Panel sides with province in deaf Winnipegger’s education discrimination case

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This article was published 09/06/2020 (2123 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Advocates are voicing disappointment in the wake of an independent administrative tribunal ruling the province did not discriminate when it didn’t fully fund a deaf student’s university tuition.

Cody Zimmer of Winnipeg alleged he was discriminated against on the basis of being deaf by not getting enough funding from the province’s marketAbilities program for his tuition to Gallaudet University, a fully bilingual American Sign Language (ASL) university in Washington, D.C.

MarketAbilities is meant to provide vocational support to people with disabilities — including funding post-secondary education.

The Manitoba Human Rights Commission joined Zimmer in saying he wasn’t getting the funding he needed to experience university in his first language, like hearing students can.

“(Hearing students) can interact freely with their professors and colleagues, their peers and classes,” said Karen Sharma, commission executive director.

Deaf students must arrange mediating services if they want to participate in extracurriculars and other programs outside of class, Sharma said.

Zimmer received $11,800 from marketAbilities; that number covers the cost of an education degree at the University of Manitoba. Zimmer had submitted a budget of US$51,911 to attend Gallaudet.

MarketAbilities had determined Zimmer could attend the U of M, with an interpreter.

Zimmer ultimately attended Gallaudet, where he majored in political science. He began in 2014 and finished in May 2019, participating in extracurriculars such as debate club. The programming was in ASL, so he didn’t need an interpreter.

“We think that all individuals, including people with disabilities, ought to have the right to choose what’s best for them when it comes to their education,” Sharma said.

Zimmer took marketAbilities to court in January. The commission took the case to Manitoba’s Human Rights Adjudication Panel, who decided May 19 marketAbilities wasn’t discriminating against him.

“It didn’t affirm the right of equality for the deaf community,” said Sharma.

The panel concluded Zimmer wasn’t discriminated against because he received funding for university, just like others who access marketAbilities.

“At the same time, this decision should not be taken as a licence for the program not to fulfil its obligations in a fulsome manner in the future,” the panel wrote in its decision.

The panel shouldn’t have made its decision based on the outcome of graduation — it’s about the experience during university, said Rick Zimmer, Cody’s dad and program co-ordinator of Red River College’s ASL English interpretation program.

“(Cody) had the opportunity to talk with any student and any professor,” Rick Zimmer said of his son’s time at Gallaudet.

Peers who attended university with an interpreter said they felt alone and isolated because they couldn’t interact in school the way others could, according to Rick Zimmer. Many of them dropped out, he said.

“It’s being in the dorm, it’s being in the faculties,” he added.

Furthermore, it’s more expensive to get interpreters and tutors for deaf students who go to schools that aren’t fully ASL and deaf students have more to catch up on in school because 40 to 50 per cent of information is lost in translation, Rick Zimmer said.

“(The panel) missed the point,” he said.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca