Literacy council seeks tutors
Deaf, hard-of-hearing benefit from service
By Alex Hummel
of the Northwestern
Their reading proficiency
and progress was often forgotten after age 8, but their desire to read a
newspaper or confidently fill out a job application grew up with them.
"If we had hearing
children who grew up with third-grade to sixth-grade reading skills, the country
wouldn’t accept that,” said Melanie Blechl, advocate and sign language
interpreter for Deaf Empowerment, a Neenah-based not-for-profit agency.
Deaf Empowerment, whose
mission is to improve the lives of deaf and hard of hearing people, is teaming
up with the Winnebago County Literacy Council to offer tutoring and other
services catered to deaf and hearing impaired people in Winnebago County.
The partners have begun
their search for both tutors who can sign and potential pupils who will be able
to craft a kind of personal one-on-one slate of goals. It is believed to be the
first of its kind, especially north of Madison and Milwaukee, where many of the
state’s services for deaf and hard of hearing people are concentrated. The
tutoring might help a student improve his ability to fill out a job application
or be able to sign more stories to his children, for example.
“The basic everyday
things – that’s the struggle,” said Lori Ann Fuller, a deaf advocate for
Deaf Empowerment. The state’s deaf and hard-of-hearing population is estimated
about 50,000.
“We don’t have a
figure out there how many deaf people there are in the Fox Valley or this
region,” said Blechl, whose husband is deaf and has benefited from literacy
council services. “Many are hidden. But we know for a fact that many deaf
people have a reading level between that third- and sixth-grade level. Due to
that lower reading level, sometimes the most they can hope for is entry level
positions.”
Literacy Council Executive
Director Lisa Ellis said grant money will help support the new services. The
program still is getting off the ground, but its overseers are clearly promoting
its intent.
Ellis said the cultural
stigmas and obstacles deaf and hard-of-hearing people face aren’t different
from those illiterate people tackle.
So far, Literacy Council
staff members have found English as a Second Language materials work in
improving reading skills for what is a second language for most students. Blechl
said the program also helps promote understanding of deaf culture.
“All their lives, deaf
people have struggled in a hearing world,” Blechl said. “Really, it’s
hearing people asking them to conform to the hearing world.”
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