Tamie’s Story: Access in Classroom

Sep 30, 2020

Video description: https://tinyurl.com/u4qds72

(DESCRIPTION)

Text, Access in Classroom. Tamie Neathery speaks in sign language.

(SPEECH)

Hello, my name is Tamie Neathery. I currently work for CLIA, the Center for Independent Living, a group home for deaf clients. I recently graduated with my bachelor of social work at a public university. Out of 700 people in my graduating class, I was the only deaf person. When I arrived on campus for the first time, it was a huge battle to advocate for myself. I had been told they provided stellar ADA access, but in reality, they didn’t. I had to educate them about accessibility and they took note.

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Tamie pauses to think.

(SPEECH)

For example, my social work program required group homework assignments. Those groups typically met outside of class time. I told them I required an interpreter to communicate, but the interpreter had other jobs booked and was unable to stay after class. My classmate said, oh, we’ll fill everything in for you. So don’t worry about it. I told them no because how can I learn if you do everything for me? I must participate.

So the group decided to extend the deadline an extra week. In the end, it all fell through because there were some conflicts and some classmates couldn’t meet. So the group time was canceled. The university had booked and paid for an interpreter. After that, I shared my concerns with my professor suggesting that I work one on one with another classmate because group work wasn’t working out. Eventually, I got approval from the director of social work to do my assignments alone instead of in a group. Honestly, I was able to learn more that way.

(DESCRIPTION)

Tamie nods as she concludes.

Website, national deaf center dot org.