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LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- A discrimination lawsuit filed by 12 deaf students accusing Utah State University of not having enough qualified interpreters has been settled.
After nearly two years of negotiations a settlement has been reached which includes a promise by the school that it will have three full-time staff interpreters for deaf students.
The interpreters will be available to students to interpret during classes, on-campus meetings and on-campus extracurricular activities.
Angie Olsen is Utah State's deaf services coordinator. She says the goal is to have one staff interpreter for every two students that need those services. Right now, USU has seven deaf students using interpreters and about 25 deaf or partially deaf students using notetakers.
Olsen says a nationwide shortage of qualified interpreters was partially to blame for the shortage.
An attorney for the students says they are pleased with the settlement.
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Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
