Actor and comedian C.J. Jones, Miss America of 1995 Heather Whitestone McCallum, and even historic figure Helen Keller, all achieved something great in their life, despite having one thing in common: being deaf.

Deaf culture may not be recognized often, but it is all around us, even at Biola. In order to help not only to recognize the existence of this disability but also to aid the people with this disorder, Biola is involved in offering many services on campus, such as sign language classes, the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association, the Learning Center and most prominent, the department of Communication Disorders (CD).

Though the Communications Disorders department, which just became its own department last year, only makes up 11 percent of Biola’s population, the professors are passionate about making a difference. The goal is to equip students to work at onsite clinics during their senior year and attend graduate schools to study Speech-Language Pathology, which deals with speaking, or Audiology, dealing with hearing.

On the Web site, Matthew Rouse, the department chair, emphasizes that the students in the CD department are challenged to study “with a working knowledge of the Scriptures and … to develop a personal Christian worldview.”

Rouse, who came to Biola in the fall of 1999, illustrates the studies as “pre-professional training since they have to do graduate work in order to be licensed by the state and certified by the professional organization ASHA.”

A deaf professor first taught the deaf emphasis classes in the department according to Rouse. He believed that because of this, “the emphasis was really going to take off, as there seemed to be good interest in it initially.”

However, the emphasis was later dropped and for this reason, Rouse also believes that the study of deaf culture would fit more properly under the Intercultural Studies department. Overall, Rouse describes Biola’s role in the deaf culture is as “a neat ministry area for Biola to explore — reaching out to the disabled community.”

Sophomore Rachel Halberstadt is majoring in communication disorders (CD) and plans on working at a clinic, hospital or school. She is focused on the fact that CD deals not only with speaking disabilities, but also includes helping those who have difficulty “sharing an idea verbally, physically or emotionally.”

Sophomore Michelle Nelson, also majoring in CD, clarified that in deaf culture, one is often “expected to use facial expression and to go in depth about what [they] are talking about.”

“The sad thing about the deaf community is that they usually speak to people who are also deaf, [which makes it] hard to spread God’s word,” Nelson said.

An interesting fact brought up by Nelson was that there’s a difference between deaf and Deaf. Deaf is when one is “very active in the deaf community and [they] usually have traditional views on people that are deaf versus people who can hear,” whereas deaf is when one “may not be as active in the community or be as active but don’t hold some of the same views about being deaf.”

“Our goal is to help the patients … communicate their needs, wants and thoughts to the rest of the world,” Halberstadt said. “This is where ASL comes into play.”

Within the department is American Sign Language, (ASL) a class instructing students on the “skills of signs and fingerspelling.”

“ASL is one of many ways for a deaf person to communicate with their world. [It] is a beautiful language that uses one’s hands to produce different signs,” Halberstadt said.

Her overview description of deaf culture in relation to ASL depicts it as “lovely, rich, full and bonded tightly together.”

“[It’s] like a family unit. Those who are a part of this well-united group share something special that I could never put into words,” Halberstadt said,

“ASL helps the expressive part of people that most have trouble explaining,” Nelson said. “I almost feel that America is slacking by not learning a language that is actually their own! Other places learn English as a second language, but we can’t even learn another American language?”

In addition, Biola offers an association known as the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA). This association is open for students who are interested in studying communication disorders. Erin Bibelheimer, an alumna and the president of NSSLHA, explained that Biola’s AS funds this association and that NSSLHA “exists to provide resources, support, events, encouragement, and Christian fellowship for those interested in pursuing a career in communications disorders.”

A very helpful resource in connection to deaf culture at Biola is the Learning Center, which is located in the upper floor of the library.

“[The Learning Center provides] reasonable and appropriate accommodations to students with disabilities, assisting students with disabilities in self-advocacy, educating the Biola community about disabilities,” said Kevin Grant, the director of the Learning Center. “Our goal is to remove the hurdles for all students with disabilities.”

In the Learning Center, interpretation services along with “real time captioning for all of the students’ class work” are particularly provided for deaf students, depending on their situation.

To a large extent, Biola presents various services in order to aid those who are disabled, explicitly students who are afflicted by the disability of being deaf. The Learning Center along with associations such as the NSSLHA and American Sign Language, which are branched off from the CD department, provide a great amount of effort in reaching out and helping the disabled group.