Matlin is an Academy Award winner for her role in "Children of a Lesser God," which also happened to be her film debut. She is the first deaf actress to receive the Academy Award and one of only four distinguished actresses to do so with her film debut. Along with her Oscar, Matlin has won a Golden Globe and has been nominated numerous times for Emmy and People's Choice awards for her television roles, including "Seinfeld," "The Practice" and more. Guest star roles on "The West Wing," "My Name is Earl" and "Desperate Housewives" have contributed to Matlin's stardom and celebrity status.

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.

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.

"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.

Some specific issues that deaf people face are...

Crossing all limits of dignity two cops of the Moga police raped a deaf, dumb and mentally challenged 20-year-old on the night of July 28. The two, a constable and a sepoy, were finally nailed after 60 hours on Thursday.

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.

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. If so, you are not alone.

More often than not, people put off getting a hearing aid after they first notice it's getting harder to hear, said East Bay, Calif., audiologist Leigh Kjeldsen. ''People wait an average of seven years between knowing they have a problem with hearing and doing something about it.''

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.

"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.

Speaking to Nyasa Times, officials from the deaf community in the country disclosed that currently, estimates show that Malawi has over 50,000 hearing impaired people against only eleven sign language interpreters.

The males of this rare species are the only animal known to be able to turn a deaf ear to distracting noises while enhancing the calls of their own kind, according to a study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

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.

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.