Police and Public Safety to undergo training to assist deaf and hard of hearing

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – To better understand the needs of deaf or hard of hearing individuals and to improve interactions with the University community, officers and employees of Penn State’s University Police and Public Safety (UPPS) will receive deaf and hard of hearing training on March 31.  

As part of its ‘transparency and accountability initiative,’ UPPS remains committed to enhancing its training efforts in a variety of areas, including diversity and inclusion and cultural awareness. Additionally, Penn State police officers also receive ongoing mandatory and specialized training throughout their careers.  

Iris Richardson, director of diversity, equity and inclusion for UPPS, explained that UPPS aims to teach sworn and civilian employees how to handle interactions and reactions they might not ordinarily expect to encounter – from a wide variety of populations.  

“We have individuals coming from different walks of life,” Richardson said. “Nationally, people think of diversity and inclusion as race and ethnicity. We want to broaden that view and think past the trending topics. Someone might be deaf or hard-of-hearing, blind or visually impaired or have an invisible disability. You don’t know what people are going through unless they tell you.”  

Via a four-hour, in-person and virtual training session, UPPS employees and officers from all 22 Penn State campuses will be introduced to best practices for interacting with someone who is deaf and hard of hearing. Additionally, attendees will be taught essential phrases in American Sign Language (ASL), as well as will receive an introduction to key resources. The training will be delivered by two Penn State professors -- one who is deaf and one who is hearing -- from Communication Sciences and Disorders in the College of Health and Human Development. The training also uses a team of interpreters and a breakout session with scenarios to practice what was discussed in the larger group setting. 

Sommar Chilton, associate teaching professor, and Shasta Dreese, assistant teaching professor, are the instructors who provide this training as part of programming offered across the University. Their focus is on educating individuals about deaf culture, and introduce ASL and advice on how to work with people who have hearing loss. 

“It is important to recognize and understand best practices for interacting with people who have some type of hearing loss,” Chilton said. “It’s crucial to know what are the rights of deaf and hard of hearing people and to learn where to find resources to support successful interactions. Experiences and trainings like this will make providing support to our entire University community stronger.” 

Chilton also explained that students at the University may be new to advocating for their rights and needs, so having employees who are knowledgeable in these practices will enable students to successfully interact with University personnel.   

Dreese added that the hope for this training is that officers and others in UPPS leave with the information necessary to successfully interact with deaf and hard of hearing individuals. She also hopes that the resources being provided will inform and enhance their interactions going forward.

As part of the “tools in the toolkit” for UPPS employees, Lt. Matt Cover explained that communication must be the first tool available to respond effectively and appropriately to those in our community who need police assistance.   

“We strive to not pigeon-hole ourselves and we don’t want to focus on one piece of instruction or only one population of our community,” Cover said. “We serve many varying constituencies, and we want to help our employees understand how they make impacts on others, whether it was intentional or not, negative or positive. Ultimately, we want our employees to take the new information they learn and see how they can apply it to real-life situations.”  

For more information on the UPPS transparency and accountability initiative, please visit police.psu.edu.