Advancing Deaf Education

Manako Yabe

A book by Mariko Takamura described the late author’s transformative educational experience in the ‘80s at Cal State Northridge’s National Center on Deafness (NCOD), which provides equal access for deaf students attending regular classes. Manako Yabe read it as a teen, and found inspiration.

Supported by her parents, Yabe had studied at schools in Japan, Atlanta and London, seeking better deaf education. She had learned to use several languages: Japanese, English, American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language and Japanese Sign Language.

But with college on the horizon, she sought advice from Takamura . In spring 2006, she accompanied the author on a World Exchange Tour promoting international deaf cultural exchange, including a visit to CSUN. Sadly, Takamura passed away during the tour. She had, however, urged Yabe to enroll at CSUN and in fall 2006, Yabe did so.

After overcoming the culture shock of living alone in Northridge, the perennial Dean’s List student not only was crowned Miss Deaf CSUN 2007-09, but earned a 2008-09 Presidential Scholars Award. A Deaf Studies major, she decided to explore the influence of CSUN’s educational system on Takamura and the late Tetsuji “Ted” Tomikawa ’78 (Psychology), M.A. (NLTP), an important figure who acted as a bridge between the Japanese deaf community and the NCOD.

Yabe hoped to share the influence of the two leaders with Japanese deaf young people, “in order to put their names into Japanese deaf history.”

Mentored by Deaf Studies faculty Genie Gertz and Lawrence Fleischer and counseled by deaf education experts in Japan, Yabe embarked on a year of research, traveling to the Tsukuba University of Technology for the Deaf and Blind, the Culture Information Center for the Deaf and the Otsuka School for the Deaf. She also lectured on CSUN’s deaf educational system at the University of Fukuoka and at the Munakawa Sign Club.

The end product of her research was “Dandelion Seeds of Change: The Lives of Tetsuji Tomikawa and Mariko Takamura,” published in English and Japanese in Deaf Life, Education Research for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and Equal, all in 2009.

With a renewed scholarship for 2009-10, Yabe will research Japanese deaf post-secondary education and the differences between Japan’s post-secondary system and the deaf education system at CSUN.