“The biggest barrier to being deaf is not the disability itself but the attitudes of the community which create barriers.”

So says Dr. Roslyn Rosen, professor of the Department of Administration and Supervision at Gallaudet University for deaf students in Washington, DC, and a leader in education, women's issues and the rights of deaf and hard of hearing people. She is currently in Bermuda for Access Awareness Week.

During her stay Dr. Rosen is fulfilling several public engagements all of which she hopes will heighten awareness of the needs of deaf people, who are the focus of this year's activities being jointly sponsored by the National Office for Seniors and Physically Challenged and the Bermuda Islands Association of the Deaf (BIAD).

Certainly, no one could know her subject better than Dr. Rosen, who was born deaf to deaf parents - something she has always viewed as an advantage. Like her brother, who was also born deaf, she is proud of the fact that, while her parents were not university graduates, it made no difference to the way they helped to shape their children's lives, both of whom now hold doctorate degrees.

“What was important was communication with their children from infancy, so I grew up feeling entirely normal,” Dr. Rosen says. “In fact, I feel sorry for people who don't know sign language. It is visual access to all information. It is very clear, very specific and very efficient.”

The professor, who communicates through her colleague and visiting sign language interpreter, Professor Tom Baldridge (himself a child of deaf parents), is a strong advocate of teaching sign language to both hearing children and adults, and describes the ten percent of children who have deaf parents as “lucky” because they can sign.

“Children can then become literate in both languages at home - English through reading stories and finger spelling the words, and also sign language, which is a separate language,” she says. “Research is showing the benefits of learning sign language at an early age, even if you are not deaf. There are many mothers who teach sign language to their babies when neither are deaf, and the babies can communicate with their mothers as early as eight to nine months of age by signing ‘mummy', ‘cookie', ‘milk', ‘more,' which are easy signs to make well before they learn to speak.”

School children choosing to learn sign language over, say, Spanish or German, as a second language is also becoming popular.

“Like any other language, sign language is a challenge. It has its own grammar and rules,” Dr. Rosen says.

The key issue with all children is language development, not speech development per se, the professor points out.

Addressing the issue of whether it is better to educate deaf children in special schools geared to their disability or to place them in mainstream schools with an interpreter is a matter of choice depending on the hearing level of the child and the consideration of “several variables”, the professor says.

Where deaf children are concerned, she stresses that the bottom line for a successful future is empowering them, and an important part of that empowerment is ensuring that they are well adjusted and educated.

“If hearing parents understand about deaf people, and children see deaf friends, and come from homes that are ‘deaf friendly', then they can grow up feeling very good about themselves. They can feel very empowered. If a child does not have a good basic education there is no way for him or her to go to college, so the emphasis must be on a good educational foundation.”

In the short time that she has been in Bermuda, Dr. Rosen, who has devoted her career to education and risen to the pinnacle of her profession, has gained some insight into what life is like for the deaf, and how little the education system offers deaf students, and she is disturbed.

“There is an insufficient level of sign language being used in the school system,” she says. “Jennifer Fahnbulleh, president of BIAD, is the only deaf teacher in Bermuda, and she has been working very hard through BIAD to increase more access for all children and adults through sign language classes being taught. There are none in the schools, and as far as I understand, they are not offered at the Bermuda College level to earn credits either. The idea of offering sign language (at the latter level) is so that hearing people can learn it and then become interpreters for the deaf.”

In terms of daily living, Dr. Rosen reiterates what Bermuda's deaf have been pleading for for a very long time without success, including universal closed captioning on television.

“They want closed captioned TV right now,” she says.

“While some programmes do have it, there is none on local programming, including news and breaking news bulletins, and none on emergency systems, so deaf people are left in the dark. The more deaf people know, the more independent they can become.”

In fact, the professor emphasises that closed captioning can benefit everyone.

“A society good for deaf people is great for everyone. Studies have shown that many hearing children who read closed captions on TV become more literate. If English is a second language, people trying to learn it benefit greatly from captioning. In fact, assistance technologies are being used more and more.”

In today's world, where technology has opened so many doors for people with disabilities, Bermuda is lagging behind in other areas of communication as well. Unlike the United States, for example, there is no telephone relay service, whereby the deaf caller, using a special text telephone (TTY) can communicate with other hearing parties, including doctors and firms, through a relay operator acting as the middle party.

In fact, not being able to communicate via the telephone is a severe handicap for deaf people, not least because, like everyone else, they are consumers.

“Bermuda is pretty much like other countries,” Dr. Rosen observes. “The intentions are good, but the struggle is either finance, the economy, or a lower priority in meeting the needs of disabled people.”

Apart from her official duties, the professor and her husband Herbert, who is also deaf and whom she met while both were students at Gallaudet University, have enjoyed returning to the Island where they honeymooned. Having stayed at the Castle Harbour Hotel, it was one of first places they wanted to revisit. Though clearly saddened at its current fate, Dr. Rosen says wistfully, “We have wonderful photos and we have our memories.”

She remembers there being “lots of horses and buggies” back then, and is surprised at how built-up the Island has become in the intervening years.

The couple have three grown children, all of whom are deaf, and nine grandchildren.

“Two of my sons are lawyers and my daughter is an engineer, and my grandchildren are all learning to sign too,” she says.

In terms of Bermuda's observance of Access Awareness Week, Dr. Rosen supports its aims but is frank.

“What is happening this week is really important. I hope it becomes a year-round activity and not just something that you focus on for a week. It's great to have these features in the media and events to kick off a week, but it is also important to recognise that people with different disabilities and from different cultures all contribute to the community.”