CEHD Deaf Equity Task Force provides ASL interpreters and community events

CJ Jones peered into the audience and said, knowingly, “If you think about it, Deaf individuals have to work twice as hard” as hearing people. Approximately 300 members of the greater Twin Cities Deaf community—including undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty, and community members—raised and waved their hands in the American Sign Language (ASL) sign for applause. It was a statement that encapsulated the evening for Jones, the audience, and the Deaf Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force that brought Jones to the University of Minnesota this September.

The task force was first convened in September 2023. That spring, an ASL interpreter had been requested for CEHD Research and Innovation Day—a request that had gone unfulfilled. Following this, two documents were presented to the CEHD Senior Management Team from faculty and staff from the Department of Educational Psychology, which houses the U’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) teacher licensure preparation program. The purpose of the documents was “to respond to an ongoing call for more equitable and inclusive policies and practices at UMN regarding Deaf people to ensure that our Deaf students, faculty, and staff are welcomed and can fully engage and participate without barriers” (we use “Deaf ” as an inclusive term encompassing individuals who identify as Deaf, Hard of Hearing, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, late-deafened, and others).

Ryan Warren, CEHD innovation and partnership officer, brought together the primary authors of these documents— Leah Dolezal (ASL senior teaching specialist), Debbie Golos (Deaf education professor and DHH licensure program lead), and Kristen McMaster (special education professor and then-chair of the Department of Educational Psychology). This group met in the summer of 2023 to identify “tangible next steps that could and should be taken towards an ultimate goal of establishing CEHD as a Deaf-friendly college, known as such locally and nationally.” The group called for action steps to be taken, including the formation of an ongoing advisory board.

Since its inception, the task force has focused on several major goals: providing ASL interpreters for core CEHD events; identifying changes to make the college more equitable, accessible, and Deaf-friendly; and promoting visibility by hosting events in collaboration with the ASL program for the Deaf community. Two years in, the group’s efforts have been fruitful: CEHD now automatically provides ASL interpreters at commencement ceremonies, fall and spring assemblies, and Research and Innovation Day, as well as events where interpreters are requested. In addition, DHH and ASL program faculty have delivered trainings to college communicators on perspectives of and best practices for working with Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, and increased efforts to recruit Deaf students have brought in new students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The task force has also held two free community events. In March 2025, the group, partnering with the ASL program, brought in Justin Perez, a Deaf performance artist and educator known for his use of Visual Vernacular. The Perez event brought in more than 300 people from the greater Twin Cities Deaf and Hard of Hearing community for an evening of storytelling, audience participation, and community.

The second event, “An Evening with CJ Jones,” featured the multi-hyphenate recognizable for his acting work in Baby Driver. The September event began with videos showcasing Jones’s work, including examples of the Na’vi sign language he created for James Cameron’s Avatar sequels.