John Dietz recently became the first graduate of the Utah School for the Deaf driver’s education class. The 17-year-old Kearns resident is a senior at the school and took the course to be more self-reliant. Since then, he passed the state’s driving test and received his driver’s license. 

“It means that I am now able to drive and become more independent,” he said. “And I like that.”

Although John is the first to get his license, he won’t be the last as the USD has been working for more than a decade to get the driver’s education program started. Deaf educator Jonathan Helgesen was willing to undertake the process of creating a curriculum and implementing the program to make it easier for Deaf or hard-of-hearing students to complete the driving portion of the course.

Before Helgesen created the program, students would have to take the course with an interpreter which is difficult when learning to drive.

“Deaf students can do the same thing as hearing students. The only difference is that Deaf students use American Sign Language to communicate,” Helgesen said. “As a Deaf driver’s ed instructor, I was able to remove the need to have an interpreter for Deaf students in the car or class.

“In the past, Deaf students would have their interpreter sit in the back of the car to interpret for the Deaf student while the Deaf student was driving with the instructor. The Deaf student would have to look through the mirror to see what the interpreter said while the instructor was making a comment. It was a difficult task for Deaf students to do that since they needed to focus on the road. But with me, students will always have straight communication by using ASL.”

Teaching driver’s safety is the most important thing in the program. If Helgesen needs to have a conversation with a student while driving, the student knows they need to pull over to the side of the road. When giving directions, Helgesen uses GPS so students can focus on the road and not look to him for guidance. “I prefer the student to have a good habit of paying attention and focusing on the road all the time.”

Helgesen said Deaf people have excellent peripheral vision and he teaches students to rely on side and rearview mirrors to pay attention to what is happening around them while driving. Keeping an eye out for the flashing lights of emergency vehicles, following road laws and practicing safe driving techniques are key to developing road skills.

Like any other student receiving a driver’s license, Deaf students must meet the state standards which include 27 hours of classroom instruction, six hours of behind-the-wheel instruction, six hours of observation, 40 driving hours with a parent or guardian and passing the driver’s skills test. 

“I have always told my students that having a driver's license is a privilege and not a right,” Helgesen said. “I want to let people know that Deaf people can drive just as normally as hearing people can drive. Deaf people are normal, just like hearing people. The only thing that Deaf people cannot do is hear.”

The Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind has several campuses throughout the state and works with more than 2,600 students across Utah. For more information, visit usdb.org. λ