Awards Luncheon Address

Presented by Alan Hurwitz

Dr. Hurwitz talks about growing up deaf.

For more coverage of this great convention, please point your browser to http://www.hearinglossweb.com/res/hlorg/alda/cn/2006/2006.htm

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Alan T. Hurwitz

When they asked me to the the Ksynote speaker at the Awards Banquet, I thought maybe I was supposed to speak for an hour or 90 minutes or so. But Kathy told me she was thinking mo0re like 15 minutes, so Ithought thatwas pretty easy.

I was born deaf, and both of my parents are deaf. So I'm not a late-deafened person. But we deal with so many people with so many diverse needs.

I grew up in St. Louis, then lived in Iowa for awhile, and then came back here to attend college. I was walking around downtown this morning and I was surprised to see a brand new baseball stadium. And now the Cardinals are in the World Series with the Detroit Tigers, and that is very exciting.

Let me tell you a bit about my parents. My father and his family moved here from Russia. His parents moved here from Russia. When my father was born deaf, they didn't know what to do, so they isolated him. Eventually, when he was 13, they sent him to the Iowa Xchool for he Deaf, and that was his first exposure to formal education.

My mother's parents didn't realize she was deaf until she was about five. She attended oral school. She was sort of a tomboy, and was more interested in playing outside than in schoolwork. She was eighteen and couldn't read. Then her teachers gave her a book called "Little Women", and she learned to read with that book.

When my parents met, they fell in love, even though my dad couldn't seak and my mother couldn't sign. SO they got married, and four years later I was born. They told me stories nad read to me, and that's where I got my love of learning.

They sent me to the Central Institute for the Deaf here in St. Louis. That was an oral school. It was a wonderful experience. That school went to eighth grade, so after I finished that I went back to Iowa to a mainstream public school.

I remember a history class where we had 40 students. I was used to the deaf school, where we had 5 or six students in each class. I was terrified! And my parents had never attended a public school, so they didn't know what to do. So they put me in the front row and I had to make the best of it.

One day the teacher was teaching the Gettysburg Address and wanted the students to read along with her. I refused to read out loud, but I was reading along silently. And they're all reading. And suddenly the teacher asked the class to stop to discuss something. But I was still jabbering away. Then the teacher asked me to continue, but of course I stopped.

I remember another time I thought the teacher made a mistake on the board. I reaised my ahnd and told her that she wrote something wrong. The teacher couldn't understand me, and kept saying, "What?" After several tries, I decided to just go up and make the correction. ON my way up there I realized she was right, and that was very embarrassing.

After that I decided I would just attend class and not speak up or participate that much. And I became a bit isolated. I did have some superficial relationships with some of the students, but there was no in-depth dialogue taking place.

But I could go home to my deaf family every night and have a good discussion. So that was good,

I wanted to attend college and major in engineering. I contacted Gallaudet, but they didn't have an engineering school. So I thought I could attend G for four years and then attend an engineering school for five years. But that seemed like a long time. So I went to a local college called Morningside College. They accepted me, but said I had to have some type of support service.

I was insulted and didn't understand why I needed support services. They explained that college was different, and I couodn't rely on the book like I did in high school. They decided that a notetaker would help me. So they found a student in my class and hired him as a notetaker for me.

I requestd that the student they hired have very good grades, so I could depend on the notes. They couldn't find anyone like that, so they hired a "C" student. He took notes using carbon paper, and at the end of class he gave me the copy. I was pretty bored, because I had nothing to do in class. After a couple of weeks, I told him that he could forget about the carbon, I would look over his shoulder and take my own notes.

That system worked well and we continued for the full year. He became an A student.

Then my second year I decided to just be a regular student and find my own notetaker. My plan was to find a student who took a lot of notes and sit next to him and take my notes. The first class he didn't like that, so I told him at the end of the class that I was deaf and wanted to use his notes.

I used that system for years, and almost always had students who happy to help.

When I started working on my Ph.D. I had an interpreter for the first time. Then I realized how much information was being provided in each class. And I was appalled at how much I had missed during my college years. I resolved at that time that I would never attend a class without an interpreter again.

I really enjoyed Bill Graham's talk yesterday about the early days of ALDA. I especially liked his recitation of the progression of the technology.

I want to mention NTID, which is part of RIT. About half of our deaf students regularly attend normal hearing classes at other RIT colleges.

We have about 200 students with cochlear implants, and we have a bunch of audiologists on staff to support them. We provide a full range of accommodations. We also have a full placement center to assist students in getting jobs. We also offer workshops for employers on how to work with deaf employees. Our job placement rate is about 95%, which we think is just excellent

I am so excited that your ALDAcon will be in Rochester in September, 2007.