that there were no interpreters and nothing going on for the deaf," Linan, who is deaf, said after the show. "I am so glad to see this happening for the third year."

His wife Carol also performed in a comedy sketch.

"Our daughter works here, so that’s how we got involved," Carol Linan said. "There’s nothing like this in the Valley, so it’s really special."

Landa encouraged UTB/TSC students to learn sign language.

"If [you are] interested in sign language, go ahead and be involved," she said. "Also, if [you] have a deaf person in the classroom, don’t be afraid to speak to them, they are just like any other student and that’s what we hope to promote."

Freshman speech pathology major Florencia Gracia, who attended the show, agreed.

"I think more of the hearing students should be involved, see everything [deaf students] are able to do," Gracia said. "They are no less, we are the same."

Freshman special education major Daniel Martinez is blind and aspires to be a teacher for the blind and visually impaired.

"People without disabilities need to be aware that disabilities can occur to people like them," Martinez said in an interview during the Accessibility Awareness Fair on Oct. 21. "Even though they are getting through a disability like I did … there’s enough [support to] succeed."

Wilder said about 400 students are registered with the Disability Services Office this semester, which represents an increase of 5 percent over Spring 2009.

"I think more people are being more honest with themselves and less timid about coming into the office," he said. "We are happy to help, but we don’t want to stigmatize either; we want them to succeed."

Wilder said about a third of the registered students get accommodations or help of some kind in their classes, such as extra time for tests or interpreters, if they are deaf.

"About two-thirds of the students wanted to let us know of their disabilities when they first came to college," he said. "Yet they manage, which is good because [people] like to be independent."

Wilder sent a message as well to UTB/TSC students: "There are certain ways that come up occasionally that everybody can help. … Don’t park in the handicapped parking spaces when you don’t have a disability--that’s one of the complaints we receive sometimes."

He also suggested students share their notes taken in class with impaired students who have trouble listening to the professor and taking notes at the same time.

"That’s a way they can volunteer right on the spot, right in their own class without going out of their way," Wilder said.

Source: The Collegian

Office provides services for special needs students

By: JOSÉ BORJÓN / The Brownsville Herald

October 7, 2007 - 11:17PM
From: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/students_80953___article.html/disabilities_wilder.html

Steve Wilder remembers how different Texas Southmost College was when he first began working there as a counselor in 1987.

Two decades later, the school is an equal partner in The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, which has seen dramatic growth. With that growth, came the creation of Disabilities Services for students will special needs.

“I started out with the counseling center doing general counseling (and) advising and have become specialized in disabilities services,” Wilder said, adding that his office sees more than 350 UTB-TSC students.

Each student’s needs vary, depending on their disability, he said.

“The largest group has learning disabilities,” Wilder explained. “For people with learning disabilities, it’s not uncommon for them to just need a little more time for taking tests.”

He is housed at the Disabilities Services Office in the old Lightner Student Center. His office is specially designed to accommodate special needs students.

“We also have testing rooms where students can take tests by themselves, in a distraction-reduced environment,” Wilder said. “We have assistive technology that can help in the sense that a student who has trouble reading can put a book or a handout on a scanner and the scanner will read it out loud.”

Wilder and his staff look for a student’s “best learning channel,” and focus on that.

“(We) use that and (try) not to dwell on where the difficulties are — everyone has abilities,” Wilder said. “When we started there was no such thing as this lab, there was no counselor.”

Before Disabilities Services came to be, TSC officials were just “trying to handle it as it came along,” but the service was not good, “for those students who needed (more),” he said.

Colleges and universities throughout the nation have struggled to better serve students with learning disabilities, Wilder said.

“There was not too much knowledge about learning disabilities, not much talk about attention deficit disorder,” he said. “Not much interest in psychological disabilities like bipolar illness.”

At the end of the 1980s, there were no deaf students at TSC.

“Last fall, we had 21 deaf students,” Wilder said, all needing American Sign Language interpreters. “It varies from semester to semester. This semester we have 14.”

A few years ago, UTB-TSC hired three professional American Sign Language interpreters, who accompany deaf students to class and facilitate communication.

“Everything the teacher says, everything the students say in class has to be interpreted,” Wilder said. “And then when the students want to express themselves it has to go through the interpreter.”

He strongly believes that any person, including those who have learning disabilities, can succeed in college and graduate.

Tests, requirements and expectations are the same for students with disabilities.

“We are not going to water down courses or dilute requirements,” Wilder assured. “So you know a student with a disability usually has to work harder.”

His job is his passion, and he admits he enjoys helping people who want to be helped.

“I like fostering their independence because I don’t want them to rely on us,” Wilder said. “When students come in as freshmen, sometimes there’s that sort of left-over habit of being accustomed to being helped as they were in high school.”

Wilder paused for a minute Friday and remembered how Disabilities Services first started.

“In terms of growth that I’ve seen, I used to be one counselor in a little office with no help,” he remembered. “And then we got an assistive lab and they put us in a few study rooms in the (Arnulfo Oliveira Memorial) Library.

But still that wasn’t “very accessible.”

About four years ago his office was relocated to the old Lightner Student Center.

“As you can see it’s at ground level,” he said of the offices. “We were able to build our own testing facility. You can see that we really have a very nice arrangement.”

He now has six full-time employees and counts an army of about one dozen part-time employees to help meet the growing demands of students with disabilities

“I love working at UTB,” he admitted, calling it a “great place with wonderful leadership.”