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November 18, 2006
Mystery humming sound captured
A New Zealand scientist believes he's captured a recording of the mystery hum that has been heard by scores of people living and in and around the city of Auckland. Dr Tom Moir, a computer engineer at Massey University's Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, made the recording at a house in Auckland's North Shore suburb of Glenfield earlier this week.
Posted @ 3:19 AM
Mother wants state support for deaf services
Allison Emerson is the mother of a little girl named Raegan, who is deaf.
“Our daughter was born with a profound hearing loss, meaning she did not respond with hearing aids,” she explained Friday at the Statehouse.
Posted @ 3:14 AM
Housing association launches new service for deaf residents
With the support of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID), ASRA Greater London Housing Association has launched a specialist telephone service for its deaf and speech impaired tenants.
Posted @ 3:12 AM
Group warns MP3 players can cause hearing loss
A group of experts is warning that many teens are hurting their ears by misusing their portable music players.
Ashley MacLaren, 18, is admittedly attached to her MP3 player.
"Even in class I'll listen to it," she said. "So maybe six hours a day. (As loud) as I can go without bothering other people, I guess."
Posted @ 3:09 AM
Precautions can fend off the effects of gradual hearing loss
Many Jackson-area residents attend NASCAR or Indy car races at Michigan International Speedway, either as spectators or to work there. If they haven't worn earplugs, there's a good chance they've suffered permanent ear damage from all that rumbling or high-pitched whines.
Posted @ 3:09 AM
Hearing loss no limit for teen
Matt Tracy is considered a success of mainstream education. Tracy, a sophomore at Morris Central School, has been mainstreamed since he was a child, despite living with severe hearing loss since infancy. Mainstreamed means Tracy was integrated into regular classes.
Posted @ 3:07 AM
Employers are finding skilled workers at RIT
Employers nationwide have found a valuable resource for skilled workers with Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) Computer Integrated Machining Technology (CIMT) program.
"There is no question regarding the skill level of students in the CIMT program,” says Bill Strachan of IBM. “My colleagues and I feel that there is no program in the U.S. that provides the training that this NTID program does."
Posted @ 3:06 AM
Breaking the seal of silence
The Rotary Club of East Nassau recently presented thirty hearing impaired children throughout the Bahamas with new hearing aids and hearing aid replacements. As the children gathered in Doctors Hospital's conference rooms to be fitted with molds for their new hearing aids, or replacement hearing aids, the excitement could be felt in the air.
Posted @ 3:05 AM
Prosecutors will seek death penalty in deaf slaying
S.D. Prosecutors in Sioux Falls filed a document today indicating they will seek the death penalty against a deaf woman if she's convicted of killing or kidnapping another deaf woman.
Posted @ 3:04 AM
Two students found after disappearing overnight from Fremont deaf school
Two students at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont who disappeared Tuesday night were found this morning in Napa, school officials said.
Yovane Chavez, 16, was found at his parents' home in Napa and John Lavrentjev, also 16, was later found in Napa. John is from Modesto.
Posted @ 3:03 AM
Suffolk's amazing haul
Deaf athlete Cristine Suffolk has continued her amazing medal winning performances, picking up five medals, including four gold at the 2006 Masters Games in Alice Springs.
Suffolk dominated the 35-39 year age group at the titles.
Posted @ 3:02 AM
Deaf institute gets new director
Seminary names Reinke director of deaf institute.
Rev. John P. Reinke of Janesville, Wis., began serving this fall as director of the Deaf Institute of Theology (DIT) at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He succeeds Rev. Roger Altenberger, who is LCMS World Mission's facilitator for "Ablaze! Connection."
Posted @ 3:00 AM
Deaf and dumb cry foul in Sierra Leone
An eight-man delegation of deaf and dumb persons, led by Chairman of the Deaf Welfare Organization (DWO), Alhaji Lahai Vangahun, last week-end, stormed the Awareness Times offices in tears, complaining of an alleged act of injustice by police personnel at the Adelaide Street and Central Police Stations respectively, for refusing to grant bail to nine of their numbers who were recently arrested.
Posted @ 2:59 AM
Aiding the deaf
Since I graduated from college in 1983 and moved to McAllen, I have been involved with the Deaf community. For several years, I taught Deaf students exclusively. In 1996, the McAllen school district began offering American Sign Language as a foreign language, and I taught it at Memorial High School.
Posted @ 2:58 AM
November 14, 2006
Early screening, cochlear implants bring hearing miracles to Utah kids
Hearing loss... It is a serious medical condition, but fortunately new technologies allow doctors to screen infants just hours after they are born. Its called "universal newborn hearing screening" and ABC 4's Doctor Steven Mobley reports on a child whose life was dramatically changed when his hearing loss was caught early and doctor's were able to perform a modern day "bionic ear" surgery.
Posted @ 2:28 PM
Woman finds life after hearing loss
Leslie Kelly became hard of hearing at age 7 when she jumped off a swing, didn’t listen to her brother say “duck” and got conked when the seat swooshed back. She got a hearing aid, though, and it restored all but 7 percent of her hearing, so she lived a normal life.
Posted @ 2:24 PM
November 13, 2006
Internet scammers target deaf community
A Calhoun County couple says they were almost the victims of a well-known internet scam that seems to be targeting the hearing-impaired.
Richard and Holly Wegman are both deaf, and use their computer as a way to communicate with other hearing-impaired people around the world. They frequently log on to Deafconnect.com, a resource center and social networking site.
Posted @ 6:45 AM
Trustees seek student, faculty input before leadership search
After weeks of chaos at Gallaudet University, the Board of Trustees tried to set a new tone of order and openness yesterday as it invited groups of faculty members, students, alumni and staff to convey the qualities they want in their future leader.
Posted @ 6:44 AM
Deaf author to be illuminated on stage
Australia’s only professional theatre company for the deaf is putting on a play about Australia’s most celebrated, if reclusive, deaf writer.
Crime thriller writer Patricia Carlon produced 14 crime novels between 1961-70 to widespread international acclaim. While relatively neglected in her home country, she won comparisons in the UK to the queens of the genre, like Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell.
Posted @ 6:41 AM
Hawaii-based deaf band called Beethoven’s Nightmare
After more than 30 years, Beethoven’s Nightmare comes out with a debut CD.
In the 1970s, three deaf college students gathered habitually in a Gallaudet University dorm room to make rock music and nurse dreams of becoming stars.
Posted @ 6:41 AM
An expressive presence onstage
Mary Vreeland is what you might call a natural-born actor.
"I was the baby [in my family]," she says, her dark eyes dancing. "I learned how to get attention; I looked at how others behaved.
"It really kind of fell in my lap."
Posted @ 6:40 AM
Elections hard to follow for the deaf
Eddy Wiesblatt didn't attend the Guelph-Eramosa all-candidates debate in Rockwood.
He wasn't sick. He wasn't running late at work.
He didn't go because there was no way for him to understand what was going on.
Posted @ 6:36 AM
Loud and clear
The Spirit of Oklahoma State Marching Band filled Boone Pickens Stadium with the brassy sound of the school's fight song, Ride 'Em Cowboys, as junior cornerback Martel Van Zant received slaps on his helmet from teammates after separating Nebraska's Maurice Purify from the ball.
Posted @ 6:35 AM
NTID names Assistant Director, Coordinators of Student Life
The National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology has made the following appointments:
Erin Esposito, of Penfield, has been named assistant director for Student Life and Leadership. Esposito will coordinate various services for NTID’s CSD Student Development Center, including facility management, advising for student organizations and clubs and supporting leadership programs.
Posted @ 6:33 AM
Hearing-impaired force a hearing
Members of the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) held a demonstration outside the office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD) to protest against the denial of allotment of civil services to the three hearing impaired candidates who cleared the all-India civil services examination.
Posted @ 6:27 AM
Hijacking leaves deaf pre-schoolers stranded
Fifteen deaf pre-schoolers have been forced to miss out on school for the past two weeks after their school bus was hi-jacked in Mfuleni, minutes after the driver dropped off the last pupil.
Posted @ 6:27 AM
Cathryn speaks out for deaf people
Cathryn King is aiming to make life a little easier for deaf people by improving the services they receive.
The 33-year-old entrepreneur, who has a degree in deaf studies and linguistics, has launched her own business called Communication Station.
Posted @ 6:25 AM
Opening up the New England Home for the Deaf
For decades, residents of the New England Home for the Deaf found safe haven on the sprawling campus hugging the banks of the Waters River, even while they were something of a mystery to the community.
Posted @ 6:19 AM
Gallaudet Trustees Chair resigns
The chair of the Gallaudet University board of trustees resigned last night, the day after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) stepped down from the board because he disagreed with the decision to end the appointment of incoming president Jane K. Fernandes.
Posted @ 6:18 AM
Signs of change at Gallaudet
At the only US liberal arts university for the deaf, protesters' calls for reform highlight concerns of the deaf community.
Classes at Gallaudet University filled up again last week after months of protests by students, faculty, and alumni finally prompted the Board of Trustees to start over in its search for a campus president.
Posted @ 6:16 AM
Bringing spoken word to the deaf
Not everyone can say they have a career they love that helps someone besides.
But thats how Stephanie Piratzky feels about a job she said shes been privileged to have for a dozen years. She provides verbatim transcripts for deaf and hard of hearing college students.
Posted @ 6:05 AM
SABC sign language interpreters criticised
The South African Human Rights Commission has opened an inquiry into the “incorrect” use of sign language by SABC interpreters after a complaint by DeafSA.
Posted @ 6:03 AM
Handhelds aided Gallaudet protesters
After a sleepless night protesting at Gallaudet University, student government leader Christopher Corrigan was ready to crawl into a tent near a campus gate at 7:45 a.m. Then he felt the familiar buzz on his Sidekick wireless handheld computer.
The message: "Emergency."
Posted @ 6:02 AM
Gallaudet protest highlights changing reality of deaf culture
Amid the celebration last week after the Gallaudet University board of trustees revoked Jane K. Fernandes' appointment as president, a group of student protesters burned her in effigy.
Dr. Fernandes, in turn, donned a medallion of Joan of Arc, the French warrior burned at the stake for her beliefs. She said she was fighting for the deaf university's interests and that students opposed her because she was "not deaf enough." She lip reads and learned American Sign Language as an adult.
Posted @ 6:01 AM
November 5, 2006
Hearing-aid buyer learns costly lesson
When The Watchdog called Irene Glover of Weatherford on the phone to talk about her complaint, she said, “Will you hold on just a minute? I’ve got to get my hearing aid on.”
Her complaint concerned a hearing aid, but not the one she was putting on to talk to me. She lost $5,300 when a hearing aid she bought from a well-known company never worked correctly for her.
Posted @ 12:38 PM
Gallaudet is isolating its deaf students
I am totally dismayed and more than a little angry over the events at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The trustees voted late last month to terminate the appointment of incoming president Jane Fernandes, the subject of months of protests.
Posted @ 12:35 PM
Deaf students benefit from increase in interpretors
In a classroom with a teacher more animated than most, it is so quiet one could hear a pin drop. The teacher paces around the room, fielding individual queries from students while teaching the principles of a dependant clause — all while not making a sound.
Posted @ 12:34 PM
Aid for the deaf is sign of times
On the retirement of our old doctor just over a year ago we decided it was time to move to a practice nearer home and are now enrolled at Kerrsland Surgery in Ballyhackamore, Belfast.
I was there the other day for a routine blood test and was struck again by the way reception and other staff are trying very hard to practise deaf awareness and help relieve the stress of getting medical help.
Posted @ 12:33 PM
Deaf students face unique challenges
When Jeffrey Zuckerman '10 gets a call on his cell phone, it is almost always a wrong number. On the rare occasion that the caller is a friend, he tells them to send a text message instead and hangs up.
Zuckerman, one of three deaf undergraduates at Yale, cannot understand speech over a cell phone because he depends heavily on lip reading to understand those around him. Like the other two deaf students, Campbell Garland '09 and Amy Zwanziger '09, he does not use sign language.
Posted @ 12:32 PM
Missing deaf man reunited with family It's a mystery where he was for 10 days
Raymundo Richiez is home safe, 10 days after he disappeared from Lawrence and just as his family was beginning to fear they would never see him again.
Richiez, 41, who is deaf and mute, was found in North Reading yesterday morning. Police there realized who he was after reading about his disappearance in yesterday's Eagle-Tribune.
Posted @ 12:31 PM
Deaf football player key for Bryan defense
Rodney Watts bursts through the offensive line during practice, smiling and laughing about the accomplishment. As his coaches shout instructions, Watts turns from them, looking away as if he's not listening.
Posted @ 12:30 PM
New system to aid deaf, speech-impaired
Thousands of Oregonians who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or have a speech impairment are about to have an easier time communicating with the Oregon Department of Human Services Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services thanks to a new software system the agency is installing.
Posted @ 12:29 PM
Captioned telephone service helps deaf and hearing imparied community in New York
The New Year will bring hope for more than 24 million Americans, who are hard of hearing, have experienced hearing loss later in life, or deaf individuals who prefer to use their own voice
The New York Public Service Commission, New York Relay and Sprint will release New York Relay Captioned Telephone Service on Jan. 1, 2007. The assistive technology of the service will allow people with hearing troubles, to communicate more naturally with family and friends.
Posted @ 12:27 PM
Salt Lake International gets phone for the Deaf
There is something new at the Salt Lake City airport to help make traveling easier. It's a phone that you'll only find in our airport, but that you'll hopefully start seeing in other airports soon.
To be more specific, it's a video phone, located right inside by the two baggage claim areas. It's for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Posted @ 12:26 PM
Being heard
Gallaudet's student protest leader discusses his group's victory over the university's board and how he'll work to re-unite a divided campus.
It's been a long summer and an even longer fall for Noah Beckman. He's a senior and student body president at Gallaudet University, the nation's top school for the deaf, and he's been leading protests on the Washington DC campus since May.
Posted @ 12:25 PM
They can’t say ‘No!’ Deaf women and sex
She's 15-years-old and one of many rape victims whose anguish has been amplified because they can’t speak. She is part of a silent minority of girls and young women who are targeted by sexual predators because of their disability. Her inability to communicate with the hearing world left her powerless against her attacker in June 2006.
Posted @ 12:24 PM
Students at Premier School for the Deaf block controversial appointment
Student protesters at the nation’s premier school for the deaf have proclaimed victory after the board of trustees voted Sunday to terminate the appointment of the incoming school president. Gallaudet University had been the scene of ongoing student and faculty protests over the hiring of Jane Fernandes to head the school - taking over the position from I. King Jordan.
Posted @ 12:22 PM
Prized area deaf school is struggling financially
At 9 months old, Danny Twomey wasn't responding when his parents would call out his name. He also started just yelling. "He just made a lot of noises at the same tone," said his father, Michael Twomey of San Jose.
Posted @ 12:21 PM
R.I.T. mourns loss of one of its students
The R.I.T. Campus is mourning the loss of a student, known as one of its brightest. 21-year-old Mark Goik was killed in a car crash on the thruway early Friday morning. He was in his third year at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf on the R.I.T. Campus.
Posted @ 12:20 PM