Interview with Mary Parks by Ryan

I have been taking my first Sign Language course this semester, and I have loved it so much I've written an entire post about it. It's been a very eye-opening experience. The professor, Mary Parks, is deaf, and at first I was nervous about my ability to succeed without ever having taken Sign Language before. Mary has been an excellent teacher and I have greatly enjoyed learning the language. I was able to sit down with Mary and ask her some questions related to working as a deaf instructor at a nearly all-hearing school.

Me: how long have you been teaching Sign Language at CCC?
Mary: (smiling) 8 years

Me: What have been the challenges being a deaf professor at a mostly hearing school?
Mary: My challenge is to educate students in ASL. In the past, many students, parents, and children did not familiarize themselves with Sign Language. the need [is] to expose the Deaf Culture to hearing people.

Me: What has been a good experience?
Mary: At the college, most students in the class have no experience with eye contact and only use visualization. They learn eye contact in the class.

Me: What are a few things that hearing people should know about deaf people or deaf culture?
Mary: Number one is that eye contact is not rude for deaf people. (this was a hard thing for me to learn when I first started class.) Number 2 is to learn the differences between deaf and hearing culture to enhance people's perspective.

Me: How do you communicate with other hearing professors?
Mary: to communicate effectively, other professors have to learn ASL. If they do not know Sign Language, we alternate writing notes. I prefer professors learn Sign Language so I feel like I'm a real person.

The interview was great and made me think a lot about learning Sign Language. I think this is something that everyone should attempt to learn. It's not like Spanish or French, where English words are similar and people can communicate with a combination of words and gestures. Sign Language is a way of life, and everyone should be able to communicate at some level with deaf people.

In the next post, I will follow up with an interview with Student Disability Services on the support structure available for potential deaf or hard of hearing students. Have a great weekend!

-Ryan