Cultural and Sensitivity Training

When Kelly Lepley wanted his middle school social studies students at Innocademy, a charter school in Zeeland, Michigan, to learn more about Deaf culture, he knew who to contact: Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services (D&HHS). 

The D&HHS Cultural and Sensitivity Training (CAST) program is becoming a go-to resource for West Michigan organizations that want to become more knowledgeable about the Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing. 

But Lepley was still surprised at how excited his students got about their session, led by D&HHS executive director Deb Atwood and community education coordinator Nancy Piersma. 

“Many of the students went home and were sharing things about the presentation with their parents,” he noted. “They were very excited to get back into class today to continue to practice ASL (American Sign Language). It was very eye-opening for my students to hear about the difficulty and amount of practice it takes as an interpreter and for someone who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing.” 

Student evaluations told a similar story. 

One student wrote: “You did really well on the presentation.” She noted too that one of her biggest takeaways from the event when it comes to the Deaf was that “You can’t touch someone on the back because it scares them,” a takeaway that several other students noted too. 

And another student wrote: “Keep up the amazing work. I can’t wait to see more from you guys.” 

Such responses bring a smile to Atwood’s face. 

“We do CAST training in lots of different settings,” she said, “businesses, hospitals, you name it. And all of our trainings are customized to ensure that businesses and others are educated, aware and protected. But school settings are always a lot of fun for us, and it’s great to start educating this next generation at a young age. Very little training exists for those who are Deaf, DeafBlind or have hearing loss or those who work and come into contact with people from these communities. We are trying to expand that knowledge more and more.”

Atwood noted that through the CAST program, she and her team come in for a pre-determined fee and train organizations on Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing culture with presentations that fit the client’s needs and schedule. 

“It can be one hour or all day,” she said, “and we will even bring our training professionals to the client.” 

For Lepley, it was fun to see his students, who had taken an ASL elective class, learn more about the language. 

“They really are trying their hardest to learn as much as they can about Deaf culture and about ASL,” he said. “We would love to be able to have Deb and her team come in again! There are a lot of things that we could read about, but there was so much more that we would never know unless we had someone come in and share it with us.” 

Atwood was equally complimentary. 

“Kelly has a great class,” she said, “and they asked some very in-depth questions. We hope that the students will look at Deafness and the culture it brings in a different perspective.”   

Link to more information: Community Education