Ebrees's List: EPSY Final Project Docs

• Like many people with chronic illnesses, I sometimes shy away from otherwise rewarding experiences because I worry about my health in unfamiliar situations."

• basic understanding that Italian law failed to address the communications needs of the deaf through methods like closed captioning
• did not realize how extensive this negligence was until activities I took for granted at home, were painfully absent in some modes of my daily life in Italy
• researched interpreters in Italy. Rome actually had some multilingual/sign language interpreters, but there no such services available in Verona.  The program I planned on attending had no resources to locate or pay for one if I discovered one either.
• Closed Captioning (in Italian) is one of the many services Italy does not support with public or private funding.

• “All the services the deaf get in America is amazing”

   

  “Only a few shows have closed captioning here”

   

  “I wish I could become a doctor….does America have Deaf doctors? Yes. Really?!”

   

  “I have to pay for interpreters a lot if I want …. for school, the doctor’s office…” Deaf Americans have the right to be provided with an interpreter free of charge in the courtroom, hospitals, schools….
• “They don’t provide us with interpreter’s full time in school”…”I had an interpreter for 10 hours each week. The rest of time I was forced to figure it out on my own”
• “One guy took 8 years to get his degree because of the lack of interpreting hours offered and/or paid for” I have an interpreter for every class, meeting, and school related activity.  If there aren’t enough interpreters (it can happen) we have alternative methods: Real Time Captioning and Distance Interpreting.  Closed captioning can be added to videos by DRES. I don’t pay a penny.
• “The Deaf are not allowed to become educators” Even educators for the deaf? “Nope. Doesn’t matter”

• “We don’t have video phones” Deaf Americans get free video phones and make calls free of charge to other Deaf Americans or relay services with an operator.

   

   

  “LIS isn’t recognized as an official language in Italy” ASL is the United States.
• I am merely describing that lack of governmentally supported assistance to the deaf in a relatively modern society like Italy.

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• Decisions regarding accommodations for study abroad programs are complex.

• Relevant Case Law:

   
   
  1. College of St. Scholastica (MN), Case No. 05-92-20953, NDLR 196 (OCR Region V 1990).
       "St. Scholastica College . . . was obligated under Section 504 to pay for interpreter services to accompany a deaf student on her (college's) study abroad program in Ireland." OCR found no provision in Section 504 giving the college the right to deny a qualified student with a disability an educational opportunity in an overseas program
   
  2. Bird v Lewis & Clark College (1996)
       Student who is a wheelchair user participated in a college-sponsored overseas program in Australia. The student was not permitted to participate in all activities and was carried rather than provided with alternate means of transportation and accessibility. The district court noted that the plaintiff was an American student who attended an American university's overseas program, taught by American faculty. The ongoing requirement of adherence to the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA did not evaporate when Lewis & Clark College faculty accompanied Lewis & Clark students on a Lewis & Clark college sponsored program overseas. This decision affirmed on appeal.
   
  3. Arizona State University (OCR 2001)
       A student who is deaf sought accommodations (sign language interpreters) to attend an Irish university for a year. The program was not operated by an American university. ASU denied the request, and the student filed a complaint with OCR. OCR stated that "neither the ADA nor Section 504 prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability in overseas programs." Student attending overseas program that is not part of the program of an American university may not be entitled to protection under American laws.

• Disability 2.6% 3.0% 3.6%
• Sensory Disability 5.8% 5.3% 5.1%

• Over 1,800 students with disabilities studied abroad in 2008/09.     

               

     

  Most post secondary institutions still do not track disability status of their education abroad participants, leaving the disability status for 78% of education abroad students unknown.
• 22% of the institutions
• We do know that at least 1,874 students with disabilities studied abroad in 2008/09 . For 90% of those students, we don’t know what specific disability they had, but for the remaining 10%, the breakdown is:
  
  Learning Disability/ADD    48.1%
  Mental Disability               24.6%
  Other Disability                15.0%
  Physical Disability              7.2%
  Sensory Disability             5.1%

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