Deaf Students Protest Interpreter Shortage

When Jessica Guarino learned about Cal State Northridge and its famed National Center on Deafness, she knew it was the place for her.

As the only deaf student in her New Orleans high school, she longed for an environment where she could meet other deaf students and live where her needs would be understood. She got her camaraderie at CSUN, but it has come at a price.

“I graduated [high school] with a 3.6 grade point average,” she said, signing through an interpreter. “But last semester I made a 2.5 because I couldn’t get an interpreter that I could understand.”

Frustrated over long delays, rigid schedules and poorly trained interpreters, Guarino and about 80 other deaf and hard-of-hearing students protested the shortage of sign-language interpreters Friday afternoon on the main quadrangle.

One by one, students stood on a bench and described humiliations, missed opportunities and dashed expectations.

“I came here from Colorado because I heard about all these great interpreters they had,” said Trudy Marie Sluyter, 23, a liberal studies major. “I had an interpreter for two years, and then the third year my interpreter was gone and I just sat there in math for months. They wanted me to go to a different class with all deaf students--that meant I couldn’t follow my own schedule.”

As a result, Sluyter said, she will graduate a semester late.

Damion Brown, 25, arrived at CSUN last month from Boston with the expectation that he would have no problem finding an interpreter to help him through his finance classes. After three weeks, he’s still on the waiting list, he said.

Some complained about sign-language interpreters who abandoned students if they were late to class. Others complained of interpreters who were late.

Herb Larson, who will retire next month from his position as director of the National Center on Deafness, said he understood the students’ frustration, but was unable to offer a quick solution.

“Absolutely there’s a shortage,” he said. “But it’s not just us here facing this problem. This is affecting all post-secondary programs--there’s just not enough interpreters going through interpreter-training programs.

“It’s not a budget problem,” he added. “Money isn’t an issue.”

Larson said 256 deaf and hard-of-hearing students attend CSUN, but that the center only employs about 100 interpreters--about 90% of whom work part time. In all, interpreters are needed at 424 classes.

Interpreters are paid between $10.84 and $29.93 an hour, plus benefits.

Students complained that interpreters, who need to be highly skilled to translate academic subjects, should be paid more and given full-time jobs more often to encourage them to stay. Larson said wages and hiring practices were out of his control and were a labor matter to be negotiated by the Cal State system and its unions.

Still, some students said they felt duped by the much-touted National Center on Deafness, noting that recruitment materials sent out by the center do not mention the shortages.

Said 25-year-old April Edwards, a recent CSUN graduate, who used the center’s services: “They have a reputation that they don’t live up to.”