Communication is the Key

I never really heard about Communications until I was in High School. At that time, Communications classes were presented as alternatives to our English requirements, and were often made to be seen as the easier option for those who were considered to struggle with English. Even if I was to take a Communications class simply because I enjoyed it, I believed that my disability would be seen as the reason for wanting to take the supposed easier option. I didn’t even know what Communications was, but thought of it as writing email drafts or writing social media posts rather than the superior academic essays. In actuality, Communications is quite a versatile field. It is all about communicating, but branches out into various mediums such as online communication, and across the social board into intercultural communications. I didn’t learn this, however, until I entered my post-secondary education and until friends began to major within this field.

24 year old Jillian Sloane (who also happens to be blind), is entering her fifth and final year at SFU with a major in Communications this fall. She echoed my thoughts regarding Communications courses being given a negative connotation in High School, thereby making her degree and intelligence feel less valuable. She also confirmed that within the University world, communication can be explored through a variety of lenses such as political, economic, and social.

When I entered my studies at the University of the Fraser Valley, there were certain required courses I had to take as part of my degree, and some of these requirements listed Communications courses as options. One of those Communications classes was all about public speaking and of course, due to all the presentations I do within Blind Beginnings and outside of the organization, I was immediately attracted to the class for more than a requirement completion. Although I was hesitant to take the class for fear of the stereotypes surrounding communications would be applied to me and my disability, the subject of the class had me interested enough that I took the class in my first year at UFV.

Throughout the class, not only did I learn about the techniques of presenting and public speaking, but all students were required to do weekly readings, just as you would in any other class. Students also had to write weekly paragraphs and submit them for marks. Needless to say, the classwork was similar to my other subject areas, and not as diminished or simplistic as suggested. In fact, our entire class got to know each other quite well due to the high level of interaction required throughout the semester. Along with this, the class in turn enhanced my knowledge in regards to my disability. When public speaking, I am unable to witness any facial expressions and body language, and this class was able to help me learn the skills that I had been missing out on for so long due to my blindness.

Later in my third year, I took a second Communications class as a way to complete another degree requirement. This class focused on intercultural communication, and once again, students had to complete weekly assignments, readings, essays, and even a group project. This class was definitely one that brought my disability to the forefront and broadened my understanding surrounding it. For the final project of the class, my group was assigned the topic of accessibility and gender stereotypes, where we had to collect relevant sources in relation to these topics and communications to create a blog post. Throughout completing my portion of the project and as the semester came to a close, I was finally viewing and thinking of disability culture. When people think of intercultural, most often they immediately think of ethnic culture, but culture is much more than that. Thus, the communication amongst cultures is interesting to explore. I was glad to be able to write about disability culture and include Blind Beginnings aspects within my work. I was privileged enough that my work was one of the two students contributions to the projects that was published to the Communications Department blog  for further education for our campus community.

Although Communications can be seen as a small area of study of little significance, the two classes I have taken and having a friend like Jill who is actively completing a Communications major, I have learned the many different nuances within the field. Additionally, this field is one that in my mind is highly practical: it has a stronger focus on everyday life and the workforce while other classes are quite different. For Jill, this is an aspect she loves, as it allows her to learn about skills which she can apply to everyday life rather than just at an office. Jill believes that she has become a well-rounded student who is better equipped to handle real life situations as well as having many job prospects available to her such as marketing, website creation, social media communications, HR/PR sectors, ECT. This difference in approach is probably why many people view communications as a lesser department of study. I am glad that I did not let people’s perceptions of my disability and ease of the classes prohibit me from taking courses in this field. In fact, even though communications is not apart of my degree, I surprisingly want to still take certain classes such as advanced public speaking and advocacy. Most often people with disabilities are afraid to do something due to the fact that people believe that they will be unable to be involved. This demonstrates that one should not hesitate to do something simply for the reason that they will be seen as lazy or as bowing down to the limits of their disability. If I personally hadn’t taken these classes, communications wouldn’t have given me the key to learning even more in regards to my disability and further shifting my perspective.

by Harjinder Saran (Jinnie)