The only American Sign Language interpreting program at a public university in Indiana will be cut as a result of a new policy in the state budget. Advocates warn Indiana already has a shortage of interpreters and this will reduce access for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
The new state budget requires Indiana’s public universities and colleges to eliminate or consolidate degree programs with low enrollment or completion rates. Indiana University Indianapolis will eliminate its American Sign Language-English interpreting degree after current students graduate.
Geoffrey Bignell, Indiana Association of the Deaf advocacy director, said through an interpreter this cut will limit Indiana’s training capacity and lead to fewer interpreters in the state. Bignell said that will mean more issues accessing health care, education and employment for deaf individuals.
“It's more of the basically daily life that will significantly be impacted,” Bignell said.
Bignell said the accessibility of interpreters already has a big effect on how people in the Deaf community access services.
For example, research from the National Institutes of Health shows deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals are more likely to seek medical care through an emergency room than a doctor's office.
“Doctors typically do not provide sign language interpreters, but ERs will,” Bignell said. “Individuals typically go there, but the funding cost for the ER itself has, of course, gone up. However, the deaf individuals typically end up having medical assistance needs that use taxpayer money, and so the state will end up paying that as well for individuals going to the ER.”
Bignell said interpreters are also critical in educational environments. Having less capacity to train interpreters in Indiana could affect the options for where a parent is able to send their child.
“If they're looking to put their child in a mainstream setting, however, there is not an interpreter available, they will potentially put them into the Deaf school,” Bignell said.
But funding for the Indiana School for the Deaf was also slashed in the state budget. Bignell said the school was forced to cut educational services and staff. And he said student safety has been “diminished.”
“We're very restricted,” Bignell said. “For many parents with deaf children, just in that one specific school regard, it is not equal access with other parents within the state. Any individual who may have a hearing child [has the ability] to give them the best educational choices. Deaf individuals are suffering on that front.”
Bignell said an estimated 60 percent of interpreters working in Indiana are nearing retirement age, meaning Indiana will likely have to bring more interpreters in from out-of-state.
“We have to cover the expenses of the interpreters’ travel, and it ends up costing more to the state,” Bignell said. “We need to make sure that we're able to provide interpreters within the state, so that those funds would be less impacted by the out-of-state interpreters.”
Bignell said lawmakers and the governor aren’t considering the long-term effects of what they eliminated in the state budget.
“They need to consider that, rather than just going ahead and cutting things that they believe are not needed,” Bignell said. “The consequences of this is excluding individuals from what the state is looking to provide.”
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Two private schools will still offer an interpreting program in northern Indiana. But, the IU Indianapolis program is the only one offered outside of that area of the state and the only one offered at a public university or college. Bignell said that could make it harder to get interpreters to the parts of the state where they are needed most.
Bignell said about two-thirds of college graduates stay in the state they graduated from.
“In Indianapolis, there's a large Deaf community here, and we do need sign language interpreters very badly,” Bignell said. “Without having that opportunity, the Deaf community within the state will definitely be impacted.”
In addition, Bignell said the IU Indianapolis program played a significant role in training a more diverse group of interpreters.
“The [Indiana University] program that is being shut down currently has a more diverse population of interpreters, who themselves come from a variety of backgrounds compared to those other two schools,” Bignell said. “There's more of a fit with the interpreters who are in the current program with what we need within our Indianapolis area.”
Bignell said the Indiana Association of the Deaf proposed moving IU's current interpretation program to a virtual option. He said they hoped to increase the program's graduates to more than 15 per year.
“However, it seemed that no one was inspired by that idea,” Bignell said. “I was hoping that would be able to happen to make sure that we are able to provide the same level and more services to the Deaf community in the Indiana setting.”
Bignell said a virtual setting is not the best format for interpretation and learning how to be an ASL interpreter. But he said people in rural areas or those who can’t afford to move to Indianapolis for the program would have been able to enroll.
Abigail is our health reporter. Contact them at aruhman@wfyi.org or on Signal at IPBHealthRuhman.65.