Deaf students who have the academic ability and desire to enrol in the regular school system in Jamaica must be provided with qualified interpreters in the classroom to enable them to function and excel.

That call is coming from 40-year-old Kaniel McDonald Dodd, who attended Mona High School in 1998 as part of a Government programme aimed at incorporating special needs students with exceptionalities into the regular school system.

She was the third deaf student to attend Mona High at the time, but the first to enter the institution at Grade seven through the Common Entrance examination. The other two students were educated up to Grade 10 at the Lister Mair Gilby School for the Deaf before joining Grade 11 students at Mona to prepare for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

The programme of integrating special needs students into the regular school system was lauded by then education minister Burchell Whiteman as useful in teaching both groups of students to live with each other.

Kaniel McDonald Dodd

Although she spent only one year at the institution before migrating to the United States in 1999, McDonald Dodd told Observer Online that integrating into the regular school system was challenging, as she was the only deaf student in her class and did not have an interpreter.

“It was kind of a challenge for me because I was the only deaf student in a hearing class, but my mother used to sit next to me and help me in the evenings. She would have a cassette and do recordings, and she would copy what the teacher said, write it down, and give it to me. So that kind of support I had at home,” she said.

McDonald Dodd said while some teachers and classmates made efforts to assist her, the absence of a dedicated interpreter meant that much of the responsibility for helping her understand the lessons fell on her mother.

“I tried to read lips. I did not see some things exactly, but I tried to read lips. I tried to communicate with my classmates by writing. Some of them helped me, and I tried to follow a list and instructions that the teacher gave me,” she added.

Academically, McDonald Dodd said the language barrier was another challenge, as sign language was her first language and she was still developing her English.

“By the middle of the term, I failed English,” she recalled, adding that her mother subsequently sought additional support from the Lister Mair Gilby School for the Deaf in Papine, where she received after-school tutoring to improve her English.

She said by June, her grades had improved not only in English but in the other subjects.

Kaniel McDonald Dodd and her mother Beryl McDonald

Her mother, Beryl McDonald, who provided translation assistance during the interview with Observer Online, said she opted to integrate her daughter into the regular school system because Kaniel’s academic level was higher than what was being offered at the specialised school.

She said the family considered the Lister Mair Gilby School for the Deaf, but after visiting the institution and observing the classrooms, the level of work was below Kaniel’s ability.

“She was in hearing school even before she went to Mona. She was integrated in Excelsior Primary School. She was integrated there but that school had a teacher of the deaf and so the children would go from the deaf class to the hearing class for instruction and come back to the deaf class and the deaf teacher would work with them and manage them. So she was able to pass the common entrance. So that’s how she got into Mona,” McDonald said.

She said she tried to work with the principal at Mona to secure an interpreter for her daughter, but was told that she would have to cover the cost herself.

“So I was trying to work with the principal of the school and so on to see if they would really get an interpreter and he was telling me I would have to pay for the interpreter myself and at the time I couldn’t afford it,” McDonald said.

After migrating to the United States in 1999, McDonald Dodd enrolled in a school for deaf students in New York, where she said she was able to learn with fewer barriers and at a level that matched her understanding. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in human resources and spent six years working as a teacher’s aide in schools for deaf students.

McDonald Dodd later returned to school in Washington, DC, where she earned a master’s degree in social work.

“Right now, I’m working in a non-profit organisation as a social worker. I have to go to homes, I have to interpret, I have to do law, ABA [American with Disabilities Act] law, to make sure everything is right and okay,” McDonald Dodd said.

The ADA is a civil rights law that protects persons with disabilities in many areas of public life. Through this association, the deaf are also provided with interpreters.

She said her experience as a deaf person influenced her decision to pursue social work, particularly her desire to help people who face barriers in accessing resources.

“My passion was to work with people because some people have limited levels. Some people need a lot of help and I always think of myself as someone who wants to help people. I share my level of deaf resources with other people, especially the deaf,” she said.

McDonald Dodd, who is now married and has two daughters, said she is passionate about helping Black deaf people who may lack access to essential resources and services.

Her mother believes there are other deaf students in Jamaica who are academically capable of succeeding in the regular school system like her daughter but face similar challenges.

“I know there are other deaf children that are smart like her in the system. I would say the Government has to decide to give them an interpreter in the high school,” she said.

Meanwhile, McDonald Dodd said she hopes things change for deaf students who choose to pursue their education in the regular school system.

“I hope things will happen in Jamaica to change things, because there are some deaf children who have high levels who decide to go to hearing schools, and it is a fight and a struggle for them to learn and improve without an interpreter,” she said.

“For all the classes, I would say they need an interpreter in order to succeed. The Jamaica Association for the Deaf, they have teachers who know sign language and know how to interpret, so their children are comfortable. But in the regular school, for the deaf to survive, they would need an interpreter,” she added.