Jane Fernandes: Life In The Deaf Community

Jane Fernandes has an interesting and dynamic history in the Deaf community. In Worcester, Massachusetts, she was born Deaf to a Deaf mother and hearing father. She did not immediately start to learn American Sign Language – her mother taught her how to speak, and she became a very proficient lip-reader. It wasn’t until she entered graduate school at the University of Iowa that she began to learn how to sign. Fernandes has overcome a lot of adversity in her professional life. Surprisingly enough, most of this animosity came from her peers within the Deaf community. Fernandes graduated from Trinity College with her Bachelor of Arts degree in French and comparative literature. She began to form quite the impressive resume after college. For her graduate schooling, she attended the University of Iowa, where she earned her Master’s and Ph.D. in comparative literature. After graduation, Fernandes went to Boston to take a position as director of ASL programs at Northeastern University. She then traveled to Washington, D.C., where she became the chair of the Sign Communication Department at Gallaudet University. Continuing on in her travels, she next moved to Hawaii and became the founding coordinator of the University of Hawaii’s Sign Language/English …show more content…
Apparently, she is not the right “type” of Deaf person, since she communicates so well with the hearing community. Also, the fact that she can speak and read lips further excommunicated her from the Deaf community. Deaf people were outraged, and viewed her actions and goals for the university as ways to “weaken or displace” ASL. They figured that Fernandes doesn’t have the sense of pride in her identity that the rest of the Deaf community has, which is why she is advocating for equality and inclusion of everyone at Gallaudet, no matter what his/her hearing status may