“Tri-County GLAD not only offers services to the deaf and hard-of-hearing population, but we also educate the general population about the deaf and hard-of-hearing population,” said Julianna Fjeld, regional director.

Thus, the two diverse populations, through the effort and commitment of GLAD Inc. and its subsidiaries, are better able to understand each other and work together in and for the community, she said.

“Silence frightens the majority that does not understand deaf culture, and they tend to think that deaf/hard-of-hearing people are psychologically tacit and tend to look at them as if they are mentally retarded,” said Fjeld, an only child who was born deaf and is the only deaf person in her family.

Born in Minneapolis, she was educated at a number of schools — including the Kansas School for the Deaf, the Percy Hughes School in Syracuse, N.Y., and the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley — before graduating from Gallaudet University with a bachelor’s degree in English literature.

Fluent in English American Sign Language — and knowledgeable of French and Polish sign language — Fjeld is known in the deaf and partially deaf world for her work as an actor and advocate with the National Theater of the Deaf that eventually led to her key involvement in “Love Is Never Silent,” which won an Emmy for best picture and best director in 1986.

According to Fjeld, there is a greater communication breakdown between the hearing and deaf communities than merely the spoken word.

“The biggest (fallacy) is that deaf and hard-of-hearing people cannot think and have low intelligence and cannot express their feelings and thoughts,” Fjeld said. “Lip reading is the most misunderstood myth; only 25 to 30 percent may be understood by lip reading.”

In the past, psychologists put these people in mental institutions after misdiagnosing them with mental retardation before they realized the patients were simply deaf, Fjeld said.

“With Tri-County GLAD, more people in general begin to realize that we are as human as they are, and the fear has reduced after we dispel the myths,” Fjeld said. “We have deaf and hard-of-hearing with jobs and higher education. However, we are still educating the majority to see us as first-class citizens.”

Tri-County GLAD, a subsidiary of the Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness Inc., addresses the social service needs of deaf and partially deaf individuals in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Based in Ventura, at 702 County Square Drive, Suite 101, the agency provides advocacy, peer counseling, employment development, information and referrals, independent living skills and community education services, among other offerings.

GLAD is considered a “one-stop center,” and all its services are popular, Fjeld said, especially video phone technology that gives a person the ability to communicate with anyone via video relay calls placed over a broadband Internet connection through a videophone appliance connected to a TV or through a personal computer equipped with a webcam.

The deaf user signs to an American Sign Language interpreter, who then contacts the hearing user through a standard phone line and relays the conversation between the two parties.

Hearing customers can also place video relay calls to any deaf or partially deaf person by calling the toll-free number: 866-FAST-VRS.

Throughout the year, regular offerings include American Sign Language Storytime at Barnes & Noble on Telephone Road in Ventura on every third Friday of the month.

Tri-County GLAD also presents an annual children’s holiday celebration, with this year’s party planned for Saturday in Oxnard.

“We also have American Sign Language interpreters from LifeSigns, interpreter referral services,” said Mark Robinson of Ventura, a community interpreter at GLAD. “We have approximately 8.6 percent out of 800,000 who are deaf and hard of hearing in Ventura County, which means that there are 63,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing people here. Because of this number, Tri-County GLAD is here for them, and we are having more people coming here, but there are a lot more who don’t know about our agency.”

The ultimate goal of Tri-County GLAD is to ensure equal access to the deaf and partially deaf community and to act as a coordinating agency that addresses the social services and needs of these individuals, said administrative assistant Jasmine Casey.

“GLAD empowers deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals to have the same opportunities, respect and consideration as the hearing population,” Casey said, “and empowers them to become first-class citizens in every aspect.”

http://m.vcstar.com/news/2009/dec/10/regional-agency-reaches-out-to-deaf-partially/