Keynote: Beyond Language Access: Supporting Deaf Immigrant Students and Multilingual Families

Keynote description

Deaf immigrant students and their families bring diverse languages, cultures, educational experiences, and communication needs into our schools. A student may use ASL while their parents communicate in Spanish, Somali, Hmong, or another spoken or signed language. This session explores how educators and service providers can move beyond simply providing an interpreter to build meaningful communication and culturally responsive partnerships with multilingual families. Participants will learn to recognize common language and access barriers, avoid assumptions based on a family’s country of origin, and identify practical strategies for working collaboratively with families, spoken-language interpreters, sign-language interpreters, and Deaf interpreters.

Celena Ponce

Celena Ponce is the Founder and Executive Director of Hands United, a nonprofit dedicated to improving language access and reducing language deprivation among Deaf immigrants and multilingual families. A trilingual ASL, English, and Spanish interpreter, Celena works directly with Deaf immigrant students, adults, families, educators, attorneys, and service providers across the United States. Her work focuses on culturally responsive family engagement, accessible education, immigration support, and collaboration among Deaf interpreters, sign-language interpreters, and spoken-language interpreters. Drawing from her professional expertise and direct work with families from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, Celena provides practical guidance for creating more equitable and meaningful access for Deaf immigrant students and their families.