Derek Scalercio
Every year, the CSUN Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Clinic works to break down barriers to get its free tax preparation services to people with low income in the local community. The VITA Clinic strives to give equal access to free tax preparation services to all individuals, whether that means offering virtual appointments, providing Spanish interpretation, or even by training ASL interpreters in tax preparation in order to help clients who are deaf or hard of hearing.
For Oscar Gonzalez, who is deaf, help from CSUN VITA volunteers who are trained in American Sign Language (ASL) is integral to filing his taxes every year.
“CSUN VITA has been assisting me with tax preparation for the last four years,” Gonzalez said. “If I would not have found CSUN VITA I would have to pay to get my tax return filed for a simple tax return.”
To help the Deaf community, CSUN VITA trains student volunteers who know ASL in tax preparation services.
Derek Scalercio, a volunteer tax preparer who is deaf, learned about the VITA program through a marketing class at CSUN.
“I learned about the CSUN VITA program from Cynthia Montes, a graduating accounting student and the CSUN VITA Clinic Co-Coordinator, who shared a marketing class with me,” Scalercio said. “Soon enough I was getting taught the tax software and about tax itself. I’m not an accounting major and so this was all new, but very interesting to me.”
By volunteering with VITA, Scalercio said he gained real-world experience in tax preparation. He plans to open his own business when he graduates and will be able to use the experience and knowledge he received from CSUN’s VITA program.
"I was happy to see that the CSUN VITA Clinic makes a special effort to get ASL interpreters for the Deaf community to help the process along,” he said. “As a Deaf person, this is something that makes you feel better – that someone can explain a process that usually makes people stress out in my language. If I have questions, they can answer them, and I don't feel like they will brush me off. It is important to have inclusivity with underserved communities.”
Scalercio and Gonzalez said offering interpreters and tax preparers trained in ASL provides Deaf and hard-of-hearing VITA clients an important service and helps bridge the gap of access.
“During the pandemic, when most places were closed, I was still able to get my tax return filed with the CSUN VITA Clinic,” Gonzalez said. “It was nice to have the same person help me and was good experience to not have to stress out during tax season. My taxes are always prepared quickly, but they are thorough and professional.”