In 1998, University College Cork faced something of a unique educational challenge with the arrival of Jane Nyando to register for a BA degree. Born and raised in Kenya, Jane (26) is profoundly deaf. She is fluent in variety of sign languages and had just learned Irish Sign Language (ISL). She also has English and Swahili - only not the spoken varieties.
"Jane is unique in that she is the only deaf student in the college with no oral communication," says Mary O'Grady, disability support officer at UCC. It turns out that it is quite rare to find an Irish deaf student who doesn't use lipreading or speech to some extent.
O'Grady says that the barriers to communication were "enormous", yet Jane remained positive and was determined to succeed.
Indeed, it was thanks, in part, to the commitment and level of service provided by the UCC Disability Support Service (DSS) that Jane succeeded, graduating last September with an honours BA in applied psychology and sociology. She is now pursuing a postgraduate diploma in social policy.
Jane says she came here in 1996 because access to third-level education in Kenya is difficult. She spent two years studying Irish Sign Language before applying to UCC and a number of other colleges. It's clear that the presence of the college's support unit strongly influenced her choice.
"The people here had a good attitude. In other colleges, I just felt, when I had interviews with them, that the attitude was less positive."
Once at UCC, Jane was able to avail of sign language interpreters, note-takers, free photocopying and a free laptop, among other things. In addition, she had one-to-one tutorials organised for her. But in many ways, the most valuable service the DSS played was in lobbying for special funds and liaising with various academic departments on her behalf.
The DSS, which opened in 1987, reflects a strong tradition in UCC of catering for students with disabilities, says O'Grady. It provides a service to more than 200 disabled students. At the moment, there are 11 deaf students in UCC, a number considerably up on even two or three years ago.
One measure of the DSS's level of activity is that out of the £1 million allocated under the Department of Education's special fund for students with disabilities in the last academic year, UCC obtained £136,000 for its students.
O'Grady says that her job is "very rewarding". In addition to the pleasure of watching students with disabilities achieve academic success, she adds that it is also "hugely important" to aid their transition to the world of work. UCC is the only college that employs a full-time careers advisor for disabled students.
Jane Nyando wants to work as a social worker for deaf people. She says she would like to work here and in other European countries.
As well as setting an inspiring example to other deaf students, Jane's story will be particularly interesting to many Irish deaf people because as well as coming from a developing country, she is a product of an education system that takes a very different attitude to the teaching of profoundly deaf children, something that she herself became acutely aware of very soon after arriving here.
"When I came to Ireland, I was really shocked at the strong tradition of oralism here," she says. "They forced Irish deaf children to use speech and lipread, so they've less sign language. I was really shocked and upset about this attitude."
Jane explains that at deaf schools in Kenya, they first teach deaf children through sign language, followed by educating them in English through sign language. She says lipreading and learning to speak was not considered important in the Kenyan system, unlike in Ireland.
If Jane succeeds in her career ambitions, she may well achieve the distinction of becoming the first qualified social worker in Ireland who is deaf. "A deaf social worker would have a deeper understanding of deaf issues and the problems of deaf people."
