Joseph Samona is a fourth-year dental student at the University of Michigan, graduating in May 2020. As a future dentist with a profound hearing loss, he aims to improve access to oral health care in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities. He is also a co-founder of Michigan Deaf Health. In our very first video episode, Joe discusses his experiences applying to dental school, accessing accommodations, and taking action to make oral health education more accessible for American Sign Language users.
Episode 18, Transcript
DocsWithDisabilities Podcast #18
Joseph Samona
Lisa Meeks:
Doctors with disabilities exist in small but measurable numbers. How did they navigate their journey? What were the challenges? What are the benefits to patients and to their peers? What can we learn from their experiences? My name is Lisa Meeks, and I am thrilled to bring you the Docs with Disabilities podcast.
Join us as we interview Docs, Nurses, Psychologists, OT’s, PT’s, Pharmacists, Dentists, and the list goes on. We’ll also be interviewing researchers and policy makers that ensure medicine remains an equal opportunity profession.
Kate Panzer:
Hello! And welcome to the DocsWithDisabilities Podcast. My name is Kate Panzer, and I am a research assistant at the University of Michigan. Today, I’m excited to interview a dental student at the University of Michigan. His name is Joe Samona. Joe -- can you please introduce yourself?
Joseph Samona:
Hello, my name is Joe Samona. I am Deaf and also a fourth-year dental student at the University of Michigan. Go Blue! I’m graduating in few weeks. After graduation, I will be going to San Antonio, Texas, to start my residency.
Kate Panzer:
Before you were accepted to the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, can you describe your experience with the application process?
Joseph Samona:
So, when I first applied for dental school, I was little concerned about my chances of getting in because of my disability. So, I contacted my advisors at the University of Detroit Mercy, and they gave me advice about how to get into dental school, such as good grades, a good DAT score, volunteering, as well as shadowing dentists.
Then, when I wrote my personal statement, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to disclose my disability. Ultimately, I decided to disclose my disability in my application because if a dental school rejected me because of my disability, then it is not the right fit for me. After applying and getting a few interviews, I would ask admissions directors to provide me with interpreters for my interviews. They all said yes, so it was a positive experience for me.
But during my residency application process, one of the program directors refused to provide me an interpreter. That was the first time I had experienced that. Instead, I brought my own interpreter. During my interview, I got a bad vibe from the program director due to my disability, so I decided that residency was not worth my time.
Kate Panzer:
Before applying to dental school, I know you had a lot of required activities like volunteering and shadowing. During those activities, did you have any accommodations provided?
Joseph Samona:
During my undergraduate studies, I became involved in many activities, like shadowing multiple dentists. Most of the time, I was able to receive an interpreter for school-related activities. But for shadowing dentists, I wasn’t able to get an interpreter. So I ended up lip reading, which was very challenging because masks covered the dentists mouths. It was very difficult to be involved with the patient interactions.
Kate Panzer:
When you became a first-year student at the University of Michigan, how did you request accommodations?
Joseph Samona:
When I decided to attend the University of Michigan for dental school, the Director for Disability Services, Jill Rice, asked me what accommodations I would want. I requested an interpreter for clinicals, anatomy labs, and group discussions, as well as CART for my lectures. She provided me with everything that I needed, and I was very pleased with their services.
Kate Panzer:
From your experience in the dental clinic, I’m sure you’ve had a variety of patients who are hearing, Deaf, and hard of hearing. How do you best communicate with your patients?
Joseph Samona:
When I was assigned to my first patient, I was nervous to call them to set up an appointment because I was not sure how they would react to me as a Deaf provider. When I made the first call, I introduced myself as their new student provider and that I am Deaf and will have an interpreter with me. I also explained to them the process of using video relay service. All of my patients have been wonderful. In clinics, I have my interpreter wear a clear mask so we can communicate better.
Kate Panzer:
And since your accommodations provide interpreters, what has your experience been like working with these interpreters?
Joseph Samona:
Working with interpreters has been challenging because dental terminology is new for all of us, and there are many dental words that do not have established signs in ASL. I needed to create new signs in regard to dentistry to improve our communication.
Kate Panzer:
Now, considering the importance of mentorship, who has been your most influential mentor?
Joseph Samona:
I had a few mentors during dental school. Some of them are the faculty members at the dental school, but I was hoping to find a few deaf mentors. So I found a deaf pediatric dentist and one hard of hearing dentist in Michigan. I also contacted a few deaf dentists outside of the state. They were all wonderful mentors. They provided a lot of advice for me to be successful as a future dentist.
In regard to mentoring, I have established an organization called Michigan Deaf Health with other deaf nursing, dental students and social work students. This group provides mentorship for deaf and hard of hearing students interested in the STEM field, and we also provide resources for better health care access.
Kate Panzer:
And as a dentist, do you have any interest in working with deaf patients?
Joseph Samona:
I love working with deaf patients as well as hearing patients. I’ve had a few new patients in the past where I did not know the patients were deaf until I first met them. I found that to be a nice surprise.
Kate Panzer:
Recently, you released a video called “Oral Health Education” in American Sign Language (ASL). Can you tell me more about the video and its impact on the Deaf community?
Joseph Samona:
I decided to make a video about oral health education in ASL because growing up, there were no resources available in ASL for medical health or oral health. I never fully understood my dentist because there weren’t any interpreters available or the masks my dentists wore prevented lip reading. I decided to make a video to improve access to oral health education. Since then, I’ve been to a few deaf programs in Michigan, such as the Michigan School for the Deaf and the Detroit School of Arts High School. After I showed my video, all of the students responded positively. My next step is to show the video nationally and share it with deaf schools across the U.S.
Kate Panzer:
We’ve come to the final question we always ask our interviewees. For students interested in applying to dental school, what advice would you like to share with them?
Joseph Samona:
My advice for students applying to dental school is to be positive. You will have several challenges, but you will always overcome them. Work hard, engage in extracurricular activities, stay motivated, follow your dreams, and your work will pay off. Thank you.
Kate Panzer:
Thank you for participating in this interview and sharing your experiences! And now to our audience, I hope you learned a lot from this video. Please continue to follow our podcast, and thank you for joining us!
Credits: (Text and voiceover at end of video)
Thank you to the following t eam members who made this podcast episode possible:
Joseph Samona Interviewee & Video Producer
Kate Panzer Interviewer & Voiceover
Lisa Meeks, PhD, MA Faculty Lead
Joe Murray, MD Voiceover
Kelley Wyse Linguistic Assistance
Cathy Park Graphic Designer
This podcast is a production of the University of Michigan Medical School, Department of Family Medicine, MDisability initiative. The opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Michigan Medical School. It is released under a creative commons, attribution noncommercial, nonderivative license. This podcast episode was produced by Joseph Samona and Kate Panzer.
