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August 28, 2006
Hearing-impaired inmates to get help
A deaf man's complaint could lead to better accommodations for Allegheny County Jail inmates who are hearing impaired. Members of a city-county task force on disabilities plan to meet today with Warden Ramon Rustin and other jail officials about the matter and will tour the jail. The group acted after a former inmate filed a complaint about lack of access to an interpreter or telecommunications equipment.
Posted @ 9:10 AM
Iraqi girl experiences sound for first time
For 3-year-old Amina, it was a day of firsts. The Iraqi girl had been deaf since birth. With the help of the U.S. Army in Iraq and a Miami-based aid group, she was flown to the United States to have a hearing implant surgically placed in her ear.
Posted @ 9:09 AM
Deaf teen making plays for Frazier
Frazier sophomore offensive/defensive tackle Robert "Buck" Marietta admits to occasionally being embarrassed when his parents, Robert and Margaret Marietta, hold up a huge placard that reads "Go Buck" from their seats in the stands at the Perryopolis school. Then again, Marietta, who wears number 66 for the Commodores, doesn't hear his family, nor anyone else cheering for him or shouting his name. He has been deaf since birth.
Posted @ 9:09 AM
Left out in the cold
For many parents, driving their children around is just part of the daily routine. But for Melton mother Helen Ziccone, it really is a case of serving as "mum's taxi".
Mrs Ziccone gave up her job last year so she could drive her nine-year-old son Jarl, who is profoundly deaf, to a deaf facility at St Albans East Primary School.
Posted @ 9:08 AM
California School for Deaf gets videophone technology
Sorenson Communications chose to announce their next generation videophone, the Sorenson VP-200 at the California School for the Deaf, Fremont, on Monday, August 28, 2006 at 7:30 a.m. at CSD to high school students, staff, and the greater school community.
Posted @ 9:07 AM
Hearing DNA
Drugs to stop old people going deaf may be a step nearer after scientists identified the gene at fault. They found huge DNA differences between people who lose their hearing and those who do not.
Posted @ 9:06 AM
Role models help deaf kids build life skills
A groundbreaking Deaf Role Model Project organised by the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) will be launched next Wednesday, August 30, with an informal lunch session in the dining room at Wilton House, College Square, Belfast, from 12.30 to 1.30pm.
Posted @ 9:05 AM
Interpreter for deaf students sentenced for molesting
A former interpreter for deaf students was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of molesting a 13-year-old boy.
Chester Earl March, 63, of Hammond had earlier pleaded guilty to felony child molesting. In accordance with the plea agreement, a Lake Superior Court judge sentenced him Thursday to two years actual jail time and two years probation.
Posted @ 9:04 AM
Deaf woman files suit against New Braunfels
Maria Salinas says she kept begging police to provide a sign language interpreter for her after she found her boyfriend dead on the couch when she arrived home from work Sept. 23, 2004. Police refused, and as a result, she spent hours unable to communicate with officers, unsure if her boyfriend, Ed Spencer, was dead, confused about why police were searching her apartment, and wondering if she was a murder suspect.
Posted @ 9:03 AM
Deaf June starts a pet project
A profoundly deaf woman has set up her own pet care service. June Crisp, who was born deaf, uses the text service on her mobile phone, email and fax to offer pet sitting, dog walking and small animal care.
Posted @ 9:02 AM
Interpreting with new technology
Interpreting Online, I.O., is the sign language interpreting mode of the future. The Ohio Alliance of Community Centers for the Deaf is introducing an easy to use sign language interpreting service that no longer requires an on-site interpreter.
Posted @ 9:01 AM
A deaf folk artist who keenly saw the world around him
“If you can’t hear, you somehow see,” the artist David Hockney said in an interview in 2001, reflecting on his declining ability to hear and how one sense compensates for another.
His conclusion is echoed in “A Deaf Artist in Early America: The Worlds of John Brewster Jr.” (Beacon Press, 2004) by Harlan Lane, a psychology professor at Northeastern University in Boston and author of several books on the deaf.
Posted @ 8:59 AM
Ran back into fire to save deaf daughter
A pregnant woman has told how she dragged her deaf daughter through a window to safety from their burning home yesterday.
Tracy Pannell had escaped the home with five of her children when she realised Rebekah, 8, had been unable to hear the commotion of the early morning emergency. She was asleep in the 130-year-old Mannum home.
Posted @ 8:58 AM
Deaf women sue clinic
The Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition and two deaf women filed a lawsuit against a Lakewood medical practice today, alleging one of its clinics refused to provide sign language interpreters so the women could communicate with their doctors.
Posted @ 8:58 AM
Deaf Canadians to get interpreters for federal services
Deaf Canadians said they've scored a major victory in the courts over the issue of government services for the hearing-impaired.
Posted @ 8:56 AM
Bridging the gap for the deaf
Goh Soo Leng can communicate in four languages, but she only speaks in three. For the fourth she uses her hands. It is known as the Malaysian Sign Language or Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia.
Posted @ 8:56 AM
Deaf boy’s win is reel achievement
A Carshalton teenager has made it to the regional finals of the National Lottery Awards 2006 for making cinema-going accessible to thousands of hearing and visually impaired people.
Dean Rhodes Brandon, who lives in Green Wrythe Lane, is one of four finalists in the south east of England to be nominated for the awards, which recognise successful lottery-funded initiatives.
Posted @ 8:55 AM
Philanthropic grants include library program for deaf
The Maine Community Foundation has wrapped up its bi-annual round of grants to nonprofits in Oxford County, and this time included a library offering programs for the deaf.
The philanthropic foundation gives out small grants each year to nonprofits in Oxford County, using interest earned from an endowed fund bestowed anonymously in 1997. The fund, which is worth more than $350,000, targets Oxford County exclusively.
Posted @ 8:54 AM
Sprint and Relay Texas build on 16-year relationship
Sprint and Relay Texas Build on 16-Year Relationship to Provide Communications Services to Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals
Building on a successful, long-term relationship, Sprint will continue to provide assistive communications services toindividuals within Texas who are deaf or hard of hearing or have aspeech disability. Through a competitive bid process, the PublicUtility Commission of Texas awarded Sprint with its fourth consecutivefive-year contract.
Posted @ 8:51 AM
Shayli meets fellow deaf children
Teisha Robinson thinks that the whole of Thursday Island probably knows about the recent conference she and husband Sean attended in Sydney.
For the first time, their little girl Shayli was able to meet other children just like her – children who are deaf and wear hearing aids.
Posted @ 8:50 AM
Deaf tutor pleads not guilty to sexual assault
A deaf man pleaded not guilty Monday to five felony charges stemming from the alleged sexual assault of a physically and developmentally disabled man he was hired to tutor. Timothy Wayne Harris, 46, of San Diego, entered his plea before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Michael S. Hider, who ordered the defendant to return to court on Aug. 29 for a felony settlement conference.
Posted @ 8:49 AM
Deaf and Blind School gets new technology
The Colorado Springs School for the Deaf and Blind has a lot of new technology this new school year to help students learn. A $56,000 grant paid for five digital cameras, 15 computers and some video projectors.
Posted @ 8:49 AM
Another former employee sues school for deaf
A second former director of instruction has filed a lawsuit against the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, claiming mistreatment by his former employer.
Tomas Garcia, who served as director of instruction between 2001 and 2005, charges in a suit filed in Riverside County Superior Court on July 31 that he was racially discriminated against, was denied leaves of absence and was denied tenure.
Posted @ 8:48 AM
Deaf girl hit while walking across street
A deaf student was hit by a car in front of Barbara Jordan Technical School on Friday morning. Houston police said the 16-year-old girl was walking across Kelley Road around 8 a.m. She was allegedly jaywalking.
Posted @ 8:47 AM
Is Fido really stubborn? Or is he deaf?
When Peter Scheifele walks into his home, Belle, his Australian shepherd, ignores him.
"You can call her to your heart's content, and she won't come," Scheifele said. Some pet owners might be frustrated. But for Scheifele, an animal audiologist at the University of Connecticut, Belle is a stroke of luck.
Posted @ 8:46 AM
God's word reaches the deaf
Roma Vanduzer, right, who is deaf and blind, reads Braille as it is typed into a machine during a service at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 601 E. Fort Lowell Road. Elaine Chavez, far left, signs the sermon for Donald Vanduzer, who also is deaf and blind. Chavez and Sonya Hernandez, in the middle, both are deaf.
Posted @ 8:45 AM
Picnic joins deaf friends
The pavilion was packed at West Park in Darien on Saturday afternoon. People of all ages greeted old friends as they navigated the crowds. Conversation flew as kindred spirits caught up on the past.
Posted @ 8:44 AM
August 18, 2006
Hearing loss and high-speed dental tools
After 36 years in private dental practice, Fred Kreutzer, D.M.D., began struggling to hear. It's been five years since he retired from his practice and Kreutzer now wears hearing aids in both ears. Although he has a family history of hearing loss, he believes the high-speed tools he worked with eight hours a day for so many years may have played a role in his hearing troubles. "I think if you listen to any high-pitched noise for any length of time, it will get to you eventually," said Kreutzer, an assistant professor in operative dentistry at the OHSU School of Dentistry (http://www.ohsu.edu/sod). "But in my case, with a family history of hearing loss, it may be hereditary, as well."
Posted @ 5:44 AM
What tastes best may not be good for your ears
Consider what is best for your ears as well as your taste buds when eating out, says a Purdue University audiologist. Some restaurants are so noisy that customers' and employees' hearing can be affected over time, and loud restaurants can become impossible places for people with hearing loss to visit with friends and families, says Robert Novak, a clinical professor of audiology.
Posted @ 5:40 AM
Summer activities can increase hearing loss
People tend to spend more time outdoors in the summer, and their exposure to loud noise increases. Whether the noise is from powerboats, firecrackers, lawnmowers or motorcycles, a University of Cincinnati otolaryngologist encourages people to take precautions to protect their ears.
Posted @ 5:39 AM
A gateway to arts for the deaf
Maybe it's the dramatic gilded theater curtains framing the Web site home page. Or maybe it's the stunning statistic you'll find in the history statement. But whatever grabs you when you visit Welcome to ICODA, you know you've come to a very special place.
Posted @ 5:38 AM
Celebration night ends in deaf man brutally attacked
A celebration for workers at Toys R Us ended in tragedy when a deaf man was brutally beaten in an apparently motiveless attack. The 35-year-old victim has been left in hospital with bleeding to his brain after being stamped unconscious by a gang of six men.
Posted @ 5:38 AM
New comic book illustrates deaf rights
An innovative comic book catering for the deaf community has been developed by the Gay and Lesbian Archives (Gala) to reach out to the deaf community regarding HIV/Aids, sexuality and rights and empowerment.
The comic, aptly titled Are Your Rights Respected?, is part of an independent project of the South African History Archives, located at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Posted @ 5:37 AM
Pine wins award from NTID professional group
In recognition of her ongoing commitment to deaf and hard-of-hearing people, Karey Pine, director of the Student Life Team at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology, received the Award of Excellence from NTID’s Deaf Professional Group.
Posted @ 5:36 AM
ASL bible available for deaf through new technology
Deaf Missions is announcing that the complete New Testament is now available in American Sign Language (ASL) for the handheld iPod or other MPEG-4 (mp4) media player. It is also compatible for use with a multimedia slide presentation. The Bible: ASL Translation to go is in data format. The Bible: ASL Translation - New Testament is also available on DVD and VHS.
Posted @ 5:35 AM
Taser use on deaf man defended
To Seattle police, it was a near-perfect use of a Taser -- subduing a man whose behavior might have forced a more violent confrontation, even a shooting, without the less lethal option.
To Bob Ross' friends, his being electrically stunned last month was an excessive use of force brought on, they believe, because he is deaf and did not hear the officer's commands.
Posted @ 5:34 AM
New Delaware School for Deaf will bring dignity
Delaware School for the Deaf students borrow another school's gymnasium when they host athletic tournaments. Their 37-year-old Ogletown building, also known as the Margaret S. Sterck School, lacks the modern technology available to help deaf students. And those who stay in the dormitory forfeit privacy, sleeping in a large room lined with beds.
Posted @ 5:33 AM
Co-defendant helps in communicating with deaf man
Help communicating with a deaf defendant came from an unexpected place Tuesday — a co-defendant. One of the two men arrested Saturday on suspicion of possessing crack cocaine acted as an interpreter for the other suspect in Special District Judge J. Bruce Harvey’s courtroom during arraignments Tuesday.
Posted @ 5:32 AM
ASBO the answer for disruptive deaf man?
A DISTRICT councillor has urged his counterparts to look at placing an ASBO on a 53-year-old man to stop him disrupting public meetings. John Parker, who is profoundly deaf, has abused councillors at Failsworth and Hollinwood area committee meetings and was spoken to informally by a police inspector for causing disruption at a recent gathering.
Posted @ 5:31 AM
Wal-Mart workers mixed on new pay caps
A dozen years into a Wal-Mart career, Brad Moore looked forward to earning more money based on his good annual performance reviews. That changed last week when the retailer announced chain-wide pay caps it says are intended to move people up the company ladder.
Posted @ 5:29 AM
Deaf and Blind School acreage could sell
Two doctors want to buy 10 acres owned by the state School for the Deaf and School for the Blind, which is set to consider the proposal today at 4 p.m. in the Gym of the school for the Deaf. A proposal to buy the acreage, where the former Easter Seals headquarters is located, several years ago for development touched off a controversy in the neighborhood, and was not approved by the boards of the schools.
Posted @ 5:28 AM
Driving schools must hire interpreters for deaf students
Five driving schools in central Minnesota must provide and pay for sign language interpreters for deaf students, a federal judge has ruled.
Five teenage students and their families sued the schools in the St. Cloud area earlier this year, charging a violation of federal and state human rights laws in their failure to to provide American Sign Language interpreters.
Posted @ 5:27 AM
New rules 'a job threat' to deaf workers
Deaf employees could be forced to give up their jobs because they will no longer be able to use their regular interpreters, a city charity has warned.
Deaf Action, based in Albany Street, said that its workers who communicate through sign language will no longer be able to use interpreters their own companies employ because of new Government guidelines.
Posted @ 5:26 AM
Union Trust introduces new technology for the deaf
Union Trust has installed new technology, called TTY, to help serve the deaf community. TTY stands for Text Telephone. It is also sometimes called a TDD, or Telecommunication Device for the Deaf. A TTY is a special device that lets people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-impaired use the telephone to communicate, by allowing them to type messages back and forth to one another instead of talking and listening. A TTY is required at both ends of the conversation in order to communicate.
Posted @ 5:25 AM
Interpreter service keeps the lines open for deaf patients
There are times when you can use technology to solve a problem and times when humans might be able to do it better. But what about those applications in which technologies can empower humans to get the job done?
Bob Fisher, of Mt. Lebanon-based DT Interpreting (formerly Deaf-talk), figured how to use technology to get an important human job done -- providing translation services for deaf patients who walk into hospitals with a problem.
Posted @ 5:25 AM
Man, 46, accused of sexual assault on deaf man
Sheriff's deputies Saturday sought Timothy Harris, 46, a San Diego man accused of sexually assaulting a disabled man he was paid to mentor.
Harris allegedly molested a deaf and developmentally disabled man, 24, during a five-month span, sheriff's officials said Saturday.
Posted @ 5:24 AM
Bihar girl wins British Open Deaf Tennis Championship
A 17-year old girl from Bihar has won the British Open Deaf Tennis Championship - a first by an Indian. Patna's Shilpi Jaiswal won the under-18 championship title Saturday at Nottingham, Britain. She defeated Sweden's Fatima Tebibel in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 in the final.
Posted @ 5:22 AM
Union head reacts to layoffs at school for deaf
The head of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees says the province must come up with early retirement packages for people being laid off at the School for the Deaf in St. John's.
Posted @ 5:21 AM
Local call firm adds Milwaukee center
Confirming previous reports, a Madison company has announced plans to open a call center in downtown Milwaukee that could be employing 200 people next year and eventually up to 600. Captel Inc., a unit of Madison-based Ultratec Inc. that provides phone captioning service for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, held a news conference in Milwaukee Wednesday to announce the captioning center. The company already has a captioning center in University Research Park on the west side.
Posted @ 5:21 AM
Polish four 'in churchyard gang rape' of deaf woman
A deaf woman was brutally gang raped in a cemetery by a group of four Polish men who had come to Yorkshire for work, a jury has heard.
The woman, aged 36, believed her last drink in a pub in York might have been spiked, affecting her before one of the men led her from the bar in the early hours.
Posted @ 5:19 AM
A dumb and deaf girl drowned in a river at Anyinasu
Zakina Dauda, 10, a deaf and dumb girl, got drowned in River Woromso at Anyinasu near Tepa in the Ahafo-Ano North District last Sunday. According to police source, the girl fell into the river that has become stagnant at Anyinasu on the 45- kilometre Tepa/Mankraso road because a culver designed to drain the river across the road has been choked with silt.
Posted @ 5:18 AM
More avenues being considered for deaf viewers
Officials at TV6 are examining the issue of closed captioning and live deaf interpretation for the evening news, says TV6 General Manager Shida Bolai.
In a Sunday Express interview Bolai said that the station, launched back in 1991, had previously introduced a closed captioning system for the news that gave main headlines and information from the Teleprompter, though not the details in the reporter's stories.
Posted @ 5:17 AM
Stem cells may be key to deafness cure
In a dusty, cluttered lab at Stanford University, a team of young scientists is on a quest. Curing deafness is the goal, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin, and Stefan Heller says stem cells hold the key.
Heller and his entire team were recruited away from Harvard, and they've made a breakthrough discovery: They've found that stem cells have the capacity to regenerate in the inner ear.
Posted @ 5:15 AM
Bionic biker out on the road for deaf children
John Nelson and Ted Lowe, two Rotarians from Mount Isa, are setting off today on a charity fund-raising cycle tour. Their story is an inspiration. John is doing this trip after having both his legs amputated when Meningococcal septicaemia threatened his life four years ago.
Posted @ 5:14 AM
Deaf women's neighbors growl over dog
Greenfield police recently cited a woman whose neighbor complained that her dog had been barking and barking and barking and that she had done nothing to quiet her animal. The woman's name is Helen Keller. She's deaf.
Posted @ 5:12 AM