PDA provides these individuals with the special education and skills they need to succeed in a mainstream environment. PDA's teachers and staff are ethnically diverse and fluent in both ASL and English. PDA strives to recruit interpreters who meet the communication needs of students and who match the cultural diversity of this population. PDA reaches out to established minority organizations in the New York City area to encourage members of these groups to enter the interpreting profession and to join the interpreter education program at LaGuardia. The particular needs of students are met by creating learning environments where students are not afraid to take risks and where diverse ways of thinking and learning are valued and respected.
Pluralism pervades the curriculum and pedagogy.
Students read and write about works drawn from a wide array of genres by authors who represent a full range of ethnicity and national backgrounds. The goal is to motivate students to question their preconceived ideas about race, ethnicity, sexual preference, and gender by drawing them into an exploration of the backgrounds of the diverse characters they encounter. Its main mission is to increase awareness of deaf culture within the college community and promote integration among students who are deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing. Its activities include weekly meetings facilitated by a deaf, minority-group faculty advisor. Summary Through its Program for Deaf Adults, LaGuardia Community College continues to be a successful pioneer in meeting the challenges and special needs of a unique multicultural student population segment.