June 10, 2009
Carpenter seeks $1M over hearing loss while working at Motiva
A Galveston County man is seeking $1 million after he says he permanently lost his hearing when a transformer exploded eight feet away from him.
Seeking more than $1 million in damages, Juan Jose Garcia and Esther Garcia filed a lawsuit June 4 in Jefferson County District Court against Motiva Enterprises.
The couple claims Juan Garcia, who works as a carpenter for Austin Maintenance and Construction, was performing subcontract work at Motiva's refinery in Port Arthur on Dec. 3.
Posted @ 12:40 PM
Deaf education and poor interpreters
When the Facilities Closure and Realignment Commission recently toured the Kansas School for the Deaf, KSD students and alumni told members about the poor quality of interpreter skills they faced while attending public schools.
Students from elementary schools, junior and senior highs and KSD alumni said KSD provides barrier-free communication where all staff, teachers and students can communicate freely in sign language. The result, they said, is education is good at KSD.
Posted @ 12:36 PM
Deaf, hard of hearing from across Colorado join together in Craig
Deena Armstrong didn’t greet her friends with “hello” or “how are you?” If she had, they might not have heard her. Instead, she ran up to them with an enormous smile and hugged them repeatedly.
Her deaf friends responded just as enthusiastically.
On Saturday, behind Calvary Baptist Church, Armstrong was acting as an interpreter for a deaf social that welcomed the deaf and hard of hearing from across the state.
Posted @ 12:34 PM
Hearing Impaired Couple Perform At Red Earth
More than 1,200 Native American artists and dancers, from all over the U.S., gathered at the 23rd annual Red Earth Festival. Celebrating American Indian culture and hertiage, the festival began this morning with a grand parade. Then followed with children's activities and dance performances.
For the first time, this year's festival featured two hearing impaired dancers. Jordan Watson comes from Canada and Samuel Phillips is from California. They're a couple who arrived here in Oklahoma to meet again.
Posted @ 12:32 PM
Closing NCSD may not save much money
In a recession it makes sense for everyone to cut back, but will closing North Carolina School for the Deaf really save money?
Deaf students are spread over a wide area, so this cutback would require many more trained teachers of the deaf and licensed interpreters. Also, it would make necessary new accommodations in public schools while nearby NCSD has two recently renovated buildings already specifically designed for the needs of the deaf.
Posted @ 12:31 PM
June 5, 2009
Program Improves Language Skills In Deaf, Hard Of Hearing
Children enrolled before they are six months old in a home-based program that teaches language skills to the deaf or hard of hearing are not only able to achieve appropriate language skills but also to maintain them over time, according to a new study.
The study underscores the importance of appropriate follow-up of newborn hearing screens that determine whether a more detailed evaluation of a baby’s hearing by an audiologist is needed, according to Jareen Meinzen-Derr, PhD, a researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the study’s main author.
Posted @ 11:26 AM
SSSD Parents Drop Suit
The parents of three students at the former Scranton State School for the Deaf have officially withdrawn their suit, according to a representative in U.S. Judge Richard Conaboy’s office.
A hearing on the case was scheduled for Friday morning in federal court but has been canceled.
The suit was filed April 23 by attorney Drew Christian on behalf of parents of three students at SSSD to stop the implementation of a transition plan that has since been executed between the state Department of Education and the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.
Posted @ 11:21 AM
Jason Grilli's Commitment is a "Good Sign" for Denver Area Deaf School
Colorado Rockies pitcher Jason Grilli has a career record of 16-16 with a 4.73 ERA. Good by all standards, but the Hall of Fame is not yet calling. According to the record book that really counts, however, Grilli is a winner of the Cy Young Award, MVP and slated for induction into Life's Hall of Fame.
After chatting with Grilli this afternoon about his involvement in this years "Signs of Summer Event" in Golden, Colorado, it is clear that Grilli is one of the good guys. Soft spoken, humble, and committed to helping those less fortunate than himself are attributes that don't show up on the scoreboard.
Posted @ 11:20 AM
Deaf student defies the odds
Born profoundly deaf and told she may never speak, Monique Guterres has never been one to stay silent.
The honours criminology student grew up embracing challenges, learning to communicate orally instead of signing and attending the mainstream school system.
"My parents... wanted me to be able to communicate as fully as possible," says Guterres. "It wasn’t until Grade 5 that I first remember having the feeling that I was different."
Posted @ 11:18 AM
Don’t overlook deaf children
Forty percent of children who are born deaf also have eye problems, so a new set of guidelines has been produced to help professionals who work in vision and hearing, to ensure that deaf children receive good vision care. Quality standards in vision care for deaf children and young people: Guidelines for professionals has been produced by Sense, the national deafblind charity with the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS).
Posted @ 11:17 AM
Cockerpoo dogs will help deaf people
Dave and Elaine Tarr are proud of how their new ‘children’ will soon be out making a difference to the lives of deaf people.
The couple from Bankside in Headington, Oxford, have joined the charity Hearing Dogs for the Deaf’s breeding programme and are now helping mum Jolly rear her six offspring.
The three males and three females — called Vinnie, Vincent, Victor, Verity, Violet and Vienna — will next week be off to begin their training to eventually become dogs who will help deaf and hard of hearing people.
Posted @ 11:15 AM
Deaf school works with students to resolve concerns
Superintendent Patsy Shank met with staff, students and interested parents at the West Virginia School for the Deaf recently to discuss the list of grievances from students.
Shank said Monday that she was eventually provided a copy of the list, which allowed her to go through the students’ concerns and discuss how they could be resolved.
“Well, the first thing we discussed was the need to get the students back to class; our main concern needs to be education of the students and their need to be in class,” she said. “The issues the students had are being addressed and taken care of because we don’t want minute issues getting in the way of their learning.”
Posted @ 11:12 AM
Convo Relay Launches a New Video Relay Service for the Deaf
Convo Relay today announced the launch of a new Video Relay Service for Deaf and Hard of Hearing consumers, Convo. Convo utilizes technology, call centers and video software to provide a service that enables deaf people to communicate with hearing parties.
The vision of Convo includes ensuring speedy connection times, hence providing the best of functional equivalency.
Posted @ 11:11 AM
Los Osos woman is blind and deaf and also a Cuesta College graduate
It might be hard to find somebody on the Central Coast more determined to get her college degree than Corrina Veesart. The 27-year-old blind and deaf student has spent the past nine years working toward her associate degree in general studies at Cuesta College. The fruits of her hard work and dedication were rewarded Friday when her name was announced at Cuesta’s graduation.
“I’m so excited, a little nervous, but very excited,” Veesart said through an interpreter before the ceremony. “It has been a huge effort for me.
Posted @ 11:10 AM
April 15, 2009
IPod Addicts Lose Hearing, Annoy the Rest of Us
I have nothing against music. As long as it’s played in the privacy of a home, car or concert hall, or at low decibel levels in public places, music is food for the soul.
That said, I don’t like music imposed on me. When I’m forced to listen to the thwack, thwack, thwack of rap emanating from the earbuds of someone else’s iPod, I just about lose it.
The reaction is visceral. My heart starts to race, my stomach tightens and I have an overwhelming impulse to grab the earbuds and separate the man from his music -- all the symptoms of Noise Aversion Syndrome (NAS).
Posted @ 7:56 AM
Deaf man escapes train collision
A deaf man was nearly hit by a train when his scooter stalled while crossing railroad tracks in Lincolnville — but he looked up, saw the train and jumped off the scooter “a split second” before the train struck it, authorities said.
The deaf-mute man is okay, Lincolnville Fire Chief Charles Gantt said. The incident occurred Monday shortly after 5 p.m. near the intersection of Owens Drive and Lincoln Avenue at a railroad crossing with no railroad crossing guard.
Lincolnville Firefighter Clark Presley and the man communicated by writing on a notepad. “We had to figure out a way to communicate with him real quick,” Gantt said, adding that the man is about 50 years old.
Posted @ 7:54 AM
Rhode Island School for the Deaf prepares musical revue
Imagine a musical staged by students who cannot hear music, but who, nevertheless, learn lyrics and dance moves and put on a show each spring.
The Rhode Island School for the Deaf will stage a musical revue Thursday and Friday, highlighting songs from musicals the school has presented over the past 14 years.
West Side Story. Footloose. The Sound of Music. The King and I. Annie. Oliver. The Wizard of Oz.
Posted @ 7:53 AM
Scranton State School for the Deaf grew from humble origins
A class of eight deaf children met for regular instruction in a room in Scranton in 1882. Their teacher, Jacob M. Koehler, was himself both deaf and mute, and his class was the first of its kind in Northeast Pennsylvania.
What started as a small local enterprise soon grew into a respected institution that we know today as the Scranton State School for the Deaf.
Mr. Koehler (who later became the Rev. Koehler) instigated the growth. The citizens of Scranton provided financial and other assistance for his small school, and they approved of his desire to expand it.
Posted @ 7:53 AM
Government responds to pleas from centre for the deaf
Minister of State in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Andrew Gallimore Thursday pledged assistance for the cash-strapped Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf (CCCD).
Gallimore's promise came a day after the Observer, in a lead story, highlighted the boarding school's inability to cover operational costs due to dwindling sponsorship.
"The problem right now is the day-to-day cash requirements for operating and providing for the 250 Jamaican children coming from all the different parishes; there is a general need there. And what we have been doing in our meeting earlier, is to brainstorm and to see exactly how these means can be met," Gallimore said, during a tour of the Cassia Park Road centre in St Andrew Thursday morning.
Posted @ 7:50 AM
Tampa woman is deaf, nearly blind, with will of Superwoman
When you see her, if you see her, she is waiting for the bus, smoking a cigarette with one hand and holding a white cane in the other.
She walks briskly along sidewalks and through parking lots, moving the cane in a figure eight, gliding its rounded plastic tip over bumps and cracks. Stopping when she senses something isn't right.
Her world is what she sees through two small holes the size of tightly rolled dollar bills. Born deaf, she hears none of it — not the bus, the cars, the slamming doors — though she savors the vibrations.
Posted @ 7:50 AM
Deaf teen eschews limitations, earns Boy Scout honors
Brian Hertneky, 17, and his father Tom sit facing each other in the living room of their Bethel Park home as Mr. Hertneky relays questions to his son through sign language.
Born deaf, Brian has enjoyed a childhood filled with the activities all children participate in, even Boy Scouts, for which he has a special love and for which he recently received a high honor.
Brian, son of Tom and Sue Hertneky, joined Cub Scouts in first grade, working his way through the ranks and will shortly be getting his Eagle Scout Award. He recently received the highest honor for members of the Order of the Arrow, the Vigil Award.
Posted @ 7:49 AM
Deaf Plantation students will head to Academic Bowl in Washington D.C.
Five students from South Plantation High School will head to Washington, D.C., in April to take part in an event that comes once in a lifetime.
The five have won the right to compete in the Gallaudet University Deaf and Hard of Hearing Academic Bowl.
''It is a great opportunity for them,'' said Keith Muller, head coach of the academic bowl team and deaf and hard-of-hearing family counselor at South Plantation High. ``They get to meet a whole multicultural group of deaf and hard of hearing teens like themselves in a college setting."
Posted @ 7:48 AM
Let the deaf be heard
I am the typical college student. I work hard, study hard, have great friends, but unlike most of my classmates, I’m deaf. I have been here at Columbia for two years, and in those two years I learned how Columbia’s academic system works for people who need disability services.
I don’t view myself as disabled—I never have. I am fully functioning—I eat, sleep, listen to Stevie Wonder, and mentally spaz out during midterms like every other student here. Yet I need accommodations to attend Columbia. Legally, Columbia has done everything it is required by law to do: It provides me with accommodations, but that is all the University does. The rest of my experience, specifically my social experience as a deaf person at Columbia, is up to me. As a result, I have experienced the problem of isolation in and outside of class.
Posted @ 7:48 AM
Deaf puppies get second chance at normal lives
Their ears appear attentive but for Rambo and Boomer, a pair of Australian cattle dog pups, life is a visual experience only; both are deaf.
"They do bark, but they don't know they are making a sound," said Bracken County Animal Control Officer Pat Taylor.
A genetic birth defect inherent in the breed, and a few other breeds, left the bright-eyed and energetic blue/grey colored pups with each other for company and unaware of the cacophony of sound surrounding them at the Bracken County Animal Shelter.
Posted @ 7:47 AM
Deaf student honored for achievement in classroom
There is a difference between hearing and listening, just ask Sarah Leslie of Silverton.
The 18-year-old was born deaf. She wears hearing aids in both ears and can hear some sounds but others are harder to detect.
Despite her disability, she has learned to be a good listener.
Posted @ 7:46 AM
February 3, 2009
Text messaging used for testimony of deaf witness
It was trial by instant messenger in Northampton County Court on Wednesday -- at least for the morning.
With the prosecutors' main witness deaf and a sign interpreter unavailable, a jury was forced to endure typed questions and answers for testimony in a case of a man accused of assaulting an Easton woman, then breaking into her apartment a week later.
The ad-hoc approach brought protests from Iman R. Sharif's defense attorney and more than a few strange occurrences: mis-typed sentences that made no sense, and at one point an accidental foray into Microsoft Outlook after Jennifer Davis accidentally opened it while answering a question during her testimony against Sharif.
Posted @ 5:38 PM
Disrespect for deaf professor disgusts student
This semester I began taking American Sign Language, a course taught by a professor who is deaf. I haven’t had any experience with deaf culture in the past, so I would say it has been quite an eye-opening experience in just the last couple of weeks. In a class where silence is the key to success, it is difficult to determine when speaking is appropriate. One thing I can be sure of, however, is that playing music while a deaf professor is trying to teach is disrespectful. Not to be ironic, but I was at a loss for words when another student decided this was acceptable. Few times in my life have I seen such utter disrespect (and I’m from New Jersey � ), let alone in a classroom at Purdue University.
Posted @ 5:36 PM
Deaf comic gets rave reviews from both hearing and hearing impaired
The Bremerton High School Performing Arts Center was filled Jan. 16 with more than 280 people waiting to see an international comic genius.
CJ Jones, deaf entertainer/director/producer extraordinaire, used snappy wit, superb timing and downright hilarious physical comedy to perfection in his critically acclaimed comedy act "CJ Jones Live."
Funded and produced by the Olympic College American Sign Language Club, the performance was welcomed to Bremerton with support from both the deaf and hearing communities.
Posted @ 5:34 PM
Cultural divide exists between hearing and deaf
Language brings people together, but it can also create isolation. Because there is a disconnect between the hearing and deaf worlds, deaf people have developed their own culture.
In the deaf community, there are sub-categories of deafness called "big D" and "little d." Peggy Gray, a local American Sign Language interpreter, explains, "'Big D' is going to deaf school, my friends are deaf, we attend deaf events and are on a deaf bowling team. And the people who have had that experience consider themselves culturally deaf."
Posted @ 5:33 PM
Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing works with families
The news was unclear at first. Soon after the birth of their son, Wade, Chad and Christina Lindmark were told the boy had failed a hearing screening, but doctors thought it could be inaccurate because of fluid buildup in his ears.
The couple hoped for the best and tried not to worry, but once home, they conducted their own testing.
"We banged on pots and pans when he wasn't looking, to see if he would respond," recalls Christina Lindmark. When Wade didn't react, she said, "we both knew that something wasn't quite right."
Posted @ 5:30 PM
Phone program for deaf is questioned
Capt. Kirk and his unforgettable "Beam me up, Scotty" introduced a generation to the concept of videophones on the 1960s drama series Star Trek. The phones are now a reality - for more than 100,000 deaf people.
The futuristic phones exploded in popularity when the Federal Communications Commission began, in late 2000, to reimburse companies for staffing call centers with sign-language interpreters.
The deaf beam themselves into the hearing world by calling the government-subsidized sign interpreters on a videophone. The sign interpreters then place a call and repeat, or relay, the deaf person's conversation to a hearing person.
Posted @ 5:29 PM
Helping hands say a lot
A pair of oversize gloves doesn't make sign language any easier.
With your fingers inside flimsy, opaque plastic that flutters and clings, the sign for chicken might look like true. And did she just sign water or what's wrong?
But if the food-service gloves were a modest inconvenience, none of the volunteers at the Aid for Friends outreach center in Northeast Philadelphia yesterday seemed to mind.
They were there to prepare food and food-service trays for sick and elderly shut-ins. Best of all, they were together again, signing and joking and sharing with friends who understand them like no others.
Posted @ 5:28 PM
Speaking the language of empowerment
Maybe Barack Obama on this inauguration morning will spot a cluster of orange knit caps and matching scarves in the crowd. The wearers are students from the Illinois School for the Deaf.
Eighteen of them trekked from Downstate Jacksonville to Washington because they've heard, in their heads and hearts, the Obama call to action.
These students have followed the campaign from the beginning, and last summer, a couple of them pushed through a crowd to try to meet their candidate.
Posted @ 5:28 PM
Deaf pianist's show combines music and a talk on hearing loss
As with many things for Kathryn Bakke, winter is undaunting.
In fact, the colder the weather, the better the reason to pile a suitcase and a stack of sheet music in the car and take her talent on the road, sharing it with people for whom getting out is a lot less easy.
From last Thursday through Sunday, the Minneapolis pianist is making a dozen stops at Madison-area nursing homes and assisted living centers — one of which, because of budget cuts, gave her free lodging in exchange for an appearance.
Posted @ 5:27 PM
Deaf man deemed OK for trial in child porn case
A deaf man once suspected of viewing child pornography on a public access computer at the Lindsay library is competent to stand trial.
Danny Lynn Crisler, 39, faces one criminal count linked to alleged child pornography, He was in court in Friday in Porterville, where a judge was scheduled to rule on whether or not he could stand trial.
Posted @ 5:26 PM
Court Rules Woman May Seek Inpatient Treatment for 'Unhealthy' Coca-Cola Addiction
A court has ruled that a woman from Malmo, Sweden, who is addicted to Coca-Cola, will be allowed to seek inpatient treatment for her problem, The Local newspaper of Sweden reported.
The woman, who has been deaf since childhood, has consumed large quantities of the beverage, as well as other sugary foods for many years, according to the report.
The woman’s name is being withheld for privacy reasons, but her unhealthy consumption habits have given her a wide range of health problems, including diabetes and high blood pressure.
Posted @ 5:25 PM
GAERF Funding Supports Career Web Site For Deaf Students
The National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, NY has launched an interactive web site that provides information on graphic communications careers for deaf and hard of hearing. The web site, geared to attract deaf high school students exploring career options, can be accessed at:
Posted @ 5:24 PM
November 27, 2008
People with disabilities encounter many hidden barriers
Let's face it, because of weather-related delays, long security lines and crowded planes, traveling during the holidays is a hectic time. Offering designated security lanes for families is an improvement. As a person who has baby-sat, I know that a stroller or a car seat are necessary objects to have for babies and for young children; when accompanying children on a trip, there is no such thing as traveling light.
The needs of other passengers who routinely need help have often been overlooked. Shouldn't there be security lines for all physically disabled passengers as well? People needing wheelchairs are routinely accommodated, but other disabilities are not acknowledged at airports and train stations. Other than braille signs at elevators, I am not aware of accommodations for blind and deaf passengers.
Posted @ 4:48 AM
Dogs for the Deaf expands its scope to include autism
They unexpectedly shared the limelight November 17 in the Rogue Valley Mall, where Dogs for the Deaf inaugurated its newest program. He's not quite six; she's almost four. He's Kiefer Morris; she's known simply as Ginger.
Sporting a specially-equipped purple vest, black Lab mix Ginger, proudly becomes DFD's Autism Assistance program's first graduate.
DFD President and CEO Robin Dickson greeted three Trail residents who arrived first. Little Butte School student Kiefer accompanied his parents, Shannon and Scott Morris, who'd read of the presentation in a previous issue of the Upper Rogue Independent.
Posted @ 4:48 AM
Japanese foundation honors former NTID dean
While most people back in the Rochester area were tucked into bed last Monday night, professor James DeCaro of Pittsford was 9,500 miles away in Japan, where it was Tuesday morning.
Decaro was one of 50 people — and the only one from the United States — who were in the Far East to receive awards from Japan’s Foundation for Encouragement of Social Contribution for contributions in areas such as social welfare and education.
DeCaro, director of Postsecondary Education Network-International (PEN) at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology, was honored for his contributions to the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing people around the world. He is one of only five non-Japanese recipients.
Posted @ 4:47 AM
Deaf to get help at Secretary of State branches
The Michigan Secretary of State’s Office is testing out technology to help deaf and hard of hearing people when they visit branch offices.
The Web-based technology uses a video camera and audio equipment to connect deaf and hearing-impaired customers to a remote person who can read and translate sign language to branch office workers.
Posted @ 4:45 AM
Special weather alert system for deaf sought
A weather bureau official yesterday urged disaster managers and radio and television station owners in the country to establish a system that would help provide timely, critical warnings of life threatening events to the deaf and those with difficulty in hearing.
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) weather branch chief Nathaniel Cruz issued the call in line with the celebration of National Deaf Awareness Week.
Posted @ 4:44 AM
Anita Buel Helps Deaf Cancer Patients Overcome Odds
As a deaf person, Anita Buel is well acquainted with the language, comprehension and communication barriers experienced by many in the same position when seeking medical care. Members of the deaf community are often excluded from the national health agenda and are rarely mentioned when talking about people for whom spoken English is a second language.
Posted @ 4:42 AM
No contest plea in killing
JoAnne McCann had mixed emotions Friday after the woman accused of killing her brother more than three years ago pleaded no contest to second-degree murder.
"I would have preferred life in prison. She took my brother's life," said McCann, 56, as she started to cry. But she added: "I'm glad (the case) is coming to an end."
Mary Ann McBride, who is deaf and cannot speak, will be sentenced Jan. 14 before Macomb Circuit Judge Peter Maceroni in connection with the stabbing death of Robert Adelsburg, her live-in boyfriend, on April 22, 2005. Adelsburg was also deaf.
Posted @ 4:40 AM
Shane Van Boening Holds Pool School for TSD
In two separate “Challenge the Pro” fundraisers for the Texas School for the Deaf (TSD), former U.S. Open champion Shane Van Boening raised over $500 for the school, including a personal donation. School administrator Keena Miller expressed to Shane how touched she was by a thoughtful note that was sent to the school, along with a donation from Shane’s grandfather, a former senior Billiard Congress of America champion. After these fundraisers, TSD invited Van Boening to the school to meet the students.
Posted @ 4:40 AM
Deaf-hearing relations activists visit College
Members of the local deaf community joined students to attend a presentation given by the two founding members of Discovering Deaf World (DDW), a recently developed national association that encourages the development of deaf organizations across the globe.
The Nov. 5 presentation, which was co-sponsored by the Deaf Hearing Connection and Kappa Delta Pi education honor society, was given by DDW founders Christy Smith and Dave Justice.
Posted @ 4:38 AM
Rosseau man linked to deaf camp thefts
A Rosseau man appeared in a Bracebridge court last week after police found two stolen ATVs, a stolen snowmobile and a stolen outboard motor on his property.
Assistant Crown attorney Mike Newell explained that on May 1, 2007, Ontario Provincial Police officers executed a search warrant on the property of Terry Deschamps, 40, because they believed him to be connected with a number of thefts throughout the Muskoka area.
Posted @ 4:38 AM
MSD graduate crowned Miss Deaf America
It was love at first sight for Michelle Lapides.
"I was in the first grade when Miss Deaf America 1995-1996 came to my class. When my eyes first saw her crown, I fell in love with the concept of being Miss Deaf America," she said in an e-mail interview.
It's not all glitz and glam for Lapides, though. "I also loved the purpose of the (National Association of the Deaf) Miss Deaf America program," she said.
Posted @ 4:36 AM
October 27, 2008
Deaf Comic Doesn't Take Self Too Seriously
Instead, Kathy Buckley -- whom everyone dismissed as retarded when she was a little girl growing up in Wickcliff, Ohio -- diffused the serious side of life with laughter at two appearances in Muskegon Wednesday.
"I love to make people laugh," she said. "It's disarming."
In other words, if you can't laugh at what Buckley's been through, you're sure to weep. She has.
"But I want to be in the 'now,' " she said. "I don't want to miss anything by being in the negative."
Buckley, 54, was 8 years old before anyone realized she couldn't hear. Until then, school officials and her family labeled her hopelessly "retarded" and sent her to a special school for the disabled. There, isolated, she went through the motions of learning in a world of silence.
Posted @ 2:50 AM
16-year-old Arrested in Rape of 6-year-old LA School for Deaf student
Louisiana State Police have arrested a 16-year-old male for the alleged rape of a six-year-old female student at the Louisiana School for the Deaf.
The incident was reported last month and was part of a series of sexual assault allegations that led to the school being temporarily shut down. The school was closed October 8th and is not yet expected to reopen until November 3rd.
Posted @ 2:48 AM
Blood from slain deaf man found on accused, court hears
Blood from a slain Brampton man was found on the jeans and jacket worn by the man accused of murdering him, jurors have heard.
Anthony Medwid, 20, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the March 23, 2007 stabbing death of Brian Wainman, 27.
But a forensic investigator had told jurors that the jeans and jacket identified as Medwid's clothing had impact blood stains from the deceased man.
Posted @ 2:46 AM
Mentoring deaf students breaks the sound of silence
Sitting in the Lawrence High School cafeteria, an engineer at Raytheon and three students developed a quick friendship without speaking a word. The four communicated using sign language. They learned about each other's families, school, work, and the students' futures.
The engineer, Donald Slate, 26, is a key to their futures. Slate will tutor Jose Geronimo, Carmen DeLeon and Lizbeth DePena, all 21 and Lawrence High seniors, in math and English using sign language. He is tutoring them through a program called Stand and Deliver.
Posted @ 2:45 AM
Signs of improvement at School for the Deaf, Riverside
New courses and tutoring sessions aren't the only steps the School for the Deaf, Riverside, has taken over the last two years to bring up student achievement.
Even making sure to use sign language in every conversation is a way to help students learn, according to Superintendent Mal Grossinger.
Efforts to improve student performance at the school may not show results for years. Many students arrive at the school after years in traditional public schools, often lagging far behind.
Posted @ 2:43 AM
'Survivor' Star Gives Lesson to Deaf Children
It looks like fun and games, but these kids are learning a very valuable lesson.
As hearing impaired students at Rochester's School of the Deaf, they're being taught how to live in a listening intense world - something Christy Smith knows all too well.
The 30-year-old Smith was born deaf. Smith said she's never let her disability stop her, Including her run on the CBS show "Survivor." She applied, accepted and made it 33 out of 39 days on the reality series.
Posted @ 2:41 AM
Robbers leave man deaf, blind
He had always been the heart and soul of a party, but now Clint Kerr, 44, from Johannesburg is blind and deaf and his family is desperate to get him to communicate again.
"He wants to know why we won't talk to him. He really doesn't seem to realise that he has become deaf and blind," his son Darren said on Thursday.
After robbers tortured Clint at his house in Glenvista in March and hit him on the head with a hammer, he contracted meningitis and lost his sight and hearing.
Posted @ 2:39 AM
Deaf people feel silenced by telecoms
A consortium of deaf organisations have come together to launch a campaign to improve telecoms services for deaf people by demanding better services at affordable prices.
TAG, which represents all the main UK deaf organisations, is taking its case direct to Parliament. As part of the ‘Bringing Deaf Telecoms into the 21st Century’ campaign, TAG called on the Government and telecoms regulator Ofcom to put deaf people on to an equal footing with hearing people in their use of the telephone.
Posted @ 2:38 AM
Deaf get new hope with IT training
Ten previously unemployed deaf youth are about to be given new hope for the future after embarking on an internationally certified IT training course which will give them key skills for employability.
The 10 will receive their Microsoft Certified Application Specialist training from two deaf trainers, Kabelo Moloi and Nandipha Jongizulu, who are employed by the Johannesburg-based Employ & Empower Deaf (eDeaf), an entrepreneurial service provider to the deaf community in South Africa.
Posted @ 2:37 AM
Parents of LA School for the Deaf students frustrated about post-closure plans
The shock over the shutdown of the Louisiana School for the Deaf in the wake of an investigation into alleged sexual conduct is now producing a different kind of confusion.
Parents with children in the school say they are having trouble finding out where to go next. An information hotline has been set up so parents could get information about alternative classes and transportation.
Parents say they are frustrated from getting the run around. Also, the students themselves are having a hard time adjusting to the sudden changes in their routines.
Posted @ 2:36 AM
October 3, 2008
Deaf School Abuse
Fourteen years ago, 13-year-old Daniel Lewis enrolled as a boarding student at the Louisiana School for the Deaf, a place that was supposed to give him the skills to engage with the world.
That August, Daniel — with bright blue eyes and blond hair, but borderline mentally retarded and smaller than his peers — moved into a room in the middle school dorm on the school’s Baton Rouge campus with three other boys.
Posted @ 7:57 AM
Deaf adults have lifetime literacy needs
Emerging through the awakening phase of their adulthood, some deaf people face difficulties with literacy and feel inferior when using English. Their English skills are not equal to those of some hearing students receiving a Grade 12 diploma when they have graduated.
I often hear the statement, "I have poor English," made by the deaf adults with minimal literacy, and they don't feel confident to write sentences to communicate with the hearing.
Posted @ 7:54 AM
School for deaf changes name, mission
The Louisville Deaf Oral School, celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, has changed its name to the Heuser Hearing & Language Academy.
The school is merging boards with a sister organization, the Heuser Hearing Institute. The board includes representatives of the University of Louisville, Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare and Norton Healthcare.
Posted @ 7:53 AM
Teachers learn to instruct deaf, hard of hearing
An unusual program at California Lutheran University is training teachers to work with deaf and hard of hearing students.
The Thousand Oaks university started the program last year because there is a shortage of those trained teachers in California, said Maura Martindale, the program's director.
"This started at the request of parents of deaf children," Martindale said. "The real drive comes from parents."
Posted @ 7:46 AM
Beverly School for the Deaf 'rebranding' is underway
After 132 years, changing your name isn't easy.
But the Beverly School for the Deaf — or what is now The Children's Center for Communications — is doing just that.
"It's going to really help broaden and communicate what we do on campus," Executive Director Mark Carlson said. "So many people don't realize what we do."
Posted @ 7:45 AM
Music for the Deaf
For many of us, going to see live music on the weekend is something we take for granted. We obsess over a band, listen to their music and go to their shows.
There's a smaller segment of the population that has been mostly ignored by musicians, but they're just as passionate about the music: the deaf and hard of hearing.
Sean Forbes is a music fan, even though he hears about 10 percent of what most people hear. He's been partially deaf since he was an infant.
Posted @ 7:42 AM
Deaf panel offers personal perspectives on daily life
Deaf Redbirds hosted a panel of deaf adults to discuss different perspectives on the day-to-day lives of hearing impaired individuals on September 22 at 7 p.m.
Jessica Strohfeldt, co-president of Deaf Redbirds Association, participated in the panel. She is a second year graduate student in special education with a focus on deaf and hard of hearing students.
Strohfeldt grew up in oral education and really struggled to listen because she only used a hearing aid in one ear. She did not learn sign language until she attended college in California, but she is now learning more about the deaf culture and really loves it.
Posted @ 7:41 AM
Deaf and blind students get on-the-job training
About 65 percent of deaf adults are unemployed. For blind adults, the unemployment rate is about 80 percent.
The Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind is trying to change that grim employment outlook for its students with an internship program funded by an $80,000 state grant. Building on its program for at-risk students, it is working with area employers to give seniors on-the-job training four afternoons a week. The school pays the salary and on Fridays helps the students with life skills such as banking and budgeting.
Haylie Johnson, a 17-year-old senior at the school for the deaf, landed a job at Ancona, a Colorado Springs welding shop. Under the watchful eye of shop foreman Ron Norton, she's learning to cut metal and clean machinery and will eventually learn welding. Owner Jim Thiessen said Johnson is being trained as any other apprentice to the trade.
Posted @ 7:37 AM
September 12, 2008
Ubisoft to include subtitles for hearing-impaired
In order to make games more accessible to those with hearing impairment, Ubisoft Wednesday announced plans to include subtitles in all internally-developed titles.
The first games to support subtitles will be Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia, and Shaun White Snowboarding.
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"This commitment entails modifications to some of our game engines, as well as the inclusion of subtitles in the conception phase of game development," said Ubisoft, the world's sixth largest publisher.
Posted @ 9:59 AM
Kathy Cox outsmarts 5th-graders, wins a million
The fifth-graders never had a chance. Georgia State school superintendent Kathy Cox became the first $1 million winner Friday night on the FOX TV series “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader” by answering correctly the question: Who was the longest reigning British monarch?
It was a giddy performance on screen, recorded Aug. 6 in Los Angeles. Cox watched the show with about 100 supporters and friends at Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill in Peachtree City, all whooping at her big game show gamble that paid off.
She said her entire winnings will be donated to three schools: Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon; Atlanta Area School for the Deaf in Clarkston and Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Spring.
Posted @ 9:57 AM
Alan Hurwitz is Deaf Life's Deaf Person of the Month
The joys and challenges of heading NTID
When I came to work at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in 1970, I was an education specialist in RIT's College of Engineering and College of Applied Science and Technology. NTID was still very much in the experimental phase. It wasn't known how well deaf and hard-of-hearing students would fit in on a campus filled with thousands of hearing students.
Coming from a college background that offered little or no support services, I immediately knew NTID was a unique resource. But it is more than that. I consider NTID to be a national treasure.
Posted @ 9:56 AM
Women going to international conference for deaf workers
Two local women will be crossing the globe to represent the 4-States at an international conference for Christian, deaf workers.
Mary Alice Gardner, an instructor of deaf communications at Ozark Christian College, says she'll be working a lot at the event the first week in October.
She says sign language is not universal , so she will assist participants with communicating.
Carole Roper, a retired postal worker, is deaf herself and will also be a delegate.
Posted @ 9:51 AM
Deaf Community Responds To Reading Level Comment
WAPT News was flooded with feedback after airing a story on sign language interpreter Greg Goldman.
Goldman was highly visible during Gov. Haley Barbour’s news conferences on Hurricane Gustav.
However, some members of the deaf community said they were upset about a statistic he quoted about their average reading level.
Goldman told WAPT that his job is extremely important because many deaf people have a fourth-or fifth-grade reading level.
Posted @ 9:50 AM
Early intervention helps infants born deaf
Infants with permanent hearing loss benefit in terms of language development from being enrolled very early -- before 3 months of age -- in intervention programs, according to a new study.
Normally, children with moderate to profound hearing loss exhibit delayed language skills at 12 to 16 months of age, compared with children with mild to minimal hearing loss, the researchers explain in the medical journal Pediatrics.
Previous research indicates that children who are deaf or have hearing loss who are not diagnosed early and do not receive early intervention for language development do not catch up to their hearing counterparts in language skills, or in "social skills, literacy, and academic skills, resulting in lower potential employment levels as adults," Dr. Betty Vohr, of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues point out.
Posted @ 9:49 AM
Teenager almost deaf after waiting too long for ear drum surgery
In the latest bungle involving an Australian hospital, a teenage boy in Tasmania has reportedly waited so long for surgery to repair his perforated ear drum that he is almost deaf.
Though 15 year-old Jeremy Brewer had been listed as a category one case by the hospital, three and a half years down the line he is apparently still waiting for surgery.
The Royal Hobart Hospital has admitted that an administrative mistake has been made but meanwhile the teenage boy's hearing and speech have significantly deteriorated and according to his mother he is failing at school.
Posted @ 9:48 AM
Deaf boxer dogs animal shelter’s budget
The recent rescue of a deaf white, 6-month-old boxer puppy has the Riverbend Humane Society in need of financial help.
Maggie, or so she is called, was rescued around three weeks ago after she was spotted running free in a field miles from the shelter by area mail carriers, said Melissa Fox, a volunteer and board member with the society.
She was starving and skinny and apparently had gotten hold of something that was poisoning her, Fox said. On top of that, rescuers discovered that she was born deaf, a genetic abnormality of her breed.
"I would say she's probably one of the worst ones we've found health wise. Once she got to the shelter she refused to eat," Fox said. "She was very, very thin. She was kind of almost lifeless. Her tongue ended up swelling up - that was when we knew there was something wrong. She was in pretty poor shape."
Rescuers proceeded to take her to a local veterinarian to be nursed back to health in an intensive care unit. Three days later, the organization was stuck with an $800 bill.
Posted @ 9:47 AM
How Technology Changes Deaf History
For generations, Deaf artists and poets relied on personal connections to tell their stories. But advancement in technology through blogs or video "vlogs" has changed the way their message can now be spread.
A first-of-its-kind conference, made possible by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities, will discuss how changing technology is affecting storytelling in American Sign Language in the Deaf community.
More than 400 people are expected to attend the symposium, "Redefining the Literary Expressions of Deafhood: The Impact of the Digital Age," Oct. 3 and 4 at RIT/NTID.
The conference will trace the emergence of Deaf/ASL literature and explore its roots in the works of contemporary Deaf poets, storytellers, bloggers and vloggers. Scholars, creative artists and the public will discuss the way modern technology is affecting narratives previously passed on in person with American Sign Language. It will also offer a rare opportunity to see live works of Deaf performers.
Posted @ 9:47 AM
Three appointed to commission for deaf
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has appointed two new members and reappointed one to the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
“All Kansans deserve equal access to quality services,” Sebelius said. “This commission works to improve the state services available to those who are deaf or hard of hearing. I’m thankful for their work.”
Jack Cooper, Gardner, attended both the Kansas School for the Deaf and the Nebraska School for the Deaf prior to attending Gallaudet University in Washington D.C. He has served as the president emeritus for the Kansas Association for the Deaf and is currently a representative on the National Association of the Deaf Region II Board. He has been appointed to a three-year term.
Posted @ 9:46 AM
Deaf Child Helped Out In School By...Tennis Balls!
When the roar of the U.S. Open subsides later this week, some of the 50,000 leftover tennis balls will be used to reduce the racket in a Westchester classroom. It's all an effort to help a young boy hear his teacher.
To 4-year-old Luc Bordier, a tennis ball is more than a toy to share with his dog. It's also a tool to create the best possible learning environment when Luc enters kindergarten.
"Luc is deaf, he was born deaf, it's a genetic thing, transmitted from his mother and I," says Robert Bordier, Luc's father.
Posted @ 9:44 AM
River Valley Church Tends To Deaf Evacuees
A River Valley church is making a difficult situation much easier for some Hurricane Gustav evacuees with special needs.
The Hands in Christ Deaf Ministry at the First Baptist Church Of Lavaca is hosting five deaf evacuees.
Church officials said they offered their services as soon as they heard evacuees would be returning to Fort Chaffee.
Posted @ 9:44 AM
6-year-old serves notice at White House
At the ripe age of 6, Declan Hurley of Clarence knows exactly what he wants out of life: to be the first deaf president of the United States.
Standing in front of the Treasury Building after touring his hoped-for future home Thursday, Declan said he wants to be president because he’s smart and wants to help people.
“And I want to make money,” he added, proving that he may some day be one of those truth-telling candidates.
Declan toured the White House with his parents, completing a dream that began when he wrote to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N. Y., to ask for tickets.
Posted @ 9:42 AM
August 29, 2008
Biophysical Method May Help To Recover Hearing
Scientists based in Switzerland and South Africa have created a biophysical methodology that may help to overcome hearing deficits, and potentially remedy even substantial hearing loss. The authors propose a method of retuning functioning regions of the ear to recognize frequencies originally associated with damaged areas.
Hearing loss is an increasingly important problem in societies of growing average age. The conventional hearing-aid and cochlear implant technology have only been partially successful in recreating the experience of the fully functioning ear.
Posted @ 5:17 AM
Cure for deafness now within reach
The transfer of a specific gene is shown today by a milestone experiment to trigger the growth of new hair cells in the inner ear - the usually irreplaceable sensory cells that pick up sound vibrations and that are lost as a result of ageing, disease, certain drugs, and by excessive exposure to loud sound.
The approach, which one day could help millions of people worldwide with deafness and inner-ear disease, is made possible by a technique that is demonstrated in the journal Nature by an American team lead by Dr John Brigande of the Oregon Hearing Research Centre, Portland, who himself is profoundly hard of hearing.
Posted @ 5:11 AM
Communication gap frustrates deaf drivers, police
For a hearing driver, getting a traffic ticket is a relatively straightforward experience.
But if you're deaf, will you leave the scene knowing exactly why you were pulled over and what you should do next?
It depends on the willingness of both parties to bridge the communication gap, say deaf individuals and local law enforcement officials. The resources available to police officers in dealing with the deaf and hard-of-hearing community vary by department, and the deaf community — like any population — is not uniformly aware of police expectations in the event of an arrest, traffic stop or emergency situation.
Posted @ 5:09 AM
Counting the Days Until the World Goes Quiet
Some sounds, like car horns and bad ringtones, are annoying. Some are soothing, like wind through trees or waves crashing on the beach. Some are smile-inspiring, like the perfect song or the laughter of friends and family. These sounds are the symphony of life.
But what if, a month from now, everything suddenly stopped and the world was quiet? Before they disappeared forever, which noises and voices would be savored?
For Jessica Stone, it wasn't a hypothetical question.
Posted @ 5:08 AM
Vibering Jewelry Senses Danger To Help Deaf
Sometimes I come across products and ideas that help make the world better in ways that might not have been imagined. The Vibering by designers Kwang-seok Jeong, Min-hee Kim and Hyun-joong Kim is one such creation.
People who are hard of hearing or deaf miss out not only on the sweet sound of music or the sound of a loved ones voice, they also cannot register more important sounds like car horns or any other sounds of danger emanating from out of sight sources.
Posted @ 5:07 AM
Allstate award of $500 aids Kansas School for the Deaf
Allstate Insurance agent Jeremy Schafer has been was awarded an Agency Hands in the Community award.
With this award comes a $500 donation from The Allstate Foundation to the Kansas School for the Deaf where Schafer volunteers.
Posted @ 5:06 AM
Technology helps Oroville interpreter communicate with deaf community
She's worked as a sign language interpreter for 23 years. And if she could be granted one wish, it would be that people understand how deaf people communicate.
About 23 years ago, Bobbie Holcraft needed a job. She found a newspaper advertisement for a sign language interpreter, and the employer would train. However, they wanted someone who knew something about signing.
Holcraft checked out a library book, studied for three days, and got the job. She has worked as an American Sign Language, or ASL interpreter ever since, and she would like to make people aware of communication obstacles the hearing impaired face.
Posted @ 5:05 AM
August 25, 2008
School For Deaf Plans Overhaul Of Gallaudet Hall
The American School for the Deaf is planning a $31 million overhaul of Gallaudet Hall, the 87-year-old signature structure on the landmark school's North Main Street campus.
The Georgian-style building, with distinctive white columns, opened in 1921 — when the school moved to West Hartford from Asylum Avenue and Cogswell Street in Hartford. It has never had a major renovation.
The school has applied for zoning approval and a public hearing will be held Sept. 3 before the town plan and zoning commission.
Posted @ 1:09 AM
Niagara Falls Teen Teaches Hearing to Understand Deaf
Jena Kramer looked just a little bit nervous as she sat at the front of a group of teens and pre-teens at the 18th Street Community Center.
Then with a big smile and a nod to her mom she began to sign.
Jena, 14, who will become the first fully deaf (she has her own personal translator) student at Niagara Falls High School this year, is on a mission to teach hearing kids how to communicate in sign language. Every Wednesday in August, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the 18th Street Community Resource Center, Jena will conduct classes to teach the language of the deaf to those who can hear.
Posted @ 1:08 AM
Sarah needs sponsors to compete in Deaf Olympics
A young Ashington football star is hoping to compete in next year's Deaf Olympics.
But without vital sponsorship she might not make the games.
Sarah Page, of Houndslow Drive, has just returned from the Women's Deaf World Cup held in Greece, where she helped England finish third in the competition.
Now the 17-year-old, who is profoundly deaf, is preparing to represent Great Britain at the Deaf Olympic Games, which will be held in Taipei next year.
Posted @ 1:07 AM
Deaf Elderly Misdiagnosed with Dementia
Elderly deaf adults may score lower on mental health tests because of a language translation issue, new research shows.
David Feldman, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and assistant professor of psychology at Macon State College in Macon, Ga., and colleagues looked at scores on the nationally used Mini Mental Status Exam. The exam is given by doctors to detect early signs of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Posted @ 1:06 AM
VL2 approved for $12 million funding over next three years
The Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2), headquartered at Gallaudet, has been approved for funding for the remaining three years of its five-year cycle at $4 million per year. The approval came August 11 from the National Science Board, and all members of the team are “popping the champagne,” as recommended by Dr. David Lightfoot, assistant director of the National Science Foundation, Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences.
The science board’s approval follows a highly successful second-year review of VL2 in April by a renowned group of researchers, including international scholars that resulted in a recommendation for the continued funding.
Posted @ 1:05 AM
Deaf BMX cyclist fulfils Olympic dream
Maria Belen Dutto fulfilled on Wednesday her dream of competing at the Olympic Games. However, the Argentine could not hear the shouts of the crowd gathered at the BMX circuit, and she will not be able to hear her national anthem if she wins a medal on Thursday.
Dutto is 98 per cent deaf, but she represents Argentina alongside Maria Gabriela Diaz in one of the newcomer sports of the Beijing Olympics.
BMX is a young, spectacular cycling discipline. Protected with helmets and knee and elbow pads, eight cyclists race frantically through a dirt circuit, complete with bumps and jumps, in around 35-45 seconds.
Posted @ 1:05 AM
Awesome Parents Celebrate 50th Wedding Anniversary
James Walter and Barbara Ann Allison Wheeler of Brandon renewed their vows at a celebration of their golden wedding anniversary July 19 at the Tampa Baptist Deaf Church, where Walter is a deacon. The Rev. Ronaldo Feliciano officiated. They were joined by 160 friends and family members.
As part of the festivities, their granddaughter Gabrielle Tatro played harp "for hearing people," Barbara Wheeler said in an interview conducted after the festivities by writing questions and answers on paper. The guests of honor are both deaf.
Posted @ 1:03 AM
Theater to offer captioned movie for deaf and hearing-impaired
It’s only appropriate that members of Chattanooga’s hearing-impaired community will be able to screen a captioned version of the movie “Wanted” this weekend since many of them have wanted such a service for a long time.
Chattanooga State Technical Community College has teamed up with Carmike Cinemas to offer the open-captioned movie at Northgate Cinema 8 at 4 and 7 p.m. on both Sunday and Monday.
Posted @ 1:02 AM
President of School for Deaf, Blind replaced
Pamela Shaw, president of the state School for the Deaf and the Blind in Spartanburg, is no longer in that position after seven months on the job. The commission that oversees the agency isn’t saying publicly why.
After a 4½-hour closed meeting, the school’s Board of Commissioners announced Friday that Shaw, of Spartanburg, would be replaced by Carol Mabry, who will serve as interim president of the school while a search for a new president is conducted.
Posted @ 1:01 AM
Deaf Swimmer Defies Limitations
The sectionals are where Western New York's top high school swimmers come to compete. A sophomore from North Tonawanda, just 15 years old, blends into the crowd of elite athletes. He's earned the right to be here-- among the area's best. This is how family and friends describe him:
"He is determined. He will not give up. He is a fighter and he's very confident." "He has more of a drive than most other kids." "He's just an animal! There's no other way to put it."
And there's something else about Scott Farrell you'd never know by looking at him.
Posted @ 1:00 AM
Local girl places in Latin convention
To Staci Greenberg, her daughter is an example of how much children can achieve when given the proper support and resources.
Peri Himsel, 15, is deaf. Five years ago, Greenberg began investigating several schools that were operating programs for deaf students. Eventually, they settled on Glen Landing Middle School which offered support for deaf students through the Gloucester County Special Services. With the support of both teachers and interpreters, Greenberg felt that her daughter was exactly where she needed to be.
Posted @ 1:00 AM
Center hands out first scholarship
Before she was diagnosed with a hearing problem, Pam Groth said that her life was a lot like living in an old photograph- flat and colorless.
The first-time recipient of the Northville Hearing Center Educational Scholarship, Groth’s winning essay explained how being fitted with a hearing aid changed her life, and opened her up to the type of everyday sensory experiences that most people take for granted.
“I always tell people that is was like everything was in black and white,” Groth said. “Then when I got my hearing aid, my world became color. I could hear music for the first time. Your world changes when you can hear sound.”
Posted @ 12:59 AM
Transatlantic study to help deaf and hard of hearing children with their maths
Parents and teachers of children with hearing problems are well aware that they often struggle in maths as well as in other subjects.
According to a recent study by the National Center on Low-Incidence Disabilities in America, children with these disadvantages lag farther behind their hearing classmates in maths than they do in reading.
Other studies have suggested that these children's difficulties with reading are related to language skills, instructional methods, and underlying cognitive strategies.
Posted @ 12:57 AM
August 5, 2008
Woman Won't Let Deafness Make Her Miss a Step in Life
When Marlee Matlin competed this spring on Dancing With the Stars, Antonia Mueller cheered for the award-winning deaf actress in the silence of her living room.
Born with 90 percent hearing loss, Mueller has been taking hip-hop, Latin and jazz lessons for six years at the Simply Dance Academy in Port St. Lucie.
The mother of four knows all about the counting, the cues and other extra things that deaf dancers must do to compensate because they cannot hear the music.
Posted @ 3:41 AM
Deaf Cheerleaders Tops in Contests
The past school year was an exciting one for 17-year-old Shaniqua Felton of Green Bay, who achieved national success on her varsity basketball cheerleading team.
As a sophomore at the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Delevan, Felton has been part of the two-person team for the past three years. This year, Felton and Nick Shaw of Sun Prairie won two awards in their first competition against hearing cheerleading squads.
In March, the team was invited to the Cardinal Classic competition in Sun Prairie to compete against squads that are not hearing impaired.
Posted @ 3:39 AM
Deaf Children Dance In Music Video
A group of deaf and hard-of-hearing children had the opportunity Thursday to create a music video. The children attend a special summer camp in Broward County that integrates the children with hearing disabilities with hearing children in an educational program.
"I try and plan always opportunities for our deaf and hard-of-hearing kids that they wouldn't have otherwise," said program education coordinator Allyson Dudich.
Posted @ 3:39 AM
The deaf and domestic violence
We all know there is problem with domestic violence in our society, but imagine if you were deaf and experiencing domestic violence. Deaf people are at risk for being long-term victims of domestic violence. There are several issues and barriers that deaf people face and fortunately Vermont is one of the few states that have services specifically for deaf persons experiencing domestic violence.
Some specific issues that deaf people face are...
Posted @ 3:37 AM
Signing Mass, music is a subtle art of hands in motion
On the first Sunday of every month, a very special Mass is celebrated at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Woonsocket.
The first three pews on the left are filled with worshippers who happen to be deaf – as is the priest, Father Joseph Bruce, who celebrates this Mass in voice and sign. Sitting in a chair at the altar is Mary Ann Sullivan. As the choir begins the opening hymn, Sullivan stands and signs along with the song. The deaf participants follow suit, and together, raised in song, both hands and voices fill the church.
Posted @ 3:36 AM
Idaho school for deaf, blind remains in Gooding for now
State Board of Education Director Mike Rush expects the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind to remain in the farming town of Gooding for at least three more years.
The board is contemplating whether to keep the school where it is, move it to a bigger city, or _ what has become the least popular option _ close the 40-acre campus and deliver the education through outreach programs at individual school districts.
Posted @ 3:34 AM
Summer Course Looks at Images of Deaf in Literature, Film
This summer, students at the University of Virginia have been given the chance to look at traditional literature and film with a new eye — or a new ear.
"Deafness in Literature and Film," taught by Christopher Krentz, an assistant professor of English and director of U.Va.'s American Sign Language program, is one of the University's summer course offerings. Krentz examines the representations of deaf people in literature and film during the last two centuries, including works by mostly unknown deaf authors, either written in English or performed in American Sign Language on film.
Posted @ 3:32 AM
July 29, 2008
Marlee Matlin is eliminated from `Dancing With the Stars'
For the third consecutive week, a last-place finish has led to elimination on "Dancing With the Stars."
This week's celebrity casualty was Marlee Matlin, who came into Tuesday's results show with 21 out of 30 points. The actress, who is deaf, lost her timing at various points during her mambo Monday with professional partner Fabian Sanchez, and the judges took note.
Posted @ 5:47 AM
Deaf Rider Ashley Fiolek Inspires Others
The sounds of motorcycles ring out throughout the trees and the hills of Washougal this weekend — for most racing enthusiasts, anyway.
Ashley Fiolek, a 17-year-old who looks even younger, cannot hear a thing. And while that might be a disadvantage at times, she sure does not show it.
Fiolek, born deaf, is in first place in the points race midway through her first full season riding in the Women’s Motocross Association. Already, she has developed quite a following.
Posted @ 5:46 AM
A Breakthrough in Rapid Emergency Alerts for the Hearing Impaired
A series of tests by Twenty First Century Communications (TFCC) has confirmed that they are the first and only major hosted (Software as a Service, or SaaS) notification vendor to provide true TDD/TTY delivery of emergency notification and messages without pre-registration.
Twenty First Century's Universal Communications System is unique in that it can both detect TTY machines and deliver TTY messages, without the need of a relay operator.
Posted @ 5:45 AM
Disability Rights Advocates Celebrate ADA with "Deaf Day"
The Center for Disability Rights kicked off its anniversary celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Tuesday with a "Deaf Day." The event brought presentations from vendors demonstrating technology and resources for the deaf, and discussions about deaf health.
Chris Hildebrandt is the director of advocacy for the Center for Disability Rights. He says Deaf Day, with its showcase of communications technologies for the deaf like video relay and interpretive typing commemorates the legislation that banned discrimination against people with disabilities.
Posted @ 5:43 AM
China updates Olympic website to serve blind, deaf
China has improved its official Olympic website to serve the blind and deaf, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) announced here on Wednesday.
Both the BOCOG website and the China Disabled Person's Federation (CDPF) website were updated to enable the blind, those with low vision and the deaf to get information.
Posted @ 5:41 AM
Near miss for deaf students
It would have been a disaster had the canteen ceiling at the School for the Deaf in SS5 Kelana Jaya fell three minutes earlier.
Fortunately, the children finished their meal at the canteen and returned to class three minutes earlier when the asbestos ceiling came crashing down.
The incident, on Thursday (July 17), was the second such incident in the school within two years.
Posted @ 5:40 AM
Did You Hear the One About the Deaf Rabbi?
It's hard enough to be speak your native language when you're profoundly deaf, but 35-year-old Darby Leigh took it the extra step when he learned Hebrew well enough to become a rabbi.
Last week, he signed on as the new assistant rabbi at B'nai Keshet, Montclair's Reconstructionist synagogue. This YouTube video gives a glimpse of what it took.
Before studying to become a rabbi, Leigh, the child of deaf parents, worked in theater. From the B'nai Keshet news release:
Posted @ 5:39 AM
Implanted Computer Chip Helps Deaf to Hear
A five-year-old girl who has been unable to hear sounds since she was born has been helped by a team of Korean and Italian researchers.
The girl's brain functions normally but what has been damaged is the nerve that transmits sound signals from the ear to a part of the brain called the aural centrum.
Posted @ 5:38 AM
Don’t get frustrated, I’m deaf
About three years ago, a fire truck went speeding through a red light in Buffalo en route to an emergency. The truck hit a vehicle that was passing through the intersection. The deaf couple inside the vehicle never heard the truck coming. Paramedics arrived on scene but were unable to communicate with the couple because they had no idea that the two were deaf.
In a similar incident, police pulled over a man for speeding a couple years ago in Manchester. The man tried to hint to the officer that he was deaf, but the officer did not understand. The officer became frustrated with the man for not cooperating and handcuffed him.
Posted @ 5:36 AM
July 22, 2008
Hearing Test May Measure Cognitive Decline
Central auditory testing may act as an early screen for cognitive decline in the elderly, researchers here said.
In a study of 313 patients at least 71 years old, several measures of central auditory processing were impaired in those diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and, to a lesser extent, those with memory impairment but not meeting criteria for Alzheimer's, reported George A. Gates, M.D., of the University of Washington, and colleagues in the July issue of Archives of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery.
Central auditory processing is the brain function involved in interpreting complex sounds such as speech.
Posted @ 12:07 AM
Hearing birds chirp is music to my ears
Single-sided deafness is a type of hearing loss where there is no functional hearing ability in one ear. This condition can cause many problems such as headaches, irritability, tinnitus, difficulty distinguishing where sounds are coming from (resulting in possible safety issues) and decreased attention during conversation.
All of this can lead to social isolation and even depression. If you are feeling this way, there is a new technology, the Baha implant, that can restore your hearing. You can avoid years of grief and unnecessary surgeries.
I gradually lost my hearing when I was in my 30s. Initially, I had hearing loss in both ears. The first procedure that was used, stapedectomy, was done on both ears. The stapes bone was removed and wire was inserted to vibrate the sound. The surgery worked for years, until a car accident knocked the wire off.
Posted @ 12:06 AM
July 21, 2008
Bill aims to inform about deaf, blind school choice
Students from across the state attend the CSB and the CSD, including many from rural districts where there are insufficient resources to provide adequate services to deaf and blind students.
Currently, parents and guardians of disabled children are given a notice of procedural safeguards that provides them with an overview of their educational rights. The notice must be given to parents the first time their child is referred for a special education assessment.
Under Torrico's bill, the notice would include information regarding the School for the Blind and the School for the Deaf.
The Assembly also voted 64-0 to approve AB 2604, a Torrico bill that encourages cities and counties to defer the collection of development impact fees to the close of escrow, with the exception of school impact fees.
Posted @ 11:58 PM
What's it like to be deaf?
The learning station was about being deaf, and one little girl wanted to know how deaf people learn to talk.
The teacher, 26-year-old Mary Ryan, a certified teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing, told the child that to learn to speak, deaf people feel the throats of their teachers while they are speaking. They also watch their teachers lips as they talk and learn to imitate sounds.
The child was attending Ability Awareness Day on June 27 in Elk Grove, a collaboration of the Northwest Special Recreation Association (NWSRA) and Elk Grove Park District day camps. The goal was to provide campers with training on the challenges people with various disabilities face.
Posted @ 11:55 PM
Deaf woman sues over McDonald's snub
A deaf woman is suing McDonald's - because she reckons workers refused to let her order at a drive-through window.
Karen Tumeh of Lincoln, Nebraska, says workers insisted she either order at the electronic speaker along the drive-through lane or come inside to get her grub.
Tumeh wears a hearing aid but still cannot hear while using the drive-through ordering box.
Posted @ 11:54 PM
Students learn sign language for hi-tech link with deaf school
They've already mastered French, Spanish, German and even Mandarin. And now pupils at an Exeter school are using their skills to speak in sign language.
Students at St Peter's Church of England School are using video conferencing to communicate with youngsters from the Royal Academy for the Deaf, in Topsham Road.
The scheme started this term and teachers say it has benefited children from both schools.
Pupils at St Peter's, a specialist language college, already use video conferencing to speak to students in Germany.
Posted @ 11:53 PM
Developer says he hasn't given up on Homes for the Deaf
A developer has withdrawn his plan to build senior condominiums in the landmark Victorian mansion owned by the New England Homes for the Deaf.
Although his plan ran afoul of zoning rules, Gordon Thomson of The Thomson Companies of Danvers is vowing to someday redevelop the Water Street landmark, which still has windows boarded up from the Danversport chemical plant blast more than 18 months ago.
"We now have to redirect our efforts," said Thomson, who declined Monday to elaborate, saying more should be known in 30 days. He is looking at other uses for the property.
Posted @ 11:53 PM
Lack of interpreters halts deaf man's dream
A severe shortage of sign language interpreters in Christchurch means a deaf student has to put his dream of training as a mechanic on hold.
Marlin Flanagan, 20, wanted to enrol in a Certificate in Motor Industry programme at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT), starting today.
The polytech has estimated the cost of interpreters and note takers to assist him in his studies to be more than $60,000.
Posted @ 11:51 PM
Briton Rosanna Mazzocchio wins Miss Deaf World 2008 in Prague
Rosanna Mazzocchio, 19, from Britain became Miss Deaf World 2008 at a beauty contest staged in Prague Saturday, followed by Czech Michaela Theimerova, 21, and Yulina Arslan, 19, from Russia, contest director Josef Uhlir has said.
Sixteen young women from various countries competed in the finals for the eighth Miss Deaf title in history.
German Jasmin Katzberg, 22, was voted Miss Sympathy.
Posted @ 11:50 PM
Former CSDR Teacher Sentenced in Molestation Case
A former California School for the Deaf Riverside teacher was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to molesting two girls.
Daniel Ray Metroka has been in jail since his arrest on June 30, 2007. On that day, Metroka and his wife were baby-sitting the two girls, 5 and 7 years old.
"There are no words that truly describe the betrayal we feel," stated a letter from their parents read by Deputy District Attorney Kelli Catlett. " ... Dan stole our children's innocence forever."
In the letter, the parents requested that he identify any other victims who may be deaf and have trouble communicating.
Posted @ 11:49 PM
Island woman finds her true voice
Every year, thousands of young people go to college to discover who they are and who they want to be.
For Staten Islander Lakshmi "Sasha" Ponappa, self-realization meant finding her true voice -- which she accomplished without being able to hear others speak.
Ms. Ponappa, born deaf, recently received her master's degree in social work from Gallaudet University in Washington, a renowned school for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
Posted @ 11:48 PM
July 11, 2008
Deaf Exposition: They Have Cancelled Our Contract
Al Lepre, founder and Executive Director of American Deaf Exposition announced today that the South Street Seaport Deaf Exposition, previously scheduled for August 17, 2008 will not go as planned.
"I am saddened that our contract was cancelled and that we have not been able to resolve this problem in time to hold the South Street Seaport Deaf Exposition this year," said Lepre, a recipient of an award for his leadership in the deaf community by NYC Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. "This event is terribly important to the deaf community. Each year, it brings together over 5,000 deaf people. Like no other event in the northeast, it brings deaf people together, introduces them to the latest developments in technology and promote deaf culture."
Posted @ 11:50 AM
July 8, 2008
Mexican Children Receive Free Hearing Aids
A group of impoverished children in Mexico are hearing for the first time, thanks to a group from the Hill Country’s NewSound Hearing Aid Centers.
The group of 11 volunteers traveled to the Mexican cities of Monterrey, San Luis and Cuidad Victoria last month to provide free hearing aides.
“There is an overwhelming sense of privilege to be a part of this effort,” said Kim Johnson, spokeswoman for NewSound. “It was like having a front-row seat to witnessing lives changed; the children arrive unable to hear, and they leave hearing.”
NewSound organized the annual project with the help of the Starkey Hearing Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps impoverished children receive hearing aides.
Posted @ 9:06 AM
Sudden Hearing Loss May Be a Warning of Stroke
Compared with control subjects, patients who had sudden loss of hearing had a 1.64-fold greater risk for stroke during a 5-year period, after adjustment for confounding factors, in a preliminary study from Taiwan, published in the June 26 Online First issue of Stroke.
Using data from a national database, the investigators compared the incidence of stroke during a 5-year period among 1423 patients hospitalized for an acute episode of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) vs 5692 patients who had been hospitalized for an appendectomy (a surrogate for the general population).
"We suggest that SSNHL patients, in particular those with other vascular conditions or elderly patients, should undergo a comprehensive hematologic and neurological examination to help clinicians identify those who are potentially at risk for stroke in the near future," the group, led by Herng-Ching Lin, PhD, at Taipei Medical University, in Taipei, Taiwan, writes.
Posted @ 9:01 AM
Utah Parents of deaf and blind students plan to rally
With 45 days until school starts, parents of some children who attend the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind are unhappy about their children being shuttled every year from one school to another.
A couple of them are taking their concerns to a rally tomorrow at the state Capitol.
There is a building for this group of children, and there is funding for this school year. But these parents say that many young children with disabilities have faced the question of "where?" for a decade now.
Posted @ 9:00 AM
Deaf children find rewarding work at Six Flags
Six Flags guests can hear six international languages spoken by All American Cafe employees this summer — and see one signed.
Morgan Campbell and Laura Lower, both 16 and of Arlington, are two of 11 deaf employees on staff. Five days a week, they don highlighter-yellow shirts and prepare hamburger vegetables and condiments at the restaurant alongside peers who can hear. Campbell and Lower, students at the Texas School for the Deaf, communicate with each other through American Sign Language.
Posted @ 8:59 AM
Transition Workshop Scheduled for Deaf Teens and Their Parents
Deaf Initiatives will host its 6th biennial workshop "Making a Difference with Your Future" on September 12, 13 and 14, 2008 at the Columbus Marriott Airport. This transition workshop is for deaf and hard of hearing high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors and their parents/guardian from the state of Ohio.
There is not cost for the workshop, including hotel accommodations and meals for those students who qualify. The workshop will focus on the students' self-awareness, development and career awareness and how to begin preparing for the future. Transition from school to work or post secondary education will be addressed at the workshop, helping parents and students identify the best path to success.
Posted @ 8:58 AM
Musical frequencies turned into tactile sensations for deaf
For Ellen Hibbard music has never really meant very much.
Deaf from birth, she would only be able to experience a tune by placing her hands on a flat wooden surface near the stereo or radio, or directly on the amplifier.
But now that's all changed. And for the first time she has an understanding of why people love music - be it rock and roll, jazz or classical.
Posted @ 8:57 AM
Miss Deaf Texas stresses need for better education
Miss Deaf Texas can't accept that the average deaf high school graduate only reads at a fourth-grade level, and her quest for better education for the hard of hearing soon could have a national audience.
"It starts by better educating parents so they won't be frightened or indifferent," said Katherine "Katie" Deshea Murch, 22.
"Rarely are hearing parents excited about having a deaf child. Most feel numb and lost and believe it's their fault. Children feel this," she said, placing her hand over her heart.
Posted @ 8:55 AM
Deaf native of Ghana fulfills dream to be citizen
Any time he got a break from his job cleaning the fourth floor at the Nassau County Supreme Court, Joe Sarpong would duck into a closet and study a notebook.
"How many amendments are there to the Constitution?" he would ask himself, or, "How many voting members are in the House of Representatives?"
Sarpong, 36, who was born in Ghana, had a lifelong dream: to become a United States citizen. But a taxing job and a long commute from the Bronx were the least of his obstacles.
Posted @ 8:51 AM
July 1, 2008
Deaf Social Network
The leading deaf social network on the Web was recently upgraded with extra features at www.TagDeaf.com. TagDeaf offers free registration and helps connect deaf, hard of hearing, and any interested hearing parties.
Members of TagDeaf.com are offered a multitude of features with their free registration, including picture sharing, blogs, videos, forums, classifieds, instant messaging, groups, and polls. The simple design and feature set are reminiscent of social networks such as Myspace.com, but with a dedication to the hearing impaired community worldwide. Members of the social network also have the ability to invite others to the site, and search for or browse members with similar interests to help them connect with each other.
Posted @ 8:12 AM
June 30, 2008
Protests Held at Conference for the deaf
The deaf, their parents and advocates disagree on whether children are best off learning sign language or using hearing implants and aids to thrive in a hearing world, a split that was on public display today as 1,500 convention-goers and about 600 protesters converged on the Midwest Airlines Center.
Inside, the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing was holding its 48th biennial convention sponsored by groups including Gallaudet University and the National Institutes of Health.
Posted @ 7:32 AM
National Technical Institute for Deaf: 40 years
Dave Killam arrived on the Rochester Institute of Technology campus as a frustrated 19-year-old.
He was born deaf to hearing parents and went through elementary, middle and high school ostracized as the only deaf kid in class. His first few moments at RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf changed his life.
"I walked in and saw so many flying hands, people actually signing to each other. I had never been around so many other deaf people in my life and I immediately started feeling comfortable," said Killam, 59, who now lives in Orlando, Fla.
Posted @ 7:31 AM
Pair get prison term for stealing disability check of deaf victim
Through an interpreter for deaf people, a young man told Hampden Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney this week what it felt like to be held captive in a car by two men and robbed of his disability check.
The man said the crime against him has left him unable to walk alone.
"I'm afraid of who I speak to, who I meet," the man said. "I was afraid to come to court. I wanted to wear a disguise so I wouldn't be recognized."
Posted @ 7:29 AM
As personal technology explodes, deaf and blind people feel left behind
Olivia Norman's fingers fly across her laptop keyboard, dexterously tapping out instant messages to friends and entering search-engine queries without committing a single typo. A minute later, she's listening intently to the voice cues that help her read e-mail and send text messages on her smartphone.
Norman is blind, so the cues help her navigate the tiny keypad and understand the words on the screen.
She can't order an on-demand movie because she can't read the on-screen menus. She had trouble setting up an online music account because the speech-synthesizing software she relies on couldn't find the right link on the Web site.
Posted @ 7:27 AM
For Deaf Rider, Frustration Mars Metro Experience
A Gallaudet University student who is deaf wrote to describe the communications hurdles involved in riding the transit system. The writer compared his experiences this year with his first impressions of Metro.
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
I want to express my frustration as a Metro customer. When I was a freshman, I used Metro quite regularly. It was pretty efficient, quick, on time quite often, and communication was pretty good.
Fast forward: It has been a colossal nightmare. The first major delay [Metro Center platform rehabilitation on President's Day weekend] wasn't too bad, but the next one [switch replacement at Van Ness] was extremely frustrating.
Posted @ 7:26 AM
Hands Of Hope For Students
Sahuarita's Shellie Shipley is on a mission, a quest that is garnering results for deaf students in Southern Arizona.
Shipley is a teacher for hearing-impaired students at the School for the Deaf, located on the campus of Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind on Speedway Boulevard in Tucson.
The accredited school provides education to children from kindergarten through high school. Its goals are to provide comprehensive learning, and promote student academic achievement. ASD prepares students to meet their social, cultural and language needs, and teaches both English and American Sign Language.
Posted @ 7:25 AM
Twist on Texting Gives Voice to the Deaf
Most people might think of texting or online chatting as a fun way to pass the time, but a twist on the idea could bridge the communication gap for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The UbiDuo is basically two keyboards with a wireless connection which can allow people to type back and forth instantly. Stormont-Vail HealthCare in Topeka recently purchased one.
Posted @ 7:24 AM
Rape Crisis Center Bringing Awareness to Deaf Community
Rape doesn't discriminate. In fact, the Rape Crisis Center is increasing its efforts to help the deaf and hard of hearing community when it comes to this crime. It's called Sign No to Rape.
The deaf and hard of hearing community are a group that often go unheard of when it comes to rape. We talked to a deaf victim who wants this to end.
Sign language is how Donna Gura communicates everyday. She's been deaf since she was born. But growing up deaf hasn't been her only challenge in life.
Posted @ 7:23 AM
June 12, 2008
Smoking, Obesity Linked to Permanent Hearing Loss
A new study has found that obesity and smoking could be linked to permanent hearing loss.
Although scientists involved in the Antwerp University study noted that high levels of work-related noise remains the biggest risk, they added that both smoking and obesity could cause hearing loss by decreasing blood flow and oxygen to the ears.
The study was conducted jointly between the University of Paris and University College London.
This causes a build up of free radicals in cochlear tissue, causing damage, hair cell death and ultimately loss of hearing, scientists said.
Others have suggested such a link, but the most recent report, involving more than 4,000 men and women between the ages of 53 and 67, made the most solid conclusion to date.
Posted @ 9:52 AM
Noise On The Farm Can Cause Hearing Loss
One of the most important ways to obtain information and know what is happening around us is through sound. We talk with others, get weather information by listening to wind, thunder, and rain, know if a machine is working properly or if a pig is stuck in a hole in the fence, and we listen to beautiful music. Thus, sound can be useful and pleasing, or it can be unpleasant, irritating, and damaging to one's health. The latter, or unwanted sounds, are called noise.
What Is Sound?
Movement of people, animals, machines, and other things cause pressure waves in the air. If these pressure waves are within a certain range of frequencies, our ears interpret them as sound.
Posted @ 9:49 AM
People with Disabilities May Underestimate Benefits of SSDI
Individuals who become disabled regularly encounter a number of choices and new challenges, including treatment for their injury or chronic illness. Allsup, which represents tens of thousands of people in the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) process each year, finds people often underestimate and lack information about the benefits of SSDI.
One example is that many people think SSDI benefits are means based, or only available to individuals with little or no income.
Posted @ 9:43 AM
Caregiver Accused In Deaf Man's Abuse
A Siloam Springs caregiver charged with abusing a deaf and mute man appeared in Benton County Circuit Court on Monday.
Pat Pokrzywinski, 47, is charged with abuse of an adult. He was arrested June 5, 2007, and released on a felony citation after another caregiver reported injuries to police. A status hearing is planned July 31 before Circuit Judge David Clinger.
Pokrzywinski worked more than one year as live-in caregiver for the handicapped man as an employee of Bost Inc., according to court documents.
Posted @ 9:41 AM
Deaf Youth USA set to launch
America’s deaf youth are “brilliant, technological savvy, and burning up with potential, ideas, and passion,” says Gallaudet graduate Melissa Malzkuhn. As of yet, however, this demographic has no national organization. That is why, this July, she will help launch Deaf Youth USA (DYUSA) with a gathering in Bayou Segnette State Park, La., July 3 to 7, prior to the biennial National Association of the Deaf (NAD) conference. This event will harness the energy of up to 200 individuals representing 47,000 deaf youth and, she hopes, set in motion a new youth movement.
“We'll have forums, discussions and workshops,” Malzkuhn said, that will cover “politics, issues and advocacy work (what can we do, what do we want to do), and youth activism (how, why, and what tools), to media (how we can utilitize it as a tool), and international opportunities, to the future/direction of DYUSA.”
Posted @ 9:40 AM
Deaf People Can Do Anything
Emily A. Isberneur, 9, a third-grader at Wilson Elementary School in Adams Center, is hearing-impaired, and Friday she had a chance to socialize with other hearing-impaired children.
Through the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services, Emily and about 20 other hearing-impaired pupils learned how to dance at the Clayton Opera House.
"I always loved dance," Emily said. She is the daughter of Melissa A. and Donald F. Isberneur.
Posted @ 9:39 AM
Author recalls how blind, deaf woman touched the world
Today the name probably won't ring many bells, but in the mid-1800s Laura Dewey Bridgman was once as famous as Queen Victoria of England.
Pittsburgh couple Robert Alexander and Sally Hobart Alexander say Bridgman was so famous that little girls would name their dolls after her and then poke out the dolls' eyes because the blind and deaf girl was so admired.
Robert Alexander teaches English and writing at Point Park University. Sally Hobart Alexander teaches literature and writing at Chatham University and is the author of children's books. She is blind and has some hearing impairment as well. The book grew out of her discovering Bridgman when she started experiencing hearing problems some years ago.
Posted @ 9:38 AM
Child's kiss leaves mother deaf in one ear
A New York woman who partially lost her hearing after her daughter kissed her on her ear two years ago says she's getting some of her hearing back.
Gail Schwartzman of Hicksville said her daughter -- who was 4 at The Time -- gave her an affectionate kiss on her left ear and the suction from the kiss managed to displace her eardrum and paralyze three bones in her ear, Newsday reported Sunday.
Posted @ 9:37 AM
High-scoring deaf Tavares High bowler wins Spirit Award
Although Tavares High's Deanna Walden is a bowler, she never has heard the sweet sound that her 15-pound ball makes as it knocks down all 10 pins.
She is a weightlifter, too, but hasn't heard the clanking as weights are placed on their racks.
She also has missed the sounds that most teenagers take for granted: the ringing of a phone when a friend calls, the sounds a video game makes, the music flowing from an iPod.
Posted @ 9:36 AM
June 7, 2008
Bill seeks to expand captioning for deaf
For many years, hard of hearing and deaf individuals have used caption decoders to aid them in watching their favorite television shows. About two decades ago, the federal government required television networks to provide closed captioning for viewers with hearing loss.
More recently, the Internet has boomed, moving well past the point of only being used as a research tool to find information on numerous topics and to keep updated on local, national and world news. Not only is the Internet filled with information, it is also used as a communications tool, including e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms and message boards.
Posted @ 4:49 AM
Nothing gets in way of Miss Deaf Colorado
Kathy Ronci is getting used to being perched.
Whether it's a few feet above the ground in a horse saddle, or thousands of feet up in the cockpit of an airplane, this college student doesn't see limitations for herself.
Most people would consider Ronci's inability to hear the hooves pounding the ground or the radio blaring takeoff instructions as a drawback, if not an outright limitation.
Posted @ 4:47 AM
Deaf Vineland student learns art of cooking with interpreter's help
Having Luis Franco in a culinary arts class at Cumberland County Technical Education Center has proven to be a learning experience for three people.
Deaf since birth, Franco, 20, of Vineland, graduated from Vineland High School last year, but through a special education program, he's been able to continue his education for two years at CCTEC.
His educational interpreter, Angela Jones, 36, of Vineland, who is employed by the Vineland School District, said she is learning many new words such as French culinary terms which she practices at home.
Posted @ 4:46 AM
Gene therapy might help deaf kids
Gene therapy involving antibiotics could help deaf children with an inherited defect from losing their sight, suggests preliminary research published today.
The findings, which were presented to the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in Barcelona, Spain, today, show that the approach might be worth exploring further after promising laboratory results.
Posted @ 4:43 AM
June 5, 2008
Vibrating bracelet for the deaf
I think this is one of the most interesting and wonderful designs I have come across. Invented for the deaf to move around much more easily, this could save their lives. And I'm not talking about hearing aid.
The bracelet is created by three designers, Kwang-seok Jeong, Min-hee Kim and Hyun-jonng Kim. The "Vibering" consist of two rings and a wristwatch. The two rings are worn on both hands. They are designed to act as the ears, by listening for sounds coming from behind, while at the same time determining the distance and position, and vibrate according to the source.
Posted @ 10:29 AM
Freshman overcomes disability to lead team
Long before Coastal Carolina third baseman Scott Woodward stepped in a batter's box, he had two strikes against him.
Stricken with meningitis at 14 months old, he was left severely hearing impaired in both ears and facing imposing daily challenges.
A hearing aid helped, but he had to tune in more attentively to what people said, read lips and work diligently on speech development.
"It made me feel I wasn't like a normal person," Woodward said.
Posted @ 10:27 AM
A quiet advantage
Born deaf, Zach Fox naturally took to visual stimuli at a young age.
The youngster immersed himself in books, prompting countless trips to the library for his family. “That is what really helped him through the years,” Cheryl Fox said of her son’s reading.
Gravitating toward information transcended Zach’s hearing loss, molding him into a ravenous consumer of current events, geography and history.
Posted @ 10:25 AM
She's deaf, a college valedictorian and planning FBI career
For Dave Collins, it was an epiphany, the moment when he realized that his special-needs daughter was very special indeed.
Sara, then 7, had spent four years in an alley behind Farnsworth Middle School doggedly trying to ride a bicycle — a major undertaking for a girl who was profoundly deaf and struggled with her balance. She had the cuts and scrapes to show for it.
"I begged her to stop and she never stopped," he said, estimating that Sara fell more than 1,200 times.
Posted @ 10:22 AM
Deaf child to attend baseball camp thanks to Boxford boy
A shared passion for baseball has brought together two boys from two different worlds.
Elvis Calcano, 12, who is deaf, will learn more about the game when he attends the Mike Bush Fantasy Baseball Camp for the deaf and hard of hearing in Missouri from June 23 to 27.
It's all thanks to Anthony D'Ambrosio, 11, of Boxford, who cleaned neighbors' garages and washed their cars to raise more than $1,000 to enroll Elvis in the camp.
Posted @ 10:17 AM
May 29, 2008
Deafness No Bar to Woman's Goal of Legal Career
Everything from television technology to text messaging has made life easier for Sonya Smith.
When she watches programs on Lifetime, her favorite cable channel, she sometimes reads the closed captioning - a feature that allows text to be displayed on the screen; at other times she reads the characters' lips.
"I love looking at people and reading their lips," said Smith, who was born deaf.Text messaging also is popular and she uses it as another tool to communicate with family and friends via her cell phone.
Posted @ 4:15 AM
Deafening Call for New Toy Law
Health Canada is examining the way it tests noisy toys to make sure they aren't damaging childrens' tender ears.
Many toys seem to sing, shout, beep and wail at deafening decibels.
And the current testing method -- holding a toy at an adult arm's length -- doesn't reflect the reality that kids hold toys close to their ears, audiologists warn.
Noise-induced hearing loss is growing. Studies in the U.S. show 12.5% of children have hearing problems caused by noise in one or both ears.
Posted @ 4:11 AM
Deaf Groups Warn of TV Complaints
Commercial television networks face the possibility of potentially embarrassing discrimination lawsuits by the deaf after failing to renew an agreement that covers the captioning of programs.
Under a five-year deal signed with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 2003, the networks committed to increase the captioning of their content to 70per cent in exchange for an exemption from claims of discrimination.
Posted @ 4:09 AM
Teen determined that being deaf will not keep her from achieving her goals
As slow music plays, 16-year-old Annette Tavernese moves gracefully across the studio at Jackson Dance Center.
Her muscular legs carry her in fluid backward or forward steps. Her back arches, her head falls back, her arms float.
The 5-foot-1-inch, 114-pound teen has danced since she was 5: ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, contemporary and more.
Posted @ 4:09 AM
Woman Scamming Deaf Community
San Diego police are looking for a woman who goes by "Lisa" who they say is suspected of defrauding members of the deaf community with a pyramid scheme.
Police say she offers to pay off credit-card debt in exchange for cash, then pays the bills with bogus checks and online payments drawn from stolen bank accounts.
Posted @ 4:08 AM
St. John’s Schools for the Deaf Gets New Computer Lab
As part of the activities marking the international telecommunication day, a new computer lab for St. John’s school for the deaf was inaugurated at the school grounds in Kanifing.
In his welcoming remarks at the launch, Mr. Daniel Mendy, Principal of the school, gave a brief history of the project.
According to him, it all started in 2007 when the Information Telecommunication Association of The Gambia (ITAG) provided a preliminary training for the deaf girls of the school. ITAG was impressed with their performance and decided to expand the scheme to a computer lab.
Posted @ 4:07 AM
DNR takes hunter education classes to Michigan School for the Deaf
Dressed in camouflage pants and headband, Mike Fisette, 16, looks right at home leaning against a rack of shotguns. Nearby, his buddy Ray McCall, 14, sits on a table heaped high with outdoor gear.
Usually, John Bell's uniformed team of instructors is riding herd over 50-100 youngsters at a time. Here, the two teens are outnumbered three-to-one but no one seems to mind. The class might be smaller but the goal is the same: to teach budding young hunters the basics of Michigan's original outdoor sport.
Posted @ 4:06 AM
School for deaf, blind to close
The Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled in Hampton will close at the end of June, clearing the path to consolidate the state's two schools for students with visual and hearing impairments.
The state Board of Education voted Wednesday to end state-operated programs at the Hampton school, including residential and day-program services, on June 30.
Forty students are enrolled in Hampton's programs this school year, and all but 14 are graduating or moving to Staunton, according to state Department of Education spokesman Charles Pyle. School officials plan to work with those 14 families to arrange for their continued education in their home districts, Pyle said.
Posted @ 4:05 AM
Nearly Deaf Professor Teaches English Literacy
After three degrees, after five universities, after 40,000 pupils, and after 84 years, 10 months and 25 days, John Kuhlman has circumnavigated his way back to the essentials of education: a teacher and a student in a room.
John Kuhlman, left, a retired college professor, helps Jose Cordova, an immigrant from Ecuador, learn English.
Decades ago, he was a student, the 6-year-old son of a wheat farmer in eastern Washington, going to a school that fit all 12 grades under a single roof. His earliest memory of academic life is of hiding behind the classroom stove lest he be called upon to wash the lunch dishes.
Posted @ 4:04 AM
Hawk Relay Becomes Sponsor of Momentum Cycling Team
Momentum Cycling Team announced today that Hawk Relay, a fast-rising Relay provider for people who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Speech disabled, has agreed to sign on as a sponsor for the team, the only USA professional UCI Track Team with 2008 Olympians.
Hawk Relay is a Deaf owned and operated telecommunications relay provider for Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Speech disabled people. Hawk Relay operators provide functional equivalence in telecommunications - allowing relay users to communicate with anyone.
Posted @ 4:02 AM
May 18, 2008
School for Deaf employee
A New York State School for the Deaf employee can’t say that she is headed to Afghanistan this year.
But Patricia Brunk told her students before she left, "I am bright enough to surmise that it will be a warm and sandy year, but not in Hawaii or Florida."
A member of the Army Reserves for eight years, Brunk is a psychologist at the school. She left her civilian job recently to begin training for deployment to Afghanistan. She resides in Blossvale with her husband. They have lived in the area since Brunk took her job at the School for the Deaf in the summer of 2006.
Posted @ 1:27 AM
17-year-old makes strong case for granting the deaf drivers' licences
Why should the Government give deaf persons permission to drive?
That was the US$1,500 question that 17-year-old Christophe Phillips asked at the Altamont Court Hotel in Kingston Saturday.
Phillips, a student at Lister Mair Gilby School for the Deaf, placed first in the Caribbean District of Optimist International's Communication Contest for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and won for himself US$1,500 in scholarship money.
Posted @ 1:26 AM
Viable Opens Call Center in Maryland to Serve Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Viable, a next-generation video relay services provider for deaf and hard of hearing people, has extended its call center activities to downtown Frederick, Maryland. The call center is located at the heart of the city, at the intersection of the Market and Patrick Streets, close to the main campus of Maryland School for the Deaf (MSD).
Established in 2006, Viable works to open new avenues of communication for deaf and the hard of hearing people through its video relay services. This can be accessed using the Internet at home, or via wireless connectivity from other locations.
Posted @ 1:22 AM
A Glove that speaks for the Deaf
Technology has always been of great help to the disabled and given them a helping hand to allow them to live a normal and healthy life like others. Inventors from Carnegie Mellon University have come up with a novel idea of a glove named Handtalk that will convert hand movements into text and allow the deaf to express themselves better.
The Handtalk glove needs to be worn on the hand by the deaf or mute person and depending on the variation of movement, the device will convert it intelligently into text and display it on a mobile phone for the other person to comprehend it easily. The Vibrating Braille mobile lets the blind express themselves using technology, now it’s the turn of the deaf and the mute.
Posted @ 1:21 AM
Church Harnesses Internet For Ministry To Deaf
Karen Kurt steps to the wooden podium and proclaims the word of God—silently.
With her hands and facial expressions, she uses American Sign Language as the lector for an online Liturgy of the Word for deaf Catholics.
“It’s a great feeling to be able to help reach thousands of deaf Catholics. My family thinks it’s neat that I’m doing this! Seeing ordinary, humble, deaf people signing the liturgy can be inspiring to others, to know they can too learn the Word,” said Kurt in an e-mail.
Posted @ 1:20 AM
CETRA Bridges Communication with the Deaf and Hearing
In response to increased demand from clients, CETRA is pleased to announce the addition of Sign Language Interpretation to its worldwide translation and interpretation services. Accordingly, CETRA has joined the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). RID, the leading organization in the U.S. representing sign language interpreters, has established a national standard of quality and promotes the continued growth and development of the profession of interpretation and transliteration of American Sign Language and English.
Posted @ 1:20 AM
Deaf couple take a leap to hear in Hear and Now
Imagine living your life deaf since birth.
Imagine meeting and falling in love with your spouse, who is also deaf, and living decades of happy, productive lives in silence.
Imagine finally having the chance to hear. Would you do it ? How would it change you and your relationship ? That’s the basis for a deeply personal documentary today on HBO.
Posted @ 1:19 AM
Deaf student overcomes barriers in the classroom
For most, technology can be considered an "extra" or a "perk," but for the past several months it has been a necessity for Janel Kendall.
Kendall, who is the first deaf full-time student to attend North Central Michigan College, has been using video conferencing for the past semester to connect to interpreters at Southern Illinois University to sign her professors’ in-class lectures.
Posted @ 1:18 AM
Deaf students take over town for a day
For the average person, a day of running errands usually does not mean a day of struggling with communication.
For a deaf person, it is rare to go from the grocer to the bank to the post office with the ease and comfort of being able to communicate in his or her native sign language.
For 140 deaf and hard of hearing children, on May 2 the ability to easily communicate with every person across the city became a reality.
Posted @ 1:16 AM
Sexual assault hot line expands to serve deaf
The Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault has expanded its hot line to serve those who are deaf or hard of hearing, according to an announcement from the organization.
The TYY crisis hotline can be reached at 327-1721 and is operable 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
Posted @ 1:15 AM
Trip to Jackson exposes similarities as deaf, hard-of-hearing
The deaf and hard of hearing can do anything except hear, according to B.J. James, audiologist for Centennial BOCES and the Morgan County schools.
In an effort to connect youngsters who share this “low-incidence disability,” students from many northeast Colorado schools gather once each year for an educational field trip. This year’s trip, held Friday afternoon, was at Jackson Lake State Park near Orchard.
Posted @ 1:13 AM
March 13, 2008
Protecting hearing is no cheap trick
What do rock stars, soldiers and factory workers all have in common? Careers with a potential for significant hearing loss.
So it was no surprise that Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen eventually hooked up with Donald Kleindl, a certified audio prosthologist who owns 15 hearing clinics, including the Professional Hearing & Audiology Clinic in Libertyville.
The result was custom-made ear monitors -- in Cheap Trick's black and white checkered motif, of course -- that protect Nielsen's hearing and allow him to control his own audio mix when the band plays.
Posted @ 8:48 AM
Deaf dancer will be watching Marlee Matlin on "Dancing With the Stars."
Heather Wagley was putting her best foot forward on a recent afternoon, but her instructor Larry Nemeth wanted a better best foot forward, and then another.
So Nemeth, who teaches at the American Dance Exchange in Highland Heights, led Wagley to repeat a sequence of steps here, a sequence there, allowing the music to pace them through a medley of dances, from West Coast jitterbug to fox trot to tango to cha-cha -- as other students and instructors danced around them.
Posted @ 8:46 AM
Students Protest at St. Mary's School for the Deaf in Buffalo
Parents and students at St. Mary's School for the Deaf are angry over the dismissal of a longtime math teacher. As news 4's George Richert reports, some students openly protested the move during school hours.
At dismissal time the protest spilled outside, these 31 students of St. Mary's School for the Deaf spent the day inside, but refused to go to class, because one of their favorite teachers, Nettie Brewer was being let go.
Kylea Stewart, student, "She was great, she taught us a lot of things, and we felt motivated in that class and all the students loved here, right...yea"
Posted @ 8:42 AM
'Aren't you supposed to be deaf? How come you can talk
Starting in late summer, thousands of salmon will return to statewide rivers and creeks to complete their life cycles. This annual event attracts thousands of anglers from all walks of life.
Last August, I had an opportunity to take a young apprentice for his first king salmon experience. Our hands silently danced and flashed with excitement as we walked toward my favorite hole on the Skokomish River. Without a verbal word, we reviewed drift fishing techniques and the challenges of landing the "big one."
Posted @ 8:41 AM
School for deaf keeps president
More than one year after students at Gallaudet made national news by forcing its new president out of office, the school decided last week to keep its interim president for an extended period before seeking a new one.
On its campus in Northeast D.C., the turmoil, which swept the nation's only deaf college, continues to have a significant effect on present-day policies. But Robert Davila, the school's new leader, is making inroads in restoring confidence on the once-divided campus. Though it was an interim appointment, his contract has been extended until December 2009, and a spokesperson said there is currently "not an official timeline for a (new president) search."
Posted @ 8:41 AM
College Hosts Pivotal Deaf Conference
Last weekend, Swarthmore College hosted a conference that brought together members of the international Deaf community to explore a wide range of topics related to sign language and Deaf culture. Linguistics professor Donna Jo Napoli organized the conference, entitled “Around the Deaf World in Two Days (It’s a Small World): Sign Languages, Social Issues/Civil Rights, Creativity,” and the William J. Cooper Foundation sponsored the event.
Posted @ 8:39 AM
Via Internet, NY doc helps deaf Ugandan man hear
Through the power of Internet technology, medical experts in New York have switched on an inner-ear device, allowing a man in Uganda to hear for the first time in two years.
Activating the device from halfway around the world is a first, and highlights a trailblazing way in which the growing realm of telemedicine - conducting medical procedures from remote locations - can enhance the lives of people in struggling nations.
Posted @ 8:38 AM
Man charged with killing deaf pregnant teen girlfriend
Twenty-seven years after the body of a deaf teenage girl was found in a Palos Township forest preserve, prosecutors say they have solved her murder -- charging her high school boyfriend, who also can't hear.
Gary Albert, now 45, faces first-degree murder charges for allegedly stabbing Dawn Niles more than 30 times. He appeared at a brief hearing at the Bridgeview courthouse Tuesday morning and was being held on $1 million bond.
Posted @ 8:36 AM
Deaf Mother of 3 Denied Service at Restaurant
Karen Putz has been deaf since the age of 19, the result of a rare family gene. As a feature writer for the web site disaboom.com, Putz often chronicles issues relating to those with disabilities, including discrimination.
But it wasn't until she was denied service at an Illinois fast-food restaurant and found herself face-to-face with discrimination that the mother of three wound up writing about herself.
Read Karen Putz's account of her incident on her blog, DeafMom World, in her own words. Watch the ABC News video of her story here.
Posted @ 8:35 AM
February 6, 2008
For a Woman Who Is Unable to Hear, More Difficulties Lie Ahead
For Ramona Palanco, life is silent. It is now becoming darker, too.
Ms. Palanco, who has been deaf since birth, lives with her husband, Gustavo Palanco, and their four children in a duplex apartment on Roosevelt Island. She holds a steady job assembling office chairs at the Pibbs Industries factory in Queens and has joined an online deaf community that speaks in sign language via Web cam.
But some of the light in her life is gradually dimming. Ten years ago, she began to suffer headaches and noticed blurriness in her eyesight. Her peripheral vision darkened; at times, it disappeared completely. A visit to a doctor confirmed the worst: Usher syndrome, a gradual worsening of vision that affects a small percentage of the hearing impaired and leads to complete blindness. At the time of the diagnosis, Ms. Palanco was 26.
Posted @ 2:27 AM
School for Deaf addressing suicide
They live in a world of silence and sometimes isolation. It can be aggravating, maddening and even tormenting.
Courtney Gunville knows well the frustrations of being deaf. The cheerful 19-year-old college freshman was born deaf. She has experienced the anxiety of feeling alone in a roomful of people.
In 2003, Gunville watched a deaf friend slip into such despair that the friend committed suicide.
Both were students at the Wisconsin School for the Deaf. So when Gunville learned that the school was launching a suicide prevention program, she was eager to help.
Posted @ 2:26 AM
With an ear for the deaf
To have an ear to hear the pang of the deaf is noble in any way. For Prof. Warren Estabrooks of Canada, it’s a mission too.
Being one among the founding fathers of the Auditory Verbal Therapy, Prof Estabrooks have plenty to share from his own experiences. He had come to Kozhikode for inaugurating one such centre in Kerala - at Govindapuram - for the hearing impaired children.
“Today, with all the available hearing devices and technology, there is no need for our children to remain deaf,’’ he told this news paper. And, implementing the auditory verbal approach could be the first option for these children to relieve themselves from dumbness, he added.
Posted @ 2:25 AM
Verizon Offers More Help to Customers With Disabilities
Consumers who have hearing, visual, cognitive or physical disabilities are receiving more assistance than ever from the Verizon Center for Customers with Disabilities (VCCD) in Marlboro.
When the center opened in 1992, it had a staff of six representatives who handled approximately 4,000 calls a year from customers with vision, cognitive, mobility, speech or hearing disabilities. Today, as the center celebrates its 15th anniversary, its staff has grown to more than 100 representatives who now handle some 700,000 calls nationally.
Posted @ 2:22 AM
Through Deaf Eyes makers accept Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University News Award
Makers of the PBS documentary Through Deaf Eyes recently accepted a silver baton as winners of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University 2008 News Award. The award ceremony, held at Columbia University in New York City, honored the creators of 13 documentaries and newscasts chosen from a pool of 510 radio and television news entries that aired in the United States between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007.
The two-hour documentary, created by Florentine Films/Hott Productions and WETA-TV, Washington, D.C., in association with Gallaudet University, follows 200 years of deaf life in the United States. The award was presented at an event fitting to the art forms it celebrated, showing glimpses of the touching, colorful, thought-provoking, and groundbreaking documentary winners.
Posted @ 2:21 AM
Deaf man opens store dedicated to unusual plants
A visitor to The Silent Seed can open the door with a loud squeak and slam it behind her. A few feet away, hunched over his indoor flower bed, owner Jude Platteborze will never look up.
A light tap on his back, however, stirs Platteborze into action. He straightens up with a wide smile and extends his hand, nodding, leading the visitor into the store.
He makes her feel welcome without uttering one word. He has to.
Posted @ 2:20 AM
Oldest Deaf Man in NY Turns 105
It was a grand celebration for a man believed to be the oldest deaf man in New York State.
Cliff Leach turned 105 years old earlier this week. Saturday, the Advocates for Housing for Deaf Seniors, as well his friends and family put together a surprise birthday party for him.
Cliff credits his health with staying active late into life. He regularly bowled and golfed until he was about 90 years old.
He says he still wants to get out and play America's pastime.
"I played baseball for many, many years, in the semi-pro league. More than 20 years, that's how I kept in such good shape," Cliff said.
Longevity runs in Cliff's family. He has a 98-year-old sister living in Virginia.
Posted @ 2:19 AM
January 16, 2008
Silence is Golden
I was sound asleep when I finally accepted the fact that I have a significant hearing loss in my left ear. Lying on my right side with my "good" ear pressed firmly into the pillow, I didn't hear the telephone ring until my man, Spud, kicked me under the covers to answer it.
At first, I thought post-nasal drip had blocked my sinuses. When decongestants did not relieve the symptoms, I blamed it on the Florida trip from which we had just returned.
Having traveled by plane, I surmised my ears still were under high-altitude pressure. No matter how much I swallowed, though, it didn't help . . . nor did pinching my nose and forcing air into my Eustachian tubes, which resulted in nothing more than stuck-together nostrils.
I decided to give it some time to self correct until the ringing began about a week later. Actually, it's not ringing. It's more of a high-pitch squeal that constantly reminds me that something weird is going on inside my head.
So I began self-testing my hearing by scratching my right shoulder to listen to the sound it made and then scratching my left to listen to . . . nothing.
Posted @ 7:19 AM
Problems persist at School for Deaf
State education officials hoped the hiring of a new director at the Rhode Island School for the Deaf would put the school on an upward path.
Lori Dunsmore, the school’s fourth director in six years, started in September with plans to change the school’s instructional practices and culture after years of troubles that include discontent with the deteriorating condition of the 60-year-old school building, inconsistent leadership, low test scores and poor morale.
Posted @ 7:14 AM
Deaf Puppy Heads to Chicago
60 pounds of love. That's what one Savannah couple is calling their foster rescue dog, a pit bull puppy named Casino. For months, the couple's been searching for the "right home for him." We say that because Casino has a disability. One not everybody may be able to deal with. NEWS 3'S Tristan Tully has the story of the affectionate pooch and his road trip of a lifetime.
Lovable doesn't quite seem to cover the bases when talking about this handsome pup. Cynthia Sharpley and her husband took Casino in as a foster dog after one of her husband's coworkers found him in downtown Savannah. Little did they know, Casino would touch their lives as much as they touched his, "His face, I mean you look at his face and you just fall in love with him. I mean those big ears and the eyes..."
Posted @ 7:10 AM
Interpreter is link for deaf girl, Sartell church
The word of God is not only heard at Messiah Lutheran Church, it's seen.
The Sartell church has taken the unusual step of hiring a sign language interpreter for its Sunday school and Sunday service to accommodate a St. Cloud family with a daughter who is deaf.
"It is one of the moments where the opportunity was presented to us to minister to this family, and we went ahead with it," said the Rev. Vince Bain, pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church.
Posted @ 7:08 AM
Deaf Use Online Interpreter In Aberdeen
With more deaf students than interpreters, Aberdeen Central High School has been struggling to serve deaf students. The administration hasn't been able to find additional interpreters in the area, so they are getting help from technology.
If ever there's been such a thing as educational TV, this is it.
"Well because here at school, we have three deaf students, but only have two interpreters," Joseph Hagen said.
Posted @ 7:07 AM
Gallaudet announces honorary degree and professor emeritus awards
Four very deserving individuals were selected to receive honors on May 16 at Gallaudet’s 139th Commencement exercises. Mr. Ed Bosson, ’66, widely known as the “Father of Video Relay Service,” and Mr. Charles Williams, a community activist and former member of the Board of Trustees, will be awarded honorary doctorate degrees. Drs. Virginia Gutman, who will retire this spring, and John Van Cleve, who retired this fall, will be named professors emeriti.
Bosson began his quest to bring video communication to the deaf and hard of hearing community in the early 1990s when he persuaded the Texas Public Utility Commission to test a video conference product to see if it could be a viable form of communication for deaf and hard of hearing people.
Posted @ 7:07 AM
San Antonio suburb refuses permit for deaf seminarians
The City Council in this San Antonio-area community has refused to allow deaf seminarians to use a nine-bedroom house as a study center.
The council voted 3-2 Tuesday to deny a special-use permit sought by the nonprofit House of Studies for Deaf Seminarians to use the home as a study center for hearing-impaired priests.
The city's zoning law allows up to five unrelated people to live in the 8,100-square-foot, nine-bedroom, nine-bath house, but the Rev. Tom Coughlin had sought a permit to allow the religious community to grow larger.
Posted @ 7:06 AM
Deaf dog needs help to get home
It's hard enough to lose a pet, but Helen Margiotta has a bond with her beagle, Clyde, that transcends the typical pet/person relationship. Both Margiotta and Clyde are deaf.
Margiotta adopted Clyde last winter after a close friend found him abandoned, flea-covered and starving.
Since then Helen and Clyde have developed a special relationship.
Posted @ 7:05 AM
Richardson teen's 'Ref for the Deaf' lets athletes feel officials' signals
Celia Beron isn't known for compassion on the soccer field. The wily eighth-grader from Richardson has a reputation for steals and blocked kicks, and she has the trophy collection to prove it.
These days, she's capturing attention for a major assist to other athletes, but she didn't use her legs. She used her heart.
Celia, 13, invented Ref for the Deaf, a special bracelet that vibrates for deaf players who can't hear the sound of a referee's whistle or starter gun.
Posted @ 7:05 AM
Deputies nab teens accused of assaulting deaf man on bus
A quick response by Wayne County Sheriff's deputies assigned to patrol a Detroit Department of Transportation bus led to the arrest of two teens accused of assaulting and robbing a deaf passenger.
Sheriff Warren C. Evans said today that about 3 p.m. Saturday, deputies responded to a complaint of a disabled man who had been the victim of an assault on a coach at Meyers and Curtis on the city's west side. The victim, 36-year-old Highland Park man, was on his way home when the incident happened.
Posted @ 7:03 AM
December 28, 2007
Bellevue Woman Advocates for Deaf Community
Bellevue resident Betty Timon knows what it's like to watch a movie or television show and not understand a thing.
It's not because of a confusing plot or storyline. She's deaf and captioning isn't always available.
This personal understanding of the hardships that deaf and hard of hearing people face has lead Timon to dedicate much of her time to making life better for them.
Posted @ 8:52 AM
Deaf by Design
In October 2004, Carina Dennis published an article in the journal Nature telling the story of a couple identified pseudonymously as John and Karen. The two of them were deaf, and they wished to take advantage of genetic screening to deliberately conceive a deaf child.[1] Their desire to create a child that would inherit their disability raised a number of interesting questions, which must have promptly been forgotten, since I just heard about all this today.
Those questions are raised again in an article published a few days ago in the Sunday Times of London, under the headline “Deaf demand right to designer deaf children.” A bill currently making its way through the House of Lords, the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill, would, if passed, make it illegal for parents in the U.K. to deliberately select for artificial insemination an embryo with a genetic abnormality if other, healthier embryos exist.
Posted @ 8:49 AM
Deaf foster children find a home closer to home
He has bounced from foster home to foster home and state to state over the past decade, searching for a permanent place to lead a normal life.
Such has been the plight of deaf children with emotional or psychological scars who are part of San Diego County's foster care system.
But that same boy is now 17 and an aspiring artist who attends high school and lives in a spacious house tucked in a residential neighborhood in Chula Vista, closer to relatives and friends he had long forgotten.
Posted @ 8:47 AM
Court affirms real-time captioning for 2nd deaf student
The school district last week lost a second battle in its fight to keep from providing a real-time captioning service for two deaf students at Glendora High School.
A state judge ordered the Glendora Unified School District to begin offering the service to Victor Solorzano, 15. In May, Victor's sister Samantha, 17, won her own case against the district, which dropped its appeal of that decision in October.
The two siblings say they need the service - in which an aide rapidly transcribes class discussion onto a laptop seen by the captioning user.
Posted @ 8:45 AM
School for the Deaf and the Blind president retiring
The president of the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind is receiving accolades from colleagues, students and others as she prepares to retire next week.
Sheila Breitweiser plans to spend more time with her family.
"She said she would like to make the school the best of its kind in the country, and she's done that," said Norman Pulliam, the former board member who hired Breitweiser in 1996. The school "under 11 years of her leadership is pretty much considered the top school of its kind in this country."
Posted @ 8:44 AM
Sign of the season
Two hands moved with every spoken word as one congregation member watched intently on the day’s service.
Bradley Price, a deaf member of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Louisbourg, is a regular fixture at the church’s Sunday services. One day each month, Price is able to watch the hands of interpreter Wendy MacDonald of Sydney, as she signs the entire service including its choir songs.
“It was beautiful — seeing it in sign — the music was just beautiful, it made everything come to life for me and made me feel part of the service,” said Price as interpreted through MacDonald.
Posted @ 8:42 AM
Parents taught new Ole Miss coach Nutt lessons that led to his success
Decades before he would hear thundering cheers in college football, Houston Nutt's life was shaped by silence.
Mississippi's new coach learned most of the principles he would use in the profession whiling away the hours of his childhood at the Arkansas School for the Deaf, where his parents taught.
He learned communication, perseverance, compassion and the value of hard work as he watched his father, Houston, and mother, Emogene, dedicate themselves to improve the lives of deaf children.
Posted @ 8:41 AM
New thumb comes with new language for a deaf 4-year-old girl
The halls leading to the children's classrooms of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Edgewood are adorned with the artwork of youngsters. Tiny paper hands, the colorful outlines traced in crayon and cut with scissors, bear the carefully scrawled names of the children who created them.
The hands speak to you.
Dr. Nancy Benham, coordinator for the parent-infant program at the school, walks down a hall into the classroom where her 4-year-old daughter, Grace, is learning American Sign Language.
Posted @ 8:37 AM
Award given to Williamsburg filmmakers
Filmmaker Diane K. Garey and her husband, Lawrence R. Hott, will receive one of 13 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University 2008 Awards for broadcast journalism in January.
Their film "Through Deaf Eyes" was one of 510 submitted for consideration.
"We were very surprised," she said. The film made for the Public Broadcasting System was submitted by public television for the award.
Posted @ 8:36 AM
Deaf community still at risk
The State Member for Gympie, David Gibson MP, is calling on Anna Bligh to go further in protecting all Deaf Queenslanders with a proposal to financially assist the hearing impaired purchase special smoke alarms.
"We had the Government saying back in October that "Smoke alarms are an important life saving initiative, and the Government has recognised the needs of the hearing-impaired community by developing this proposal." quoted Mr Gibson.
Posted @ 8:35 AM
$1.2 Million RIT/NTID Entrepreneurial Scholarship Announced
A Florida-based charity that provides educational opportunities to the disadvantaged or disabled has donated $600,000 for deaf and hard-of-hearing Rochester Institute of Technology students eager to become entrepreneurs.
The Johnson Scholarship Foundation’s Endowed Scholarship for Innovation & Entrepreneurship will annually award $5,000 to 12 RIT students studying entrepreneurship and who receive support services through RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
Posted @ 8:33 AM
Children of deaf parents honored at party
Six children were honored Thursday at a party with meals and gifts for all the things they've done to help their deaf parents.
Thursday's party ---- at the Sizzlers restaurant in Escondido ---- was sponsored by Signs of Silence.
The San Marcos-based nonprofit advocacy group for the deaf and hearing impaired paid for the event with a $1,000 donation from The Giving Challenge, a national nonprofit that doles out money to groups helping other people in exchange for a videotape of the experience for its Web site.
Posted @ 8:32 AM
Sound advocate pioneers new health care approach
Sheri Byrne-Haber has a winning streak any lawyer would envy.
Since she launched a program in 2004 challenging health insurers' denials of a device that allows the deaf to hear, the East Palo Alto-based attorney has won every one of the 325 cases now completed. Hundreds more appeals are in the works, and the odds aren't in the insurance companies' favor.
When she and her clients prevail, however, Byrne-Haber noted they don't get a dime in reparation. All her clients get is the ability to hear.
Posted @ 8:31 AM
Woman leaves millions to university for the deaf
Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., has received more than six million dollars from a Fredericksburg woman who left the bulk of her estate to the university for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Virginia May Binns, a bacteriologist, was 89 when she died last year.
The money will be used to help fund a new language and communication center at the school.
Posted @ 8:30 AM
December 17, 2007
An Earful About Hearing
If your hearing isn't as good as it used to be, you may be thinking about getting a hearing aid.
Then again, there's a good chance you can't be bothered, even though you find yourself cranking up the volume on the TV set or asking a friend sitting next to you to speak up.
Hearing loss affects more than 28 million Americans. With baby boomers starting to turn 60 last year, that number is expected to nearly double by 2030, according to the Hearing Loss Association of America. The likelihood of losing your hearing increases as you get older, with up to one in three people older than 65 having some kind of hearing loss, according to the association.
Although 95 percent of Americans with a hearing loss can be successfully treated with hearing aids, only 22 percent (or 6.35 million individuals) now use hearing aids.
Posted @ 9:54 PM
Opening Up a World of Sound
When 1-year-old Gregory Moeller heard sound for the first time last month, he furrowed his blond eyebrows in puzzlement. Then he made a series of babbling sounds.
"He's hearing something,'' said Annie Vranesic, a pediatric audiologist at the Let Them Hear Foundation in East Palo Alto.
Two weeks earlier, Gregory had received cochlear implants, sophisticated devices enabling the deaf boy to hear the same sounds as everyone else, albeit in a different tone. During this visit, Vranesic turned on one of the surgically implanted devices.
Posted @ 9:51 PM
Caravan to carry gifts to Florida School for the Deaf and Blind
When Norma Rea of Ponte Vedra Beach learned that some children at The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind didn't have coats for the winter, she decided to do something about it.
An e-mail from a friend who was involved in a campaign to get donations of clothing for the St. Augustine school asked Rea to check her daughters' closets to see if they had any coats or jackets they had outgrown.
Rea decided not to stop there.
Posted @ 9:47 PM
Interpreters for the deaf give justice a voice
Justice may be blind, but it isn’t deaf.
Gary Cacciatore of Colorado Sign Language Services and other certified sign language interpreters make sure of that.
For more than 10 years, Cacciatore has provided sign language services for defendants and jurors in the 4th Judicial District.
Much like witnesses who get sworn in, interpreters take courtroom oaths to be truthful. They are paid by the state, which also funds language interpreters for non-Englishspeaking defendants.
Posted @ 9:43 PM
Deaf students sign gift lists to Santa
With eyes glowing, and genuinely bouncing with excitement, a collection of youngsters who can't hear Santa's booming "ho, ho, ho" climbed on the old elf's lap and silently shared their Christmas wishes.
The younsters are students of Butte County Office of Education's deaf and hard-of-hearing, special-ed classes in Durham, where they had a chance Wednesday to "sign" their lists to Santa's surrogate, Jerry Kaminski of Magalia. Kaminski is also deaf and signs.
Nicole Happich-Bowhall, who teaches in the Durham-based program, said this is the first time a signing Santa has come to the school.
Posted @ 9:40 PM
Technology removes ‘dis’ from ability
Bill Johnson is deaf, as were both his parents and many relatives. In the 1940s and ’50s, as Johnson was growing up in Iowa, family members had no easy way to give advance notice when they wished to visit a deaf relative.
They just piled into the car and drove to the residence.
If the relative wasn’t home, they left a note in the box that all deaf families kept outside their homes and drove back.
Posted @ 9:39 PM
Texas School for the Deaf dresses Scarbrough windows
Want a unique opportunity to enjoy some holiday window-gazing while learning something about the young deaf artists who attend Texas School for the Deaf, as well as about their unique culture and the distinguished history of their school? Visit the Scarbrough Building at Sixth Street and Congress Avenue.
Through Jan. 12, the Scarbrough windows are adorned with large 4-foot-by-8-foot holiday multimedia posters depicting still photos of students signing holiday carols, hanging photo montages and elementary student “holiday hand” mobiles. Reflecting the technology that the school is known for, large flat-screen TVs bring to life the work of video technology and digital graphics students teamed up with students studying American Sign Language as a foreign language in a compilation of movies and animated holiday sequences.
Posted @ 9:38 PM
Viable Brings on Carla Mathers as Staff Attorney
Viable Inc. welcomes Carla Mathers, Esq. to the company as its corporate legal counsel. Viable develops and provides relay service technologies, and Mathers will represent Viable on regulatory issues and counsel on in-house matters.
Mathers comes from 14 years in private practice in College Park, Md., where she was a senior associate litigating primarily employment cases. Among her areas of legal expertise are employment law, contracts and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. She has represented deaf and hard of hearing clients in lawsuits regarding access to interpreting and telecommunications services.
Posted @ 9:37 PM
Woman killed in Moreno Valley fire remembered for smile
Several hundred people gathered Saturday to honor Melissa Phoenix, one of two women who died in a mobile home fire Dec. 2 in Moreno Valley.
Friends and family recalled her inclination to take care of everyone and her hunger to learn, both in her classes for deaf students and in mainstream classes.
"It was not enough to learn signs. She wanted to learn how to spell the words in English as well, and even in Spanish," her uncle, Richard Langton, said during the service at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Jackson Street in Riverside.
Posted @ 9:34 PM
November 28, 2007
UVa Researchers Lend Aid to Future Hearing Studies
Researchers at the University of Virginia have developed a new method of growing inner-ear hair cells that will aid research to help people regain their hearing.
Dr. Jeffrey T. Corwin, a professor of neuroscience at the UVa Health System, and Dr. Zhengqing Hu, a neuroscience research assistant, have been growing cells from inner ears of chicken embryos. They hope to extend that knowledge to re-grow the inner-ear hair cells of humans.
Mammals grow inner-ear hair cells only before they are born, unlike amphibians and birds, which can re-grow damaged or lost cells. These unique structures are lost over time as mammals age, or if they contract certain infections or undergo trauma. The loss of inner-ear hair cells results in hearing loss and balance impairment.
Posted @ 7:14 AM
Are movies too loud?
After an Eyewitness News viewer contacted us because she's concerned about the volume coming out of theater speakers, we decided to go undercover for our latest investigation.
It's just another night out at the movies. But could you be in for more than a good time?
Marjorie Hopkins lives in Pinehurst. She wrote to us after she saw a movie with her grandson that she says was too loud.
"He almost immediately put his hands over his ears and a little while later started crying and said it hurt it hurt," says Hopkins. "We had to take him out of the movie," she continued, "We didn't even stay to see the end because it hurt his ears too badly."
Posted @ 7:03 AM
Sudden deafness leaves doctors at a loss
Question: I went to bed one Thursday evening, and, when I awoke that Friday morning, my hearing in my left ear was gone. I am a healthy person and have not had any injuries. I did, however, have some medical testing done within the two months prior to my hearing loss. The first was a CT scan, in which they injected me with dye to look at a joint in my clavicle. The other was a biopsy of my thyroid gland.
I went to the local urgent-care facility that day, and they found my ear to be normal except for the hearing loss. I do not have any vertigo or any other symptoms, only the hearing loss. The doctor ordered an MRI and put me on prednisone. I have since been referred to an ear-nose-and-throat specialist. He has performed numerous hearing tests. Yes, my hearing in the left ear is completely gone. He then put me on a stronger dose of prednisone that started with 60 milligrams per day and went down from there. Nothing has worked. I have an appointment with another ENT specialist in order to get a second opinion. Do you have any further ideas?
Posted @ 7:01 AM
Program checks babies for hearing problems
Student Cody Grassham wrapped a blanket tightly around a squirming newborn.
Within seconds, the baby quieted and Grassham went to work, attaching small sensors and earphones to the sleeping infant.
Grassham is a newborn-hearing screener at UNM Hospital, part of a team that tests every child born at the hospital for hearing problems.
"The earlier a hearing problem is diagnosed and treated, the better the chance that person will develop normally - physically and socially," Grassham said.
Alumnus Andre Roybal, also a hearing screener, said the hospital screens about 4,000 babies a year.
Posted @ 7:00 AM
Millville church reaches out to deaf
Jane Layton's hands flowed with movement as the Rev. Dan Gardner spoke.
Through scripture readings, hymns and even general conversation, Layton signed through the 11 a.m. service for the two people sitting in the front pew who would be lost without her help.
Open Bible Baptist Church, a small building turned church on a quieter part of Main Street, east of downtown Millville, started a deaf ministries service three weeks ago.
During the regular Sunday services, Layton or another signer will speak to the congregation through sign language so anyone who wants can learn the lessons Gardner preaches.
Posted @ 6:55 AM
Indiana Deaf seeks to build on best season
It was the greatest football season in the history of the Indiana School for the Deaf . . . and it wasn't enough for the players.
"Our boys took it really hard when we could not clinch the sectional title," coach Michael Paulone said in an e-mail after the 27-8 loss to Cardinal Ritter. "How long it will take for them to move on is something I can't tell you. Our boys were crushed but we believe that after the pain has gone, they will come to the realization that they had (the school's) best football season ever."
Posted @ 6:54 AM
Opening doors for deaf clients
Five years ago, the staff at Ken Gan's auto-repair shop told him they needed to find a better way of communicating with customers who were deaf.
"I said: 'Let me go shopping. I'll buy you whatever's out there,' " said Gan, of Rochester, N.Y., which has a significant community of deaf people.
For three months, Gan came up empty-handed. There wasn't anything in the market to facilitate face-to-face communication in a situation such as a shop or office.
Posted @ 6:54 AM
A deaf person's passion for cooking
Deafness has not deterred Chua Tick Seng from becoming an award-winning chef.
Looking relaxed and youthful, 25-year-old Chua Tick Seng is a far cry from the typical rotund chefs we see in movies.
No one would have guessed that this talented lad, who whipped up his first dish – fried eggs – at the age of nine, would win the Best Apprentice Award at this year’s Culinaire Malaysia cooking competition.
Posted @ 6:51 AM
Study examines healthcare for deaf
Deaf people are being invited to take part in the first UK survey to identify their general state of health and their access to medical care.
SignHealth, the national society for mental health and deafness, has commissioned a study similar to research carried out in Austria, which found there are higher incidents of diabetes, asthma and hypertension among deaf people.
Posted @ 6:51 AM
Anthology of gay deaf writers illuminates intriguing queer subculture
Jon A. Kastrup, a deaf gay man, has loved art since his youth in the 1970s. Yet, Kastrup became a mechanical engineer and a lawyer because he felt the need to prove himself in the hearing world. He later found happiness when he moved to San Francisco and became an artist. “Would I have been an artist if I were hearing?” Kastrup wrote in a recent essay, “I do not know. I could have stayed on as a lawyer … dealing with money-grubbing clients.”
Posted @ 6:50 AM
Tennessee School for the Deaf faculty members are living legacy
For nearly three decades, Barry Swafford has been instructing, coaching and befriending students at the Tennessee School for the Deaf in South Knoxville.
It's an impressive tenure, made even more interesting by the fact he also grew up on campus. In fact, his family album is a virtual history book for the school.
"First, my grandfather came here in the early 1900s," says Swafford.
Posted @ 6:48 AM
Deaf Student Still Aims at Music Career
While he can hear only extremely loud noises and communicates by means of typing on a computer, Vichay Phommachan recently took advantage of an opportunity to fulfill his dream to be the next American Idol.
The 22-year-old living in Tecumseh says his goal is to become the first Asian-American deaf male artist and entertainer.
Although he was born able to hear, Phommachan became deaf after having a high fever when he was 3 years old.
He recently auditioned for the "American Idol" television show in Omaha.
Because Phommachan is unable to communicate verbally, his singing style during the 30-second audition consisted of him interpreting the lyrics of the song through sign language.
Posted @ 6:47 AM
Signs of Friendship
Lots of people make friends with their co-workers. Few go so far as to learn a second language to communicate with them.
That's the story of Timothy Lopez and Brandon Bearce.
The duo have been hauling away piles of discarded furniture, yard debris and other materials for three years as employees of 1-800-GOT- JUNK?, a junk removal service with a branch in Stanislaus County.
Posted @ 6:46 AM
National Deaf Academy Announces New CEO
The National Deaf Academy has announced a new CEO to continue to grow the vision of its founder, Alan Cohen, MD. Dr. Cohen founded NDA in 2000 and it continues to be the nation's only mental health facility to exclusively serve the needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing clients as well as autistic individuals with communication disorders.
Steven Fahey was chosen to lead National Deaf Academy as CEO under new owners, Psychiatric Solutions Inc. Steve has been with NDA since July of 2007, and fully transitioned into the position of CEO, replacing Dr. Cohen, in October. Fahey said he is thrilled to be part of this special organization that offers a unique level of care to the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and autistic community.
Posted @ 6:45 AM
Deaf student fights for help
After a yearlong legal battle, a deaf student at Glendora High School won the right to have an in-class, real-time transcription service.
Now her younger brother, also deaf and a freshman at the high school, is fighting to get the same service.
The two teenagers, Samantha and Victor Solorzano, believe that almost-instantaneous transcription will let them better participate in discussions. But the Glendora Unified School District is continuing to fight against providing a personal transcriber for Victor.
Posted @ 6:44 AM
Principal of hearing, deaf school bristles at school's failing grade
If you believe city educrats, the American Sign Language and English Dual Language secondary school is the single worst school in New York.
Of 1,224 schools given grades by the Education Department this month, the middle school at the former Public School 47 had the lowest score. The high school, which did only slightly better, also earned an F.
But the principal of the innovative Manhattan school that mixes deaf and hearing students in classes taught simultaneously in English and sign language says his school - or at least about a sixth of his students - should be judged by different criteria.
Posted @ 6:43 AM
Gallaudet Taken Off Probation, Putting It Closer to Reaccreditation
Gallaudet University is no longer on probation, its president, Robert Davila, announced last night.
"We are not finished, but we are on our way back," Davila said.
The school in Northeast Washington, known internationally as a center for deaf education, was put on probation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education this summer after a turbulent year. In October 2006, protesters angry over the choice of a new president shut the campus down for several days by blocking the entrances.
Posted @ 6:42 AM
November 6, 2007
A Lost Sense Sparked Scientific Quest
Brad Buran lost his hearing when he was 14 months old, after meningitis damaged the hair cells of his cochlea. He was still a baby, but he can remember a musical train that ran along the railing of his crib, and he remembers that the train made sounds, but he can't quite remember what those sounds were like.
He would like to.
Buran is careful when he says this. The 26-year-old hearing researcher knows that, in some circles of the deaf community, the desire to hear again is a wildly controversial idea, a backhanded affirmation that there is something wrong with being deaf, something to be cured.
Posted @ 6:11 AM
MSSD Students Produce Video Presentations on Deaf Culture
Students at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf made a multimedia event of Deaf Awareness Week this year. While newspapers and websites wrote about it, these students created informative video presentations. The “Eagle News” class, taught by ASL/Deaf Studies Specialist Becky Gage and TV Production Teacher Wei Wang, produced eight television pieces highlighting deaf culture and prominent deaf and hard of hearing figures. The pieces began airing on MSSD’s TV network in the last week of September and continue to run weekly.
Posted @ 5:56 AM
November 5, 2007
Marlee Matlin steals the show during Texas Book Festival Gala
Substance mingled with frivolity during the opening-night gala of the Texas Book Festival on Friday. Authors read aloud from their books, entertainers entertained, and, for the first time, the festival, which raises money for Texas libraries, squeezed into the public rooms of the Four Seasons Hotel.
Actress and children's book author Marlee Matlin stole the show with deft jokes about deafness and a "life that is far from tragic." She related meeting President Reagan trying out a hearing aid. She was introduced to Reagan as the Oscar winner for "Children of a Lesser God."
Posted @ 4:42 AM
I Can't Hear You, Life is Too Loud
Honk if you hate peace and quiet. Noise is our most pervasive pollutant, but it rarely bothers the person producing the noise. The trouble is, that noise soon belongs to everyone — 10 million Americans experience permanent, noise-induced hearing loss.
It's an aural assault. Any noise over 65 decibels raises blood pressure, contributes to depression and is thought to cause heart damage.
Posted @ 4:41 AM
School for deaf a work in progress
Gallaudet University President Robert Davila flashed a photo of a glass of water onto a screen last week to show how the school is doing and asked the students in the packed auditorium what they saw. "It's half-full!" students responded, and he laughed with them, nodding.
A year ago, protesters shut down the internationally known school for the deaf, throwing it into chaos, forcing out an incoming president and intensifying accreditation scrutiny. Things have calmed and the mood on campus is upbeat, but Gallaudet is at a crossroads. Accreditors have put the school on probation, and undergraduate enrollment has dropped by 120 students, or 10 percent, since admissions were tightened to boost academic quality.
Posted @ 4:34 AM
Signing of the cross
Brian Cross's hands and arms move quickly, his face etched with expression as he shares his views of Jesus' healing powers. He pauses often in front of his PowerPoint presentation for dramatic effect, catching the eyes and nods of the roughly 20 in attendance at his Wednesday night Bible study at Anchor Baptist Church.
The group is assembled in the church's basement choir room, and amid billowy white choir robes and shelves of black music hymnals, Cross doesn't speak a word. But his message of Jesus' authority to heal the paralyzed and the sick is soaked up by his rapt congregation.
Posted @ 4:31 AM
Deaf Students Face Alienation at Columbia
There’s a community within our community that you might not know about. It is a culture, but it’s not a religion, nationality, or ethnicity. In fact, many people consider those within the culture to be suffering from a disability. This culture is Deaf culture, and according to Keri Horowitz, a graduate student at Teachers College, “Deaf people can do anything that hearing people can, except hear.” Horowitz was born profoundly deaf, the cause of which is still unexplained.
She was “mainstreamed” since childhood—Horowitz has spent very little time in any specialized schooling for the deaf—but she learned American Sign Language at age 16 and identifies as part of the American Deaf community.
Posted @ 4:30 AM
November 1, 2007
Deaf Patients Get Help
First, video on demand came to televisions with the touch of a remote; now, it's just as easy to connect to a communications specialist for the hearing-impaired at The Medical Center, Beaver.
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The hospital in Brighton Township earlier this month installed Deaf Talk, a video conferencing system that allows two-way communications between a patient, a doctor and an off-site sign language interpreter.
Posted @ 4:00 AM
Interpreter Served as Lifeline to Deaf Community During Fires
For those who've watched fire coverage on television in San Diego this week, one woman's face was seen at every county press conference...but even though she was ever present, she never uttered a word. That woman is Joane Cosentino -- a sign language interpreter. KPBS Border Reporter Amy Isackson shares her story .
Joane Cosentino estimates she signed for at least twenty hours straight during the fires, translating emergency information for San Diego County's more than 35,000d deaf and hearing impaired.
Posted @ 3:58 AM
OHSU hearing loss preventative in final test phase
Adherex Technologies Inc. has begun the final phase of clinical testing of a treatment developed by Oregon Health & Science University to prevent hearing loss in children undergoing chemotherapy for liver cancer.
Preliminary studies by OHSU scientists suggest that sodium thiosulfate, or STS, can reduce the hearing loss associated with platinum-based chemotherapy. On Tuesday, Adherex said the phase III study will compare the outcomes of children treated with the cancer drug cisplatin alone or in combination with STS.
Posted @ 3:57 AM
Skyway Adventures: Leaving from Amsterdam
So here I am, waiting at the Amsterdam Airport. I am about to fly to Miami harbor to meet the members of my team, including an Aroma Jockey, an Experience Jockey from Miami, 3 deaf dancers, 3 sign dancers from Canada, 2 instructors, 1 producer, and 2 assistants. Tomorrow we will board on one of the biggest cruise ships in the world. For 3 days we will entertain 4,000 deaf visitors on this cruise, the biggest event ever in deaf history.
How did I ever get here!?!
Posted @ 3:54 AM
October 27, 2007
Foxy Brown Blames Hearing Loss for Solitary Punishment
Imprisoned rapper Foxy Brown has hit out at reports she was placed in solitary confinement because she refused to take a drug test, insisting her poor hearing is to blame.
The hip-hop star -- real name Inga Marchand -- was sentenced to 76 days of "punitive segregation" earlier this week after violating three rules at Rikers Island jail. The 28-year-old was alleged to have been involved in a fight with another inmate, was verbally abusive to staff and refused a random drug test.
Posted @ 3:56 PM
Indiana Deaf fights for recognition
Indiana Deaf has equaled its school record for football victories -- eight, set in 1944 -- but that hasn't been enough in the minds of coach Michael Paulone and his players.
"It frustrates us that countless people out there still toss us aside because we are deaf or because they think we can't compete," Paulone said in an e-mail. "Even with our competitive team this year, people still do that. We have beaten teams this year that pretty much thrashed us in years past."
Posted @ 3:38 PM
Cultural Diversity and Photography
On Friday I visited the Deaf Society in Parramatta on their open day to fulfil a photojournalism assignment. It occurred to me later that I felt happy in a way that I had not felt for a long time. Later that night I went to the Hawkesbury Agricultural College ball, and, if I could set down the range of different emotions that I went through on that day I think I could make a fine piece of art.
Posted @ 3:36 PM
Shelley listens for her deaf companion
A loving collie who sits obediently by her owner Gary Turner is the Paris man’s best friend.
But Shelley is more than just a companion.
She is the ears for Turner, who has been deaf since childhood.
The man and his hearing dog attended a Lions Club meeting last week at Paris Junior College so that Turner could share with fellow Lions Club members about the availability of trained hearing dogs.
Posted @ 3:34 PM
Bridging connections between hearing and deaf topic of presentation
Human rights advocate and author Susan Schaller walked to the center of the Casa Loma Room stage at the University of Redlands Thursday night and began gesturing wildly and "speaking" at the audience.
She didn't make a sound.
As her silent rantings continued for a few minutes, the students and professors in attendance sat and stared, utterly lost.
Posted @ 3:32 PM
Man shot by police was ‘deaf man’
Vaughn “Curly” Fitzgerald was a man who loved to play poker. He played often, friends said, and with many people.
Fellow cardplayers and police, who arrested him in the past on gambling charges, also said Friday that Fitzgerald was hard of hearing, raising questions about whether the 80-year-old heard police officers when they repeatedly told him to drop his rifle Tuesday night.
Posted @ 3:30 PM
Willie Ross school hits 40th year
When the Willie Ross School for the Deaf celebrated its 40th anniversary yesterday, Ross' mother, Barbara I. Ross, 82, was on hand to cut the cake.
A rubella epidemic in the mid-1960s yielded a wave of deaf babies on the East Coast, born to mothers who caught rubella while pregnant. Ross' son, William P. "Willie," was born deaf and autistic.
Posted @ 3:29 PM
October 19, 2007
Deaf specialist honored at awards
Char Harasymczuk received the Lifetime Achievement award Tuesday during the Montana Center on Disabilities' annual leadership awards dinner.
Harasymczuk was honored for her advocacy for the deaf and hard of hearing. She has served on the Board of the Montana Association of the Deaf, the Montana Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and the governor-appointed Montana Telecommunication Access Program Board.
Posted @ 8:52 AM
School for deaf's haunted house to rest in peace
There won't be screams echoing through the Washington School for the Deaf's annual haunted house this season.
School officials have canceled the fundraising event after learning the building that houses the 10-day production needs to be demolished.
The haunted house has been a Halloween fixture in Clark County for 16 years, attracting an average of 1,300 visitors annually. A 10-person committee debated the decision for months before voting to cancel the event, said Nancy Sinkovitz, director of residential services at the school.
Posted @ 8:51 AM
Free Broadcast to Discuss Emergency Preparedness for Deaf Individuals
The National Terrorism Preparedness Institute at St. Petersburg College in Florida will be presenting a free, 60-minute, interactive satellite television broadcast, titled "Emergency Responders and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community: Taking the First Steps to Disaster Preparedness," on Wednesday, Oct. 24, from 2-3 p.m. EST.
Posted @ 8:48 AM
School for Deaf probes claims
Louisiana School for the Deaf officials said they are addressing reports of misappropriation of state property and other allegations raised Monday in a report by the state inspector general.
Inspector General Sharon Robinson said her office received 22 allegations of improprieties, some of which were not valid. The majority of the allegations are targeted at the school’s maintenance department.
Posted @ 8:47 AM
Deaf Bothell football player shines
Everything goes silent in an instant. Students stamping on bleachers. Coaches screaming from the sideline. Referees blowing their whistles. All vanish.
When Bothell High School's Thomas Guidon's hearing-aid battery fails, that's the only time, in football or in life, that he feels disadvantaged, vulnerable.
Posted @ 8:45 AM
Wright University lands $1.5M grant
Wright State University has landed a $1.5 million grant to expand services for deaf and hard of hearing Ohioians in need of drug and alcohol treatment statewide.
The three-year grant, awarded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, will fund e-therapy such as sign language-based group and individual counseling and case management via video conferencing and videophone technology.
Posted @ 8:43 AM
New Director Named For Theater Of Deaf
Aaron Kubey is the new executive director-president of the National Theatre of the Deaf, which has gone through financial crises, leadership changes and relocations in the past few years.
Kubey, a paralegal in a New York law firm, is currently artistic director of the New York Deaf Theatre.
Kubey takes over the position Nov. 5 at the 40-year-old organization, now based in West Hartford. He succeeds Paul L. Winters, who served as executive director for four years and has been a board member since 2001.
Posted @ 8:42 AM
Artist to exhibit in aid of Deaf Association
A DEAF artist from Sparsholt is getting ready to exhibit her work in her home city.
Donna Vokes, 24, is organising a solo exhibition at the Slug and Lettuce pub in The Square, Winchester, which hosts monthly artwork shows.
It opens on Thursday, November 1, and proceeds from the night will go to the Hampshire Deaf Association.
Posted @ 8:41 AM
October 15, 2007
Hearing-impaired comedian encourages communication
Comedian Kathy Buckley filled the Union Ballroom with laughter Friday night, even if she was unable to hear it.
Buckley, who is hearing impaired, came to campus to make students laugh and to talk about her life. Despite not being able to hear the laughter, she said she knows people are laughing because she can feel the vibrations throughout the room and can see everyone's reactions.
Posted @ 6:12 AM
Advocates for deaf protest budget cuts
The Rhode Island Association for the Deaf has complained that Governor Carcieri has created a hardship for deaf citizens by merging four commissions, including the Commission of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
The organization also charged that the position of American Sign Language interpreter has been left vacant for nearly two months, causing a backlog of requests for interpreters for meetings, appointments and other events.
But Carcieri’s press secretary, Jeff Neal, said it wasn’t the governor’s fault.
Posted @ 6:09 AM
Deaf Silversmith born in 1775 honored
A history of a deaf, locally-born contemporary of famed Colonial silversmith Paul Revere has been compiled as part of the 190th anniversary of the American School for the Deaf.
Douglas Library Director Mary Ellen Beck wrote the brief booklet about Samuel Gilbert, an 18th- and 19th-century silversmith who was part of prominent local family - many of whom were deaf.
Gilbert was born in Hebron on Jan. 13, 1775, the first son and one of 13 children born to Sylvester Gilbert and Patience Barber.
Posted @ 6:06 AM
College has history of offering services to the deaf
Lenoir-Rhyne College has long been known for its service to deaf and hearing-impaired students. In fact, for 30 years, the college has offered what many other colleges have not: deaf and hard-of-hearing support services.
The college evolved from offering a program to train deaf and hard-of-hearing teachers to offering additional services to students with similar situations on campus, said Shawn Frank, director of the program.
Posted @ 6:00 AM
The Alabama School for the Deaf's warriors are silent, but strong
The end of practice was eerily quiet. The 30 football players in crimson helmets, plain gray T-shirts and black athletic shorts huddled together and knelt down.
The player addressing his teammates used hand gestures. Judging by his facial expressions, he was trying to get his squad pumped up to play the No. 1 team in the nation Saturday.
Moments later, the kids rallied together with helmets high in the air, bobbing them up and down.
Posted @ 5:59 AM
Hollywood Actress Speaks at Deaf Center Fundraiser
Lots of excitement at the Corpus Christi Country Club tonight as an Academy-Award winning actress, Marlee Matlin, was the keynote speaker for a special fundraising banquet tonight benefiting the local Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center.
Matlin has starred on tv shows and in movies. She's a deaf woman who has been able to overcome big odds and become a smashing success as an actress.
Posted @ 5:59 AM
Suit Accuses D.C. of Discriminating Against the Deaf
A class action lawsuit claims the D.C. government discriminates against the deaf and hard of hearing by failing to provide reasonable accommodations, such as qualified sign language interpreters or special telecommunications devices.
The suit says that as a result, thousands of residents are routinely denied access to D.C. government services, benefits, activities, and programs.
Posted @ 5:56 AM
Special-Needs Family Complete With Deaf Dog
One local family well versed in the special needs of disabled children adopted another special family member -- a deaf dog.
When the Devicariis family set out to adopt a dog, they had several canines in mind. But when workers with the Animal Defense League revealed a special trait of one dog, they knew they had to have him.
Posted @ 5:54 AM
RIT Awarded $95,000 Grant for Cyber-Community Summit
E. William Clymer, associate director of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf's Center on Access Technology at Rochester Institute of Technology, has been awarded a $95,188 grant from the National Science Foundation's Office of Cyberinfrastructure for a "Summit to Create a Cyber-Community to Advance Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals in STEM" (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
Posted @ 5:53 AM
Hotel partners with Delaware School for the Deaf
Since August, the Courtyard Newark-University of Delaware has been partnering with the Delaware School for the Deaf to provide part-time jobs and on-the-job training to several of their students. Hotel staff and mentors from the school help mentor and support the students, and the program, according to Tracy Holmes, director of operations, has proven beneficial from both ends.
Posted @ 5:52 AM
Doctors Take Girl's Finger, Make It Thumb
Every once in a while a child is born with certain birth differences such as missing fingers or toes, but surgical advances allow them to be corrected. Doctors at Allegheny General Hospital have given that gift to a 4-year-old girl.
Grace was born profoundly deaf and without a thumb on her right hand, so it was difficult for her to do a lot of things, including using sign language to communicate.
Posted @ 5:52 AM
October 9, 2007
MIT student turns hearing loss into knowledge gain
Brad Buran, a Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) graduate student, lost his hearing to pneumococcal meningitis when he was 14 months old. Today, the fifth-year doctoral candidate studies in HST's Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology program is becoming an expert in the neuroscience of speech and hearing.
Because he is immersed in an environment filled with researchers investigating hearing loss, speech therapy, linguistics, and cochlear implants, Buran sometimes becomes the subject of probing conversations. This constant scrutiny might be off-putting for some, but for Buran, it is fodder for his own musings about the way his brain works.
Posted @ 4:02 AM
Father's marathon plans fulfill 2 dreams
The entire five-member Yevich family is deaf. But they have no problem "hearing" each other.
James and Roberta Yevich, both of their small children — 2-year-old Peyton and 10-month-old Celeste — and 17-year-old Ariella Stein, Roberta's daughter from a previous marriage, were born deaf, but talk among themselves easily through a combination of sign language, video phones, text messaging, and e-mails.
Posted @ 4:00 AM
Answering the call for deaf kids' needs
Rhonda Sivarajah sensed "something just wasn't right" with Sonjay, her son. From the age of 3 months through his first year, he seemed slow to verbalize and slow to react, especially to sounds.
But every time she brought it up with her doctors, they told her not to worry. Boys are slower, they said. He's got an ear infection. He reacted when I clapped behind his head.
Eventually, when Sonjay was 2, she sought out an audiologist. A simple test six months later confirmed her fear: Sonjay was deaf.
Posted @ 3:59 AM
Center for deaf, blind seniors due in Valley
Tempe will become a statewide or even regional hub for folks who use a language all their own — American Sign Language.
A Wisconsin-based company is planning a housing complex for low-income seniors who are deaf, deaf and blind or hard of hearing in what is a new trend for that group of disabled people.
Posted @ 3:58 AM
Angry cashier attacked deaf man, police say
A store cashier struck a deaf customer in the head with a crowbar after he mistook the man's silence for rudeness and disrespect, police said.
The cashier, Ricky Benard Young, 20, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The customer, Cody Goodnight, 31, suffered "a large knot" on his head during the incident, which occurred Saturday at the Family Dollar Store at 4117 E. Lancaster Ave.
Posted @ 3:56 AM
Deaf Toddler Wanders Off; Mother Charged
A toddler who can't hear or speak is in the custody of Florida Child Protective Services after he was found wandering the streets of Miami on Sunday, police said.
His mother is charged with child neglect, police said.
The 18-month-old boy was found wandering around Northwest 67the STREET and 10th Avenue about 11:40 a.m.
Posted @ 3:56 AM
Troy University gets $250,000 grant to train deaf interpreters
Troy University officials announced today with Gov. Bob Riley a $250,000 grant from the Alabama State Department of Education that will be used to fund an undergraduate Interpreter Training Program.
The program will be aimed at increasing the number of interpreters for the deaf and hearing impaired.
Riley said the program at Troy will set a national standard.
Posted @ 3:55 AM
Opening New Possibilities for Deaf Students in Computer Science
This summer a group of college-age students traveled to Seattle to work on projects such as creating complex computer animations and other high-tech challenges. These activities may sound like many computer science summer programs that take place at elite engineering schools and universities, but this program was truly unique--all of the students were deaf or hard of hearing.
Posted @ 3:53 AM
Deaf woman sentenced for making harassing phone calls
A 21-year-old deaf woman was sentenced Wednesday for making numerous harassing phone calls to her ex-partner.
Kathleen Paula Foshay made the calls using a telephone service that allows one to type a message which is then relayed by an operator to the recipient.
Posted @ 3:52 AM
Deaf man's death in fire worries advocate
An advocate for the deaf wonders if a New Glasgow man would be alive today if his apartment building had a special fire alarm.
Donald Marshall, 65, was killed early Wednesday morning when a fire broke out in his apartment building on Gerald Street.
Posted @ 3:50 AM
Deaf students provided with resources
A hearing disability can throw a wrench into the typical listen and take notes routine of the classroom. Whether you rely on lip-reading or sign language, losing eye contact means losing communication.
Ernetta Fox, director of Disability Services, helps breach this barrier by supplying students with FM receivers, interpreters and other resources that will benefit hearing-impaired students.
Posted @ 3:50 AM
Rochester native honored in deaf coaching hall of fame
Wayne Morse has never heard the cheers from the crowd, but he's felt the pride of his teammates, seen the very proud smile of his mother and now swells with the honor of being inducted into the National Softball Association of the Deaf Hall of Fame.
The Rochester native received the honor this year for his coaching exploits.
Posted @ 3:48 AM
Listening With Their Eyes
Parents with deaf children have some important decisions to make. One of the bigger ones is where to send them to school. Some choose a school for the deaf. Others choose a mainstream setting, which was the case for two sets of parents in Aberdeen.
Among the lunchroom noise at Aberdeen Central sit two boys who listen to it all with their eyes.
Posted @ 3:46 AM
September 18, 2007
Cover Your Ears!
Q. At what decibel level does noise start to do irreparable hearing damage? Are regular subway commuters in danger, for example?
A. The risk of hearing loss from loud noises depends on both the level of sound and the length of exposure, and at least one study of New York City subways has found that the hearing of commuters may be in danger if they ride a noisy train or wait in a noisy station for long enough.
Posted @ 4:43 AM
Man inspired by Keller visits Ivy Green
When Tom Cooney was 9 years old, he opened a Who's Who book about famous people to find a subject for a school report and saw the name Helen Keller.
"I chose her because she's deaf," he said.
Cooney is deaf, too. Now in his 70s, he traveled to Tuscumbia for the first time Saturday, not only to speak at Hook Street Baptist Church on Saturday and Sunday, but to visit Ivy Green, Keller's birthplace.
Posted @ 4:26 AM
Pair brings gift of hope and hearing to Vietnamese orphanage
Separated by alphabets, culture and history, Joan Haber and the inquisitive Vietnamese orphans silently measured each other from across the schoolroom.
Husband Steve had been to the city decades earlier, when he was slogging through war zones with an airborne unit and the place was still known as Saigon.
But Joan Haber, a complete stranger to the neighborhood, wondered if she knew something about these deaf and hearing-impaired children that their Vietnamese peers did not. A victim of degenerative hearing loss, Haber tested them with a few words in her adopted sign language. The response was immediate and effusive.
Posted @ 4:24 AM
ISD welcomes new Hall of Famers
There were smiles, some emotional tears and a whole lot of kind words for the newest members of the Iowa School for the Deaf Hall of Fame.
This year's inductees, honored during Saturday's homecoming activities, are William P. Johnson, Robert Schulze and the late Kenneth D. Derby.
"This is an important event in the deaf community every year," said ISU superintendent Jeanne Prickett. "It represents the finest contributors by their works and personal achievements."
Posted @ 4:21 AM
K-9 officer likely will be blind, deaf on one side
A police dog shot in the head early Tuesday by a robbery suspect has likely lost sight in one eye and may be deaf in one ear, a Joplin police officer said.
Officer Travis Walthall, supervisor of the Joplin Police Department’s K-9 unit, said by telephone that the dog, Cezar, is expected to survive the gunshot wound unless complications arise.
Cezar was in stable but guarded condition Tuesday at Academy Animal Hospital. Mark Storey, 201 E. 15th St., is the veterinarian for the department’s police dogs.
Posted @ 4:20 AM
Children learn how loud sounds now can imperil hearing later
It doesn't take a blaring iPod to put a child at risk of hearing loss later in life. Things as seemingly innocent as using a hair dryer, playing a video game or being near traffic can do damage as well.
That's the focus of "Dangerous Decibels: Defending Young Ears," a statewide education program launched Thursday by the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The commission will provide classes from kindergarten through eighth grade with DVDs and activities explaining the hazards of loud noises.
Posted @ 4:17 AM
Musicians taken precautions to prevent hearing loss
Student musicians who protect their hearing today may still hear the beat of the drum after graduation, says a Purdue University audiologist.
"A number of famous musicians, old and young, are living with hearing loss," says Lata Krishnan, a clinical associate professor of audiology and a band parent. "One study found that three out of every four rock and jazz musicians have a hearing disorder, and it's estimated that 15 percent of American teenagers have permanently lost some hearing.
Posted @ 4:16 AM
RIT Sponsors National Art Competition for Students with Hearing Loss
Rochester Institute of Technology announces its second annual Digital Arts, Film and Animation Competition for high school students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Students with hearing loss in grades 9-12 can compete for cash prizes and an all-expenses-paid trip to Rochester, N.Y., for the awards ceremony and an exhibition of their work.
Posted @ 4:15 AM
Former Miss America Educates Auburn On Hearing Loss
Most of us take our hearing for granted, but a former Miss America says you should do everything you can to protect it. She was in Auburn Monday discussing hearing aid technology.
Miss America 2005 Deidre Downs was at Auburn University, where students learned first-hand about permanent hearing loss. She also told them how technology is helping people hear again. Downs has dealt with it since childhood, but she's hearing better than ever.
Posted @ 4:14 AM
August 25, 2007
New Headphones Detect Hearing Loss and Monitor Listening Levels
Hamilton Electronics, a leader in electronics for the education market since 1933, is now introducing The Guardian Wired Headphone with SLM (Sound Level Monitor) technology. The Guardian has green and red LED lights so parents can visually monitor listening levels. A green light indicates a safe listening volume and a red light indicates that the sound is too high - alerting parents that the child may have a hearing problem or is at risk of causing irreversible damage to their ears.
A recent article in The New York Times focused on the rise of hearing loss in baby boomers. As part of the first "rock 'n' roll generation," boomers were the first demographic to grow up listening to loud music in concerts and on personal stereo systems.
Posted @ 3:57 AM
August 22, 2007
Local athlete not fazed by handicap
Dale McCord's father, Rod, knelt a few feet away from his son, playing a game of soft toss on a local elementary school's baseball diamond. Dale hammered each ball deep into the outfield, well beyond the Little League field's limits.
After Dale sent four balls for a ride, his father joked that his son would have to shag them himself. Upon returning with the balls - which now bore one additional scuff mark from where the aluminum bat made contact with the leather sphere - Dale put the bat on his shoulder and took four more wicked cuts.
Posted @ 8:11 AM
Miss Deaf Texas is on a mission to help others
When she could hear at age 5, Katherine "Katie" Deshea Murch didn't like what her mother told her, so she threw her hearing aids out the car window onto South Padre Island Drive.
Despite being born profoundly deaf and before completely losing her hearing from vertigo in 2004, Murch, now 21, flushed other hearing aids down the toilet, gave them to her dog to chew, left some at a camp in Colorado and buried others in the family's back yard, her mother said.
Posted @ 8:10 AM
Deaf seniors may get high-tech digs
A housing community for deaf and hard-of-hearing seniors is being planned for Tempe, and the $25 million project would be among the largest of its kind in the country.
The project would provide 75 apartments and 50 owner-occupied condominiums for people age 55 and older.
But Apache ASL Trails, which still must be voted on by the Tempe City Council, is intended to be more than just housing. Support services would be woven in, positioning the site to become a statewide epicenter for the deaf senior community.
Posted @ 8:10 AM
Digital TV threatens to leave deaf viewers out in cold
In response to Chuck Samuels' Speaking Out essay (Aug. 1) titled "Just get a converter box for old televisions in 2009":
The information he provides on how TV reception will work after the changeover from analog to digital on Feb. 17, 2009 is clear and concise, but he overlooked a very large and important segment of the TV viewing audience — the many people with hearing loss living in this area who rely on captioning to know what is being said.
Posted @ 8:09 AM
Deaf students take career trip to Washington
A recent summer educational trip not only allowed local Champion students to see historic and government sites in Washington, D.C., but also a chance to consider available careers at Gallaudet University, where there is a school for deaf education students.
Kay Verch, teacher of deaf education students at Champion High School, said that every few years since the late 1980s, educational trips to such places as Washington and other major cities are held to tour historic sites and college campuses.
Posted @ 8:08 AM
Closed-Captioning Suit Enters 2nd Season at FedEx Field
Last August, the National Association of the Deaf filed a lawsuit on behalf of three Washington Redskins fans to get team officials to offer closed-captioning for the deaf and hearing impaired at FedEx Field.
As another football season begins, the two sides continue to wage an off-field battle.
The fans, from Maryland, regularly attend home games and want the Redskins and FedEx Field officials to display captioning on scoreboards and video monitors for all announcements, and plays and penalties called, during the game. One of the fans, Shane Feldman of Silver Spring, said he misses parts of the game because he cannot hear information announced on the public-address system.
Posted @ 8:07 AM
Court Rules Police Department Violated the Deaf Woman's Rights
The 13th Court of Appeals ruled a deaf woman's rights were violated because no interpreter was provided.
The woman was stopped, arrested, and convicted for driving under the influence. But she did not speak English or understand American Sign Language and was never provided an interpreter.
On Thursday, the court overturned her conviction saying her rights were violated.
Posted @ 8:06 AM
Putting an end to 65 years of silence
In fall 2004, documentary filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky was caught off guard when her 65-year-old parents, both profoundly deaf since birth, announced that they had made a life-altering decision: They would both undergo cochlear implants. In three weeks.
"I was like, 'Whoa, what are you talking about? I didn't even know you were thinking about it!' " said Brodsky, who lives in Portland, Ore.
Posted @ 8:05 AM
Best Buy reaches out to deaf customers
When Kathryn Cannon first learned sign language, she couldn't have known it would help her change the way the nation's largest electronics retailer serves deaf customers.
Over the past year, changes at the Best Buy in Frederick have spread into stores across the country. These include how Best Buy collects customer data and how customers interact with workers.
As an elementary student, Cannon learned basic sign language, such as how to describe family, count and spell words. When she got a job at Best Buy in 2000, she still remembered how to introduce herself and finger spell. She was promoted to assistant manager in 2004.
Posted @ 8:04 AM
August 16, 2007
Longer mobile users at risk of hearing loss
People using mobile phones for more than four years and longer than 30 minutes a day are at risk of developing hearing loss particularly at higher speech frequencies, a study conducted by Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research has said.
Posted @ 3:05 AM
Once-deaf girl to work at Disney World
Ashley Pooler's advice to anyone struggling with adversity is to never give up.
Born profoundly deaf, Pooler has gone from a shy and insecure child who had to work twice as hard as other kids in school, to a confident, happy and successful college student who is about to spend the fall semester working at Walt Disney World. There, she will get hands-on business experience, college credit -- and a paycheck. She departs today.
Posted @ 3:03 AM
Cowboys' Van Zant shows strength in silence
Go ahead, yell at Oklahoma State cornerback Martel Van Zant from the stands. And opponents, let him have a big dose of your best trash talk. It doesn't bother him.
Van Zant is deaf.
"I don't hear it, so I don't mind," says Van Zant, signing his answer back to an interpreter at Big 12 media days. "But my opponents usually play harder when they find out I'm deaf."
Posted @ 3:01 AM
Deaf Actors and Actresses Cast on All My Children
All My Children will cast deaf actors and actresses surrounding a storyline about a toddler who becomes deaf as a result of a car accident, it was announced by Brian Frons, president Daytime, Disney-ABC Television Group. As the parents cope with their son's condition, they will explore a variety of medical options, including Cochlear implants. In the episode to air on August 15, the show will introduce Walter Novak, its first deaf character for this story arc, who will be played by Bob Hiltermann, a deaf actor.
Posted @ 3:00 AM
Xerox Classic golfers teach deaf students
The driving range at Irondequoit County Club this morning was filled with professional golfers in town for the Xerox Classic golf tournament, which begins Thursday. The golf balls they smacked were barely visible when then they landed hundreds of yards away.
While the pros practiced, a group of more than 20 summer students from Rochester School for the Deaf gathered to get golf tips from the pros. Some managed to swing a club for the first time, causing the practice snag balls to bounce a few feet from their tee.
Posted @ 3:00 AM
Loan officer focuses on deaf and hard of hearing people
Loan officer Eric Eliason's phone makes cold calling so successful his bosses are looking to get more; the only problem is finding people who can operate them.
Eliason, 27, of Farmington, doesn't use just any phone to talk to his clients; he uses a video phone and serves the deaf and hard of hearing community by using sign language. So while many loan officers making cold calls will be awash in hang-ups, polite kiss-offs and worse, the people Eliason calls are so surprised to get help from someone they can talk to, they're much more likely to stay on the line.
Posted @ 2:52 AM
The deaf face challenges when interacting with law enforcement
Jerry Siders expected some miscommunication with the police officer who pulled him over for expired tags, but he didn't expect to be held at gunpoint.
"I decided to get out of the car, and the policeman put the gun right up to my face," Siders said. "I pointed to my ears and he knew I was not a dangerous person."
Siders is deaf and spoke through an operator for Sorenson Video Relay services.
Posted @ 2:50 AM
Judge Spotlights Shortage of Interpreters for the Deaf
The prevailing custom in the New York courts is for sign language interpreters to work in tandem: one translates the rapid-fire arguments of courtroom life, while the other gets to rest weary hands.
There is, however, a shortage in the courts of sign language interpreters, so this buddy system does not always work, according to court officials. Yesterday, a judge in Queens took note of the shortage, writing a memorandum that explained why he had awarded an interpreter who was forced to work alone twice his daily rate of pay.
Posted @ 2:49 AM
Deaf Man Sentenced For Molesting Man He Mentored
A deaf man from San Diego who molested a disabled man he was mentoring was sentenced on Thursday in a court in Murrieta.
According to prosecutors, Timothy Wayne Harris will have to register as a sex offender for his role in attacking the 24-year-old man, who is deaf and mentally disabled. The crimes were reported by the victim from Perris, California, when Harris stopped mentoring him.
Posted @ 2:48 AM
Making Deaf Ears Hear with Light
About 100,000 profoundly deaf people now hear with cochlear implants, which work by stimulating the auditory nerve with a string of electrodes implanted in the inner ear. While the devices enable many users to converse easily and use telephones, they still fall short of restoring normal hearing. Now scientists at Northwestern University are exploring whether laser-based implants could one day outperform today's electrical version.
Posted @ 2:47 AM
Campbell's Creek native out to show how much deaf people are able to do
Allen Winfree is making history at West Virginia University as the first deaf student to graduate from the MBA program, but earning his degree is not what he is most proud of.
The greatest obstacle the Campbell's Creek native has overcome repeatedly throughout his life is convincing people that he is a normal person who can accomplish just as much as any other person.
"It seems like people are afraid to communicate with deaf people," he said through an interpreter in a telephone interview. "They feel like deaf people are not capable of doing what hearing people can do."
Posted @ 2:46 AM
Deaf school faculty drops from 20 to 15
The South Dakota School for the Deaf laid off four teachers this year amid falling enrollment on the Sioux Falls campus, an official said.
Included in the layoffs are the teacher whose duties included teaching American Sign Language and an algebra teacher whose exit means students must pick up a math credit from another school in order to satisfy state graduation requirements.
Posted @ 2:45 AM
July 26, 2007
Deaf teen tapping her way to fame
Disability doesn't deter state's Outstanding Teen American from competition. For the next few weeks, Elena LaQuatra, 15, will be spending a lot of time in a dance studio at the Center for Theater Arts in Mt. Lebanon spinning, twirling and tapping like crazy as she prepares for her big day.
Elena was recently named Pennsylvania's Outstanding Teen America when she won the Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageant held in Nazareth, Pa. She's now preparing for the national competition, Miss America's Outstanding Teen Pageant, which will be held Aug. 7-11 in Orlando, Fla.
Posted @ 11:07 AM
Arkansas native named SSSD superintendent
The superintendent’s home finally has a resident. After a three-year national search for someone to lead the Scranton State School for the Deaf, Monita G. Hara, Ed.D., has been appointed to the position.
Dr. Hara moved into the stately, four-floor house on the North Washington Avenue campus earlier this month. She spent the last two weeks meeting with administrators and staff and getting accustomed to operations at the school for the deaf and hearing impaired, which will enroll about 100 students this fall.
Posted @ 11:05 AM
Deaf man sentenced for shooting neighbor
A 51-year-old deaf man was ordered to serve nearly four years in prison for shooting and wounding his neighbor.
Steven E. Marshall, who already has served more than five months of the sentence, received a minimum sentence of 43 months in prison for guilty pleas to assault with intent to do great bodily harm, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and improper discharge of a weapon.
Marshall had claimed he shot Jeffrey Hein in self-defense, but pleaded to a lesser offense in a deal with prosecutors. He later tried to withdraw his plea and go to trial, but Macomb County Circuit Judge James Biernat turned him down.
Posted @ 11:03 AM
Legally Blind And Deaf, Graduate Student Nears Completion Of His Ph.D.
Standing in the elevator of the chemistry building at the University of Albany, I'm not sure what to expect. Before I reach the third floor, the doors open and doctoral student Christopher C. Wells walks in; we look at each other knowingly and smile. When the doors open again on the third floor, Wells motions for me to follow him as he zips down the hall to his lab.
Posted @ 11:01 AM
Deaf priest hears God's calling
When Carmelo Giuffre told his mother he was going to become a priest later in life she answered, "What were you waiting for?"
Milwaukee-born and raised in a Sicilian family, the Rev. Giuffre joins Holy Family Parish in Fond du Lac as its fifth Catholic priest.
He will serve St. Joseph's Church located on the corner of South Marr and East Second Streets.
Posted @ 10:59 AM
Hanover man defies disablility, directs deaf tennis team
Sounds can be taken for granted in a sport such as tennis.
The sound of the ball striking the racket or the court. The shuffling of feet on the surface. The call of the score. The yell of a linesman that a shot or serve was out.
Hanover resident Howard Gorrell has never had the privilege of hearing such sounds on a tennis court. He has been deaf since birth.
Posted @ 10:58 AM
Deaf Man Carjacked at Knifepoint
Police are searching for a man who carjacked a driver at knifepoint Sunday night.
According to officers, the driver was a deaf man who could not speak. He was traveling on the 900 block of Roosevelt Street, just south of downtown, around 11:00 p.m. Police say he offered a ride to a man who was walking down the side of the street.
Posted @ 10:57 AM
July 22, 2007
World's Largest Family With Inherited Hearing Loss
Hidden deep in China's Jiangsu Province, far off the beaten track, there is a small village with a very large family. The family, while known for its size, has instead become the subject of research because of a hearing loss passed down over its generations.
After more than 20 years of clinical and molecular genetic research, medical experts from Jiangsu Province have only recently straightened out the family's clinical characteristics, genetic phenotype, and the mutant factors causing the loss of hearing.
Posted @ 7:51 AM
Students empowered at NBDA’s Collegiate Black Deaf Leadership Institute
Six Gallaudet students recently benefited from a memorable week of networking and training by attending the Collegiate Black Deaf Student Leadership Institute at the 25th Anniversary National Black Deaf Advocates (NBDA) Conference in St. Louis, Mo.
Anquinette Kimble, Serge Okogo, Ismella Saul, Nkiruka Akunwafor, Gizelle Gilbert, and Matthew Maxey met successful black deaf leaders, studied ways to empower others, discovered little known facts about black deaf history, and learned that whatever obstacles they may face, the key is to never give up.
Posted @ 7:49 AM
Takoma Park woman chosen for World Deaf Volleyball Championships
Serve. Set. Spike. For Ludmila Mounty-Weinstock, the language of volleyball is universal, even for the deaf.
The Takoma Park resident and 21-year-old junior at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., was chosen along with 14 others — seven are current Gallaudet students — to make up the USA Deaf Volleyball Team, a group that uses American Sign Language to call plays and communicate with the coach and teammates.
That team, including Mounty-Weinstock, will participate in the World Deaf Volleyball Championships next summer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and 12 of them will go on to play in the Summer Deaflympics in September 2009 in Taipei, Taiwan.
Posted @ 7:48 AM
A special place to feel at home
The music is blaring, beats are pounding and Anthony's got his groove on.
The 11-year-old can't hear the tunes, but he sure can feel the vibe. It makes him a lean, mean dancin' machine. "Dancing is easy and it's fun," he said in sign language, interpreted by Hillary Rumball, 18, program director at the camp.
Aside from the fancy footwork, Anthony loves all the other activities at camp. "I grew up here," he signed, a big grin on his face. And it's where he's made a lot of friends. He definitely feels at home.
Posted @ 7:47 AM
July 19, 2007
Hearing loss doesn't keep students from driving
Mike Dykema's hearing problems don't make him a bad driver.
In fact, his instructors say it might make the Northview High School sophomore a better driver than many of his peers. He is more focused, with a keener awareness of his surroundings.
Hearing-impaired students who want to go through the program "usually end up being some of our best drivers," said Barry Bradford, director of the school's driver's education program.
Posted @ 6:57 AM
Sweet sounds of the game aren't lost on deaf golfer
The putt was simple and true as it rolled slowly off the face of Kevin Hall's putter. It was a "gimme" that barely traveled two feet before the little white ball trickled over the trimmed edge of grass, dropped into the white plastic cup and made that distinctive plllllunnnnkkkk of a ball rattling around in the bottom of the hole.
But Hall didn't hear the ball rattle. He also didn't hear the crickets chirping in the tall reeds, or the gentle drizzle pelting the surface of the greenside lake, the wind whistling through tree branches, or the songbirds' sweet serenade.
Posted @ 6:54 AM
Residents still question plans to combine deaf, blind schools
Concern about the consolidation of the Ohio Schools for the Deaf and Blind continues to grow as demonstrated by the turnout at the Clintonville Area Commission's July 5 meeting at Whetstone Library.
About 75 people crowded the room to hear Eric Algoe, the school's chief operating officer, and Rob Grinch of the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission, explain the project's status.
The state released nearly $1-million last week to begin planning and design work for the consolidation effort. Nearly $4-million has already been earmarked by the state for that phase of the project.
Posted @ 6:53 AM
Agency spreads awareness of deaf culture
Imagine sitting in a restaurant eating dinner with a small group of friends. No one is really talking or making loud noises; instead, there are fingers and hands moving swiftly, as everyone uses sign language to communicate.
The social activity known as the "Silent Dinner" is just one of the events that Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Davidson County holds twice a month to create stronger fellowship within the deaf community. July's first dinner was held at Cracker Barrel last Tuesday.
Posted @ 6:52 AM
July 16, 2007
Camp lets hearing-impaired kids use skills
Emma Proietti said she was the only student at Highlands Latin School last year who had a cochlear implant to help her hear. "It's annoying when kids always say, 'What's that thing on your head,' " Emma, 8, said.
But last week, Emma didn't have to deal with that. She spent the week at a camp for children who have hearing aids or cochlear implants -- an electronic device that provides sound to those who are deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.
Posted @ 6:18 AM
Lending a hand for hearing
Everett Holmes wore his tiny new hearing aid for two weeks before his wife detected anything different. And that was before this summer's cutting edge receiver-in-ear technology came along, slicing the size of hearing aids in half again.
"I wanted to see how long it would take before she noticed," said Holmes, owner-operator of Beltone Hearing Centers in Joliet, Princeton and Spring Valley.
Posted @ 6:10 AM
Ohio teen to compete at World Deaf Swimming Championships in Taiwan
Kristoffer Lauderbaugh will race against the world's best deaf swimmers as he represents the United States at the World Deaf Swimming Championships Aug. 9-18 in Taipei, Taiwan.
Lauderbaugh, 19, of Concord Township, swam on the varsity team for Riverside High School in Painesville, and he is on the swim team at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., where he studies mathematics.
Posted @ 6:08 AM
Kohler man aims to be nation's first deaf bank president
James Meisser of Kohler is striving for a couple of firsts — to be the first profoundly deaf bank president in the nation and to run the first financial institution to use modern technology to cater to customers with disabilities.
"The speed has picked up in the development of technology, which has also made it very affordable," said Meisser, 48, who has been profoundly deaf since he was born, meaning he has never heard any sound.
Posted @ 6:07 AM
Just knock 3 times, then wait for the dog
A sign on the front door of Kirk and Stella Dupas' home on Lone Oak Drive tells visitors to ring the door bell twice and then knock hard three times. This will signal their dog to bark and get one of them to answer the door.
Kirk and Stella both have severe hearing loss and without the help of Simba, their 7-year-old cocker spaniel, they would continue to struggle with what most people take for granted.
Posted @ 6:02 AM
Why are some deaf people able to play instruments?
Applause exploded in Vienna's Karntnertortheater on May 7, 1824, following the premiere performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Yet the master composer himself, by then almost completely deaf, didn't know his work was well received until he turned to see the audience.
Nearly two centuries later, a hearing-impaired British solo percussionist and composer named Evelyn Glennie performs intricate, arresting rhythms on a myriad of instruments. How can Beethoven and Glennie, among the few accomplished deaf musicians, make music they cannot hear?
Posted @ 5:58 AM
July 9, 2007
Stop the Decibel Damage
If your ears were ringing during the Fourth of July fireworks, you experienced firsthand the daggerlike effect of intense sound waves on your inner ear. No surprise. Firecrackers explode with decibels so great that a sudden dose of more than a few minutes in duration could make one permanently stone-cold deaf.
This is no old wives' tale, though most of the time noise-induced loss of hearing creeps up painlessly and silently. All too many middle-agers are just finding that out as they line up for their hearing aids in search of relief from those strained conversations in crowded rooms, where everyone around them seems to be mumbling.
Posted @ 4:43 AM
Clubbers face hearing loss "timebomb"
Nine out of 10 young people show signs of hearing damage after a night spent listening to loud music at a club or pub, according to a survey.
The RNID, a charity which represents nine million people who are deaf or hard of hearing, said those affected suffer from ringing in their ears or dullness of hearing and yet do nothing to prevent it.
Audiences at rock concerts can be exposed to 125 decibels -- compared to 110 decibels for someone standing near a pneumatic drill.
Posted @ 4:42 AM
Riverside teacher for deaf charged with lewd acts with 2 girls
An early-childhood teacher at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside has been arrested and charged with four counts of lewd and lascivious acts with two girls under age 14.
Daniel Ray Metroka, 51, of Riverside is being held on $1-million bail, the Riverside County district attorney's office said Thursday. Metroka could face 15 years in prison on four felony counts for acts that occurred June 30, prosecutors said. The alleged victims were identified as Jane Doe No. 1 and No. 2.
Posted @ 4:37 AM
Deaf filmmaker aims to show hearing, nonhearing people are on equal playing field
In a windowless back room at Santa Fe Community College, Tommy Tischler began the long process of editing 30 hours of film. The 30-year-old and a group of mentors huddled around a computer, watching footage from a football practice. In the tape, the players' silhouettes are backlit by a brilliant New Mexico sunrise.
"That's a nice shot. I really like that," professor Matthew Paige said, before a sign-language interpreter relayed the message to Tischler.
Posted @ 4:36 AM
Man Rapes Deaf Woman In Daytona Beach
A rapist attacked a woman who couldn't even scream for help. Police said the crime on the deaf victim is an outrage and investigators are relying on the public's help.
It's a crime the Daytona Beach police chief said should shock the conscience. Investigators are trying to get as much information as they could, but the victim in the case can't hear or talk. She had to write down on a notepad that someone raped her in the backyard of the house on Lewis Street.
Posted @ 4:35 AM
Former teacher plans history book about Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind
Although they cannot see the breathtaking view of the Blue Ridge Mountains or the 1800s Corinthian-style buildings on their campus, blind students at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind can find the beauty of the place.
They can hear different breeds of birds chirping and the rustling of century-old oaks and maples as they walk among hills and historic buildings on the Staunton campus. And with the advent of a new historical collection, they can learn the history of the place.
Posted @ 4:32 AM
Lebanon's Hezbollah agent played deaf before confessing
A top special operations officer with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia pretended to be deaf and mute when he was captured in Iraq earlier this year, hampering efforts to obtain his identity for weeks, U.S. intelligence officials said.
Ali Mussa Daqduq, who U.S. officials say played an integral role in a January attack in Karbala that killed five Americans, allegedly was helping to train Shiite militias fighting U.S.-led coalition forces, the officials said.
Posted @ 4:31 AM
Course helps officials, deaf talk
Deaf and legally blind, Jackie Broussard weathered Hurricane Katrina alone in her house in Baton Rouge. While she had planned to ride out the storm with a friend, those arrangements fell through at the last minute.
When the electricity went off, Broussard’s connection with the outside world — e-mail —was severed. The electricity stayed off for two days.
“I was scared. I didn’t know if it was safe to go outside,” Broussard, 51, said through a sign-language interpreter Thursday at a training event designed to help first responders and the deaf community communicate effectively during an emergency.
Posted @ 4:30 AM
New provost sees change at Gallaudet
Turmoil doesn't intimidate Stephen Weiner. In April 1977, as a 22-year-old fighting for disability rights, Weiner rallied 300 silent protesters to stage a 12-hour sit-in. His activism, in part, led to a landmark federal law that requires ramps and bigger bathrooms in buildings to accommodate people with disabilities.
Seven years later, Weiner was dean of students at the Texas School for the Deaf, charged with calming angry students and parents in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal.
Posted @ 4:29 AM
Michigan Governor Granholm Signs Laws Expanding Rights of Deaf & Hard of Hearing
Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm signed legislation that requires the use of qualified sign language interpreters who possess state or national certification in all accommodations required under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), making the scope of Michigan's law comparable to the federal law. Approximately 1.4 million Michigan citizens are deaf or hard of hearing.
"We're ending the confusion, frustration, and errors that are so often experienced by the deaf and hard of hearing in important life situations due to misinterpreted information," said Granholm. "Equal access to accurate communication is a basic civil right of us all."
Posted @ 4:28 AM
Sheriff's Department Seeks Deaf Mute
The Kern County Sheriff's Department is investigating the alleged kidnapping of three children in Bakersfield by a family friend.
The children, Vanessa Iniguez, 10, Arthur Iniguez, 8, and Sylvia Iniguez, 7, were last seen Friday at about 10 a.m. with family friend Monica Salazar walking westbound on Southgate Drive toward a McDonald's.
Posted @ 4:26 AM
Fate Of Schools Rests With Lawmakers
Since last summer, advocates, parents, and students of the Oregon School of the Deaf and Oregon School of the Blind have fought yet another battle to keep the schools separate and to keep the OSB property intact. Much of the debate has centered on whether it is appropriate for the two schools to share one campus, even if the schools are segregated at that one location.
Posted @ 4:26 AM
Georgia School for the Deaf reunion brings 200 to Cave Spring
Many of the children who attend the Georgia School for the Deaf feel left out of the mainstream world, and their school experience is the first true sense of community that they find.
“They get here and learn how to exist in the mainstream world,” said GSD math teacher David A. Conti through an interpreter. “We teach them that deafness is not a handicap. It’s something that they live with and learn to live with.”
Posted @ 4:25 AM
2 Camden programs axed
Two programs for the city's special needs students will not be held this summer, leaving hundreds without educational and recreational activities.
The most significant cut is the 12-year-old Special Olympics program, where hundreds of special needs and general education students came together for four weeks of training and a culminating communitywide event.
Posted @ 4:24 AM
iPhone Accessories Revealed/Priced/Accomodating Deaf
Apple has gone live with their full line of iPhone accessories. And here they are:
Their biggie? $129 for their bluetooth headset with docking station/charger unit. The headset offers 5.5-hours of talk and 72-hours of standby, and comes with their Dual Dock charger.
Posted @ 4:23 AM
June 27, 2007
Diabetics at Increased Risk of Hearing Loss
Diabetics have twice the risk of developing hearing loss as are nondiabetics, researchers reported here at the American Diabetes Association 67th Scientific Sessions (ADA).
Catherine C. Cowie, PhD, director, diabetes epidemiology program, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States, reported data in 5,140 individuals aged 20 to 69 years who underwent audiometric testing from 1999 through 2004 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
Posted @ 8:12 PM
Be alert for any signs of child's hearing loss
Hearing is one of our most important senses, and one that has a profound impact on child development. Infants and children with undiagnosed hearing loss may struggle with speech development, so catching hearing problems early is vital.
Lisa Lewis of Wilmington Audiology says that when children with hearing impairment are diagnosed before they are 2 years old, their chance of developing normal speech is greatly increased.
Posted @ 8:11 PM
Finding his words
As a member of the Special Needs Advocacy Board of West Virginia, Ty Strauch would listen to presentations every month. One particular month, the featured speaker was a former student of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in Romney.
“I started crying right in the middle of the speech,” she says in an interview at The Journal office.
Posted @ 8:10 PM
Deaf students left out of Yankee evac plan
Not enough is being done to help students at the Austine School and other members of the deaf community in Brattleboro in the event of an emergency at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, school officials said Tuesday.
Austine students have no idea where the emergency alert system is, an Austine School employee told area emergency preparedness officials Tuesday.
Posted @ 8:08 PM
Deaf kids get their turn at bat with camp
Baseball practice was almost over when Doug Silverstein pointed the kid out to Lou Marino.
"That's him over there, with his mom," the Sherman Oaks Little League coach said. "He wants to learn how to pitch, so work with him a little, will you, Lou? He's a great kid. "Oh, by the way, he's deaf."
In 40 years of helping coach youth baseball, Marino had never worked with a deaf child. How could that be, he wondered.
Posted @ 8:07 PM
Activists fault DCF in deaf mom's case
Talking with her hands, Linda Farrell said she tried to convey the pain in her heart.
But a neighbor enlisted by the state Department of Children and Families and police to communicate in sign language with the deaf woman said Farrell threatened to kill herself if the child-protection agency took her kids.
"I felt angry and frustrated, and I didn't understand what was happening," Farrell said through an interpreter at the offices of Deaf & Hearing Services of Lake & Sumter Counties. "But I didn't say that."
Posted @ 8:06 PM
Deacon Patrick Graybill Delights Deaf Track
Using examples that were simple, as well as humorous, practical and deeply profound, Deacon Patrick Graybill delighted both the deaf and the hearing participants of the 2007 Eucharistic Congress deaf track with his encouragement to bring prayer and spirituality into their daily lives.
“Spirituality isn’t just for Sundays,” he proclaimed in his native language, American Sign Language. “It’s real. It’s 24/7. God is in the grocery store. God is here. God is everywhere!”
Posted @ 8:04 PM
Deaf pilot’s efforts to unite group celebrated
Clyde Smith wanted to be a pilot for as long as he could remember, and he wasn’t going to let the fact that he was deaf stand in the way.
His determination helped him earn his pilot’s license under the tutelage of Don Allen in Jacksonville 17 years ago, and shortly after that, he set out to find out how many others in his situation there were in the country.
Smith, who retired three years ago after 20 years of teaching and coaching at Illinois School for the Deaf, was able to enjoy the fruits of that effort at his home base Thursday during a fly-in social and cookout at Jacksonville Airport sponsored by the Jacksonville Community Center for the Deaf.
Posted @ 8:00 PM
Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind Renovations
As the architects described it, the Staunton school, which will be the state's residential school for the deaf and blind, will have the latest technology to meet student's needs. Folks got the chance to look at the future of the Virginia school for the deaf and blind in Staunton.
"There's a lot of state of the art equipment, there's a lot of state of the art technology that's available that will fit very nicely here," says Doug Cox, the Assistant Superintendent for Special Education.
Posted @ 7:58 PM
School for the deaf celebrates 40 years with reunion
Severely hard-of-hearing since birth, 19-year-old Serena Trieu has lived life with a few more obstacles than most people. But with the help of technology and the Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School for the Deaf, Trieu said she's living a somewhat "normal" and successful life.
She's in her third year at San Jose State University, majoring in computer engineering with plans to minor in math. Typically, the only time she ever has difficulty communicating is over the phone, and sometimes she needs the help of a stenographer at school.
Posted @ 7:57 PM
Deaf community calls for independent agency
Community Services for the Deaf, 211 S. Main St., offers a wide range of social services.
An exact number of potential clients in the Miami Valley is not available, but those advocating for changes in how the agency operates estimate it to be at least 45,000 in Montgomery, Butler, Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Preble and Warren counties.
Posted @ 7:56 PM
Pittsfield teacher of the deaf honored
Deborah Holden is a teacher, yet most of her pupils will never hear the sound of her voice.
She and fellow teacher of the deaf Kathy Whelihan work with about 50 children, their families and more than 200 teachers per year in the Pittsfield Public School System.
Holden works with children in Grades 6 through 12, while Whelihan teaches the younger ones.
Posted @ 7:54 PM
Pine Creek High School offers new choice to fill requirement
A northeast Colorado Springs high school will teach American Sign Language as a foreign language starting in August.
The class at Pine Creek High School, in Academy School District 20, will count toward students’ one-year foreign language requirement needed for graduation, just like spoken languages such as Spanish, French or German.
Posted @ 7:52 PM
June 19, 2007
Steroids not gold standard for sudden hearing loss
Although sudden sensorineural hearing loss is typically treated with systemic steroids, little evidence exists to support this or any other treatment, researchers said.
In a meta-analysis and a systematic literature review, both published in the June issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, steroids showed only a trend for benefit compared with placebo (odds ratio 2.47, P=0.08), reported Lorne S. Parnes, M.D., of the University of Western Ontario here, and Anne Elizabeth Conlin, M.D., of the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Ontario.
The wide variety of other treatments studied yielded no significant benefit or had insufficient evidence, they said.
Posted @ 9:55 AM
Deaf dolphin gets her own chatline
When you think of chatlines, images of scantily-clad girls twirling phone cords round their fingers usually spring to mind.
But one new chatline is not about entertaining bored men – it is designed to help a baby dolphin learn to communicate properly with other bottlenoses.
The unnamed calf was born to a deaf dolphin named Castaway on Monday and although the mother has been vocalising to its baby, experts say that is not enough for it to learn proper 'dolphin-speak'.
Posted @ 9:49 AM
One unstoppable graduate
Vibrant energy sorrounded Hillary Howard on her graduation night. It seemingly always has. The 18-year-old is one of four valedictorians at West Middlesex High School.
Her path to valedictorian is not so surprising: She has excelled academically, being part of the school's Talented and Gifted Program since grade seven. Outside of academics, she played drums through her junior year in the high school band and participated in many school clubs.
Posted @ 9:47 AM
Determined Deaf Man Soars as Pilot
The parents of Stephen Hopson used to say this to him as a child: "You can't become a pilot because you're deaf." This did not deter him.
In February 1996, Stephen Hopson became the first deaf instrument-rated pilot in the world. A license to deaf person to fly in all kinds of weather was an accomplishment that some considered near impossible; the FAA once forbid deaf pilots from earning an instrument rating.
Posted @ 9:46 AM
Deaf Driver? Prove It
David and Mary Cunningham have been deaf for their entire lives, have been driving for more than 40 years and have never had trouble renewing their licenses.
That all changed last week when Mary went to get her license renewed at the Baker's Basin Motor Vehicle Commission in Lawrence. After years of writing on the forms she was deaf and renewing for years with no problems, Mary learned she would need to pay for a doctor's visit proving she was indeed deaf before the MVC would renew her license.
Posted @ 9:43 AM
Artworks bring delight to deaf children
Students of Bhairahawa government school for deaf children got some respite from their daily monotony at the school after the mounting of 16 sparkling mosaic pictures on the walls of its premises.
These unique multicoloured artworks generated huge excitement amongst the school's 153 pupils.
The artworks were sponsored by individual donors overseas and handmade by young victims of child trafficking who have been rescued from bonded labour in Indian circuses by Esther Benjamins Trust Nepal (EBTN), an INGO working in the area of child trafficking.
Posted @ 9:42 AM
No child has ever been more loved
My sister Belle's wee granddaughter had been seriously ill for months with a brain tumour and died last Friday, a week before her first birthday. The funeral service was held in Stormont Presbyterian Church, in Belfast, on Monday and Evelyn and I were fortunate in being able to make a last minute booking with one of our top interpreters.
The church was packed with family and friends and many were in tears. The little white coffin was carried in by the father and laid at the front. The minister spoke movingly of the way the whole church, and many outsiders too, had felt involved with the wee mite's struggles. "No child has ever been more loved than little Sophia", he told us.
Posted @ 9:41 AM
Maryland School for the Deaf celebrates commencement
Thirty-three students graduated from the Maryland School for the Deaf at a graduation ceremony on Saturday.
The ceremony included speeches from seniors Zachary Ennis and Michelle Lapides. The class valedictorian was Noe Turcios.
Posted @ 9:41 AM
Tireless director of deaf studies earns community service award
Judy Freedman Fask’s introduction to her life’s work came right after high school when she was working as a young teacher’s aide in a Worcester classroom.
“It just happened that the kids were deaf,” she says. “I loved the language, I loved the kids, I loved the interaction. So I started taking sign language classes.”
Fask’s passion and enthusiasm for her work is as infectious as her ever-present smile — which is her trademark sign-off on e-mails.
Posted @ 9:38 AM
New technology allows hearing-impaired teens to enjoy movie theaters
Like most teens, 14-year-old Kara Mongell of North Andover thought "Spiderman 3" was pretty cool. So did her friends from across the North Shore and the Merrimack Valley who meet once a month to do something fun.
But unlike most teens, Kara and her friends are deaf. Most of them wear powerful hearing aids to help them hear. But hearing aids can only do so much.
Posted @ 9:37 AM
Deaf artist headed for D.C.
Jose Prado's "Family B-B-Q" is taking him to a congressional reception.
Fifth-grader Jose Prado, who is deaf, is one of 13 students nationwide selected to help open the Congressional Gallery Exhibit at Union Station Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Fifth-grader Jose Prado, who is deaf, is one of 13 students nationwide selected to help open the Congressional Gallery Exhibit at Union Station Gallery in Washington, D.C. Above, he holds a copy of his artwork, which he titled "Family B-B-Q." Jose is the son of Silviano and Solorzano Prado.
Posted @ 9:37 AM
May 26, 2007
Untreated hearing loss linked to less income
Workers with hearing problems are losing more than snippets of conversation, they're losing money.
Two-thirds of people who suffer from hearing loss are below retirement age and still working. If you're one of them, trying to hide or ignore the problem could cost you, a new study has found.
Posted @ 7:35 AM
Serious Hearing Loss Among Sacrifices Soldiers Make for Our Nation
This Memorial Day, the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) will pause to remember the price our military pays for protecting our freedoms – even when it does not cost their lives.
Gunfire can have a profound impact on soldiers’ hearing, and the long-term effects carry over to their post-military lives. A recent study published earlier this year in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery found soldiers are at substantial risk of hearing loss due to the “impulse noise” associated with gunfire, often leading to acoustic trauma in 10 to 15 percent of soldiers returning from active military duty (Olszewski, et al, Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, 2007, Vol. 136, Number 1).
Posted @ 7:33 AM
More young people lose hearing
Loud noises -- from blasting boomboxes and blaring ear buds -- can damage hearing at any age, even those of the youngest listeners.
Hearing loss is fairly common among senior citizens, with one in four adults over 60 and one of three over 70 experiencing it, said Helen Morrison, Texas Christian University associate professor of communication sciences and disorders. But now hearing loss is occurring at younger ages, largely because of noise exposure.
Posted @ 7:30 AM
Judicial system doesn't meet needs of deaf, protesters say
About 50 deaf people and advocates protested in front of the Brazoria County Courthouse on Thursday, saying that deaf people are often not provided sign-language interpreters when they are arrested or appear in court.
"Communication access now!" and "deaf power!" they shouted, some with their voice, others in sign language.
Posted @ 7:29 AM
HDTV messes up service for deaf
For two months early this year, Janel Edmiston and her family enjoyed their new Panasonic high-definition TV, which occupies a big chunk of the family room wall in their Elk Grove home.
But for Edmiston, who began losing her hearing at age 23, the pleasure was fleeting. In March, she said, closed captioning that came via her cable box disappeared.
"It's not that I'm addicted to TV, but I was missing out on time with my family in the evenings," Edmiston said of losing the captioning feature. "I'd go into another room (to read or fold laundry) while they were watching TV. ... Without captions it's like they are speaking Russian."
Posted @ 7:26 AM
Communication tool can pose risks for deaf students
Two-hundred students attend classes in grades K through 12 at the Tennessee School for the Deaf in South Knoxville.
Because 75 percent of them live on campus during the week, security is a top priority.
But the sprawling fence that surrounds the grounds offers no protection from the latest safety concern: internet predators.
Posted @ 7:25 AM
High school senior, man, killed in crash near Jefferson
A high school senior and a Colbert man are dead, and another man injured, in a crash near Jefferson that happened after the three attended a "Deaf Awareness Day" at Six Flags Over Georgia.
Georgia State Patrol trooper Curtis Bradshaw says 18-year-old passenger Kyle Redd of Jefferson and 24-year-old Destin James Hattaway were killed early yesterday when a 2003 Toyota pickup Hattaway was driving hit a tree head-on on Georgia 335.
Posted @ 7:23 AM
Love is blind (and deaf)
A deaf couple who first saw each other at school decades ago, and who have both since lost their sight, have brought light to their darkness by getting married.
Pierre van Zyl and Marianne du Preez, both 65, tied the knot on Saturday after a 37-year romance.
They met at the De la Bat School for the Deaf at Worcester many years ago.
Posted @ 7:23 AM
Mass. firefighter learns ASL to better communicate with deaf
Kyle Labrecque admits he hated high-school Spanish so much, he dropped the course after only a few months.
"I just didn't like it," he admitted.
But years later, Labrecque, an eight-year veteran Nashua firefighter/EMT, decided to learn a language some say is the most difficult of all to learn: American Sign Language.
Posted @ 7:22 AM
Deaf people not well served by Liberals
The province is failing in its role in ensuring all citizens are treated equally by dismantling American Sign Language programs and support services for deaf and hard of hearing children. The erosion of these services - in favour of oral or auditory-verbal programs - flies in the face of a court decision in 1989 that extended the right to the deaf to have ASL taught in classrooms.
Posted @ 7:21 AM
Current Budget would hurt services for deaf, hoh Ohioans
Community Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing has been in existence in Portsmouth for the past 22-plus years. We serve the following counties: Ross, Pike, Scioto, Gallia, Jackson, Adams, Highland, Lawrence, Meigs and Vinton.
The biennial budget now under consideration in the Ohio Senate includes a change that could have devastating impact on the deaf and hard of hearing community in Ohio. Ohio House Bill 119 has allocated an additional $2 million to the Rehabilitation Service Commission, far below the minimum $8.5 million required to receive a fourfold federal match of $32 million.
Posted @ 7:20 AM
Deaf teen aims to build on success in N.Y.
If she wanted to, Anna McCall could go out and snag a well-paying job as a Web site designer fresh out of high school.
That's the assessment of Dave Banks, Anna's Web design instructor at the GASC Technology Center. He said the Michigan School for the Deaf teen is one of his most talented students.
Posted @ 6:22 AM
April 25, 2007
What'd you say?
"Would you repeat that?" It is Gene Ambroson's latest mantra.
"Say again?" the 59-year-old baby boomer adds as he stares intently at your face, a stare that could unnerve someone not familiar with the severe hearing loss that is afflicting Ambroson and could affect a few million more boomers in the coming years. More about that stare later.
The Associated Press reported recently that as many as 50 million Americans could be affected by impaired hearing by mid-century. Inexorably, this could affect one out of every six Americans.
Posted @ 5:26 AM
Students help classmate with sign language spelling bee
Jesse Cobb didn’t have much to say about his classmates’ help Tuesday, except deciding that it was “cool.”
His buddy Kaleb Brown, though, was up to the “challenge” of spelling a different way to help Jesse get ready for a state spelling bee next week.
“Challenge” was one of the words Kaleb spelled correctly as he and other Jefferson Elementary School fifth graders used sign language to spell. It was all to help Jesse and another hearing-impaired student, Brandon Tingley, qualify for next week’s Statewide Deaf Fingerspelling Bee in Springfield.
Posted @ 5:25 AM
Early Detection of Hearing Loss and Timely Intervention Help Ensure Healthy Infant Development
Imagine that you're the proud parent of a newborn baby. He or she is beautiful, of course. But as physicians run the gamut of tests, they determine your newborn is deaf or has a serious hearing loss. If you're like most parents, you're numb, overwhelmed and unsure how to proceed. In 90 percent of cases, deaf children are born to hearing parents, making the deafness even more difficult for parents to understand.
Posted @ 5:23 AM
NFL prospect Anderson takes lead from deaf educator dad
Jamaal Anderson's relatives can be forgiven for talking with their hands full. When the family gathers for dinner, conversation flies in two ways — verbally and in American Sign Language. A little barbecue sauce flavors the meal, lingers on the fingers and adds zest to the joking and debating.
Anderson, 21, is one of the top-rated defensive ends in the NFL draft, which commences Saturday in New York. His family and friends will gather at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock to celebrate the dawn of his pro career.
Posted @ 5:19 AM
Deaf ear to ADHD
Thousands of children diagnosed with attention deficit disorders may have a common hearing disorder, a Perth audiologist says.
The claim adds to growing concern that too many children are being diagnosed with ADHD when they have other health problems - or are just simply a handful for parents and teachers.
Posted @ 5:17 AM
Wright to be only deaf inmate in Pierre
Daphne Wright, spared a death sentence by a Minnehaha County jury, soon will join five other women serving life without parole in the South Dakota Women's Prison in Pierre.
Wright, 43, is deaf. While state Corrections Department officials say they'll make accommodations for that, in most respects the Sioux Falls woman will be treated the same as the other lifers and for the most part, the same as the other 320 or so inmates in the prison at the east edge of the capital city.
Posted @ 5:16 AM
She's a good listener. So what if she's deaf?
Sybille Ulrike always knew she had a gift for communication. Even as a child, her friends came to her with their problems and asked for her advice. They knew she'd give them a sympathetic ear.
"I'm a good listener," she explains.
Posted @ 5:15 AM
Deaf instructor teaches the culture of sign language
Steve Miller smiled as he stood before a small group of students at the South Lake County Resource Center in Crown Point, waiting patiently for a response to his question.
The classroom was quiet, but Miller had his answer. His smile broadened, and he gave his class a thumbs up. Yet no words were exchanged.
Posted @ 5:13 AM
Jury gives deaf woman life prison sentence
Jurors have spared a deaf woman's life and instead sentenced her to life in prison without parole for killing an acquaintance and cutting up her body with a chain saw.
The same jurors convicted Daphne Wright, 43, last week of kidnapping and murdering Darlene VanderGiesen, 42, another deaf woman from Sioux Falls, in February 2006.
Wright smiled after the verdict was read.
Posted @ 5:13 AM
Wright Sentence: Deaf Reaction Mixed
The day after the jury sentenced Daphne Wright to life in prison, leaders in the local deaf community have mixed feelings.
The jury unanimously decided Wright had a depraved mind when she killed Darlene VanderGiesen. But not all the jurors could agree to the death penalty.
Deaf leaders had hoped they would.
Posted @ 5:12 AM
Deaf woman learns salsa
DaNisha Terrell sways and dips while she practices salsa, twisting and turning to show off what she's learned.
Even more impressive than her dance moves is the fact that she does them all without being able to hear the music.
Posted @ 5:11 AM
Pulitzer nomination opens window on deaf community
Even being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in drama made Luane Davis Haggerty "amazed, speechless and breathless."
So, imagine how the Henrietta woman felt when she started getting periodic e-mails from the selection committee saying that her script for Windows of the Soul was still in the running.
Posted @ 5:10 AM
RGB commissions include new school for deaf
Architectural, engineering and interior design firm RGB today announced it has won commissions to help design a school for the deaf, an operations center for the R.I. Public Transit Authority and the renovation of a Providence high school.
Posted @ 5:09 AM
Facility for deaf fears its own lease dispute
The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation isn't the only nonprofit that faces an uncertain future because of a 99-year lease the city now says is invalid.
Next door, the Center for Hearing and Speech shares a building with the Harris County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority on city property leased for 99 years in 1965. The building sits on a prime 3-acre tract at the corner of West Dallas and Shepherd.
Posted @ 5:08 AM
March 27, 2007
Chapman's challenge
An ear infection took Will Chapman's hearing when he was a year old, but Calabasas' senior center fielder never let the disability limit his play on the baseball diamond.
Will Chapman has played on the Calabasas High varsity baseball team for four years, but his favorite memory as a Coyote didn't come until two weeks ago.
On March 5, Calabasas upset nationally ranked Chatsworth High 12-8, and Chapman was a big part of the win, going 2-for-3 with a double while also getting hit by a pitch. The Coyotes' enthusiastic home crowd cheered Chapman and his team after the final out was recorded, but Chapman didn't hear them. In fact, he never has.
Posted @ 7:24 AM
Deaf man arrested for Internet luring of child
A Colorado Springs man was arrested Monday after allegedly trying to meet with what he believed to be an underage female who he met on the internet.
Carmen Mascitelli III, 25, was arrested by the High Tech Crime Unit and transported to the Douglas County Detentions Facility where he was booked on three felony charges including internet luring of a child.
Posted @ 7:24 AM
School for the Deaf stages 'Arsenic and Old Lace'
Two spinster sisters have poisoned a dozen lonely men and are working on lucky number 13.
Will they succeed?
The answer to this question can be answered at the black comedy play "Arsenic and Old Lace," the spring production from the Maryland School for the Deaf performing arts club.
Posted @ 7:22 AM
Deaf volunteers find new ways to communicate
When volunteers from the American Red Cross respond to a disaster, timing is critical. Communicating becomes the most important factor during the crisis and the biggest challenge for deaf or hard-of-hearing volunteers.
Posted @ 7:21 AM
Fair aims to make deaf community visible
With a smile spread across her face, Donna Leff jumped up and down with her arms flailing above her head in an effort to catch the attention of passing students.
But Leff wasn't part of a club campaigning outside the Memorial Union Tuesday - she was trying to raise awareness for deaf people.
Posted @ 7:19 AM
Area deaf group fights to be heard
Daniel Hanrion, a retired teacher of deaf students, plans to visit a Springfield School Board meeting to share his concerns with individual educational plans for deaf and hard-of-hearing students here.
Tim Lewsader, a deaf sign language teacher, hopes to create a network of resources and services for hearing-impaired people in southwest Missouri — with an emphasis in helping them use their legal rights according to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Posted @ 7:19 AM
Outsourcing's Next "Victims": Deaf People
Somebody has to write those subtitles that allow the hearing impaired to watch movies. Increasingly, that work is being outsourced to India--with some unintentionally hilarious consequences.
According to UPI, professional subtitlers in the UK are up in arms over the outsourcing of their jobs to low paid workers in India. They're also complaining that the trend is resulting in substandard work.
Posted @ 7:18 AM
Web initiative tells deaf people about emergency planning
Signs for Emergency Planning
Gloucestershire web initiative tells deaf people about emergency planning through sign language video produced by EqualSign
EqualSign, a new low-cost, sign language translation service from EyeGaze, is enabling Gloucestershire County Council to prepare its deaf residents for major emergencies.
Posted @ 7:17 AM
Bank donates to homes for the deaf
The Heritage Salem Five Charitable Foundation has donated $10,500 to the New England Homes for the Deaf.
The donation will help to defray costs from the Nov. 22 Danversport explosion, which temporarily displaced nearly 60 deaf and deaf-blind residents from the Homes for the Deaf and damaged the facilities.
Posted @ 7:17 AM
Warren center for deaf offers life lessons to its members
Meet Jason Harritos. He's 27 years old, smart, funny, independent, a phenomenal cook, and deaf. As a baby he contracted meningitis ultimately causing his hearing loss. To him his hearing loss is not a disability ... he's like anyone else. He has a job, a safe and comfortable place to live and he spends a lot of his time helping fellow members at Warren's Corliss Center, Inc. located on Main Street.
Posted @ 7:16 AM
Lewiston native experiencing a new world
Like most teenagers, Jake Leffler and his mother have different opinions on what makes good television.
“He watches C-SPAN like I watch American Idol,” his mother, Sheryl Leffler said.
While that may sound unusual for a 19-year-old, it’s all par for the course for a college freshman currently interning in U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s offices in Washington, D.C. Born without the ability to hear or speak, the internship is just one of the major obstacles the Lewiston native has accomplished in his young life so far.
Posted @ 7:15 AM
Deaf students learning science hands-on
Quinton Ferrell, 11, dipped a Q-tip into a cup of flavored water then pressed the cotton against the side of his tongue.
The Delaware School for the Deaf fifth-grader's face puckered as he pulled it out, laughing.
Yeah, he could taste the sour.
He could taste sweet, salty and bitter, too.
Posted @ 7:14 AM
With family support, Elmira teen carves path to success
Like the other workers at E.M. Pfaff & Son Inc. in Horseheads, August Spaziani III, 19, tackles his assigned task with diligence. His focus is on making each piece as perfect as possible.
On a recent day, a co-worker, T.J. Lagonegro, showed him how to sand the rounded end of a ladder part without burning the wood.
Posted @ 7:14 AM
Blind auto mechanic hires deaf assistant
Cars have been Larry Woody's life for more than 30 years. He fixed them, he raced them, he restored them. But five years ago on Interstate 5 a truck blew across the median and drove over his tiny Toyota Celica. He almost died, and he was blinded.
But Woody, 46, still works on his 1968 El Camino, dabbles in racing and recently bought his own shop, D & D Foreign Automotive, in Cottage Grove. And he has hired a deaf assistant.
Posted @ 6:53 AM
February 24, 2007
Hearing impaired student captures International Performance Award
Yew Choong Cheong, a West Virginia University student who plays and studies classical piano despite a loss of hearing, recently won the 2007 International Young Soloists Award given by VSA arts.
The international, nonprofit organization was founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to create a society where all people with disabilities learn through, participate in and enjoy the arts.
Posted @ 5:58 AM
Early stages of hearing loss not always easily noticed
Hearing, like vision, which was covered in my last column, diminishes as we grow older. When our hearing goes, we don't hear pleasant sounds such as birdsong, and, more seriously, we may not hear things that can harm us. Social relationships may suffer because conversations become tedious, and conflicts may result from misunderstandings of what is being said.
Posted @ 5:57 AM
Aging nation faces growing hearing loss
An aging U.S. population faces a looming crisis in hearing loss, researchers said Saturday. Some research holds promise, but much is in the early stages.
By 2050, there could be as many as 50 million people in the United States with impaired hearing, Steven Greenberg of Silicon Speech in Santa Venetia, Calif., told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Posted @ 5:56 AM
Hard-of-hearing girl makes history in spelling bee
Anna Brnak sat at a table in the center of the multipurpose room surrounded by 80 other middle schoolers, each staring at a sheet in front of them. Pencil in hand, Anna got ready to write word after word -- 50 in all -- on the sheet as each was read by the man with the microphone.
Another adult stood in the room, a red-headed college student, who hand signaled what the microphone man was saying. She gestured the quips made by Paul Kirkpatrick, middle school principal at University Schools, such as, "If someone looks at your paper, slap them. Do the best you can to make sure your word stays yours."
Posted @ 5:52 AM
When baby cannot hear
Tatia Granger remembers being "shell shocked" when she first learned her daughter couldn't hear.
Granger and her husband first began to suspect Rheis didn't hear normally months before. But still, when the doctor told them their 13-month-old girl had "permanent, profound hearing loss," they weren't sure how to react.
Posted @ 5:51 AM
Religion today
Brian Sims was sitting in traffic when a car with a booming stereo pulled up next to him.
Feeling vibrations from the pulsating vehicle, the Baptist pastor who ministers to the deaf got an idea: creating a one-of-kind church exclusively for deaf people.
Today, the Brentwood Baptist Deaf Church has more than 30 speakers beneath the floor so congregants can feel the vibration of the music.
Posted @ 5:48 AM
School Board settles suit with deaf woman
Merrie Paul fell in love with motorcycles at age 12 when her parents bought her a Yamaha.
She put her passion on hold for most of her adult years, until she married a man with a penchant for Harley-Davidsons.
But when Paul, who is deaf, tried to sign up for a motorcycle safety course in April 2005, the Hillsborough County school district wouldn't provide her with a sign language interpreter.
Posted @ 5:47 AM
Group home fills a need for mentally ill deaf people
Celine Dreher cannot hear you, but sometimes she can hear Sarah, a creation of her malfunctioning brain who "speaks" to her from inside her head.
This medical double whammy - deafness and schizophrenia - has left Dreher, 44, feeling doubly isolated for much of her life. She was the only deaf person in her group home, the only deaf person at the psychiatric hospital.
Posted @ 5:44 AM
Deaf audience to hear guitar, many for first time
Think back to the first time you heard Eddie Van Halen wail on his guitar. The musician’s clean and strong sound made the band famous.
But for those with hearing loss, the sound of a guitar may not be so memorable.
Posted @ 5:43 AM
Healing Gallaudet
Months after student protests resulted in the ouster of its president-elect, Gallaudet University is looking to turn the page under interim president Robert Davila.
Dr. Robert R. Davila became interim president of Gallaudet University on Jan. 1, after a prolonged campus protest resulted in the removal of president-designate Dr. Jane K. Fernandes (see Diverse, Nov. 16, 2006).
Davila, the son of Mexican parents, lost his hearing at age eight after contracting spinal meningitis. He is a 1953 alumnus of Gallaudet and was a faculty member and administrator there. He has also served as vice president of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and has been assistant secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the U.S. Department of Education. Davila, who holds a doctorate in educational technology from Syracuse University, came out of retirement to accept the two-year interim appointment at Gallaudet. Davila recently spoke with Diverse about healing the fractured campus and improving its financial standing and low graduation rates.
Posted @ 5:41 AM
Deaf film festival returns to town in March
The Second Deaf Rochester Film Festival will be held from March 23 to 25. Headlining the event will be Hear and Now, a documentary that won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Posted @ 5:40 AM
Symposium explores improving interactions with deaf patients
When asked if one would choose deafness over blindness, most people would choose blindness, said Norbert Myslinski, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Dental School, when he opened a conference about how health care workers can improve their relationships with hearing-impaired patients. "People usually say they'd prefer to be blind, but fail to understand how the lack of sound can isolate people from others and the intellectual human world of ideas," he added.
Posted @ 5:39 AM
No sight, no sound, nowhere to turn
Alex speaks to his mom with his whole body, sitting in her lap and rocking his small frame forward and back so hard his head crashes into her breastbone with each swing.
When he is happiest, when they sit with their legs tangled up on the carpet in the living room, he opens his eyes and stops moving his bony frame just long enough to smash a sloppy, wet kiss onto his mother's lips.
Posted @ 5:38 AM
Creating a community: Mixing deaf and hearing to benefit both
High school is a cacophony of sound -- whispered secrets, teachers' lectures, the roar of a football crowd or the thunder of rock music.
But for a cadre of students at Durham High School, education -- like the rest of life -- is almost silent.
For two years the Durham Unified School District has housed the deaf and hard-of-hearing program for almost all such students in Butte County.
Posted @ 5:34 AM
Deaf teacher helps students, faculty learn
Shane Molaison brings an extensive education and a profound desire to teach to his classroom, but it is who he is and what he knows that are of primary importance to his students.
Molaison is a deaf and hard-of-hearing specialist for the Butte County Office of Education, and works full time with the program that is housed in the Durham Unified School District.
Posted @ 5:33 AM
Mrs. Bombaci’s Hogan: Apt Pupil, TV Star, Inspiration
One evening not long ago, a group of college students clustered around an old, deaf Dalmatian.
“Bow,” his owner told him with a sweep of her hand. The dog, named Hogan, slid his legs forward, slowly because of his arthritis, and bowed.
“Sleep,” the owner told him by making another gesture in sign language.
Posted @ 5:32 AM
Southeastern deaf academic bowl teams compete at Berkmar High
Berkmar High School’s library was quiet as teams of high school students from throughout the Southeast participated in an academic competition, answering questions about geography, literature, math, history, science, culture and more.
Posted @ 5:28 AM
Seminar celebrates godsend for the deaf
It wasn't exactly "'Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." But when Rod Saunders stood and saluted to a few notes of "God Save the Queen," another inventor knew he was onto something.
It was 1978, and Saunders, who had lost all hearing in a car wreck a few years earlier, was the first patient to receive a surgically implanted "bionic ear," a device that eventually would be known as the cochlear implant. Some 120,000 people worldwide with profound hearing loss have gotten them.
Posted @ 5:27 AM
Churches spreading God’s word through sign language
Cindy Collins wanted her daughter to have a Christian upbringing, but it wasn’t as simple as going to worship on Sundays.
Sunday school lessons, worship music and weekly sermons required the ability to hear, something her daughter, Jordan, couldn’t do. Jordan is deaf.
Posted @ 5:26 AM
New bill could Limit the deaf community’s ability to communicate
Deaf students rely on highly trained interpreters to communicate with their teachers through sign language. But supporters of the deaf say a new bill would let people with little to no sign language skills work as interpreters. News on 6 reporter Steve Berg reports advocates for deaf and hearing-impaired students say it's a terrible idea, and they say the students will suffer.
Posted @ 5:25 AM
Deaf community forms group to raise awareness on campus
Deaf Culture Diversity is a new group on campus attempting to not only educate about deaf culture, but also to broaden people’s entire perceptions about diversity.
“A lot of times when we talk about diversity, it’s mostly ethnic,” said Carrie Caldwell, the president and founder of DCD. “There’s a lot of physical diversity and ability diversity. That’s one thing I want to bring out to the community.”
Posted @ 5:21 AM
February 8, 2007
I can hear you now!
This column is an update to one I wrote a couple of years ago. All of what I said before is true, but the big advance in hearing aids is that almost all manufacturers have a noise-removing part like the one I talk about.
My first experience with hearing loss and an attempt to fix it was about 30 years ago. I had gone to the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and got a prescription for two hearing aids. I only wanted one, but the doctor said, “If you were nearly blind in both eyes, would you use a monocle?” So I agreed to two. At that time, they did not sell aids and suggested that I buy certain specific aids locally.
Posted @ 8:24 AM
The deaf culture wars
OK, so there's this Deaf couple staying at a motel, and in the middle of the night the woman asks her husband to go buy her some aspirin. So he gets out of bed and drives to an all-night drugstore, and when he gets back the motel is dark and he can't remember which room is his. At first he doesn't know what to do, but then he drives to the middle of the parking lot and begins honking the horn. Pretty soon lights start going on in room after room, and people are peering out their windows to see who's making all that noise. The man waits until every room is lit up — and then drives to the one room that's still dark.
Posted @ 8:20 AM
Deaf community dropped the ball
Deaf schools do not exist to serve the deaf community.
Since when has the state of Oregon been providing a school for the deaf community? The state School for the Deaf is funded by the taxpayers of Oregon to educate hearing-impaired children -- not to provide a community for deaf people in this state. If deaf people wish to do so, they should petition legislators to fund one -- something which I can assure you will never happen.
Posted @ 8:19 AM
Sudden deafness not to be ignored, doctor says
Sudden deafness is a serious condition that is often misdiagnosed because people think they only have a plugged ear from a cold. But if it is not treated immediately, it can cause permanent hearing loss, experts said.
Posted @ 8:12 AM
Deaf woman heard tornado before home destroyed
A deaf woman in Lady Lake who lost her home when a tornado ripped through Central Florida early Friday said the sound of the twister was so loud that she heard it without her hearing aids and was able to run for cover.
At least 14 people were killed and hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed when a super cell storm moved through Central Florida and produced several possible tornadoes.
Posted @ 8:09 AM
He hears the call of the deaf
People who are deaf and hard of hearing are prisoners to their own silent world, says a member of the local Lions Club. He should know.
Barry Parquette, of Milford, was born hard of hearing and knows what it’s like to struggle to communicate.
Posted @ 8:08 AM
World's elite deaf athletes gather for 2007 Winter Deaflympics
They were once known as the Silent Games, but It is a description that does not quite fit as the Finnish hockey team practices for a game against Sweden in the 2007 Winter Deaflympics.
Pucks clang off the post and sticks slap against the ice. If anything, the noises are more jarring without the sound of shouts from the players or coaches.
Posted @ 8:07 AM
Deaf World Games in Utah
To be a Deaf snowboarder in a race with hearing competitors, says Jeff Pollock, "is, in a single word, lonely."
That's one reason why the 16th Winter Deaflympics, which open Thursday in Salt Lake City, are so appealing to Pollock and other Deaf athletes. For the next 10 days, they'll have a chance not only to shine on snow and ice but to converse with other athletes from around the world.
Posted @ 8:06 AM
Summit steers deaf toward employment goals
In New Mexico, nearly two-thirds of deaf and hard-of-hearing people are jobless or underemployed, according to the latest figures available from the Community Outreach Program for the Deaf in Albuquerque.
Posted @ 8:04 AM
Game brings deaf, hearing kids together
While playing the game duck-duck-goose, deaf and hearing students learned they have a lot in common. Students from the Indiana School for the Deaf visited second-grade students at Allisonville Elementary last week as part of the Everybody Counts program.
Posted @ 8:03 AM
State schools for deaf and blind seek to combine campuses
Students attending separate state schools for the blind and the deaf would share a campus, under a $40 million plan that school officials expect to present to lawmakers later this year.
Some older buildings would be replaced when the campuses of the Ohio State School for the Blind and the Ohio School for the Deaf are combined, according to a preliminary plan. The institutions would share expenses including maintenance, food and health services.
Posted @ 8:02 AM
January 29, 2007
Did you hear about the deaf old man and his wife?
A deaf old man is having urinary problems so he takes his wife with him to the doctor so she can listen and tell him what the doctor says. The doctor comes in and says, "Hello, I'm Doctor Smith. What seems to be the problem?" The man looks at his wife and says, "What'd he say?" She shouts back "HE SAID WHAT'S THE PROBLEM DEAR!"
Posted @ 3:47 AM
Guides to help parents of infants with hearing loss
Imagine your joy the day your baby is born. Now imagine the fear and uncertainty you'd experience if you learned that your baby cannot hear. Where would you turn for help? Who could give you the information you need? What options would you have?
Posted @ 3:40 AM
In a wired society, ears are in danger
In the age of Bluetooth cell phones, iPod ear buds and the PSP, it seems Americans are becoming less personal, less engaged with those around them and with the things that are going on around them.
People, myself sometimes included in this group, sometimes spend too much time in their own worlds with their music turned up and their personality turned down.
Posted @ 3:39 AM
Turn it down, save hearing
More young people are suffering hearing loss because of the overuse of portable listening devices, says Chip Hahn, director of clinical services at Cardinal Hill of Northern Kentucky in Florence.
Posted @ 3:37 AM
Summer camps for students with hearing loss
Three different camps for students with hearing loss combining career exploration, self awareness, and fun are available for middle and high school students at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., this summer.
Posted @ 3:36 AM
Hearing loss often needless
Almost 10 percent of Americans, roughly 28 million, have some degree of hearing loss. But The Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay says it could have been prevented in many cases.
On the show Tuesday, she explained what causes hearing loss, what the signs are that indicate it may be happening, and how you can head it off.
Posted @ 3:34 AM
Districts have options to help students with hearing problems
Two-year-old Rachel Ashton sat on the floor of her family’s living room in Palmview, carefully plugging colorful blocks into the correct holes on a flat, wooden toy.
Rachel’s mother, Salena, and Lynne Zagouris, an auditorially impaired itinerant teacher at McAllen’s Regional School for the Deaf, watched the toddler play.
Posted @ 3:33 AM
Deaf youth finds salvation in sport
Helping lead a special school's football squad — mostly against hearing teams — provides direction, joy and pain.Silence. In the air was a symphony. Shoulder pads thumped and helmets cracked as Shawn McDonald and his teammates slammed into each other. But for Shawn, all was silence.
Posted @ 3:31 AM
Grants to fund home care for deaf
If you’re deaf and needing home health care, chances are you’re not going to find someone who can communicate well with you.
But thanks to $160,000 in state and local grants, people who know sign language will be trained to become certified home health aides.
Posted @ 3:30 AM
Let's take a walk for a good cause
Employees and volunteers at Central Point's Dogs for the Deaf are hoping their plea for dog owners to grab their best friend and head to Champoeg State Heritage Area on Saturday isn't a sound heard only by dogs.
Dog Walk '06, which raised about $9,000 at last year's event, is one of the group's biggest fundraisers, and it helps the world's oldest and largest hearing-dog center to continue offering hope to the hearing impaired, said Judi Rubert, a spokeswoman for Dogs for the Deaf.
Posted @ 3:29 AM
Study details transportation issues for deaf commuters
A recent study by Gallaudet University students found using public transportation was associated with lower reported stress levels for deaf commuters in the Washington metropolitan area.
The project, “A Pilot Study of Stress in Deaf Commuters,” was conducted by Leah Murphy, Nicolas Garfias, Silvia Herdicka, Brittney Kleinemas and Michael Higgins.
Posted @ 3:28 AM
Institute plans to integrate deaf, hearing students
To help its deaf students, the Heuser Hearing Institute is opening its doors to hearing children.
The new Louisville Language Academy, a preschool for 2-, 3- and 4-year-old hearing children, will help improve the communication skills of deaf students through side-by-side learning opportunities, officials said.
Posted @ 3:27 AM
Deaf skiers train in Reno for Olympic gold
Eliminate the wind as it screams past the ears at 50 mph, take away the crunch of the skis' metal edges cutting into the icy snow and turn off the calls of encouragement from coaches and crowds, and the skier is alone.
Alone with a pounding heart, tunnel-vision focus on the posts jutting up from the slope below and burning leg muscles as she tries to direct her body down the race course in as straight a line as possible.
Posted @ 3:26 AM
Castillo plans to increase safety at Oregon School for Deaf
A female teacher at the Oregon School for the Deaf lost her job after sending personal messages to a 14-year-old male student. A dorm counselor was disciplined for letting a 14-year-old girl living at the school leave campus on a weekend without parental permission.
Posted @ 3:23 AM
High-end curling nothing new for deaf woman
Brenda Davidson is carrying a torch for deaf curlers here this week.
The lead for Thompson's Denise Podolski is a two-time national Deaf Women's Curling champion and a two-time Canadian Mixed Deaf champ. But she is competing at this week's Scotties Tournament of Hearts for the first time.
Posted @ 3:21 AM
January 17, 2007
Deaf students ask school: 'Why?'
Some parents and their deaf children are livid after the Elgin School District U46 decided to sever its contract with its hearing-impaired program, Northwestern Illinois Association.
"The majority of (deaf) kids at Streamwood have been in the NIA program since they were 2 or 3 years old. They have grown up together. They have become one big family," said Maryjane Comstock, the mother of a deaf teenager who attends Streamwood High School, part of the Elgin district.
Posted @ 8:39 AM
Deaf community slams school chief's firing
Members of the Oregon deaf community Monday repeatedly blasted the deputy state school superintendent for abruptly dismissing the director of the Oregon School for the Deaf without explaining why.
At a public forum Monday night, Deputy Superintendent Ed Dennis was asked again and again to explain why he fired Jane Mulholland last month without explanation or consultation with parents or school staff.
Posted @ 8:37 AM
Senator advises combining N.D. schools for blind, deaf
Merging the state’s schools for the blind and the deaf is something North Dakota “will do and has to do,” a state senator said Monday.
Sen. John Andrist, R-Crosby, is the prime sponsor of a bill proposing to consolidate the North Dakota Vision Services School for the Blind in Grand Forks with the North Dakota School for the Deaf in Devils Lake.
Posted @ 8:37 AM
Questions about dismissal linger at School for the Deaf
Hundreds of parents are expected to attend a meeting tonight at the Oregon School for the Deaf to seek answers about the dismissal of a longtime director.
Two weeks ago, state education official Ed Dennis hosted a similar meeting attended by about 30 people. Few, however, left satisfied.
Posted @ 8:31 AM
NSF-sponsored project blazes new trail in visual language and visual learning
Gallaudet University has been chosen as the site of a national science of learning center devoted to cultivating better understanding of visual language and visual learning, thanks to a large grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Posted @ 8:30 AM
January 10, 2007
Crank it up? Better not
Music lovers and musicians will tell you music is better when it's loud. The bass rattles your ribs and horn blasts resonate through your teeth. But all those good vibrations can destroy your hearing.
Mike Wyatt, 49, of Madison has played drums since he was 10 years old. "Part of the joy of playing the drums is hearing the crispness of the cymbals or the fatness of the toms," he said.
Posted @ 6:12 AM
Noise-induced hearing loss escalating in U.S.
It's an argument most 50-years-olds can still remember having with their parents: attend loud rock concerts, they were warned, and risk damaging your hearing.
A generation later, young people across the world were asked to heed similar warnings about their Walkman headphones.
Posted @ 6:08 AM
Deaf-blind girl connects with life through pottery
Racha Turki is an elementary school student, she is deaf-blind, and she is a potter.
Racha began pottery at the Moshier Community Art Center in Burien in the fall of 2004, working with Donna Shaman and Meg Johnson, a pediatric occupational therapist and an orientation and mobility instructor respectively.
Posted @ 6:03 AM
A vision restored
New Mexico School for the Deaf students Monday lifted their hands into the air and wiggled their fingers -- silent applause to thank those who helped renovate their theater.
More than $77,000 of the $97,000 job already has been raised from private donations for new seats, new carpeting and other needs.
Posted @ 6:02 AM
Deaf Japanese student beats the odds
A JAPANESE student who overcame both the language barrier and deafness has been awarded a top degree in Manchester - despite not speaking a word of English.
Kenichiro Onishi - known as Ken - lost his hearing at the age of two. He came to study at the University of Manchester with only a working knowledge of English.
Posted @ 6:01 AM
Woman goes deaf after 9-year wait for treatment
A 67-year-old woman lost 80 percent of her hearing after waiting nine years for treatment for an ear problem, it was reported on Monday.
The woman, from Madrid, was told in 1991 she should have an operation to stop the problem caused by a perforated eardrum.
Posted @ 5:57 AM
January 7, 2007
Device helps deaf communicate with others
A new device invented in Kansas City is opening up new worlds for people who are deaf, KMBC's Jere Gish reported.
Lynn Garretson, who is deaf, said a routine doctor visit for her daughter can be frustrating because she has to use an interpreter to talk to doctors and nurses.
Posted @ 5:01 AM
Living with hearing loss
About 28 million Americans live with hearing loss. As baby boomers continue to age, that number is expected to nearly double by 2030.
Trauma, infection, heredity, aging and exposure to loud sounds can cause hearing loss. It can be sudden or come with aging. According to the Hearing Loss Association of America, most hearing losses develop over a period of 25 to 30 years.
Posted @ 4:54 AM
More hearing loss in aging society
The numbers of elderly in Europe and the United States are increasing, and hearing loss is becoming more prevalent.
A study, the results of which were published in 2003 in the highly regarded American journal Archives of Otololaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, examined the hearing ability of almost 3,000 Americans aged between 48 and 92 years.
Posted @ 4:53 AM
A sign of acceptance
You see the symbols and never have to think twice about their meaning.
From the restroom, to a handicapped parking spot to a bus stop; someone had to think up the universal signs which direct people to the appropriate places.
Posted @ 4:51 AM
Pioneering scheme helping deaf babies
Deaf babies are getting a better start in life thanks to a pioneering screening programme which is celebrating its first birthday.
A prime example of the work done at the Airedale Hospital unit is Adal Shakil.
The one-year-old was born profoundly deaf but, thanks to Airedale's screening initiative, the problems were quickly picked up and he was seen by a specialist before he was a month old.
Posted @ 4:50 AM
December 26, 2006
Program a boost for deaf, blind boy's family
A little-known program at Western Oregon University that began almost 40 years ago and served as a research model for television's "Sesame Street" recently received a $10.5 million grant, the largest award in its history.
But in addition to state and national work on behalf of deaf-blind youths, the Teaching Research Institute, housed in Todd Hall at Western, also has played a large part in helping out the short but difficult life of a Monmouth child and his family.
Posted @ 7:31 AM
Deaf child's dog banned from Mass. school
When 14-year-old John Cave arrives in the Massachusetts town of Princeton, the deaf teen's new service dog will not be welcome in his new high school.
New York Newsday reported that officials at Princeton's W. Tresper Clarke High School decided to ban the trained Labrador retriever, whose name is Simba, because of state and federal regulations.
Posted @ 7:26 AM
Hastings teenager on Disney stage; part of group that signs song with Michael Bolton
On Christmas day, local residents tuning into the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade will see a Hastings girl standing center-stage behind Michael Bolton as he performs “Joy to the World.”
While it is remarkable enough that a local girl will be part of nationally televised concert with a Grammy winner, there is also one other unusual detail to note: Jennifer Anderson is deaf.
Posted @ 7:26 AM
Those with hearing loss will get IP phone service
People with hearing loss in New York State can be reimbursed for their Internet protocol (IP) captioned telephone service, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) agreed Wednesday.
It voted to approve the service as reimbursable from the Internet Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund.
Posted @ 7:19 AM
National Deaf Prep Dual Wrestling Tournament in Fremont
Fremont, California - - 19-20 January 2007 – California School for the Deaf (CSD) will host the 3rd annual National Deaf Prep Dual Tournament, an elite national deaf high school wrestling tournament in January. High school students and coaches will be flying in from eight different schools from all over the states. Teams from Connecticut, Arizona, Maryland, District of Columbia, Texas, Indiana, and California will be participating in the tournament. It is supposed to be the largest tournament in the last two years.
Posted @ 7:18 AM
CSDVRS announces Timothy Rarus as Senior Vice President of sales and marketing
CSDVRS is pleased to announce the appointment of Timothy Rarus as the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for CSDVRS. Spun off as an independent company from Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD), the new CSDVRS incorporates all aspects of CSD’s former Video Relay Services (VRS) and related products.
Posted @ 7:16 AM
Deaf child put woman on teaching path
Patt Rubano of Applewood hoped to be a stockbroker, but when she learned one of her daughters, Ann Marie Rubano, was deaf, she became a teacher of the deaf.
Rubano, 77, who died of leukemia Dec. 13, spent 20 years teaching the deaf, the hearing impaired and developmentally disabled deaf students.
Posted @ 7:11 AM
Why are smoke detectors for deaf hard to come by?
It's a lesson in civic involvement that just might save someone's life. Eyewitness Wants to Know if there's any help available to those who may be the most vulnerable during house fires.
Even if you don't know sign language it's easy to read the concern on their faces.
Posted @ 7:10 AM
December 18, 2006
Know the 7 elements of effective hearing protection
Using proactive terms in your safety program like hearing loss prevention and hearing conservation is a great way to increase awareness of this important topic at your company. That was just one tip from the speakers at a recent BLR audio conference on hearing protection.
Although documenting an occupational hearing injury on the OSHA Form 300 is required, it is not a hearing conservation measure. An effective, compliant program has several elements. The speakers discussed these elements of a successful hearing loss prevention program.
Posted @ 8:21 AM
Beware toys too loud, toxic, magnetic
Although many of the toys that will be purchased this year are safe, there are still troubles in toy land. Two national groups, the Sight and Hearing Association and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, have released studies about dangerous and noisy toys.
Posted @ 8:18 AM
Deaf piano player, 12, gives her first recital
Crowds from the deaf community turned out for a piano recital that they couldn't hear, but one that they could still appreciate. Kids Make Music held the holiday performance Thursday night at First United Methodist Church. Deaf supporters watched the mouths of five vocalists and sat through the dancing fingers of 19 pianists. But they were cheering for one special musician.
Posted @ 8:17 AM
This special Santa holds kids' wishes in his hands
Seven-year-old Branden Lee Tsuji-Jones wants colored magnets and marbles for Christmas and told Santa so yesterday using American Sign Language.
For the 15th consecutive year at Pearlridge Center, "Deaf Santa" received the Christmas wishes of about 130 deaf and hard-of-hearing children from all over Hawai'i yesterday.
Posted @ 8:15 AM
Ex-Review printer leaves enduring legacy of advocacy
After a career in the print rooms of newspapers that included 13 years at the Oakland Tribune followed by 22 at The Daily Review, Bertt Lependorf stayed involved in daily operations by frequently sending letters to the editor.
Posted @ 8:11 AM
Smoke detectors for hearing impaired
Some hearing-impaired families in Lycoming County will be better protected should a fire break out in their home. They received special smoke detectors on Monday. Four families received special smoke detectors from the Williamsport bureau of fire. They are designed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Posted @ 8:06 AM
A high-tech kitchen designed just for these cooks
After two years of patient waiting, the students at the New Jersey School for the Deaf Katzenbach campus, a public residential institution for the deaf and disabled, have a new state-of-the-art kitchen to call their own. This Tuesday, the $50,000 high-tech kitchen, funded by a grant from the New Jersey Department of Education, was unveiled to the delight of dozens of students and faculty members.
Posted @ 8:05 AM
Deaf and proud to use sign language
Lizzie Sorkin was born deaf to deaf parents, but when she reached high school age, her mother asked her whether she would consider the latest medical technology had to offer — cochlear implants to restore some of her hearing.
Posted @ 8:03 AM
December 12, 2006
Deaf high school students vie for chance at National Academic Bowl title
Who will take home the coveted national Academic Bowl trophy? Which high school has the best and brightest deaf and hard of hearing students in America? Will New Jersey’s Mountain Lakes High School bring home the title for a second straight year?
Posted @ 5:55 AM
Idaho is restructuring how it educates children who are deaf or blind
They couldn't see or hear many of the changes going on around them, but it was obvious to the students that the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind would never be the same again.
At first, it just seemed like there were fewer students, but then there were fewer teachers. Life grew quiet on the Gooding campus as dormitories closed and the swimming pool shut down.
Posted @ 5:53 AM
Deaf couple finds help when buying a home
From communicating with a mortgage broker, to understanding the legal forms. Buying a home can be a challenging process for anyone.
But: it can be especially difficult for the deaf and hard of hearing. That's why one Boise couple is teaming up to help those with special needs get their piece of the american dream.
Posted @ 5:52 AM
Deaf professor at Lindenwood U. gets teaching excellence honor
Lindenwood University education professor Rebecca Panagos is dedicated to teaching methods that help elementary children, especially those who have difficulties, to read. She herself is deaf — a disability she prefers to downplay — and is a skilled lip reader.
Posted @ 5:51 AM
Harvest Baptist Church Of The Deaf Presents “Christmas Reunion”
Harvest Baptist Church of the Deaf will present a unique, original Christmas drama. “Christmas Reunion” and all music is beautifully presented in ASL (American Sign Language) and is voice interpreted for the hearing.
Posted @ 5:49 AM
Deaf defendant walks free in rape case confusion
A deaf man accused of repeatedly raping a disabled woman has been allowed to go free because he is unable to understand the court case against him.
Emmanuel Etoundi, 41, went on trial accused of a string of sex attacks on the woman, who has learning difficulties.
Posted @ 5:48 AM
He was deaf, now he hears
A 21-year-old Swazi man has revealed how he was healed permanently after American Evangelist Ernest Angely prayed for him during his visit to Swaziland in 2002.
Sifiso Nkambule was deaf and dumb since birth until he was prayed for by the Evangelist at the Trade Fair grounds in Manzini.
Posted @ 5:47 AM
Gunshots - hearing’s not-so-silent enemy
There’s a not-so-silent enemy that threatens every hunter and target shooter who picks up a gun.
This enemy can be heard with every blast of a shotgun, rifle or pistol—but the long-term damage isn’t detected until an expert like Appleton audiologist Dr. Michael Thelen checks a shooter’s hearing.
Posted @ 5:44 AM
Inner ear disease causes balance, hearing problems
Leroy Watson had never experienced anything like it. While working as a cook at the Hotel du Pont six years ago, he suddenly felt the room spin. His right ear filled with a deafening roar and waves of severe nausea came over him. He feared he would fall face first onto the grill.
Posted @ 5:43 AM
Edmonton Oilers playoff hockey games caused temporary hearing loss
Three hours of sitting next to a roaring, buzzing chainsaw punctuated by the occasional deafening blast of a jet taking off wouldn't be anyone's idea of a good time.
But that's the equivalent of what hockey fanatics endured during the Edmonton Oilers' Stanley Cup playoff run last spring, according to a study published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Posted @ 5:42 AM
Device flashes when sound levels can cause hearing loss
A new device designed to protect people from hearing loss flashes red when an MP3 player or lawn mower is emitting enough noise to cause damage. Three staff members of the Hollins Communications Research Institute spent about a year developing the device, called Ear3.
Posted @ 5:41 AM
November 18, 2006
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
October 26, 2006
Searching for Answers at Gallaudet
As the fractious situation at Gallaudet University appears headed for some kind of resolution on Sunday, with a special meeting planned by the university’s Board of Trustees, supporters and critics of Jane K. Fernandes remain deeply divided over the core of the dispute about her possible ascension to the presidency.
Posted @ 5:47 AM
Listening to the deaf
To "mainstream" or not to "mainstream?" That is the question that energizes student and faculty protests at Gallaudet University.
The return of protests at America's only liberal arts university for the deaf and hearing impaired has been obscured by other big stories in Washington these days. But in many ways, the complicated and emotion-charged politics of Gallaudet reveal a much larger story.
Posted @ 5:43 AM
Deaf activist honored with presidential award
Tom Cooney has interviewed baseball legends Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle and chatted with four presidents. Make that five.
President George W. Bush honored Cooney, of Dunedin, with the President's Call to Service Award on Tuesday. He presented the award to Cooney personally, after disembarking from Air Force One in Sarasota.
Posted @ 5:41 AM
Dean of RIT institute for deaf weighs in on Gallaudet
T. Alan Hurwitz is the CEO and dean of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a former president of the National Association of the Deaf. The son of deaf parents, Hurwitz grew up in a house that emphasized literacy, learning and the value of work.
Posted @ 5:41 AM
Man who beat deaf teen pleads guilty
A 20-year-old man who participated in the beating of a deaf teenager in City Heights because he didn't like the way the victim looked at him pleaded guilty Tuesday to assault and battery charges.
Jesse R. Ross could face up to seven years in state prison when he is sentenced Dec. 8 by San Diego Superior Court Judge George "Woody" Clarke.
Posted @ 5:39 AM
Deaf community rallies for reform
Last week 134 students at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC were arrested for protesting the university's incoming president, Jane Fernandes. Gallaudet is the nation's only liberal arts school for the deaf. The students look up to a new president as a national leader, and her impact is felt all the way to Idaho.
Posted @ 5:37 AM
Deaf trio uses dance to teach Northfield pupils sign language
Teaching kids to feel the beat. Before the assembly at Northfield Elementary School started, the kids in the audience learned how to clap in sign language. Instead of hitting their hands together as hearing people do, they were taught to hold their hands in the air and wiggle their outstretched fingers.
Posted @ 5:36 AM
When silence isn't golden
In 1988 a student at Gallaudet University in Washington called that year's protests demanding a deaf president of the school the "Selma of the deaf." Founded in 1864, Gallaudet is the deaf world's premier institution, and yet it had never been led by a deaf person. The protests carried the same moral clarity as the legendary civil rights march, and they succeeded.
Posted @ 5:33 AM
Hearing-impaired Muwwakkil just one of the guys for Hilltoppers
The disclaimer is near the top of Munir Muwwakkil's MySpace page. Two words at the beginning of his bio.
"I'm deaf," it reads.
And that's it. The rest of the page is filled with everything you'd expect to see on a college football player's profile: pictures of his friends (277 at last count, including Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis), a list of his favorite movies (a NFL Films compilation from the 1960s, a DVD of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2002, the season they won the Super Bowl) and messages galore, most of them from young women.
Posted @ 5:30 AM
October 19, 2006
Fernandes says Gallaudet board now split
The embattled president designate of Gallaudet University now says some of the school's trustees no longer support her.
Jane Fernandes tells The Washington Post that some trustees have asked her to step down as the next leader of the school for the deaf. She says she's still not thinking of stepping down because if she does, the trustees would come under scrutiny from Congress.
Posted @ 8:11 AM
Deaf students mount blockades, hunger strikes
Deaf students at one of the world's only universities for the deaf Wednesday were nearing the end of a second week of blockades and hunger strikes aimed at forcing a new president to step down. The ballooning dispute focusses on whether a deaf woman who only learned sign language as an adult and can speak with her voice - the newly named president of Gallaudet University, Jane Fernandes - adequately represents their community.
Posted @ 8:08 AM
Gallaudet classes resume as protests continue
At the main gate to the nation's only liberal arts university devoted to the deaf, student leader Christopher Corrigan sways his entire body to emphasize his sign-language chant before a crowd of about 300 students. His long hair waves as he signs "Gallaudet Unite." A drum bangs loudly. The chant ends with a high-pitched "ahh" and a visual cheer — palms held up high and shaking.
Posted @ 8:06 AM
North Miami author finds hottest fashions among old clothing
She always had a good eye, seeing hot fashion where others saw old clothes. But about the time Madeleine Kirsh launched C. Madeleine's vintage clothing store five years ago, progressive hearing loss rendered her legally deaf.
Posted @ 8:02 AM
October 16, 2006
NY subway noise levels can result in hearing loss
In a new survey of noise levels of the New York City transit system, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found that exposure to noise levels in subways have the potential to exceed recommended guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to the research, as little as 30 minutes of exposure to decibel levels measured in the New York City transit system per day has the potential to result in hearing loss. The findings have just been published in the September issue of the Journal of Urban Health, a publication of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Posted @ 4:01 AM
When students can't hear
Many high school teammates talk and tell jokes on bus rides. The Solvay High School cheerleaders learn sign language.
Jena Kadlecik, a Solvay senior who was born deaf, teaches sign language on the bus to away meets. She is a member of the team.
Posted @ 3:59 AM
Group protests appointment at university for the deaf
About 50 members of the Florida and National Association of the Deaf came to St. Augustine on Saturday to protest the new president at Gallaudet University, the nation's only liberal arts university for the deaf and hearing-impaired.
Posted @ 3:58 AM
Protest, arrests shake D.C. college campus
Dozens of students at Washington's Gallaudet University were arrested Friday night as a protest over the choice of a new college president was broken up.
Washington police and campus police officers hauled in about 90 protestors at the school for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Posted @ 3:57 AM
Man accused of using phone relay for deaf to make obscene call
A Jacksboro man has been charged with harassment after he allegedly made an obscene phone call to a 10-year-old girl.
The Campbell County Sheriff's Office says Johnny Ledford, 19, used a phone system for the deaf to relay his vulgar message.
Posted @ 3:56 AM
Actors of 'F.B.Eye' series can be seen in other gigs
Dear Joan:
Whatever happened to "Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye"? The series ended with a note on the screen stating "The End, for now." I loved the show and watched the reruns on PAX, but those have ended now. Do you know if they have plans to film the series again? Are the actors Canadian? I detect an accent in some. Also, do you have any info on projects they may be involved in other than that show?
Jan M., cyberspace
Posted @ 3:55 AM
Classes set for Monday at Gallaudet
Classes were scheduled to resume Monday at the nation‘s only liberal arts university for the deaf and hearing-impaired after more than 100 demonstrators were arrested in a protest over its incoming president.
Posted @ 3:54 AM
Deaf boy saved from house fire
Vallejo firefighters rescued a 13-year-old deaf boy from his burning home Friday night after a firefighter scaled a ladder to a second-story window, slung the boy over his shoulder, and carried him to safety.
Posted @ 3:53 AM
San Francisco fleet week sailors visit school for the deaf
USS Nimitz (CVN 68), USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) and local area Sailors participating in San Francisco Fleet Week visited the California School for the Deaf Oct. 10.
“It’s a privilege to work with these students,” said Machinist's Mate 2nd Class (SS) Martine L. Willard, assigned to the Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC) San Jose.
Posted @ 3:52 AM
State Ed Board to study closing blind, deaf school
The Idaho Board of Education hasn't decided if it'll close the state school for the deaf and blind in Gooding.
The panel says it will study just how to expand services for the state's hearing and sight-impaired students over the next year and a half.
Posted @ 3:51 AM
Student rebellion boils over at Gallaudet
Protests over the next president at Gallaudet University intensified yesterday when the football team decided after midnight to join the demonstrations by blocking the campus gates, shutting down the school for the deaf.
Posted @ 3:48 AM
October 12, 2006
Gallaudet Students Blockade Campus
Gallaudet University students blocked access to campus for a second day Thursday, escalating their protest against an incoming president they say lacks the skills to lead the nation's only liberal arts university for the deaf and hearing impaired.
Posted @ 6:18 PM
Calm down, Gallaudet
The story of Elisabeth Zinser may not be particularly well known, but a group of students at Gallaudet University would like incoming President Jane K. Fernandes to repeat it. In 1988, the University of North Carolina administrator was selected as the new Gallaudet president by the board of trustees.
Posted @ 6:14 PM
Intensity of Gallaudet unrest surprised incoming leader
Until about a week ago, incoming president Jane K. Fernandes thought things were going well at Gallaudet University.
Since May, when protests erupted for two weeks after she was named the next leader of the school for the deaf, Fernandes said she has been trying to move forward, working with people on campus and developing a diversity plan to address issues of discrimination that are upsetting many in the community. And things were quiet over the summer. "So I was surprised by the intensity of this," she said.
Posted @ 6:09 PM
Tourney unites athletes
As another fall season switches into high gear, so does the 19th annual Mason-Dixon volleyball tournament. This year's tournament, hosted by Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind, will kick off Thursday and run through Saturday. The first games of pool play begin 9 a.m. Friday at both VSDB and Grace Christian activities center.
Posted @ 6:07 PM
Consolidated VSDB could open doors as early as 2007
A meeting of the advisory commission for the two Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind on Wednesday will include an early look at what a consolidated Staunton campus might look like.
The other issue on the table will be the implementation of a regional day program to take the place of VSDB-Hampton, said Sen. Emmett Hanger, who co-chairs the commission.
Posted @ 6:04 PM
Gallaudet protesters staying in building
Students at Gallaudet University continued a third day of protest yesterday and vowed to stay hunkered down in a classroom building until the board of trustees reopen the search for a president.
They have no intention of leaving Hall Memorial Building, where a majority of academic departments are housed, said Latoya Plummer, a student protest leader at the university, considered a cultural hub for the deaf.
Posted @ 6:00 PM
Copper stripped from deaf school's historic cupola
Students and faculty at the Iowa School of the Deaf in Council Bluffs were stunned Monday to learn that more than 300 pounds of copper had been stripped off the school’s landmark cupola.
Posted @ 5:55 PM
Local protest over events at university for deaf
A new president at the world's only liberal arts deaf university has Austin residents up in arms.
Protesters formed a human chain outside the Texas Capitol on Sunday. They say they do not want recently elected Jane Fernandes as the President of Gallaudet University in Washington D.C.
Posted @ 5:54 PM
Fire truck collides with deaf man's car, hydrant
A fire engine rushing to a medical emergency Monday afternoon collided with a car driven by a deaf man at the intersection of Riverside and Merrill avenues.
Posted @ 5:52 PM
October 2, 2006
Volleyball tournament marks coach's greatness
Gallaudet University will honor retired legendary coach Peg Worthington in a special dedication ceremony at the inaugural Worthington Classic on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. in the university’s Field House.
Posted @ 10:16 AM
Meet Dr. Smith, the pediatrician who is deaf
This week is Deaf Awareness Week--dedicated to creating an understanding of deafness and deaf culture. We had the opportunity to meet a doctor from Rochester who shows you that anything is possible.
Posted @ 10:06 AM
School for the Deaf's Children's Center opens
When students at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf finished performing a song at the grand opening of the school's new Children's Center on Friday, the audience was silent -- but the applause was tremendous.
Posted @ 10:04 AM
Deaf teen scores with helping hands
Stuart Jones hears with his eyes. The 15-year-old wide receiver hears Bill Kimrey’s praise through the curls at the corners of the Dutch Fork coach’s mouth. A furrowed brow and pursed lips translate into displeasure.
Posted @ 10:03 AM
NM School for the Deaf's Elias Montoya: Self-made player
As an eighth-grader, Elias Montoya could barely catch a football; now he’s a starting receiver and a backup quarterback. In a word, Elias Montoya was worthless.
Robert Huizar, the head football coach at New Mexico School for the Deaf, didn’t mean to be so harsh, but there were few adjectives to choose from to describe Montoya, then an eighth-grader, as a football player.
Posted @ 10:02 AM
September 27, 2006
President of Clarke School for the Deaf retires
The president of Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton for the last 25 years is stepping down. Dennis Gjerdingen (gher-DIN'-ghen) announced his resignation yesterday. He is the sixth president since the school's founding nearly 140 years ago. The school teaches hearing impaired children how to communicate without using sign language.
Posted @ 6:42 AM
Linda Jordan named kickoff speaker for 2006-07 Jordan Lecture Series
Linda Jordan will be the kickoff speaker for the academic year 2006-07 I. King Jordan Lecture Series. The event is set for noon on Sept. 27 at the Kellogg Conference Hotel’s Swindells Auditorium.
Posted @ 6:35 AM
New Internet service offers database of organizations for/of the deaf
deafCensus.org one of the premier sites on the Web for deaf and hard of hearing communities, has a new Internet service offering a carefully compiled database of deaf and hearing loss related organizations.
Posted @ 6:30 AM
September 25, 2006
Steroids for treatment of sudden hearing loss
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) can occur suddenly in one ear, and generally within three days, cause a 30+ decibel (dB) hearing loss at three consecutive frequencies. The cause for this disorder is unclear, but research has indicated that viral infection, vascular compromise, and immunologic diseases could be key reasons for this hearing disorder.
Posted @ 5:24 AM
Did you hear?
Going to the movies used to leave Theresa Quin more bemused than amused. Images flashed, heads bobbed, mouths moved. But as a deaf person, Quin couldn't hear a thing and was barely able to make out the story line.
Posted @ 5:24 AM
Class bridges language barrier between hearing and deaf in families
JohnPaul Jebian raises his hands and waves them back and forth, as if he were taunting a crowd. Instead, he is teaching students at G. Holmes Braddock High's Parent Academy how deaf people clap. "You guys have great facial expressions,'' Jebian told his class. ``Facial expressions are very important when you are signing so people can understand what you are talking about.''
Posted @ 5:20 AM
Lights show deaf man how to take the fast lane
Born 90 percent deaf, this Franklin Square man is in his third season driving race cars. Daryn Miller spent the 20-lap race among the top five cars. Behind the leaders, the bumping and grinding was so intense that some cars had panels hanging. He just kept driving, averaging between 63 and 68 mph on the quarter-mile oval, immune to what was going on with the rest of the pack.
Posted @ 5:19 AM
Event gives deaf a place to meet
Last week, dozens packed into Premier Pizza in Hemet. A social crowd, adults and children sat around tables and stood at the counter, chatting with each other and catching up with one another's lives. Yet, despite all the conversations going on at once, the restaurant was largely silent.
Posted @ 5:18 AM
HIV/AIDS victims prefer deaf counselors
HIV/AIDS victims trust deaf Voluntary Testing (VCT) counsellors because they cannot reveal their secrets, it has been disclosed. A technical advisor in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Ms Peris Urassa, said yesterday that experience from neighbouring Kenya had shown that in 2005, a total of 7,000 people attended voluntary counselling due to the trust they had in deaf Counsellors.
Posted @ 5:17 AM
Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind to be on PBS
Gooding, Idaho (ap) -- the Idaho school for the Deaf and the Blind will be one of nine national sites to be featured on the animated PBS children's show, Maya and Miguel.
Posted @ 5:16 AM
Reaching out to the deaf
Sending an email might sound like an easy task for most people but not to SMK Methodist Kuala Lumpur student Kan Wai Kit. Up till last year, the hearing-impaired student knew little about technology. But thanks to the effort of a team of students from the school who participated in the Cyberlinq Competition organised by Maxis last year, Wai Kit is now able to use the computer.
Posted @ 5:15 AM
Let's take a walk for a good cause
Employees and volunteers at Central Point's Dogs for the Deaf are hoping their plea for dog owners to grab their best friend and head to Champoeg State Heritage Area on Saturday isn't a sound heard only by dogs.
Posted @ 5:15 AM
Procedural unfairness – employer wins appeal against deaf employee’s claim
The claimant was profoundly and pre-lingually deaf and his deafness amounted to a disability for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. He was suspended from duty for e-mailing to himself, from a colleague's terminal, files which he had no authority to see.
Posted @ 5:14 AM
CMU to mark Deaf Awareness Week
Central Michigan University will host a variety of activities Oct. 2-5 in recognition of Deaf Awareness Week. This is the fifth year of CMU's participation in Deaf Awareness Week, which celebrates the culture, language nd heritage unique to individuals who are deaf. The CMU department of communication disorders audiology program has hosted the event since 2002.
Posted @ 5:13 AM
Mum’s anger at options for deaf son
A deaf child's mother has accused Bromley Council of "stopping" her son's education. James Myers was due to start studying for his GCSEs this term but he does not have a school to go to and so is resigned to sitting at home in Wellbrook Road, Locksbottom, while his mother battles with Bromley Council.
Posted @ 5:10 AM
Mum’s anger at options for deaf son
A deaf child's mother has accused Bromley Council of "stopping" her son's education. James Myers was due to start studying for his GCSEs this term but he does not have a school to go to and so is resigned to sitting at home in Wellbrook Road, Locksbottom, while his mother battles with Bromley Council.
Posted @ 5:10 AM
Work promotes communication
Before the 1980s it was generally thought deaf children in schools should learn to lip read and talk instead of learning sign language.
Jane Thomas, speech therapist at Greenwich Teaching Primary Care Trust (GTPCT), said deaf people found this disrespectful to their culture because they were being taught to use a language they could not relate to as they could not hear it.
Posted @ 5:08 AM
Deaf sisters face mainstream challenges at school
It's dinnertime at the Rogers home in Springfield, and everyone around the table has something to say. But almost no words are spoken. Instead, eyes dart and fingers fly as five of the sisters -- Angela and Melissa, both 8; Julia, 9; 16-year-old Lianna; and Amanda, 24 -- talk in sign language about school, friends, the yummy noodles their mother has made and the challenges of being deaf.
Posted @ 5:06 AM
August 28, 2006
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
July 6, 2006
Healthy hearing under assault from the sounds of summer
"It's summertime," goes the old song, "and the livin' is easy." It's also noisy, according to Brad Buchholtz, an audiologist at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch. The list of things he reels off that can damage hearing and cause tinnitus is positively deafening: Parades. Lawn mowers. Power boats. Power tools. Rock concerts.
Posted @ 12:43 AM
Deafness can't keep Sloat off the field
Isaac Sloat recently completed his senior season with the Green Bay Southwest High School lacrosse team. He was a two-year starter and was a team captain, a do-anything type of player coaches love.
Ask those who know him, and they'll tell you how intelligent he is. About how he was accepted to Boston University but couldn't go because it was too expensive.
Posted @ 12:41 AM
Advocates for Deaf Education raise $20K in charity golf
Advocates for Deaf Education, made up of parents of hearing-impaired children, raised $20,000 in the organization's third annual charity golf event June 9 at Hamilton Elks Golf Club.
Founders of the group - Steve Burns, Tom Garriga, Mike Gartner and Bob Murphy - helped get 160 golfers for the event.
Posted @ 12:39 AM
Frontier division offering new technology, sign classes to aid deaf, hard of hearing
Remember the old days when The Jetsons popped into your living room on Saturday mornings? George Jetson always used his futuristic technology to call his wife Jane, who could see her husband’s face on a television screen and communicate with him that way.
Posted @ 12:36 AM
Gallaudet president should remember the culturally deaf
They won't listen. You know why — it is just because I am deaf." "I have no time to advocate for our rights." "I don't want to lose my job." "They didn't understand me because I didn't use my voice." Sadly, I am an authority on this topic. Having been profoundly deaf since birth as well as a parent of a deaf child, I am familiar with issues of unintentional and intentional discrimination that are unique to a group of Americans and international citizens who are deaf. My peers and I are used to being treated a little bit differently.
Posted @ 12:35 AM
School for Deaf to go up near Davies
An agreement to build a $31.3-million Rhode Island School for the Deaf behind Davies Career and Technical School, in Lincoln, has been reached by state and school officials, who have spent months wrangling over a location.
Posted @ 12:34 AM
Deaf Pilots Association comes to Martin Field
A unique and dedicated group of pilots will hold their annual fly-in at Martin Field in South Sioux City, Monday through Friday. The Deaf Pilots Association (DPA) based in Knoxville, Tenn. will gather for their 13th annual fly-in.
DPA members come from all over the United States, some European countries and Australia. Some members use American Sign Language while others employ lip reading. Many members are hard of hearing, while others have become deaf later in life.
Posted @ 12:32 AM
Parents, employees not represented in talks on deaf, blind schools
The Oregon School for the Blind has been in existence since 1873 and under the supervision of the state. Now, a task force has recommended that the school for the blind be combined with the school for the deaf and the jobs of the staff be contracted to a different organization other than the Oregon Department of Education.
Posted @ 12:30 AM
Deaf services agency celebrates 10 years in San Marcos
The banner above the door at Signs of Silence says "Welcome Home," and it's a fitting slogan for a celebrated nonprofit organization that has provided a community for North County's deaf population in the last decade. The service, run by Roy Hensley, has operated in a small office on Commerce Street in San Marcos since 1996.
Posted @ 12:26 AM
Deaf teen overwhelmed with offers of help
A day after she was close to giving up hope of attending a prestigious summer camp for the deaf, 16-year-old Violet Blake has a new problem on her hands. She has too many offers for help. A Connecticut Post article about her plight generated an overwhelming response from individuals and businesses from Milford to Westport.
Posted @ 12:23 AM
Teen's charges bound over in deaf man's shooting
A teenager accused of robbing and shooting a deaf man June 21 at Guardian Courts Apartments is now serving out a sentence for violating probation.
Dana Tyrone Hardin, 18, was sentenced Thursday in Jackson City Court to 11 months and 29 days in jail on a violation of probation charge, according to the court clerk's office.
Posted @ 12:22 AM
SFCC graduate takes stock in future as deaf educator
Looking into the future, Michelle Kirkland sees herself teaching deaf children how to communicate in American Sign Language.
Looking back seven years, Kirkland remembers when her dream of attending college became a reality. Back then, Kirkland, a sixth-grader, heard about the Take Stock in Children scholarship program sponsored by the South Florida Community College Foundation and she applied to it.
Posted @ 12:20 AM
June 21, 2006
Technology aids deaf-blind
For the deaf-blind community, today’s technology spells independence. At the American Association of the Deaf-Blind National Conference held at Towson University, several manufacturers displayed and promoted multiple products that bridge the communication gap between the deaf-blind and the general population.
Posted @ 12:02 PM
ICT for the silent minority
The drama was unfolding on television right before his eyes on Sept 11 in 2001, where two aircraft, one after another, crashed into the World Trade Center buildings in New York. But it was only hours later that Mohammad Sazali Shaari could actually understand what had happened.
Posted @ 11:57 AM
Deaf man abandoned by "friends" is home safe, thanks to cops
Timothy Beck, a 21-year-old Florida man, was determined to be independent from his parents and move to New Jersey with his new friends. Despite his mother's protests, Beck, who is deaf, traveled to Seaside Heights recently from Florida with a couple who befriended him and persuaded him to leave home. A day after arriving in the borough, he found himself abandoned by his friends.
Posted @ 11:55 AM
The blind-deaf tech wiz
Technology changes all of our lives every day, but, as CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports, it's hard to think of anyone who stands to gain more from technological innovation than those who have lost their hearing and sight.
Posted @ 11:54 AM
Center fielder excels in silence
The crack of the bat. The ball popping a mitt. The umpire bellowing a third-strike call. Baseball has many unmistakable sounds. Norwell High School center fielder Scott Woodward wouldn't know. He is almost completely deaf.
Posted @ 10:00 AM
Deaf people get communication freedom with 'Ubi Duo'
A frustrating conversation transformed the way Jason and David Curry communicate with each other today. "One Saturday morning, we went to breakfast, and during breakfast, we were trying to have a face-to-face conversation," said Jason, who is deaf.
Posted @ 9:55 AM
Deaf people get communication freedom with 'Ubi Duo'
A frustrating conversation transformed the way Jason and David Curry communicate with each other today. "One Saturday morning, we went to breakfast, and during breakfast, we were trying to have a face-to-face conversation," said Jason, who is deaf.
Posted @ 9:55 AM
Miss Deaf Texas to give sneak peek
Miss Deaf Texas Johanna Valenta will present a pre-pageant event from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at MacAllister Auditorium at San Antonio College at 1400 San Pedro Ave. Valenta will preview her platform speech and model outfits she will wear at the Miss Deaf America Pageant July 3 at the Desert Springs-J.W. Marriott Resort in Palm Desert, Calif.
Posted @ 9:53 AM
Moving school for blind raises safety fears
A proposal to move the Oregon School for the Blind from the Salem campus it has occupied since 1895 is stirring safety objections from parents of visually impaired students. They say the proposed relocation site in North Salem, the 52-acre campus of the Oregon School for the Deaf, is within a neighborhood that lacks adequate sidewalks for blind people.
Posted @ 9:45 AM
B.C. neglecting deaf children
Adrian Dix, the Opposition NDP critic for children and family development, has attacked the government’s approach to dealing with hearing-impaired children after a newly released report found serious problems with the province’s early intervention program.
Posted @ 9:43 AM
Deaf pet snatched and lashed to tree
Callous yobs snatched a 21-year-old cat from outside his home and left him tied to a tree with a length of washing line wrapped tightly around his neck. The elderly cat, named Fudge, who is completely deaf, was discovered abandoned on wasteland near his owner's house, more than a day after he went missing.
Posted @ 9:42 AM
Homeless deaf mute faces incarceration
A 47-year-old homeless deaf mute man has been charged with killing an unidentified Hispanic man by repeatedly striking him in the head with a brick during an apparent robbery in Long Island City this past weekend.
Posted @ 9:28 AM
Sessions will help deaf people
New drop-in sessions for deaf and hard-of-hearing people have begun in Salisbury. The monthly drop-in is a chance for deaf and hard-of-hearing people to discuss problems they might be experiencing in their daily lives as a result of their hearing loss. Specialist advice and support will also be available on a wide range of issues important to people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
Posted @ 9:24 AM
June 18, 2006
Deaf and hard of hearing students look to the future through writing and art
The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center has announced the winners of the annual Gallaudet National Essay and Art Contests for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students. Over 200 students throughout the country entered the contests. Through writing and drawing, the students envisioned their futures as they responded to this year’s contest questions: “What will I be doing when I’m 30 years old? How am I preparing for it today?”
Posted @ 9:22 AM
June 13, 2006
New Jersey focuses on housing for deaf and hard of hearing
Special needs housing, whether for senior citizens, low income or the disabled, always appears to be an insurmountable problem. Put all three statistics together and you come up with a mind-boggling situation that, for all practical purposes, is impossible.
Posted @ 5:33 AM
If you can't hear this you're old
Did you know that your hearing can deteriorate by early middle age? No news there, right? But we're not talking about serious hearing loss but the ability to recognize some mosquito-pitched high noises.
Posted @ 5:32 AM
Longtime advocate for the deaf dies
Texana Faulk Conn, an advocate for Texas' deaf and disabled community, died of natural causes in her sleep Friday. She was 90. Conn was the youngest sister of Austinite John Henry Faulk, the entertainer and free-speech advocate.
Posted @ 5:26 AM
Pool named after famous alum
The Swimming Center at the Texas School for the Deaf now bears the name of a famous alum. Leroy Colombo became deaf and paralyzed at age seven. Through swimming he built up his strength and learned to walk again.
Posted @ 5:17 AM
Deaf student overcomes obstacles to graduate from CWU
Regina Beaulaurier has helped change the culture of diversity at Central Washington University. When the 23-year-old from Yakima transferred to Central about three years ago, she was the only deaf student on campus.
Posted @ 5:15 AM
Deaf boy wins $20,000 for discrimination
A boy, deaf since birth, has been awarded $20,000 for discrimination in the classroom. The Education Department was ordered to pay the money to compensate Dylan Beasley, 14, for discrimination during the three years he was a pupil at Pearcedale Primary School from 1999 to 2003.
Posted @ 5:14 AM
Fort Ogden teen graduates from Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind
Fort Ogden resident Randy William Reed, 18, was named salutatorian for the 2006 graduating class from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. Reed was among 84 graduates who participated in the school's 92nd graduation ceremony on May 19 in St. Augustine. He completed a vocational career education certification in the business support services field.
Posted @ 5:13 AM