Activities expand at Aspen camp for deaf kids

Kids psyched up for an adventure speak the same language, and “Me first!” looks the same in American Sign Language as it sounds coming in shrieks from an 8-year-old who wants to climb a sheer rock wall.

The Aspen Camp for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Old Snowmass is celebrating 40 years of getting deaf children involved in those and other activities. The camp is also entering something of a new era of expansion into winter and opening its door to more campers.

Clint Woosley, the camp program coordinator, has a knack for getting people’s attention. Bearded and quick with a smile, the outdoorsman and certified ropes course instructor from Maryland was born deaf but can read lips and hears with the help of hearing aids. read more

website frustrations

Well, what do you know! I found a new webspace host back in June for the Wyoming School for the Deaf website. I used to have a website called "Deaf Wyoming" which also included information and stuff for WSD. Well, that old website was basically deleted due to lack of update for months, so I decided I wanted to make a whole new one. And hopefully this new one will be better than the old one as well. read more

New faculty a good sign for new Deaf Studies program

UVSC has recently hired an experienced husband-and-wife team to teach its new Deaf Studies program.

"They're going to be key to the program," said Bryan Eldredge, ASL and Deaf Studies program coordinator. "Both of them bring energy; that's the biggest thing. They just love to be in the classroom with their students."

Garrow, who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Deaf Studies and a master's degree in linguistics, first encountered the deaf community while pursuing a professional snowboarding career in New York. read more

R.I. School for the Deaf to Remain in Providence

LINCOLN, R.I. (AP) -- The Rhode Island School for the Deaf has decided against relocating. Officials had planned to build a new facility in Lincoln, but then realized that the property wasn't big enough to accommodate the building.

As a result, the state says it decided to build the new facility in Providence, on the grounds of the existing school. Roughly 105 students, between the ages of three and 21, attend the school.

Officials said a new school was needed because the current building could no longer meet the students' needs. read more

MCE and ASL

In the past we have talked about different types of sign language and though we have done that we haven't come out and said what there is to say. Most forms of sign language in America is a form of MCE or Manually Coded English. English remains the base for the signs. The signs can come from American Sign Language or they can be shortened or simplified (or lengthed and complicated) versions. Often Signing Exact English will make signs longer and more complicated by adding prefixes and changing tenses. American Sign Language doesn't add an ed or an ing to change when something happened or will happen, but SEE II does.

Any way...

Manually Coded English (and in other countries other forms of Manually Coded Languages) arose from a need to bridge the gap between the hearing and the deaf. Parents struggled to learn a new language to communicate with their children (and many who choose to use ASL still struggle). MCE was a way to use signs and also to communicate easily without having to learn a new language. Often the signs are the easy part of learning to communicate, it is the difference in grammar and structure that causes one to have difficulty. You have to retrain your brain to think in ASL.

Sign language isn't universal. There are differences in regions, in different circles, different books, and all across America. Not to mention that ASL is different then BSL (British Sign Language) which is different then FSL (French Sign Language) and so forth. It is true, however that if you put a FSL user in the same room with a ASL user and a French speaking person in with an English speaking person, it would be the deaf who would be communicating faster. Much faster. This has to do with how words are represented and the natural inclination to work through communication issues. If you have spent your whole life working through communication problems...it's not as much work as if you think everyone should just understand you. read more

Firm friends help Auckland deaf

When Pt Chevalier residents Leonie Morete and Carmen Otatahu met, they could hardly have imagined that they would enjoy a twenty-year friendship based on helping others in the community. Leonie is deaf, and taught Carmen to speak New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL), and now they both assist in training new translators with a multicultural volunteer deaf group based in Avondale.

Carmen, whose husband Finau is profoundly deaf, says that although there are good courses for learning sign language, those who are deaf make excellent teachers because they use so much expression when communicating with others. read more

Deaf Benefit from Computer Technology

Web cams, projectors, DVD's, and portable laptop computers are being put to good use by the deaf in New Zealand in their desire to communicate with others in the community.

One group that is doing so with good success is the Avondale Deaf Group of Jehovah's Witnesses. Official volunteer groups based in Avondale and Christchurch are using technology to train translators and care for the needs of the deaf not just in big cities, but in provincial areas of New Zealand. read more

Frank Bowe, advocate for deaf

--Frank Bowe, a deaf professor who helped win civil rights protections for the disabled and advised Congress on how to better serve people with disabilities, has died. He was 60.Bowe, a Hofstra University special-education professor, had been battling cancer, one of his daughters said.

Bowe, deaf from childhood, was the first executive director of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, helping to direct the 1977 sit-ins that led to federal enforcement of the first major law to bar discrimination against the disabled. -- associated press read more

Veteran rider in desert bike trek

Denis, who has hearing difficulties, is undertaking the ride across Jordan to raise money for the National Deaf Children’s Society.

“Challenge is certainly the word,” he said.

“It will be six days of intensive cycling, taking in Petra and down to the Red Sea.

“That will work out about 60 miles a day, which in normal circumstances would be do-able, but it will be very hot out there and what with our weather this summer I haven’t been able to get the miles of training done I’d have liked.

“It has been difficult to find the conditions for logging up the miles – a little heat by way of conditioning would have been welcomed.” read more

Filmmaker's moving story of parents' journey into the hearing world

HOLLYWOOD — 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 both would undergo cochlear implants. In three weeks.

In the film, Paul remembers his mother pushing him in his stroller weeping, because, as he puts it, "I would never speak ... I would never have a life." She needn't have worried; he became a college professor and engineer who helped invent a technology that would help deaf people communicate by phone. read more

Learning to read if deaf—how?

[First of all, I am not completely aware of the politically correct terms of people with different disabilities, so I'm just using the word I know here, deaf. If some of you feel it is offensive, please forgive me. I mean no offence.]

I've been wondering about this for a while, but... how do the deaf learn how to read? Lately I've been studying reading in literature (which is my minor) and learning to read was one part of those studies. The POV varied from a child with no disabilities all the way to children with mild-to-mildly-serious mental disabilities, but deaf children were omitted. read more

Defying deafness

Born hearing-impaired, the 21-year-old Mei Mei, as she is affectionately known, has not allowed deafness to stop her from pursuing her dream of studying overseas.

“Many parents of the deaf do not send their children abroad for studies because they are afraid the deaf won’t be able to cope. I am thankful that my family, mentor and friends were very supportive of my dream to study in Canada,” she says.

Disability Studies at the college is a two-year diploma course that focuses on integrating the disabled into the community. Subjects include advocacy and communication, and leadership skills as well as nutrition, health and fitness.

So far, Mei Mei has completed subjects on the mentally challenged, the physically handicapped and those with learning disabilities. read more

Nice Pro-Gun Article in Worcester Telegram

NEADS, Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans, is a nonprofit organization established in 1976 to train and provide rescued dogs and donated puppies to assist people who are deaf or physically disabled in leading more independent lives at work, home or school. With headquarters in Princeton, NEADS has trained approximately 800 assistance dogs since its inception.

Those who would like additional information about the program, or who would like to make a donation, can contact NEADS by visiting the Web site www.neads.org or by calling (978) 422-9064 (voice or TDD) or by writing to NEADS, P.O. Box 213, West Boylston, MA 01583. read more

Activities expand at Aspen camp for deaf kids

ASPEN — Kids psyched up for an adventure speak the same language, and “Me first!” looks the same in American Sign Language as it sounds coming in shrieks from an 8-year-old who wants to climb a sheer rock wall.

The Aspen Camp for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Old Snowmass is celebrating 40 years of getting deaf children involved in those and other activities. The camp is also entering something of a new era of expansion into winter and opening its door to more campers. read more

109 Deaf Girl Gives a Speech

It was the first time I used Power Point. Of course I was very nervous, and when I gave the speech I had lost most of my hearing in both ears due to allergic reactions to the ventilation systems at IUSB… my Eustachian tubes were blocked, preventing airflow to the middle ear, and so the ear drums weren’t working. I could barely hear myself talk.

I kept thinking this whatever it was would clear on its own. I didn’t have an ear ache an either ear, until one day, after I had let it go on for two months, I had excruciating pain in my left ear, and then stuff came oozing out. I rushed to the doctor to find my left eardrum had ruptured. That was scary. I got on some allergy medicine and began to heal. Little did I know that wouldn’t be the last major ordeal with my ears, or that they would cost me my career dreams. read more

Former Hofstra professor, activist dies

Frank Bowe, a celebrated Hofstra professor and activist who championed for the rights of the disabled and helped draft the legislation that led to the Americans With Disabilities Act, died Aug. 21 of cancer. He was 60 years old.

Bowe, who was deaf, served as the executive director of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities from 1976 to 1981. In 1977, he helped direct a nationwide sit-in that pushed legislators to implement Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act, the world's first civil-rights provision for the disabled. Section 504 was the forerunner of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. read more

BIG 92.7 FM celebrates Sports Day with hak De?girl

Bombay Institution of Deaf & Mute is one of the many schools that undergo School Health Education Programme (SHEP) by the Aga Khan Health Service India and is a functionary of the Aga Khan Development Network. The primary focus of the organization is towards the under-privileged population and it works in partnership with the government and other health providers. read more

Mark your Calendar

Aquarium caters to deaf visitors

The N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher will offer programs tailored especially for the deaf and hard of hearing on Saturday.

Sign language, captioning or scripting will enhance most of the activities of the day - animal feedings, live-animal presentations and films - and interpreters will assist visitors at the admissions lobby, snack bar and selected exhibits.

An interpreter will be available periodically at the Coquina Outcrop touch pool and the "Let's Talk Turtle" loggerhead sea turtle booth. read more

Workshop discuses problems of hearing disabled

The first workshop in Yemen to address the problems of people with hearing disabilities was held this week at the Taj Sheba Hotel.

“This workshop is the first of its kind in Yemen to specialize on the auditory disabilities, we will try to discuss all its different issues,” said Eman Hashem Enqadh, the chairman of the Al-Eman Center for Hearing and Speech Therapy. The workshop was called Early Diagnosis of Audio Disability and Proper Training and their Impact on the Evolution of Language in Children with Auditory Disabilities.

“The audio disabled can easily integrate in the society if we choose the best training and qualification program, because his mental and physical abilities are right,” she said. “It is not the first workshop but they will do other workshops that specialize in audio disabilities.” read more

Sorenson Communications' VP-200® Videophone Wins TDI Engineering Award

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. (TDI) has presented the Andrew Saks Engineering Award to Sorenson Communications™, the nation’s leading provider of Video Relay Services (VRS) for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals who use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate. TDI, a long-time national advocate for equal telecommunications access for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, honored Sorenson Communications for its VP-200® videophone on Saturday at the 17th Biennial International TDI Conference in San Mateo, Calif.

The TDI award, given every two years, recognizes an outstanding design, electronic, or engineering accomplishment that improves access to telecommunications for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. The VP-200 videophone delivers crisp video images and smooth hand movements, essential for ASL users who depend on quick finger spellings and subtle facial expressions to communicate. read more