This February, as we celebrate Black History Month, we turn our focus to DSPS Interpreting Services Lead Technician Jesse Jones III, whose work exemplifies how people with disabilities so often enrich their communities and workplaces by shifting perspectives, challenging the status quo, and creating collaborative, inclusive spaces where everyone can thrive.
A Foundation for Advocacy and Education
Born and raised in New Orleans as the only Deaf person in his family, Jones’s early experiences gave him insight into the contrasts between Deaf culture and society at large.
“The USA is very monolingual, audio-based, and individual (as opposed to the Deaf world being mostly bilingual—some even multilingual—visual and tactical-based, and collective),” he said. “My family was one of those few families that signed with the Deaf child, so I was privileged to attend school with a solid foundation in ASL and English.”
While these observations didn’t directly motivate Jones to pursue a career in advocacy and accessibility, his time spent navigating systems that weren’t designed for Deaf people steered him in that direction.
“The advocacy pretty much fell on my lap with me being Deaf and having my parents advocate for pretty much everything my whole life and eventually myself having to advocate for everything as well.”
He found inspiration from people around him who dedicated their careers to helping others:
“I really was fortunate to have had a great rehabilitation counselor who helped me be able to continue with my post-secondary education. Having come from a lower-middle class family and needing a specialized (and expensive!) education for Deaf people like me, I just wanted to return the favor by helping other Deaf people realize their full potential by removing barriers (as much as possible) in their post-secondary journeys.”
Another influential figure in Jones’s life was his primary care physician, who happened to be the second Black female doctor in the state of Louisiana.
“Because of her, my whole family felt represented and inspired. My mom was inspired to become a nurse, my sister was inspired to become a doctor, and I was inspired to become a rehabilitation counselor,” he said. “Even though we ultimately didn’t end up in those professions, we were nevertheless inspired to pursue our education and career paths, more or less thanks to our Black doctor who was a true trailblazer.”
Academic and Early Career Insights
In addition to periodically attending SDCCD courses at Miramar, Mesa and City Colleges, Jones’s higher education journey led him from Gallaudet University, where he earned a B.A. in Psychology, to San Diego State University, where he obtained an M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling. This path highlighted significant differences in how individuals with disabilities are perceived and the expectations placed on them within various communities and institutions.
“The Deaf professors at Gallaudet had higher expectations of me because they really knew the boundless potential that Deaf people have,” Jones said. At SDSU, however, he found “it was a bit of an odd experience, constantly ‘surpassing the expectations’ of some professors there.”
During his time at SDSU, Jones honed his skills in both self-advocacy and collective problem-solving.
“Once, when I was struggling with understanding the subject in one of my classes at SDSU, I emailed the instructor asking if they could help me get both interpreters and captioner for that specific class because it involved a lot of small group discussions and mini presentations,” he said. “I’ve always known that I needed to pick either interpreting services or captioning services, but sometimes some certain classes require different services (or a combination of several services). The instructor advocated along with me to ensure I had both for that specific class, even though the policy had always been to get one or the other, never both. I realized that the student(s) usually know best what kind of services they need, and the instructors sometimes can actually help advocate with the students. It’s all about collaboration, and I learned that oftentimes, better things come out of collaborations rather than compromises."
Before joining SDCCD, Jones spent time working as a transition teacher at the New Mexico School for the Deaf and as a recruiter for Gallaudet University. These roles deepened his understanding of the systemic barriers facing Deaf individuals, especially those from marginalized communities.
“I saw firsthand the barriers many Deaf people, especially those from marginalized communities (indigenous, people of color, from different socioeconomic status, etc.) encountered,” he said. “There were resources out there that they may not even know exist for them. It was just a matter of connecting Deaf people with others who have resources to allow them to realize their full potential."
Accessibility and Representation
Jones joined DSPS’s Interpreting Services Office staff in late 2018, a little over a year before the Covid-19 pandemic reshaped academia. As a specialist arranging accessibility services across the District, he played an integral role in helping faculty and staff serve and support Deaf students and helping students adapt to online learning.
“We’re still getting back to things as they were before the pandemic struck, and some things have been changed forever, mostly for the better,” he said. “I see more accessibility for more classes than ever before, thanks to the pandemic forcing us to allow more remote services to be provided."
One of Jones’s proudest achievements is removing unnecessary obstacles for students with disabilities.
"Students often don’t realize that a Deaf person is working behind the scenes to ensure their accessibility, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “They should be focused on pursuing higher education, and accessibility shouldn’t be another barrier that they have to encounter.”
Though his disability is at times not perceivable to the student he serves, Jones nevertheless stressed the importance of facilitating representation and creating pathways for students to imagine themselves thriving in higher education.
“Representation empowers students and prospective students coming from marginalized or under-resourced backgrounds to be bold and go after what they want because they’ve seen others do the same,” said Jones.
Building upon the idea of cultivating opportunities for others, Jones reflected on the concept of solidarity as it relates to advocacy and social justice work in general, describing it as a shared responsibility:
“Ensuring that we all know to send the elevator back to where we came from, so that others can get on the elevator and go where they need/want to go and making sure they know to do the same. The elevator isn’t only for the ‘chosen few.’”
When asked what advice he’d offer to faculty and staff supporting students with disabilities, Jones emphasized the importance of communication.
“Accessibility may look different for each and every student. It’d be best to ask how you can best make your class as accessible as possible.”
For prospective students with disabilities navigating higher education, Jones shared: "There really are resources out there for students with disabilities…Don’t be afraid to utilize those to the best of your ability."
The SDCCD community clearly benefits from the lived experiences Jones brings to his work. His perspective and passion offer an invaluable lens for understanding accessibility, and is reflections highlight the often-overlooked struggles of the Deaf community:
"I wish people understood better about the experience of being Deaf and lacking accessibility in general, not only when it comes to education, but when it comes to pretty much everything in life,” he said. “Take dinners at home with family for example - most Deaf children grew up without much access to conversations at dinners at home with their own family. I understand, from my own experience of being the only Deaf person in my family, the frustration of fighting for access to everything from dinners at home to classes to restaurants to sports camps to friends’ sleepovers to medical appointments to job interviews to... you name it. Deaf people probably have fought for access to pretty much everything in life."
Final Reflections
"I never understood why people kept telling me I could do anything, I never thought I couldn't."
Jones’s final reflections capture the confidence and resolve that have defined his journey. Looking ahead, he expressed his wishes for future generations.
“I’m hoping to see more Deaf people come up with a strong sense of self-belief, not doubting their own potential.”
Outside of work, Jones embraces this philosophy. Happily partnered with Kevin Chaisson, who is hearing, he spends his weekends immersed in competitive pickleball matches – jokingly emphasizing that “Pickleball is LIFE!”
Thank you, Jesse, for sharing your story with DSPS and for contributing so much to our staff and the SDCCD community as a whole!