Lending a Helping Ear

Keeping up in lecture can be a difficult task, even for the best of note-takers. For Kennedy School student Gatachew Fenta and David J. Davis '87. It's an especially imposing challenge.

Both Fenta and Davis are clinically deaf.

Despite their handicap, they manage to get by--with a little help from their friends and the University.

Two University programs assist the hearing impaired, who can often keep up in lecture through sign language or lip reading. The University provides interpreters for those who rely on sign language, and student volunteers provide class notes for lip-readers who may net be able to capture more than a third of each lecture.

Fenta and Davis are among about half a dozen students who take advantage of these services.

Fenta, originally from Ethiopia, has used sign language to communicate ever since he attended Gallaudet College, a liberal arts school for the deaf in Washington D.C. Now in his second year at Harvard, he uses an interpreter, paid for by the University, in all of his classes.

Sue Motulsky, a free-lance interpreter who has worked for deaf clients throughout the Boston area, accompanies Fenta to class each day.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Motulsky sits beside the podium in Sever 202, silently echoing visiting professor Joseph Cooper as he lectures in Government 1300. "The National Government of the United States." Fenta sits at the front of the classroom, carefully watching his interpreter and quickly jotting down notes.

Fenta began his search for an interpreter by submitting a request to Thomas E. Crooks '49, who coordinates services for than dicapped students. He learned of the University program through a letter sent to all students who indicate serious hearing impairments in their admissions forms, housing applications, or school medical records.

Crooks forwards requests for interpreters to the Massachusetts Office on Deafness (MOD), a state agency which runs a referral service for free-lance sign language interpreters.

Carol Seidman, the director of the service, recommends several possible interpreters to the University based on preferences expressed by the deaf person. The final choice rests with the student.

The University and the interpreter then negotiate an hourly wage, which is usually between $15 and $25.

But Davis never learned sign language; instead, he was taught to read lips.

Davis says that lip reading is only partly effective. He is unable to take complete notes, so he enlists the aid of classmates who volunteer to share their notes.

At the beginning of his freshman year, Davis asked Crooks' office to arrange note-takers for two of his classes. Later, he was able to copy notes from newly made acquaintances in the classes.

"I went to University Hall because I didn't know anybody, but later I felt more comfortable getting notes from friends." Davis says.

The interpreter and note-taking services offered by Harvard adequately meet the needs of deaf students in the classroom says Lisa Chertkov, former president of Advocating a Better Learning Environment (ABLF) a group of students concerned about the disabled at Harvard.

But Chertkov adds that the University still has a long way to go toward helping deaf students participate in extra curricular activities and instructing professors and teaching assistants in the use of interpreters.

Cooper says having a deaf student and an interpreter in his class took some getting used to. He says he had to learn to slow down when the interpreter could not keep up with his lectures.

"Most colleges that don't have a large number of deaf students don't have advisors who are familiar with deafness." Motulsky says. While most schools offer interpreter and notetaking services, they do nothing to assist deaf students in other activities, including appointments with professors, she notes

Deaf students typically have a tough time in section meetings since there is "no was to replace the give and take" between students and their section leaders, says Crooks.

"Like everywhere else, it's difficult to have a disablity here." Cherkoy Despite the special aid programs, she says, "it can be really rough."

Harvard provides interpreters for lectures, but other parts of the academic experience are impossible to translate for deaf students: there's "no way to replace the give and take" in section meetings, says Thomas E. Crooks '49, who coordinates services for handicapped students.