TRANSCRIPT
Access to Language is a Human Right
4/14/24

>>Brenna: Hi, everybody. So thankful to be here with you. The title of my presentation today is Access to Language is a Human Right. And sometimes this feels like a radical statement. So who am I and how did I get here? I'm an educational diagnostician. I started my career as a teacher of the Deaf. I worked with Deaf and Hard of Hearing signing students and then I realized there was a great need for diagnosticians who can work with these children. And then working as a diagnostician I worked for a regional day school. I travel to 12 different school districts to do evaluations for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students as well as Deafblind students. And throughout this I realized I needed to learn more about Deafblind students. I went to Texas Tech and got the graduate certificate in DeafBlindness. And my vision, my mission for what I do, I just want to empower families and schools by promoting awareness of legal rights and responsibilities. I want to highlight the potential of every student through the evaluation process. And I want to eliminate unwarranted barriers. So our learning objectives today. We're going to examine the legal foundations that support language access. We're going to identify the key factors in determining communication modes. And then we're going to apply that knowledge to support IEP development or students with diverse communication needs. So language. It's how we ask for our wants and needs to be met. It's how we express emotions and share ideas. It's how we tell others our hopes and dreams and fears. It is an essential tool for interaction, social connections, and education. The gift of language is one of the most important things that we pass on to younger generations. Human rights. You know, normally you hear things like life, liberty, the pursuit of justice, clean water. Well, language is also a human right. Human rights are not granted by a government, they cannot be taken away and every human on the planet is entitled to them. I really like this quote from the Human Rights of the Deaf. I wanted to share it with you. They belong to all people, regardless of gender, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status such as disability or deafness. This is another quote I wanted to share with you. It is from the book if you can touch it, you can talk about it. I'm sorry. I panicked and forgot the name. But they do a book study of it. If you haven't read it, it's a wonderful book. It's by the Nordic Welfare Center. It says every child, every person has the right to be their own person with thoughts and opinions that others listen to. Likewise, to exist in a communicative and social context in which they are given the opportunity to express themselves. Thank you, chat. Yes. If you can see it, you can support it is the name of the book that I was talking about. If you haven't read it, you should get a copy of it All right. So I've got my megaphone. This is one of the things I hoot and holler about all the time. But accessible language, fully accessible language, provided consistently by fluent users is the foundation on which future language skills are built. And this holds true for all children, including those who are deaf, hard of hearing, Deafblind, and deaf with complex access needs. Accessible languages such as ASL, ProTactile, and other manual languages are guaranteed and protected by law. So when you walk out on a rainy day, you know, you have your umbrella to protect you. And this image I have a stack of three umbrellas because there are many different umbrellas that are providing protection and guaranteeing those legal rights of access to language. The largest umbrella is statutory codes. The second umbrella is policy guidance. And then the third umbrella is legal precedent. With our statutory codes, these are the laws, the rules, the regulations. We've got protections under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA. This is a federal law and it prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities by all state and local governments. We're also protected by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA. Again, this is a federal law and it requires schools to provide a free, appropriate public education to all children with disabilities. And then here in Texas we have got the Texas Education Code. This is our state law. These are all the laws and rules passed by the legislature and they apply to most educational institutions that are supported in part or whole by tax funds. If you're in another state, I'm sure you have your own education code. It's probably the same as ours, a little bit different. The words might be different but I'm sure the essence and the meaning is the same. So specifically I wanted to start by looking at Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It talks about how a public entity, in this case a school, they have to take steps to ensure that communication with people who have disabilities is as effective as communication with people who do not have disabilities. So how do they do that? They do that by ensuring that public entities furnish appropriate auxiliary aids and services so that individuals with disabilities are afforded an equal opportunity to participate in and to enjoy the benefits of service program activity, whatever, that that school or other public entity is providing. This law is also very interesting because it talks about how the public entity needs to give primary consideration to the request of the individual. Meaning, if a Deafblind individual comes in and they say, hi, I need an interpreter and I need them to sit close to me so I can see what's going on, and they try to say, oh, no. You can just write back and forth on a pen and piece of paper. Well, they have to give primary consideration to what that individual asked for. And if they're not going to provide that, they have to explain why. So I really like how this one puts the power into the individual themselves or their family to request specifically the accommodation, auxiliary, aid, or service that is the best fit for them. In IDEA we have got special factors for consideration. And it talks about how the IEP team shall -- there is one in this case of a child who is blind or visually impaired, or we have to talk about will this child benefit from Braille, do they need Braille instruction. Is it appropriate, not appropriate. I'm sure a lot of the vision people here are familiar with that. But in the law, right underneath it, it talks about children who are deaf and hard of hearing and how we need to consider their language and communication needs, specifically what are opportunities for direct communication with peers and professionals in that child's language and mode of communication. And then we also need to consider what are that child's opportunities to receive direct instruction in their language and communication mode. And then finally here in Texas we have the Texas Education Code. There is a subchapter for students who are deaf and hard of hearing. Sometimes you may hear it referred to as the Deaf children's Bill of Rights. And it's very powerful. It talks about how an individual can choose to use a variety of language modes and languages including oral or sign. They can communicate through American Sign Language or in English based sign system. They can choose to use spoken and written English, along with amplification instruments. They can use a combination of oral modes and signed modes. And that every child who is deaf or hard of hearing, including those children who are Deafblind, should have the opportunity to develop proficiency in English and American Sign Language. When you look at the laws there are a lot of protections granted towards individuals with disabilities that's applicable to our kids. Or individuals who are eligible for special education. That's applicable. The laws that are specific to children who are deaf and hard of hearing also apply to children who are Deafblind and the laws supporting children who are blind or have low vision also apply to children who are Deafblind. Our kids have a lot of protection from a lot of different areas. The Texas Education Code goes on to talk about how children have unique communication and how they must have an education where their unique communication mode is respected, used, and developed. It also goes on to talk about the qualifications of personnel who are working with these kids. And they have to understand the unique nature of deafness or the hard of hearing condition. And a teacher who is teaching these students, they need to be proficient in the child's preferred communication modality or they need to use an interpreter. It is a school district's responsibility to either employ staff who have the appropriate communication skills or to provide interpreters to the staff who don't have the appropriate communication skills to make sure that the child has access. And then it also talks about how regular and special personnel, anybody who works with kids who are deaf or hard of hearing or Deafblind, they need to be adequately prepared to provide instruction and services to those students. So for some individuals, that likely means additional training. It's also important that we consider language mode peers. Students have a right to an education in the company of peers who are using the same language mode and with whom the student can communicate directly. They also have a right to role models, to be exposed to deaf or hard of hearing role models as part of their education. And then there are also safeguards in place for the evaluation process to make sure that the procedures and materials that are used in the assessment or any kind of discussion of placement for a child, that they are done utilizing the child's preferred mode of communication. So those are the laws. Sometimes through the application of laws, there will be policy guidance that is issued that kind of helps clarify the law or if the law has been misinterpreted or misapplied previously. There might be some policy guidance that comes out to clarify based on it. There are two big ones that I really like. The first one is called deaf student education services. It was issued by the U.S. Department of Education, OCR, Office of Civil Rights, and it was issued based on concerns regarding the provision of a free and appropriate public education to students who are deaf. And then there's also an effective communication, frequently asked questions policy guidance issued by the Department of Education civil rights and the U.S. Department of Justice, the Civil Rights Division. And this document talks about the different approaches on IDEA and Title II of ADA and how they can be different and what a school needs to do for a student. So Deaf Education services. This is where the education secretary mentions that he's concerned that some people have misapplied the least restrictive environment to students who have unique communication needs due to their hearing status. And he wants to make sure that the ARD committee is taking into consideration special factors. So these special factors, we do see them in our paperwork. A lot of them are embedded into the deaf and hard of hearing supplement that's part of the IEP. And we have to take in special factors such as the communication needs of the child. And what is the child and family's preferred mode of communication. What are the child's linguistic needs. And then also social, emotional, and cultural needs, including opportunities for peer interactions and communications. And this document says that any setting that does not meet the communication and related needs of a child who is deaf and therefore does not allow the provision of FAPE cannot be considered the least restrictive environment for that child. So that's a pretty heavy sentence. I think there's a lot to really break down there but I think at its essence any setting that doesn't meet the communication needs of a child, it does not allow for FAPE. A free and public education cannot be provided in a setting where a deaf/hard of hearing, Deafblind child's communication needs are not being met. This is from the effective communication frequently asked questions and it talks about how schools need to be knowledgeable about the requirements of both federal laws. Meaning, Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in order to meet communication needs. So in some instances, to comply with Title II of ADA, a district may have to provide services that are not required under IDEA. In other instances the services that are provided under IDEA may meet the requirements of ADA. And compliance with one law will often result in compliance with all laws but compliance with one law does not guarantee compliance with all laws. This is very interesting to think about the difference between what is required through IDEA and then what is also required through ADA. And ADA does have more stringent communication requirements that requirement for effective communication that are equal to the communication. Communication between people without disabilities. So it's important that we think about all of the laws, not just IDEA. There's some legal precedent that I wanted to review. So here in Texas there was a due process hearing. It was between a student and the Klein Independent School District. And then there's another case. It made it to the United States Court Of Appeals. It's called K.M. v. Tustin Unified School District. So the due process hearing decision here in Texas, the child, you know, and her family allege that the school district is obligated to provide an education in which her unique mode of communication is respected, used, and developed. Okay. So that sounds familiar, right? Unique mode of communication being respected, used, and developed. That's directly from the Texas Education Code, from the Deaf Child Bill of Rights. The school district came to the due process hearing and they presented evidence that the child's placement was appropriate, but the student did not require the method of communication that the parents had chosen. And that the student was successful in their current placement without that method of communication that the family wanted. I mean, the final ruling was the way the language is written in, you know, Texas Deaf Education Bill of Rights read within the context of IDEA, it does not matter the success of the placement. What matters is did the school district defer to the parents when the selection of the preferred mode of communication was made? And, in this case, they did not. So even though the school said, you know, we don't think she needs this. We have this data to say she doesn't need this. She doesn't require this, it doesn't matter. When it comes to a student who is deaf or hard of hearing, Deafblind and their communication needs, their preferred mode of communication can be selected by the family and it has to be respected, used, and developed by the school district that is serving the child. I really liked due process hearings. This one is only three pages, which is really wild, most of them are significantly longer. This is on the TEA website but it is linked in the back of this presentation if you would ever like to read it. This other case was very interesting. United States Court Of Appeals, the one between K.M. and the Tustin school district. This talks about the difference between IDEA and Title II of ADA and how they have different requirements . And so it was decided that the school district's compliance with IDEA, it doesn't necessarily establish compliance with Title II of ADA. They put it this way: IDEA sets a floor of access for education for children with communication disabilities. But it requires school districts to provide individualized service as necessary to get a child to that floor, regardless of cost, administrative burdens, or program alterations required. Title II requires public entities take steps towards making existing services not only accessible but equally accessible for people with communication disabilities. But only so far as that it does not pose an undue burden or require a fundamental alteration of their program. What does that mean? An undue burden. To prove an undue burden and say that you cannot provide a service that is requested under Title II, it requires a letter written by the head of the entity explaining why they cannot provide it due to the financial cost. And oftentimes that does not hold up in court, what I have seen. So while there is a financial component to the services that are provided through Title II and Title II is unfunded, if people are willing to push it far enough, they will likely have success, based on the legal precedent that has been set before in other cases. And IDEA, it talks about those services and how cost is not a burden. Administrative burdens do not count. I think a lot of times when it comes to students who are Deafblind, people are reluctant to provide the full range of services needs, oftentimes because of the cost. But there are things out there to help school districts. There are high-cost fund grants that school districts can apply through through TEA, if they need that additional money to support a student. But the money aspect should not be a reason to not provide a child access. So when we're talking about determining the communication modes, this is where that deaf and hard of hearing communication assessment comes in. Students who are Deafblind or deaf/hard of hearing will have this as part of their full and individual evaluation. It should be completed by a multidisciplinary team. This could be the Deaf Ed teacher, the VI teacher, diagnostician, speech path, audiologist. You know, sometimes with things like this the more the merrier. You want to get different eyes and different perspectives on everything. So I think the big part I really want to emphasize about the communication assessment is that it's looking at the student's potential for communication through a variety of means. Yes, we want to know how the student is currently performing on their language skills and their individual communication modality but also we need to think about their potential for communication across all modalities. As we saw in that due process case, the family's preference is very important. So we want to ask the family what their preference is but then also if you have an opportunity to kind of observe how the family communicates with the child, that can also be good information as well. And then the child's preference. Depending on the age of the child or their language skills, they may be able to answer this question. You can also observe them, how do they communicate with the family, with their peers in an academic setting or with their peers in a social setting. Because they can be different. Children do have a right to use a combination of modes. When I say "modes," I mean things like listening and speaking, signing, visual cues that represent spoken language, facial expressions, body expressions, gestures, speech reading, and print. And they can also use a combination of languages. They can use English, American Sign Language, Spanish, a signed English system. And they can also use other technologies to enhance their language learning. So personal amplification, hearing assistive technology, and augmentative and alternative communication. It can be either high-tech or low tech but it's really important to note that these technologies are used to enhance language learning. They are not used solely in place of language learning. It's also interesting that when we consider language, that it's a two-way street. There's receptive and expressive and those modes, those languages that are used, they can be different and they are often different for students who are developing their language skills who are still emerging in that area. And, like I said earlier, those social language skills and academic language skills, they can differ. So there's a lot of different things that you need to take into account when you're determining that communication mode. You know, or considering the student's potential. But at the end of the day, if this ever goes to court, people are going to want to know what is the family's preference. Did you ask the family? Did you document what the family's preference was? And then was it respected and used. I see a question in the chat. So what if parents request ASL but they don't use it at home? I'm going to address that one first. If the child needs ASL, they need it at home and at school. But because the parents are not providing it at home is not a reason to not provide it at school. Hopefully, in that situation the parents might see success in their child as they're in a signing environment and growing in their language skills and the family is maybe more comfortable to start attending sign classes. I think sometimes with some families it's a you have to see it to believe it. And I do think that families need a lot of support in this area. So I hope that wherever you're working, if your district or RDSPD offers family sign classes, those are wonderful. There's also the family signs program through TSD and other options that are available. But we always focus on getting that kid what they need. And then kids who they want spoken language used at school and ASL would be more appropriate. So this is where we have kids who may benefit from a combination of modalities. This might be a kiddo who really relies on sign language receptively but expressively they're able to speak for themselves and utilize the oral spoken language. So in this instance, I would do what I could to get that kid in an environment where they had access to all modalities and then kind of see which way that kid goes in their own preference of what they choose to use throughout the day. I hope that answered the question and, if not, please feel free to follow up. And I also wanted to touch on IEP development. So we've talked about children's legal rights to language. We've talked about how we determine the communication mode. And now we're going to talk about how does that communication mode impact the development of the IEP. Again, we have got those considerations of special factors that were mentioned in IDEA. They were also mentioned in, you know, the policy guidance from OCR, that there was concern that these special factors weren't being considered deeply enough. Does this kid have opportunities for direct instruction with peers in their preferred mode of communication? Are there opportunities for direct communication with professional personnel? And then are there opportunities for direct instruction? Now, when we're developing the IEP and looking at the goals and objectives and we're writing them, for this child specifically we need to think what is the language of delivery of the goal. I don't know what system you guys use but most of my districts use frontline, so I've got frontline on the brain. But when you're typing the goal, it talks about who's implementing the goal but also what language does the school need to be implemented in. And I think this is where you need to ask yourself what does the child need. Not what the district is able to easily provide, but what does the child need. Does the child need this goal presented to them, implemented using manual communication of some kind? With English, spoken English? With written English, I think this gives you an opportunity to really outline explicitly in the IEP what language this child should be receiving their direct instruction in. For supplementary aids and services, again there's a question about is there additional staff or training needed to implement this IEP? There probably is. Individuals who work with students who are deaf or hard of hearing, Deafblind, that's great. They may have some knowledge but most of these kids get OT and PT and APE and have those related service providers been explicitly trained in how to work with deaf and hard of hearing children, Deafblind children? Likely not. That is something that, you know, your district can consider the best way to approach that. We offer like a yearly training where we invite all the related service providers to come and just hear about deaf children and Deafblind children and the best ways to work with them. Okay. Then when we talk about the services that are being delivered, the special education services and the related services, do you have a service provider who is proficient in that child's language and communication mode? Or do you need an interpreter to help implement that goal? And then, again, so there may be the child's teacher is able to communicate directly with them. But when OT or PT come in, is it important to get an interpreter or, you know, to utilize the intervener in that setting to make sure that the child has access to communication? It is. Because children might not have the same level of access with all service providers based on the service provider's language knowledge. Finally, we have to consider the placement. Does the setting meet the communication needs? And this is a big one because remember we read earlier that if a placement does not meet a deaf child, Deafblind child's communication needs, then FAPE cannot be provided there. So communication needs is the most important thing that we think of for Deafblind students, making sure they have access to communication and language at all times throughout the day in all settings because it is their right. It is protected by law. But oftentimes people just might not think about access in a way that we do because they're so used to having access. They're so used to working with other children who have access. So we examined the legal foundations that support language and we learned that laws protect the right to accessible, preferred communication modes. We identified those key factors in determining communication modes. And we learned that collaboration between families and schools is essential because the family's input for the preferred communication modality is essential. And then we also learned a little bit about applying this knowledge to support IEP development. And this is where it all comes down to advocacy. Advocacy ensures that Deafblind children receive equitable education, social connections, and interactions. And when you are working with Deafblind children, regardless of what your role is, you probably have a way to advocate something to share about this child and their unique needs that other people on the team may not fully understand because of the unique nature of the Deafblind condition. So you may often find yourself advocating or educating others on the IEP team to make sure that all of these needs are being met. These are my references. Lots of good stuff here. I thought I had so many slides and was worried about how long I was going to be talking. But clearly I just talked my way all through that. So thank you so much. If you have questions or comments, this is my e-mail address. You want to reach out now or reach out later, I'm always happy to talk about Deafblind kids and their education. 

>>Belinda: I think this is great. I appreciate the reminder that someone like me, who was itinerant, coming in and seeing a student, would not necessarily have the same background and understanding their communication needs and be able to communicate with a student in a way that's going to be equal to the teacher, who is with them every day. And remembering to ask for that training, you know, because sometimes the itinerant folks, the related services people who are coming in once a week, once every couple of weeks, sometimes that can get forgotten in the hustle and bustle of things, you know? 

>>Brenna: Yes. I've seen some students where their teacher has prepared -- almost like a communication cheat sheet binder of these are the words the kid knows. These are the signs the kid knows. Or when they scratch their nose, it means they have to go to the bathroom. But like a concise area to put information about that child's communication where people who are not working with them daily can still access that information. 

>>Belinda: That's a great idea, yeah. I think I've seen some called a dictionary too. Yeah. 

>>Brenna: Yeah, I have seen some fancy pants people do Google Drives with little video snippets with parents sharing and teachers sharing. There's a lot of options for collaboration. It's also really interesting that sometimes I think we don't give paraprofessionals enough credit, especially for children who are Deafblind and have , you know, unique communication modalities. That intervener is probably with that kid all day and has really cued into what that child is trying to communicate, what that child's understanding or not understanding. And often in the evaluation process, at least, we get information from parents. We get information from teachers. But that intervener or paraprofessional who is with the student all day every day, they have really good information to share that we shouldn't forget to ask them for. 

>>Belinda: I agree. Yeah. They're often the ones that know the little subtleties about this is what's going to upset the student or this is how we can, you know, calm them down. Especially they're the one's going out into the other classes for inclusion support and all of that as well. So they know what that looks like in the cafeteria, in the art class, in the gym when it's crazy and loud and overwhelming. Or super exciting because, you know, they're playing music and everyone's dancing and having a great time. They know. They are the ones who are helping their students manage their communication and their behavior in those settings. Yeah. Great resources. 

>>Brenna: I saw a question in the chat. If we reach out, do you have any example data sheets you would recommend using to document data regarding a student's language use? I do and if you would like to chat later about a specific child and specific data, what you want to use it for, if I don't have something that would work for you, then we can make something that will work. Do you see more campuses use an all access communication mode approach or do you see an equal split with campuses implementing only ASL with students by using interpreting support? I am in Texas and I work for a Regional Day School Program for the Deaf. And so our children who need manual communication as a preferred modality, as chosen by themselves, their parents, the evaluator, the IEP team, we have them clustered in one location. We've got an elementary school, typical elementary school. Also has a bunch of, you know, deaf, Deafblind children on it where we provide direct instruction using sign or direct instruction using sign supported with an intervener or being in general education on that campus with an intervener or being in general education on campus with an intervener and an interpreter. But for our children who need sign, manual communication, they are clustered together. I do not see any campuses out in the wild that have a single deaf student with an interpreter. Unfortunately, I do see campuses out in the wild who may have a Deafblind child who may have additional disabilities, complex access needs and they are in a setting where the teacher may be utilizing two or three functional signs. And the child may show some understanding. But other kids aren't signing so they're not signing. And I don't think, in that situation, the access is being provided. But many school districts like to sit at a staffing table with me and talk about that. 

>>Belinda: Something else that you and I were chatting about before we started and then you mentioned it in your slides too was AAC devices and how important it is to realize they're a supplement to support communication. Can you talk about that a little bit? 

>>Brenna: Yeah, absolutely. So for deaf and hard of hearing and Deafblind children that I know, we always need to consider that language as a two-way street and what is their receptive access. And they may be a child who requires sign receptively. But they do not sign themselves expressively. But we're able to use sign and spoken language to support them with learning to use an AAC to enhance their communication. And I have seen good success with this. However, other situations where I haven't seen as much success -- for example a profoundly deaf student who has an additional disability that is in a life skills class in another district. And maybe the speech path from home just sends an AAC to school with the kid one day. And there's no collaboration between the private speech path and school. Nobody knows how to use that device. But most importantly an AAC is enhancing expressive language and if you do not have receptive language skills because you are in an environment where you do not have access to receptive language, it is unfair to expect that child to utilize an AAC expressively, unless they are in an environment where they can build receptive language understanding first. So, again, we do have students at our cluster site who are using a wide variety of mixed modalities, but making sure that the receptive needs are met. And also when considering that audiological data, looking at the whole picture. Does the kid have auditory neuropathy. Does the kid wear their hearing aids? Do their hearing aids offer them benefit? There's a lot more to consider than, yeah, they have cochlear implants, they're good to go. They should be able to learn spoken language. That's not always the case. And sign language never hurt nobody. I have never had a parent say, oh, man, I wish I wouldn't have learned sign language. But I have had many a parent say, wow. I wish we would have started doing this earlier. Language builds language, no matter what it is. That's what we want for these kids is a way to communicate and share their thoughts and feelings and fears and dreams and hopes and all that good stuff. 

>>Belinda: Wow. Language builds language. That's huge. 

>>Brenna: Yes. There's been some really powerful research on that that's come out in the last few years that has been published and acknowledged by ASHA. For a long time there was a misconception that sign language would hinder spoken language development but that is the opposite. Sometimes we have kids who just need something and they sign and they sign and they sign. And then maybe they pick up on spoken language, maybe they don't. But it will be easier for them to potentially pick up on spoken language if they have sign language already. 

>>Belinda: Wow. And that's a really big-picture idea to take away too, that the receptive piece needs to be taken care of. Yeah, we do see a whole lot of students with those AAC devices that are put into their hands. And then we're baffled why it's not as successful as we hoped that it would be. And I don't necessarily think that the receptive piece is always considered. 

>>Brenna: Exactly. Exactly.