This week’s WesCeleb is Cara Miller ’05, a psychology major who is hearing impaired. We spoke about her experience being hearing impaired at Wesleyan, her semester away and her involvement with Sign House.
Wesleyan Argus: I’m sure a lot of people would be curious to know about your experience being at Wesleyan as someone who is hearing impaired.
Cara Miller: Well, when I was a senior in high school, I thought very consciously about did I want to find a college where there is a deaf or hard-of-hearing school or was a primarily hearing university good for me. I think for me the right thing at the time was to come to a place where I was speaking all day and not using that much sign language and mainly interacting with people who heard and spoke well. I think that definitely brought a challenge not only academically, but personally too.
WA: What kind of high school did you go to?
CM: I was raised mainstream; I went to public school. Our school had deaf education programs but everyday I’d go to class with other hearing people. When I was younger I had a cued speech translator, which is very different from sign language. Cued speech is a manual communication mode using the hands, so that each of the hand shapes chronologically represents vowels and consonants. The interesting thing about cued speech is that you can learn any language with it, because it is entirely based on sound. I credit cued speech a lot with helping me learn how to speak.
WA: Have you ever had any difficulties interacting or communicating with people here?
CM: If it’s anything for me, it would have to be making people aware of deafness and sign language. Sometimes it is difficult for me to speak up and people tend to underestimate the severity of my hearing loss because I can speak and read lips. I think that a reason is often I cannot hear people in passing which makes it difficult, because I always want to say, “Stop, I didn’t hear you.” On the other hand, it makes for some fun experiences. I misunderstand people all the time.
WA: Any advice you would like to give us about that?
CM: If they could get my attention first before they address me, so that I’m looking at them directly and can read their lips and see everything they’re saying, it makes a big difference. It’s really helpful if people enunciate (though not too much- or it’ll look like they’ve got a jaw problem!) and try to speak clearly and loudly.
WA: You were away last semester. What was your experience like?
CM: Actually last semester was a very cool experience. I was at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and that was really cool for me because it’s a primarily deaf school. It is the only undergraduate location in the university that actually has programs specifically for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. So it was amazing for me, I took classes and it was fascinating and I enjoyed it.
WA: How did being at Gallaudet, surrounded by people who were hearing impaired, compare to being at Wesleyan?
CM: At Gallaudet, even amongst the deaf population, there was so much diversity, so you would have people who were oral or who primarily can read lips and then you have some who are from deaf families and who’ve grown up and gone to special schools, and sign language is their native language. It’s not mine. So there were some communication tensions and some cultural tensions, but it was definitely neat for me because deafness is obviously a big part of my life, but it has not been so much in a cultural sense and so that was a nice opportunity for me to learn more.
WA: Tell me about your involvement with Sign House and the sign language program here at Wesleyan.
CM: My freshman year I lived in Sign House, and my sophomore year I was there as house manager. Sign House has some good stuff going on: they are a good bunch of people, they are committed and they’re interested.
Sign Language has been at Wesleyan for a long time, and for the last few years they have been struggling to keep the program afloat. Right now, there’s a Sign Language beginner class for two semesters and last year, there were two semesters of Sign Language II. The Administration recently told us that they would be cutting Sign Language II, and many students who have taken and are taking Sign Language are left out. Apparently it is for funding issues. And as you know, for anyone taking up a new language it takes at least two years to be proficient. We are currently working to see what can be done.
WA: Do you think it will work out?
CM: I really hope so. I don’t know, if it had to be in the form of a student forum or a tutorial, it would be unfortunate, as it would be nice to have the recognition and support of the Administration for sign language. For me as a deaf person, it’s gratifying to have people here who I can communicate with, where it doesn’t require so much energy on my part. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I think that being culturally aware and having a grasp of how to communicate with other people is so important. Wesleyan students have a tradition of public service and we’ve had students who’ve gone on to be interpreters and gotten involved in deaf theater, and so I’m sorry to see the program is being compromised.
WA: What else have you been involved with at Wesleyan?
CM: I was involved with Kids on the Block my freshman year, which you guys recently did an article on, puppets and plays talking about supporting physical disabilities. One thing I love is theater. I did the Vagina Monologues last year, which was a great experience. Theater at Wesleyan is quirky, interesting and fun.
At Gallaudet, I was privileged to be able to travel to the Czech Republic in November to perform at the International Deaf Theater Festival, which was amazing. I went with the Quest theater company, which is based in Maryland. And we had this great show called “Wings,” which was visual theater, and we were talking about Sept. 11 and how we have harnessed the power of life but also abused that power. It was great.
WA: How do you feel about being a WesCeleb?
CM: It’s very interesting for me to have been picked as a WesCeleb in some sense, just being one of the few hard-of-hearing students here. I have an interpreter; I’m pretty visible in classes and people know me. I’m sometimes just walking across campus and people I don’t know go, “Hey Cara.” I feel kind of like a pseudo-celeb. It’s rather ironic.
Before I left, Cara taught me how to sign “thank you” and made me promise to advertise that Sign Language I was being offered next semester on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. As she said, “Come one, come all!”
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