Deaf Student, Interpreter Enhancing Culture of Engineering by Emily Slater | Photos by Dennis Steers
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echanical engineering student Yosef Towfique was born to the sounds of the outside world that suddenly went quiet after his second birthday. The unexplained, rapid loss couldn’t be tied to an injury or illness, and hearing aids proved ineffective, he said. While Towfique and his family created basic gestures they used at their home in Tracy, California, he didn’t have a complete language until kindergarten, when he was enrolled in a Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing program. Towfique learned the movements of the hands and face that constitute American Sign Language, allowing him to understand the world through visual descriptions and make meaningful connections to those around him. Few of Towfique’s peers at Cal Poly use ASL, but he is determined to relate to them through an ASL Interpreter who has a background in engineering and a dedication to the Deaf community. “Yosef has opened other students’ minds to what deaf people can do,” said Jennifer Beevers, who is accompanying Towfique through college. “When a student-interpreter team goes into a classroom, they improve the worldview and accessibility awareness for everyone in that class.”
Teaming Up Towfique was fitted with a cochlear implant around the time he was learning ASL, which enabled him to hear some speech and supported the development of language skills through speech therapy. He attended mainstream schools, accompanied by an interpreter, as he developed an affinity for woodworking — crafting 6 SPRING 2023 CENG.CALPOLY.EDU
Mechanical engineering student Yosef Towfique communicates with American Sign Language.
furniture for his home — then metalworking under the guidance of his dad and other employees. Towfique’s dad, who emigrated from Afghanistan, assembles a variety of sheet metal products at his sheet metal fabrication company. He officially joined his dad at the company as a senior in high school and continued while he attended Los Positas College, a community college in Livermore. Towfique transferred to the College of Engineering in fall 2021 as a junior, following in the footsteps of a family member who had studied mechanical engineering at Cal Poly and praised the program. “Learn by Doing is important to me,” Towfique said of his decision. “I loved the idea of having hands-on engineering labs and classes.” As soon as Disability Resource Center staff learned Towfique had chosen Cal Poly, they enlisted Beevers to be his primary interpreter. Beevers, who grew up in Los Osos, became a Civil Air Patrol cadet at age 12 and learned to fly before she could drive. She spent summers at the family business making granite surface plates and the school year using American Sign Language with friends, one of whom had a deaf sister. She studied behavioral science at Cuesta College before shifting to a Deaf Studies and Interpreter training program at the University of Arizona that emphasized educational interpreting. “The sign language I learned as a child came back so easily,”