Central Washington University Board of Trustees February 21, 2020 ACTION – Bachelor of Arts Deaf and Sign Language Studies
CWU’s American Sign Language (ASL) minor is one of only two in Washington state. The only ASL major in the Pacific Northwest is Western Oregon University’s BA/BS degree in American Sign Language / English Interpreting. In July 2016, the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and the Center for the Assessment of Sign Language Interpretation accrediting agencies added a BA degree requirement. Since the only ASL interpreting program in the state of Washington is housed in a community college with no BA degree in ASL, this is a timely opportunity to develop a program that provides students on the ASL interpreter career track the opportunity to earn the required bachelor’s degree at CWU. The number of ASL minors at CWU has more than doubled since fall 2013 (from 35 to 74 students). In a survey of CWU’s current ASL minors, 24 students indicated they would enroll in the bachelor’s program if it were available. The need for college graduates capable of serving the needs of Washington state’s deaf and hard-of- hearing community is so great that, in 2019, the legislature proposed a bill (HB 1623) that “..intends to initiate a multistep process of improving the availability and quality of sign language interpreting provided to public school students and other persons by: (a) Providing grants to increase the number of sign language interpreter programs available to higher education students.” This bill followed the June 2018 Americans with Disabilities Act settlement with the Washington Health Care Authority (HCA) for persistent and wide-ranging lack of access to services. In many of Washington’s counties, CTS LanguageLink has zero sign language interpreters available. As a result of this shortage, the fulfillment rate (i.e., the number of times the HCA Interpreter Services Program was able to provide a sign language interpreter whenever a request was made via this system) has been at or below 30% since 2012. The need for college graduates with a high level of proficiency in ASL and understanding of the many socio-cultural issues affecting members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities in Washington state is dire enough to be considered an emergency. The BA Deaf and Sign Language Studies is budget-neutral as it draws upon existing courses taught by current faculty members. Upper-division courses will be offered on a rotation and will not involve any additional workload units than what is currently involved in offering the ASL minor. We recommend the following motion: The Board of Trustees of Central Washington University endorses the recommendation of the Faculty Senate (Motion No. 19-12) and hereby approves the Bachelor of Arts Deaf and Sign Language Studies degree program this day February 21, 2020.
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