Think Creative - Issue 1

A place

in the

classroom

Deaf and hard of hearing youth pave the way to accessible education

By Jillian Slutzker

Growing up deaf in a remote community in the Caribbean Coast region, Cheysi Smith lived in her own world. Likemany deaf and hard of hearing children here, she was not taught sign language and was deprived of an opportunity for education. When she was finally given the chance to learn and entered first grade at age 12, through an organization supporting deaf and hard of hearing children, she seized it. Today, 27-year-old Smith is a pioneer. With a cohort of six other deaf and hard of hearing students, she is demanding access to higher ed- ucation through a three-year technical degree in Administrative Sciences at the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbe- an Coast (URACCAN), located in Bluefields, the region’s capital. “Coming to the university was very difficult, so we asked for an interpreter to come to the univer- sity,” she says. “It’s important to tell [deaf and hard of hearing] kids that they can come into the universities and [the instructors] can teach us.” While staff at the university were eager to em- brace the students, they lacked skills to com- municate with them. To answer this need and help train higher education instructors to work

with students like Smith, the university reached out to the Technical Vocational Education and Training Strengthening for At-risk Youth proj- ect, known in Spanish as “Aprendo y Emprendo.” The project, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implement- ed by Creative Associates International, teamed up with certified Nicaraguan sign language inter- preters to offer a 40-hour course for 13 univer- sity and technical and vocational faculty on how to communicate with and educate students with hearing disabilities. “We learned that there are 60 deaf and hard of hearing people just in Bluefields, and they didn’t have any access to higher education because they need to have someone to guide them through the process,” says Anne Largaespada, Organizational Development Specialist with the project. “So Aprendo y Emprendo took up the challenge to create a bridge for the deaf and hard of hearing community to technical or higher education because that is what they want.” Trainees come fromUniversity of the Auton- omous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast, the Bluefields Indian and Caribbean University, and the Foundation for the Autono-

Photos by Gretchen Robleto

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