‘See What I’m Signing’ Offers UWM Deaf Students a Chance To Communicate Their Experiences

Deaf Milwaukee community members shared both positive experiences and the more inaccessible, unwelcoming ones at UWM’s annual See What I’m signing event .

“Coming here, I was like a fish out of water,” Katelyn Miller said. “ I felt lost, I felt stressed, I felt overwhelmed, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to manage myself.”

Around 100 people attended the event which offered deaf, hard-of-hearing (HoH), and hearing students to connect with one another and learn about the deaf experience.

Students asked questions of a panel of deaf community members. The deaf panel featured four Milwaukee deaf community members: Miller and fellow UWM student Casimir Mueller, Katie Voss, and Carol Comp. Each panelist all discussed their different backgrounds and experiences with the deaf community.

Miller graduated from the Wisconsin School for the Deaf (WSD) in Delavan, while Mueller attended his local high school in Beaver Dam. Both students came to UWM with different deaf experiences. Where Mueller sat in classes with an interpreter by his side, Miller was surrounded by other signing students, teachers, and staff.

While deaf students might feel more comfortable with other signing students and staff, the hearing outside world isn’t as welcoming and accessible.

“Some people have no respect for our culture,” Mueller said.

During a pre-Calculus class, Mueller and his professor didn’t see eye-to-eye. “The teacher was Chinese and he had a very thick accent,” he said. “His culture and my culture were very at odds. He kinda viewed me as less than and that really lit a fire under me because I am a strong person.”

ASL is an inherently visual language so when the professor would walk in between Mueller and the interpreter, Mueller couldn’t participate or even learn. “It’s important for people to respect our space and our culture,” he said.

Mueller and Miller have similar negative experiences with TAs. “I think it’s hard for TAs because they don’t have experience with students with a disability so that can be frustrating for them,” Mueller said.

“For both of us, we’ve been able to educate these people on how to better make a class more accessible for a deaf student,” Miller said. “It’s important for teachers to know how to handle something like that.”

Not only are professors and TAs sometimes unaccommodating, but review sessions, tutoring, and other academic services seem almost impossible.  

When needed, schools must supply interpreters under the Americans with Disabilities Act; however, deaf and HoH students must request interpreters in advance.

According to Mueller, “Professors will be like ‘Go to the Writing Center’, ‘Go to tutoring” and it’s like ‘Ok, I have to ask for an interpreter for that, I have to set up a meeting and ask for that.’ Hearing people can just walk in and show up. For me, it’s a lot of requests that postpone my timeline because everything can’t be done just by showing up.”

Mueller misses out on impromptu review sessions hosted by the professors because he instantly has to find an interpreter if he wants to attend.  

Miller feared coming to UWM where she didn’t have as large as a deaf community as she did at WSD. Those fears haven’t proven true yet, according to Miller.

“Once I got going, it took time, but I became comfortable. Most hearing students in my classes are very accommodating and really want to talk with me. I don’t feel isolated. I don’t feel alone.”

The ASL Living Learning Community hosted the annual event with collaboration from the Student Signing Association.

The Student Signing Association (SSA) provides deaf, HoH, and hearing students with a strong sense of community on the larger UWM campus. Meetings allow all these students to come together and learn from each other’s experiences.

“When you come to SSA, you feel more safe,” Miller said.

The ASL living-learning community serves to “enhance students’ knowledge and skills in American Sign Language (ASL) and an understanding of and respect for ASL and its linguistics, culture, history, and literature,” according to the University Housing website.

Before the Deaf Panel, students and community members gathered to play a variety of “ASL Games” that relate to the deaf experience. While at one station participants learned basic ASL signs, at another station groups tried to understand a sentence by lipreading.

SSA meets every Thursday night from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the ASL lab in Enderis 258.