UTRGV has approved American Sign Language, ASL, as a major for Fall 2020 and is working on expanding its curriculum to help students prepare for the national and state certification exams.
“This is a dream that’s been going on for 10 years in my book,” said Shawn Saladin, UTRGV’s associate vice president for Faculty, Health Affairs. “Let’s just start with the [deaf] kids. … If there’s more interpreters … their access to education, to communication, to health care is going to increase their quality of life, their chances for college education, their chances for a better job, their chances to contribute to society in meaningful, productive ways, their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”
Saladin said he has severe congenital progressive sensorineural hearing loss and did not have all of the communication access needed growing up.
“What it was like without the resources and the greater community understanding the type of disability, was very limiting,” he said. “They told me I would never go to college, and I wouldn’t even go to community college, so, ‘Don’t worry about it.’”
Saladin said he was socially isolated.
“You’re the only one with hearing aids, you’re the only one that has deafness in the entire school,” he said. “That happens a lot. I don’t want to say they don’t want to hang out with you, but you’re seen as an outsider.”
Saladin has a doctoral degree in special education and is vice president of the Texas School for the Deaf Governing Board.
“There’s approximately 15,000 deaf people in the Rio Grande Valley, and interpreting services are in short supply all across the country,” he said.
Saladin said more faculty will be hired and research opportunities will be added for the major.
Currently, there are five sign language learning courses and one deaf culture course available.
“We are looking at accepting 25 majors per cohort,” Saladin said. “Now as a minor, lots of people can take the minor.”
He said students can choose whether to turn their minor into a major.
Ana Hernandez, a rehabilitation services junior, serves as the vice president for the ASL Club at UTRGV.
“I believe it’s a huge opportunity that the school has to offer to incoming students now,” Hernandez said.
She said when she graduated from high school, she wanted to study ASL, but it was not an option.
“I feel joy for the future students that want that bachelor’s that I couldn’t get,” Hernandez said.
In the future, the ASL vice president said she would like to come back to school after she finishes her degree in rehabilitation services.
“After graduation, I want to come back to school and do the [ASL] bachelor’s,” Hernandez said. “What I really want is to either be an interpreter or a deaf education teacher for kids. And then, maybe later on, specialize in blind education, too, so I can be ASL tactile, which is composed of a blind and
deaf person.”
She said she became interested in studying ASL after a friend began teaching her how to sign back when she lived in Mexico.
“I had a deaf friend and he taught me Spanish ASL, which is different from English. So, he got me interested in this language, and I just wanted to learn more,” Hernandez said. “So when I came here to the United States and I started studying, I developed this concept that I wanted to be more involved in the deaf culture because, honestly, it’s interesting learning a new language.”
She said she wanted to study ASL since she was young.
“I told my mom I wanted to be this, and I saw it on TV, because it had the interpreters on the corner,” Hernandez said. “I was like, ‘That’s my dream career. I just want to do that.’”
She said students interested in joining the club do not have to know how to sign.
“I know people are afraid to come to the meetings because they’re like, ‘Oh, well, it’s the ASL Club; I have to know ASL.’ And, no, you don’t,” Hernandez said.
