User:Kelly0br/Deafness In the Windward Islands

Primary and Secondary Education
In the Caribbean region and the Windward Islands there is very little research on linguistic access in deaf education has taken place when compared to other regions around the world. This region has struggled and continues to fail involving successful access to progress deaf children a proper school education such as primary, secondary, and especially high education. the region lacks deaf professionals and academics to contribute to the development of deaf education.

Trinidad and Tobago
In Trinidad and Tobago, deaf education is an understudied area. Trinidad and Tobago's Language and Language Education Policy comments that "at no time in history of education in the country has there ben sufficient information of deafness and Deaf Education." In Trinidad and Tobago, the beginnings of deaf education began around the year 1931, where there was about 74 dead people in Trinidad and Tobago. The first school for deaf children was opened on November 15, 1943 and has slightly expanded since then. However, even though there are very few resources and education facilities in Trinidad and Tobago, there is still not enough. However, it is evident that access to proper education, even primary and secondary education is severely lacking in Trinidad and Tobago. In fact, Trinidad and Tobago contains no deaf preschools or high schools. According to Deafness and Education International, "the only designated schools for deaf students are the following three primary schools: Cascade School for the deaf, Audrey Jeffers' School for the dead, and the Tobago School for the Deaf, Speech and Language Impaired. In addition, according to an ethnographic study from Trinidad and Tobago, it is stated, "in the Caribbean there has been a failure of the education system to prepare deaf students for successful entry into higher education and the number of deaf professionals and academics remains low." Approximately 5% of deaf children in the country have deaf parents to provide them with accessible first language at home and most Trinbagonians who are deaf or hard-of-hearing have hearing parents and have no access to a native signing model. Due to this delay of communication, deaf Trinbagonians suffer educational delays and to learn a sign language, they must start at primary school. To go further to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, a study has recently occurred in 2021 that investigated how an emergent system of e-learning that began during the COVID-19 crisis conditions and how it has impacted the linguistic access and education of deaf students in Trinidad and Tobago. This study involves the learning system, course materials and the language/communication that took place within the deaf primary and secondary students, their teachers, interpreters, and parents. The study showed that many of the deaf students in both the primary and secondary school encountered many communication barriers that caused issues in education due to many issues such as lack to internet/poor connection and that the country was not prepare to convey the full range of communication available in sign language. Many students faced struggles to decode the English language text and the written language is usually inaccessible to the students. This issue is stripping the primary and secondary deaf students of proper education and is delaying their education even further. In addition to the lack of secondary and primary schools, according to The Caribbean Educational Research Journal, many deaf people reported that they felt isolated when they were places in a mainstream school with little or no deaf peers at all. many deaf individuals stated that they would rather attends a special secondary school for deaf students.

Barbados
In Barbados, there are many similarities to Trinidad and Tobago as well as many other areas in the Windward Islands. In Barbados, many deaf individuals achieve very low levels of education in secondary schools because too may children enter the secondary school with inadequate numeracy skills and literacy and do not have enough qualifications. Compared to other countries the prevalence of speech and hearing problems in government primary schools in Barbados appears to be higher. Barbados faces the statistic that one in four children contains either speech or hearing difficulties. This issue leads to many deaf Barbadians to perform poorly or not succeed in secondary schools in Barbados. In fact, the one school deaf or hard-of-hearing Barbadians attend is The Irving Wilson School. The school caters to children ages 5-18 years old and the Incorporation of American Sign Language (ASL), Braille, and large print in included in the academic program. The Irving Wilson school for the Blind and deaf is currently the only educational institution for deaf students in Barbados. However, according to SIL International, there are eight other primary schools around the country that offer special-education services where deaf Barbadian students may attend. These education services are the Ann Hill School in St. Michael Parish that offers secondary educational options to others with disabilities, however, there has not been any mentions that deaf students attend this certain school.

Higher Education in the Windward Islands
According to The Caribbean Educational Research Journal, the capability of Deaf professionals and academics to contribute to the development of Deaf education has remained very low which leads to deaf students for successful entry into higher education remains very low. Many deaf individuals in the Windward Islands have the opportunity to enter into any education centers at all due to their parents not being able to afford the education or keeping them at home for at-home tasks. In addition, in most of the region, many deaf individuals do not have the education to progress or the education has been so delayed that they cannot go much further. Many wish to progress to higher education but are unable or incapable of doing so.

Trinidad and Tobago
In Trinidad and Tobago, many deaf people want to pursue and go to the next level of higher education at local universities and secondary schools, but most of the deaf population do not progress due to the lack of interpreting services and/or classroom support. Most deaf individuals do not have any type of education, in fact, due to many parents keeping them at home to help with tasks at home. According to the SIL International, the at-home tasks are called "slave labor" by the deaf informants from the study the organization performed. These situations come up because the parents of the deaf children are afraid that others will discover they have a deaf child, they cannot afford to send their child to school, live too far away from a proper school, or cannot or want their child to have an independent life because of work around the house.

Grenada
There are only two schools in the country for deaf students. Due to this, many deaf people in Grenada cannot obtain higher education there and wish to gain higher education in the United States. However, it is rare for a deaf individual to pass a high school entrance exam, but if the individual did, he or she is allowed to attend high school or further education, according to SIL International.

Employment
It is common throughout the Windward Island region that many deaf individuals obtain jobs that include at-home tasks, sewing, factories, and other jobs that do not require higher education. In addition, it is very common to have the same job as a hearing individual but receive less pay due to being hard of hearing or deaf. However, many individuals face the fear of not having a job altogether if they complain.

Barbados
Unemployment in Barbados is a serious issue of unemployment. The president of a New Life deaf Club stated that "Presently, these people still find it difficult to gain meaningful employment and, when they do, they are often paid less than other workers. some employers even deny them the right to be employed, on seeing their application forms, only because of their disability."

Grenada
Deaf individuals in Grenada generally work in factories, technological jobs, sewing, cleaning, or in family businesses. Deaf individuals state that the pay is not equivalent as for hearing people and they also do not have the education needed for a better paying job.

St. Vincent
Saint Vincent contains a very small deaf population and every known deaf individual in the community of Saint Vincent has a job, but it is not high-paying due to lack of education.

Saint Lucia
Children that are faced with deaf or hard of hearing aspects are faced with barriers in education which further effects the employment rates for deaf or hard of hearing individuals in Saint Lucia. There are very few employment opportunities for adults and there are few employment opportunities for adults.

Trinidad and Tobago
Employment rates for the deaf individuals in Trinidad and Tobago seem to be very low, according to SIL International. Many DHH individuals in Trinidad and Tobago claim that they did not receive adequate education to progress or obtain jobs. The jobs that many of deaf Trinidadians would receive are either ones that are limited to the skills they have learned through vocational training. Such training involved the following: carpentry, cleaning houses, fixing furniture, cooking, factory jobs and more hands-on jobs. There is a very few amount of deaf individuals in Trinidad and Tobago that work in an office or educational contexts and most state that they could not discover any type of steady employment. In fact, many participants in a deaf questionnaire indicate that they viewed a better education as a main way to defeat the employment struggle and to create a more independent lifestyle. In addition, when deaf individuals find employment in Trinidad and Tobago, they usually receive less financial compensation than hearing people doing the same job. However, many individuals do not complain about the inequity due to the fear of losing their job all together.

Healthcare in the Windward Islands
The Windward Islands has various health locations and emergency medical services such as Windward Islands Emergency Medical Services (WIEMS) However, in the Windward Islands, many parts of the region lack the healthcare needed to have a healthy future for deaf or hard of hearing individuals. Many individuals lack the communication with their healthcare provider which leads to more health issues in the future. DHH individuals are more vulnerable to the contraction of STIs and HIV due to communication barriers and misinformation. For instance, in Trinidad and Tobago, many deaf and hard of hearing individuals are forgotten or pushed aside. However, in Trinidad and Tobago, a social development ministry has recently partnered with DRETCHI/TTAHI which is the only organization that provides hearing health care facilities at minimum or no cost to the population. Both of the agencies collaborated with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to donate hearing aids, also. In general, it is hard for deaf or hard of hearing individuals to properly communicate with their healthcare provider and doctor. It is often difficult for them to create an appointment and to travel to the closest health provider that can accommodate to their health needs.

Grenada
In Grenada, it has one of the best healthcare systems in the Caribbean. It provides primary care to the citizens free-of-charge, but people who live outside of Grenada may find the level of care to be lower than what they are used to. The healthcare system is run by the Ministry of Health (MOH). The MOH steers policy and finance decisions for the country's thirty-six public health facilities, according to the International Student Insurance. The facilities are evenly spread through the country so every household is within three miles of a healthcare provider. However, deaf Grenadians still often find themselves struggling and finding an interpreter to properly communicate medical information. Many doctors and healthcare providers are not equipped and unprepared for deaf or hard of hearing individuals. It is common that many deaf individuals find themselves lost and without any help.

Language Preservation and Revitalization
In general, sign languages are already vulnerable since they cannon by written down in some cases and the communities of deaf or heard-of-hearing individuals are most often relatively small. In the Caribbean and Windward Island region, the use of American Sign Language has been on the rise and the use of other Creole and indigenous sign languages have been decreasing. However, the effort to keep these indigenous sign languages alive continues in some areas of the Windward Islands today, and are still continuing to be used.

Trinidad and Tobago
Since the 1950s when TTSL or Trinidadian Sign language was emerged, technology has expanded the use of the unique sign. Technology has made it more available to deaf individuals to watch videos of other sign languages around the world and spread the use and educate others how to communicate using TTSL. According to the University of the West Indies, there is a danger that TTSL could disappear similarly to how the verbal indigenous languages have disappeared in recent years. There is of changing currents in educational policy in Trinidad and Tobago, today. For example, according to The Caribbean Educational Research Journal, "there is a sharp difference between the TTSL created and used by Deaf Trinbagonians who went to school before 11975, and the predominance of ASL among younger signers." This issue is creating language barriers throughout the county and is also creating isolation from the older deaf individuals from the younger population. The move towards mainstreaming of deaf children in Trinidad and Tobago has also contributed to the loss of the use of TTSL. TSSL, in the past, was transmitted across generations by the presence of older TTSL signers, but presently many young children have little or no contact with the older deaf signers. In addition, the President of the Deaf Empowerment Organization of Trinidad and Tobago discusses a view that most deaf Trinbagonians express: "some people think that it doesn't matter if TTSL disappears but it is very precious and it needs to be preserved and continued. Many missionaries have come from America bringing ASL and it has put pressure on TTSL, but we should not let is disappear." Trinidadian Sign language is of very high importance to the deaf individuals in Trinidad and Tobago due to the fact that it is the primary language of hundreds of deaf Trinbagonians and is a source of pride and expression of cultural identity. In fact, The Deaf Organization of Trinidad and Tobago has grown apart form the Government-funded project to produce a dictionary of Trinidadian sign Language. TTSL is very essential to many individuals in Trinidad and Tobago and strikes interest in academics since it is very uncommon to have the ability to identify the origins of a language, especially a signed language. The University of the West Indies that is located in St. Augustine, Trinidad, continues to contribute and promote the use of TTSL. In fact the University has 'hosted two symposia on sign language and deaf culture in Trinidad and Tobago and provided the venue for only the second TTSL class ever to be offered.

Saint Vincent
According to SIL International, DHH people have not recorded or identified any local signs in St. Vincent but do have access to some ASL dictionaries that have come from the United States. These dictionaries, however are usually used by hearing people to learn vocabulary for American Sign Language and deaf people often do not use them. The Saint Vincent deaf population is very small and the only known data is shown that children are only learning American Sign Language. In addition, churches and casual deaf meetings are reported and have been viewed to use ASL. Due to the small size of the deaf population in Saint Vincent, the use of American Sign Language and lack of indigenous sign language before ASL, it is most likely that deaf individuals in Saint Vincent will continue to use ASL in all aspect of life.

Grenada
In Grenada, deaf individuals state that they all sign the same kind of ASL besides for three deaf groups such as the older induction generation who did not learn sign language and communicate through common gestures, deaf people who were educated orally and never tried sign language and isolated dead individuals who use their own home sign. According to SIL International, few deaf schools have access to ASL materials in dictionary form, not video. However, there was a Grenadian signs book with line drawing that was published through the deaf school in Grenada, but there is only a few paper copies still in existence and there are no digital copies of it. Due to the lack of any developed sign language other than ASL in Grenada, there is not much preservation or revitalization of any other signed language besides ASL.