Research Translated! Promoting High Expectations for Success

Visual Description: a white female narrator in a teal blouse with a white camisole inside appears and signs “if the world around us perpetuates the idea that deaf people are inferior, this leads people to internalize these ideas and believe that deaf people can’t succeed.”

 

The video switches to a white background with a quick succession of illustrations of papers showing graphs and illegible lines of text and stick figures. The illustrations segue to text across the screen that reads “Research TRANSLATED!” with the NDC logo immediately below. The screen then switches to a dark background with white text that reads “HIGH EXPECTATIONS”.

 

The narrator returns, with a research citation on the lower right corner that reads “Humphries & Humphries, 2010; Weisel & Cinamon, 2005”. The narrator signs “Over time, these beliefs have been detrimental for deaf people.”

 

A white young adult male with a beard, ponytail and dark gray t-shirt sits in a room with several framed pictures in the background signs “A few months after I was born, I was diagnosed as deaf. Of course, my parents being hearing, they were upset and they didn’t know what they could do.”

 

A DeafBlind white female in a purple tank top with sunglasses and earrings appears, in front of several green support columns, with another partially-visible female touching her on the shoulder. The Deafblind female signs “It’s really a struggle to gain employment.”

 

An oral light-skinned Latino young adult male appears in a red v-neck t-shirt inside an office building. He speaks “sometimes people will think of me as, like, low because of my deafness.”

 

A white middle-aged female with short hair appears in a navy blue polo shirt and light gray cardigan inside an office. She signs “I had some teachers who told me that I would not be successful in college.”

 

A bald Indian-American male wearing a blue buttoned shirt with the sleeves rolled up appears. Beside him is an old-fashioned green TTY. He signs “there was a great deal of frustration, without accessible language I felt inferior.”

 

The video segues to a dark gray background with a brown stick figure on the right. To the left is text that reads “LOW EXPECTATIONS HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON FUTURE SUCCESS.” The stick figure’s head then lowers.

 

The narrator returns. She signs “In society, people who are not familiar with deaf people, generally do not have expectations for them to succeed. So what can we do to come together to change perceptions and raise expectations?”

 

The video segues back to the same dark gray background. A line of text appears, reading “EXPECTATIONS CAN BE CHANGED.” A second line of text then appears below, reading “HOW?” The video fades the text out, and a green stick figure that is sitting on the floor appears, with three twinkles shining around the figure. To the right is text that reads “EDUCATE”.

 

The narrator returns and signs “educate people by letting them know that deaf people have knowledge, skills, and expertise needed to navigate a variety of situations.”

 

The white middle-aged female with short hair returns, and signs “belief systems are hard to change, but through modeling, through educating, and through partnerships where we inform them of our needs and show that deaf people are just like anyone else.”

 

The bald Indian-American male returns, and signs “the school for the deaf there was run by hearing people who would tell these kids all the things they can’t do and again here I am, a deaf employed college graduate, basically making those hearing teachers eat their words.”

 

The video segues back to the dark gray background, with a green stick figure climbing a ladder, with a blue stick figure standing and holding the ladder to secure it. To the left, there is text that reads “ADVOCATE”.

 

The narrator returns, and signs “advocate. If you see someone putting down a deaf individual or disregarding their needs, stop them. Explain to them why what they are doing is wrong, so that they can learn from their mistakes and change their perspective from that of deaf people as inferior, to deaf people as their equal.”

 

The bald Indian-American male returns, and signs “I remembered the tools my foster parents taught me and started to do more self-advocating and started seeing myself become more successful.”

 

The oral light-skinned Latino young male returns, and speaks “I get a lot of motivation to be–from my family mostly. Especially my mom–she’s always pushing me to advocate for myself, like opening up myself to others, and so much more.”

 

The video segues back to the dark gray background, with a green stick figure on the left and a light gray stick figure on the right, waving with one arm. Above the stick figures is text that reads “ENCOURAGE”.

 

The narrator returns, and signs “encourage other deaf people. If you have a deaf coworker who has potential to be promoted through the ranks, but has seemed to accept that the system is holding them back, encourage them by letting them know you think they are more than capable of getting that promotion and achieving their goals.”

 

A middle-aged white female with long brown hair and an olive green blouse and ivory-colored cardigan appears, and signs “my high school counselor really encouraged me by telling me I needed to go to college to get what I wanted in life. He then showed me his college diploma and said this was a higher level degree and with it I could have a better career. And that was a big help, without that encouragement, I wouldn’t have gone to college.”

 

A short-haired DeafBlind white male wearing a polo shirt with teal and dark gray horizontal stripes appears with a partially-visible middle-aged African-American male in a light gray shirt sitting beside him. There are shelves in the background with many books. The short-haired male signs “some of the staff helped me just by being optimistic. The staff was really good at advising students how to become independent and the other things associated with that. They provided good services.”

 

The narrator returns, and signs “if a person believes that they have the skills and capabilities needed, they are much more likely to work hard and persist to attain their goals.”

 

An oral white female with long brown hair appears, wearing a long-sleeve shirt with thin black and white horizontal stripes. She speaks “so, I do have some people who have been very motivating. They really pushed me forward to achieve those goals and have very high expectations.”

 

The narrator returns, and signs “high expectations that people have for themselves, and those held by others about them, make a critical contribution to goal setting, persistence, and achievement.”

 

The video segues back to the dark gray background, with a green stick figure standing on the left. To the right is text that reads “HIGH EXPECTATIONS CONTRIBUTE TO FUTURE SUCCESS”, the narrator returns, and signs “just like in other communities, people in the deaf community can thrive by having high self esteem and pride in themselves.” To the right side of the screen the standing green stick figure appears, with three twinkles shining around it.

 

The white middle-aged female with short hair returns, and signs “it is important to build that identity and self esteem where you feel you can do anything regardless of hearing loss, you can still do it no matter what.”

 

The narrator returns, with text on the lower-right corner of the screen reading “Crowe, McLeod, McKinnon & Ching, 2015; Smith, 2013”. The narrator signs “if we can have higher expectations for ourselves and for others, the deaf community will benefit greatly. This gives people an opportunity to recognize the multitude of talent and expertise in the deaf community.” The text on the lower right corner fades away. “So take every opportunity to encourage, collaborate, and support to continue to raise expectations for success.” As the narrator signed “encourage, collaborate and support”, text appeared on the right, reading “ENCOURAGE COLLABORATE SUPPORT” in three lines before fading away.

 

The video fades away to a white background, and the NDC logo appears with “National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes” below it. The logo and text then move to the left before new text appears on the right that reads “This video was developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, OSEP #HD326D160001. However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.” Below this text are three logos, the first reading “IDEAs that Work” with the words “U.S. Office of Special Education Programs”. The second logo shows a red-and-blue star with text next to it that reads “TA&D”. The third logo shows a blue circle around a tree. In the blue circle are the words “U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION”.]