http://www.alldeaf.com/ News related to the deaf and hard of hearing only. en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:35:26 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.alldeaf.com/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.alldeaf.com/ http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72189-jacki-marcus-1962-2009-worked-children-who-were-deaf-hard-hearing.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:12:32 GMT Jacki Marcus, 1962-2009: Worked with children who were deaf, hard of hearing -- chicagotribune.com

Jacki Marcus wasn't much of an ice skater, but she threw herself into the game of hockey as part of her work with children who were hard of hearing and deaf.

An interpreter with the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association, Ms. Marcus traveled to tournaments around the world, getting on the ice to make sure orders from coaches and referees were translated properly. "She was willing to try pretty much anything, and once she was involved she gave it 100 percent," said Katie McGreevy, a friend and fellow hockey interpreter.

A teacher, school psychologist and longtime advocate for the deaf and hard of hearing, Ms. Marcus, 47, died of complications from leukemia on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at Loyola University Medical Center, said her mother, Sandra. The disease was diagnosed in late June.

As a teenager in Park Forest, Ms. Marcus worked with disabled children at a summer camp and found an interest that became her vocation.

While active in theater, she majored in deaf education at Illinois State University, then began a teaching career in Kankakee before moving to Kinzie Elementary School in Chicago's Garfield Ridge neighborhood.

Ms. Marcus and other teachers used the Total Communication method that employs sign language, body and facial gestures, and speaking to teach students from preschool through eighth grade how to communicate as well as the various academic subjects, said Elena Batura, a colleague at Kinzie.

"Whatever the need was, Jacki filled it," she said. "Jacki didn't do anything halfway. She may not have given birth to any children, but she mothered those children."

Even after getting a master's degree in school psychology from Loyola University and working as a school psychologist in Glen Ellyn and St. Charles, Ms. Marcus continued to focus on education and advocacy for the deaf.

She helped other teachers of deaf children through the Illinois Resource Center, which offers assistance at schools around the state. Her efforts with the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association started about 20 years ago, when she, along with McGreevy, signed up to volunteer while attending a convention of the Illinois Teachers of Hard of Hearing and Deaf Individuals.

Ms. Marcus could skate forward, haltingly, but didn't know how to stop. So when she had to go on the ice, coaches or players would hold their arms out to stop her.

Over time, Ms. Marcus became fairly proficient on the ice and even switched from figure to hockey skates. In addition to being part of an annual hockey camp sponsored by Blackhawks legend Stan Mikita, her work as a interpreter took her to tournaments in Canada and Finland, and she became fluent in hockey terminology and strategy, McGreevy said.

Ms. Marcus also is survived by her father, Donald; two brothers, Bruce and Jeffrey; and a sister, Rita Stahl. Services were held. ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72189-jacki-marcus-1962-2009-worked-children-who-were-deaf-hard-hearing.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72188-bbc-casts-deaf-actress-lead-role.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:09:37 GMT BBC casts deaf actress in lead role - mirror.co.uk

An untried deaf actress has been handed the lead role in in a primetime BBC thriller.

Genevieve Barr will play deaf teenager Amelia Edwards, who witnesses a murder while staying with relatives in a new BBC1 fourpart series called The Silence. It is her first major role, which she won while on the Teach First training scheme, teaching in a challenging inner London school.

Last night Genevieve said: "The Silence is a fantastic opportunity to explore life through a deaf person's eyes and I am thrilled to have been offered the role.

"I have my hands full with Amelia! I have had my first day of filming and it was exhausting but amazing playing my first scenes opposite Gina McKee, who plays my mother."

Genevieve, 23, will be surrounded by an experienced cast for the production, including acclaimed actor Douglas Henshall, McKee and Hugh Bonneville. ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72188-bbc-casts-deaf-actress-lead-role.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72187-conference-deaf-people-life-church.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:07:30 GMT CONFERENCE ON DEAF PEOPLE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH : DFWCatholic.org (http://www.dfwcatholic.org/conference-on-deaf-people-in-the-life-of-the-church-7060/.html) This morning in the Holy See Press Office, the presentation took place of the 24th international conference promoted by the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care. The theme of this year’s gathering is “Effata! Deaf people in the life of the Church”, and the event is due to be held in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall from 19 to 21 November. Participating in today’s press conference were Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, Bishop Jose L. Redrado O.H. and Msgr. Jean-Marie Mpendawatu, respectively president, secretary and under secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care; Fr. Savino Castiglione of the Congregation “Little Mission for the Deaf”, and Marco Radici, director of the ENT unit of the Hospital of St. John of God “Fatebenefratelli” in Rome. There are 278 million people in the world who suffer from hearing impairment, of whom 59 million are profoundly deaf. Eighty percent of deaf people live in the less-developed areas of the planet. It is also estimated that there are around 1.3 million deaf people in the Catholic Church who, Archbishop Zimowski explained, “face particular difficulties in participating fully in religious practices”. The forthcoming conference – which will be attended by 498 people, 89 of whom are deaf – arises from the need to promote and improve commitment in this field of disability in order “to achieve true integration for deaf people”, he said. “According to the timetable”, the archbishop continued, “the three days of the meeting will be subdivided into sections focusing on various aspects of deafness. The first day will examine the themes of: ‘deaf people in the world, past and present’; ‘the psychological world of deaf people’; the ‘medical aspects of deafness’, and ‘experiences from the world of deafness’”. The second day, during which the participants will also be received by the Pope, will consider such themes as “the family and deaf people” and “pastoral care of the deaf”. The conference will come to an end on 21 November with a summarisation of the subjects discussed, roundtable discussions and the presentation of a final report. Among those attending the conference will be Archbishop Patrick A. Kelly of Liverpool, England, and Terry O’Meara, respectively president and director of the International Catholic Foundation for the Service of Deaf Persons; Silvio P. Mariotti, an expert of the World Health Organisation, and Fr. Cyril Axelrod, a blind and deaf priest. Also participating in the event will be Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan and Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, presidents emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, which is due to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its foundation on 11 February 2010. CONFERENCE ON DEAF PEOPLE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH : DFWCatholic.org

This morning in the Holy See Press Office, the presentation took place of the 24th international conference promoted by the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care. The theme of this year’s gathering is “Effata! Deaf people in the life of the Church”, and the event is due to be held in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall from 19 to 21 November.

Participating in today’s press conference were Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, Bishop Jose L. Redrado O.H. and Msgr. Jean-Marie Mpendawatu, respectively president, secretary and under secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care; Fr. Savino Castiglione of the Congregation “Little Mission for the Deaf”, and Marco Radici, director of the ENT unit of the Hospital of St. John of God “Fatebenefratelli” in Rome.

There are 278 million people in the world who suffer from hearing impairment, of whom 59 million are profoundly deaf. Eighty percent of deaf people live in the less-developed areas of the planet. It is also estimated that there are around 1.3 million deaf people in the Catholic Church who, Archbishop Zimowski explained, “face particular difficulties in participating fully in religious practices”.

The forthcoming conference – which will be attended by 498 people, 89 of whom are deaf – arises from the need to promote and improve commitment in this field of disability in order “to achieve true integration for deaf people”, he said.

“According to the timetable”, the archbishop continued, “the three days of the meeting will be subdivided into sections focusing on various aspects of deafness. The first day will examine the themes of: ‘deaf people in the world, past and present’; ‘the psychological world of deaf people’; the ‘medical aspects of deafness’, and ‘experiences from the world of deafness’”.

The second day, during which the participants will also be received by the Pope, will consider such themes as “the family and deaf people” and “pastoral care of the deaf”.

The conference will come to an end on 21 November with a summarisation of the subjects discussed, roundtable discussions and the presentation of a final report.

Among those attending the conference will be Archbishop Patrick A. Kelly of Liverpool, England, and Terry O’Meara, respectively president and director of the International Catholic Foundation for the Service of Deaf Persons; Silvio P. Mariotti, an expert of the World Health Organisation, and Fr. Cyril Axelrod, a blind and deaf priest.

Also participating in the event will be Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan and Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, presidents emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, which is due to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its foundation on 11 February 2010. ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72187-conference-deaf-people-life-church.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72185-deaf-actors-demand-equal-stage-time.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:05:59 GMT Deaf Actors Demand Equal Stage Time |WNYC Culture (http://blogs.wnyc.org/culture/2009/11/16/deaf-actors-demand-equal-stage-time/) In the movie version of Carson McCuller’s book The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, the deaf character John Singer is played by a young Alan Arkin. In the film, the character reads lips and signs, but never speaks. The action revolves around his silent communication with the characters he meets and befriends –a café owner, a black doctor, an alcoholic, and a young tomboy. Linda Bove is a deaf actress who says that she was touched by the movie version of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter when she saw it. However, she says that in retrospect, there was a lot lacking in Arkin’s depiction of John Singer. “Imagine someone who doesn’t speak Spanish going to take a Spanish 101 class before they prepared for a role that required fluent speaking in Spanish,” Bove said. “I don’t think anyone would buy that.” Bove is best known for her role as Linda the Librarian on Sesame Street,a role that she played for more than 20 years. She says that in 1968 when Alan Arkin was tapped to play John Singer, the first generation of deaf actors was still being trained, and most were not ready to provide such a professional level of performance in that role. These days, however, deaf actors can compete for roles that portray their life experiences. Bove insists that when a hearing actor plays a deaf character, audiences are losing out on authenticity. “They’re just going to swallow the portrayal that they’re given,” Bove said. “They’re not going to know that it may or may not be accurate. You’re perpetuating cultural misunderstandings and linguistic misunderstandings because people can reference these so-called acclaimed performances as legitimate, and I think it promotes a lot of confusion about the elements that are being portrayed by hearing people.” Bove has spent years struggling to bring more authentic portrayals of deaf people to the screen and stage. As a new cast member on Sesame Street in 1977, she had to coach the writers and producers about deaf culture. “The writers had very little knowledge about deafness,” Bove said. “They didn’t know about someone who used sign language as their primary way of communication or way of life. What did this mean? The fact that I went to a deaf school, the fact that I was raised in a family where my parents were deaf, that my friends were deaf, that I lived in a deaf world – and that this had to have an effect on my thinking and my values.” She says that when a deaf actor plays a deaf character, there is no guesswork involved. “It’s internal to us.” In the production of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter that’s in previews now at the New York Theater Workshop, the character John Singer signs most of his dialogue, but breaks the silence with two speaking parts. He’s played by the actor Henry Stram, who is not deaf and learned sign language for the role. That casting decision that has angered many people in the deaf acting community, who say that with so few roles for deaf actors, this is a lost opportunity. Doug Hughes, the director of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, won a Tony award in 2005 for directing the play Doubt. He and Henry Stram have been with the production since it premiered in Atlanta four years ago. He says he’s not surprised by the outcry over casting a hearing actor as John Singer. “There’s no question that there is a woeful shortage of opportunities for deaf actors,” Hughes said. “The immediate addendum to that is that there is a woeful shortage of opportunity for any actor. It’s a perilous profession.” Recently, Hughes and the producers met with four deaf actors who opposed the decision to cast a hearing actor as John Singer. The actors made suggestions for making Singer’s speaking role more accessible to a deaf actor, like having the actor sign his lines along with a voiceover. In the end, the production remained the same. For Doug Hughes, the issue boils down to artistic freedom. “I think the minute you begin to clamp down on the potential for somebody to be able to express themselves in the rather pure rather innocent realm of the stage or any other artistic realm, I think you’re starting to head into some very dangerous territory.” he said. “These issues come up again and again, and they come up for a number of very complicated, intersecting reasons,” says Alisa Solomon, a theater critic and professor at Columbia University. “It is because of the nature of theater that it’s often the arena for these battles. It’s precisely about pretend and it’s precisely about representation, and both of these ideas clash in these instances.” In 1990, a Broadway production of Miss Saigon angered many Asian-American actors when Jonathan Pryce, a white Brit, was cast in the lead role of a mixed-race Asian man. More than a hundred protesters showed up on opening night, and the ensuing debate was the inspiration for playwright David Henry Hwang’s play, Yellow Face. Two years ago, when Angelina Jolie was cast as Marianne Pearl, the mixed-race wife of journalist Daniel Pearl in the movie A Mighty Heart, some complained that Marianne Pearl’s race was being “whitewashed.” Director Doug Hughes says that it’s the nature of acting to inhabit characters that may have lives different from our own. “Anybody who steps on a stage is doing so in a spirit that we share our humanity with our fellow inhabitants of the planet,” Hughes says. “And the fact that our experience in life is not directly analogous to the experience of the character is one of the great joys of performance. It means that our imaginations are capable of making a valid stab at understanding others. That’s the essence of the drama.” But for Linda Bove, the experience of being deaf encompasses more than simply not hearing. She says that deaf culture has complexities and nuances that are hard for a hearing actor to portray accurately. “My native language happens to be American Sign Language, and English is my second language,” Bove says. “We’re talking about a completely different language, and fluency in that language that’s being used in the character…I think an actor rehearsing for three weeks wearing earplugs, but still being able to hear, they really never experience that life struggle that we have. It is very, very, different.” The issue doesn’t look like it’s going away. The Miracle Worker opens at Circle in the Square Theater in March. The young Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf, will be played by another hearing actor – the Oscar -nominated Abigail Breslin. Linda Bove says that the producers of The Miracle Worker met with a group of deaf actors, and they agreed to hire a deaf understudy for the role. She smiles with excitement and says it is a step in the right direction. “We’re really hopeful that we find the right deaf girl to be the understudy for this production of miracle worker!” Bove says. “It seems like a small step for us, but it’s a very significant small step.” Director Doug Hughes says that he hopes to work collaboratively with talented deaf actors and deaf theater groups on future projects. And Linda Bove says that the deaf acting community’s organized opposition to these casting choices has turned into a learning opportunity. She says it has highlighted the need to be more proactive in reaching out to producers and arts organizations where deaf roles are concerned. “I want to see full access, inclusion, accuracy, and integrity,” Bove says. “Knowing that we have the resources to do such a role, I’d like to see due diligence on the part of the producers to consider this at the beginning stages of a production,” she says. “This all has to happen at the beginning.” Deaf Actors Demand Equal Stage Time |WNYC Culture

In the movie version of Carson McCuller’s book The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, the deaf character John Singer is played by a young Alan Arkin. In the film, the character reads lips and signs, but never speaks. The action revolves around his silent communication with the characters he meets and befriends –a café owner, a black doctor, an alcoholic, and a young tomboy.

Linda Bove is a deaf actress who says that she was touched by the movie version of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter when she saw it. However, she says that in retrospect, there was a lot lacking in Arkin’s depiction of John Singer.

“Imagine someone who doesn’t speak Spanish going to take a Spanish 101 class before they prepared for a role that required fluent speaking in Spanish,” Bove said. “I don’t think anyone would buy that.”

Bove is best known for her role as Linda the Librarian on Sesame Street,a role that she played for more than 20 years. She says that in 1968 when Alan Arkin was tapped to play John Singer, the first generation of deaf actors was still being trained, and most were not ready to provide such a professional level of performance in that role. These days, however, deaf actors can compete for roles that portray their life experiences. Bove insists that when a hearing actor plays a deaf character, audiences are losing out on authenticity.

“They’re just going to swallow the portrayal that they’re given,” Bove said. “They’re not going to know that it may or may not be accurate. You’re perpetuating cultural misunderstandings and linguistic misunderstandings because people can reference these so-called acclaimed performances as legitimate, and I think it promotes a lot of confusion about the elements that are being portrayed by hearing people.”
Bove has spent years struggling to bring more authentic portrayals of deaf people to the screen and stage. As a new cast member on Sesame Street in 1977, she had to coach the writers and producers about deaf culture.

“The writers had very little knowledge about deafness,” Bove said. “They didn’t know about someone who used sign language as their primary way of communication or way of life. What did this mean? The fact that I went to a deaf school, the fact that I was raised in a family where my parents were deaf, that my friends were deaf, that I lived in a deaf world – and that this had to have an effect on my thinking and my values.” She says that when a deaf actor plays a deaf character, there is no guesswork involved. “It’s internal to us.”

In the production of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter that’s in previews now at the New York Theater Workshop, the character John Singer signs most of his dialogue, but breaks the silence with two speaking parts. He’s played by the actor Henry Stram, who is not deaf and learned sign language for the role. That casting decision that has angered many people in the deaf acting community, who say that with so few roles for deaf actors, this is a lost opportunity.

Doug Hughes, the director of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, won a Tony award in 2005 for directing the play Doubt. He and Henry Stram have been with the production since it premiered in Atlanta four years ago. He says he’s not surprised by the outcry over casting a hearing actor as John Singer.

“There’s no question that there is a woeful shortage of opportunities for deaf actors,” Hughes said. “The immediate addendum to that is that there is a woeful shortage of opportunity for any actor. It’s a perilous profession.”

Recently, Hughes and the producers met with four deaf actors who opposed the decision to cast a hearing actor as John Singer. The actors made suggestions for making Singer’s speaking role more accessible to a deaf actor, like having the actor sign his lines along with a voiceover. In the end, the production remained the same. For Doug Hughes, the issue boils down to artistic freedom.

“I think the minute you begin to clamp down on the potential for somebody to be able to express themselves in the rather pure rather innocent realm of the stage or any other artistic realm, I think you’re starting to head into some very dangerous territory.” he said.

“These issues come up again and again, and they come up for a number of very complicated, intersecting reasons,” says Alisa Solomon, a theater critic and professor at Columbia University. “It is because of the nature of theater that it’s often the arena for these battles. It’s precisely about pretend and it’s precisely about representation, and both of these ideas clash in these instances.”

In 1990, a Broadway production of Miss Saigon angered many Asian-American actors when Jonathan Pryce, a white Brit, was cast in the lead role of a mixed-race Asian man. More than a hundred protesters showed up on opening night, and the ensuing debate was the inspiration for playwright David Henry Hwang’s play, Yellow Face. Two years ago, when Angelina Jolie was cast as Marianne Pearl, the mixed-race wife of journalist Daniel Pearl in the movie A Mighty Heart, some complained that Marianne Pearl’s race was being “whitewashed.”

Director Doug Hughes says that it’s the nature of acting to inhabit characters that may have lives different from our own.

“Anybody who steps on a stage is doing so in a spirit that we share our humanity with our fellow inhabitants of the planet,” Hughes says. “And the fact that our experience in life is not directly analogous to the experience of the character is one of the great joys of performance. It means that our imaginations are capable of making a valid stab at understanding others. That’s the essence of the drama.”
But for Linda Bove, the experience of being deaf encompasses more than simply not hearing. She says that deaf culture has complexities and nuances that are hard for a hearing actor to portray accurately.

“My native language happens to be American Sign Language, and English is my second language,” Bove says. “We’re talking about a completely different language, and fluency in that language that’s being used in the character…I think an actor rehearsing for three weeks wearing earplugs, but still being able to hear, they really never experience that life struggle that we have. It is very, very, different.”

The issue doesn’t look like it’s going away. The Miracle Worker opens at Circle in the Square Theater in March. The young Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf, will be played by another hearing actor – the Oscar -nominated Abigail Breslin. Linda Bove says that the producers of The Miracle Worker met with a group of deaf actors, and they agreed to hire a deaf understudy for the role. She smiles with excitement and says it is a step in the right direction.

“We’re really hopeful that we find the right deaf girl to be the understudy for this production of miracle worker!” Bove says. “It seems like a small step for us, but it’s a very significant small step.”

Director Doug Hughes says that he hopes to work collaboratively with talented deaf actors and deaf theater groups on future projects. And Linda Bove says that the deaf acting community’s organized opposition to these casting choices has turned into a learning opportunity. She says it has highlighted the need to be more proactive in reaching out to producers and arts organizations where deaf roles are concerned.

“I want to see full access, inclusion, accuracy, and integrity,” Bove says. “Knowing that we have the resources to do such a role, I’d like to see due diligence on the part of the producers to consider this at the beginning stages of a production,” she says. “This all has to happen at the beginning.” ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72185-deaf-actors-demand-equal-stage-time.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72184-point-pleasant-neptune-special-needs-programs-recognized-award.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:01:59 GMT http://www.app.com/article/20091116/...43/1004/NEWS01

At Neptune Township High School, a program specifically assisting deaf students was the only other area program to take the award.

Program supervisor Claudia Mooij said that the high school program, started in 1990, has successfully integrated 56 deaf students into mainstream classes.

"The students have thrived academically and have been active in sports, clubs and other activities," she said.

Mooij said that the program receives students from Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties and even from as far away as Mercer County.

Students learn in both inclusion and general education classes, assisted in the latter by an interpreter who signs the lesson to them and, if needed, a teacher of the deaf, to provide extra assistance.

Interpreter Jennifer Coletta said the high school program employs three interpreters, three teachers of the deaf and a speech and language therapist.

Interpreters sign through the 72-minute classes (the district uses block scheduling), sometimes working in pairs to allow each other breaks, Coletta said.

Speech and language specialist Gerry Regan-Lavin, a longtime educator in the program, said the program has been heavily supported and protected by other teachers and administrators in the district.

"We have a very high profile here," she said. "(The school) supports us very much and includes us."

In Point Pleasant, Thompson, a former aide who returned to school to get a degree in special education, talks about her students with pride, showing off their schoolwork, photos of their trips and the wealth of materials they use, which could fill a home.

In addition to the curriculum of core subject work and learning practical skills, life skills students help run the school store, housed in their classroom. They go to work-study programs outside of the district and assist in the cafeteria.

Without the program, started in September, students would have to be sent out of district, Thompson said.

"This program is all about coordinating schedules," she said. "Our sole goal is for (the kids) to be as independent as possible." ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72184-point-pleasant-neptune-special-needs-programs-recognized-award.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72183-vatican-officials-say-church-must-improve-service-deaf-community.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:59:39 GMT CNS STORY: Vatican officials say church must improve service to deaf community

While the Catholic Church no longer considers deafness an impediment to ordination, there are only 13 priests in the world who were ordained deaf, said officials of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry.

Msgr. Jean-Marie Mpendawatu, undersecretary of the council, said eight of the 13 work in the United States, two minister in Great Britain and one each serve in Brazil, Congo and South Korea.

Father Savino Castiglione, a member of the Congregation of the Little Mission for the Deaf, said the problem is not one of barriers imposed by the church, but is a result of practical educational difficulties.

A deaf seminarian needs a sign language interpreter or tutor for his six years of philosophy and theology classes, something which is expensive, particularly because "it is difficult to use sign language to translate such abstract concepts" as those found in philosophy and theology, Father Castiglione said.

The lack of deaf priests was one of the topics discussed Nov. 17 when the pontifical council presented the program for its annual international conference. The theme of the gathering Nov. 19-21 is "The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church."

Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the council, said there are more than 278 million deaf people in the world, and at least 1.3 million of them are Catholic.

"That is a lot and the church must act," the archbishop said.

Without adequately prepared priests and other pastoral workers and trained sign language interpreters, he said, the church is making it difficult, if not impossible, for its deaf members to participate fully in parish life and liturgies, to learn about their faith and to contribute to the life of the church.

Msgr. Mpendawatu said he expected the conference to launch a strong call for seminaries to at least offer future priests training in sign language because the pastoral care of deaf Catholics requires it.

"Just think how hard it would be to go to confession" if one could not find a priest who would understand, he said.

Luca Lamano, who was born deaf and teaches deaf children, attended a Catholic school for the deaf in Rome where Mass was celebrated each week and the sacrament of penance was offered by a priest who knew sign language.

But his local parish did not have interpreters.

"My dad said it doesn't matter if you don't understand, it is important to participate, but I didn't like it," he said. He stopped going to Mass until he met his wife, a committed Catholic who knows sign language. ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72183-vatican-officials-say-church-must-improve-service-deaf-community.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72182-sign-language-classes-teach-students-useful-skills.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:57:42 GMT The Echo - Sign language classes teach students useful skills

Speech pathology professor James Thurman said a large part of his American Sign Language class is helping students � who can hear � understand the culture and challenges of the deaf community.
Thurman said learning sign language is not a high-stress skill for college students to learn, and UCA offers sign language courses that challenge students to take their education to the next level.

Thurman encouraged using sign language on a daily basis.

"Most of my students will get to use their sign language skills in their work. It is not uncommon to only have one person who knows sign language," he said.

About 28 million Americans are deaf or hard of hearing, according to the National Association of the Deaf. As a visual language, American Sign Language allows the brain to process linguistic information through the eyes and not the ears. Facial expressions and body movements are a part of this language, of which the grammar has as much range and complexity as a spoken language.

Thurman, a UCA alum, started teaching for the speech pathology department in 1972 and was the only professor in the department for a number of years. He developed a sign language class that was offered for the first time in 1974. Thurman has been teaching sign classes at UCA ever since.

Assistant professor Bryon Ross also teaches sign language classes at UCA. Ross began working with Thurman as a work-study student and now holds a master's degree in speech-language pathology from UCA and a doctorate in communication sciences and disorders from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

He also teachers a sign language course via compressed video to the speech pathology program at Delta State University in Mississippi.

Thurman said he and Ross always have packed classrooms each time sign language is offered. This semester, Thurman has over 60 students that are currently enrolled in just one of his classes.

Many students, like junior Eddy Horton, take the sign language classes as electives, though it is not part of their major.

"I am an occupational therapy major. This is one of my favorite classes; it is very fun," Horton said.

The short American Sign Language style is taught at UCA and teaches students to get their main ideas across by signing.

Deaf speakers come and visit the sign language classes to give the students encouragement about their signing skills by showing them the interaction they can have using their newfound signing abilities.

Thurman said, "My students can understand most of what the guests are signing even without an interpreter."

Junior Emily Hawkins, a mid-level education major, said she found the class while looking through a courses-offered list and now can find ways to apply sign language to her life.

"I will use my signing abilities in my job if the time comes to use it, but it is cool that I can now sign with a bag boy at Kroger who is deaf," she said.

Thurman said he and Ross strive to get students involved in learning sign language so they can advance their career options after graduating and help the many Americans that have no other way of communicating. ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72182-sign-language-classes-teach-students-useful-skills.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72094-deaflympian-podiums-taiwan-race.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:58:35 GMT Visit this site for the article and photos: http://poweredbyusana.blogspot.com/2009/11/carruthers-podiums-in-taiwan-with-4th.html Visit this site for the article and photos:

http://poweredbyusana.blogspot.com/2...-with-4th.html ]]> Deaf News Bikedan http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72094-deaflympian-podiums-taiwan-race.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72089-killer-hong-kong-deaf-mute-love-triangle-jailed-15-years.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:25:42 GMT Killer in Hong Kong deaf-mute love triangle jailed for 15 years - Monsters and Critics

A cheating deaf-mute husband who killed his deaf-mute lover when she tried to persuade him to divorce his wife was beginning a 15-year jail term Tuesday in Hong Kong.

Yip Kai-ming, 47, stabbed to death 39-year-old Ng Kwai-fong when she pressured him to leave his wife, who is also deaf-mute, Hong Kong's High Court heard.

The pair, both married with two children, met at the Hong Kong Deaf People's Christian Church, where Yip was a deacon who helped parishioners by fixing faulty electrics at their homes.

He began an affair with Ng, whose husband is also deaf-mute, in October 2007 when she called him to her home to do an electrical repair, then stripped to her underwear and seduced him.

They met for sex until guilt-racked Yip tried to end the affair, but Ng intentionally broke electrical appliances at her home to force him to continue their liaisons, a murder trial was told.

In September 2008, under pressure from Ng to leave his wife, Yip went to her house with a knife and stabbed her nine times in the chest. He turned himself in to police three days later.

Yip, who admitted manslaughter but pleaded not guilty to murder, was convicted of murder at a hearing on Monday. His lawyer argued he would face a difficult time in prison because of his disabilities. ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72089-killer-hong-kong-deaf-mute-love-triangle-jailed-15-years.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72088-oakland-students-walk-raise-funds-theater-nonprofit.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:16:00 GMT Oakland students walk to raise funds for theater, nonprofit - Inside Bay Area

Oakland School for the Arts students will "Ease on Down the Road" — from the Fox Theater to Lake Merritt — to raise funds for Oakland-based nonprofit DeafHope and for the charter school's theatrical presentation of "The Wiz."

On Dec. 4, more than 500 OSA students, faculty and staff will make the four-mile trek from 18th Street and Telegraph Avenue and around the lake, aiming to raise $50,000 through pledges for each walker. The proceeds will be split between the two organizations.

DeafHope was founded in 2003 by and for deaf women to combat domestic abuse and sexual assault against deaf women and children.

The Dec. 10-11 presentations of "The Wiz" will be OSA's first major stage production inside the historic Fox Theater. The OSA performance is based on the 1975 Broadway production of "The Wiz," a retelling of L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" with an African-American spin. Tickets can be purchased at ticket sales and are $30 for VIP seats, $20 for general admission and $10 for seniors and students.

The "Ease on Down the Road" walk-a-thon begins at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 4 at Oakland's Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave. ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72088-oakland-students-walk-raise-funds-theater-nonprofit.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72087-uci-research-cochlear-implants-no-longer-falling-deaf-ears.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:14:47 GMT > (http://www.newuniversity.org/2009/11/news/uci-research-with-cochlear-implants-no-longer-falling-on-deaf-ears/) Researchers at UC Irvine are developing a new breed of hearing implants that will reshape the landscape of auditory technology. The research has already been met with spectacular results on a global scale. Cochlear implants detect external sound waves and translate them into signals that are relayed though tiny electrodes. These electrodes connect directly to auditory nerves, which in turn lead to the brain. They differ fundamentally from traditional hearing aids, which only amplify sound. “[The cochlear implant] is essentially an electronic device that replaces the damaged microphone function in the human ear,” said Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng, director of the Hearing and Speech program at UC Irvine. “In a hearing aid, sound goes in and sound comes out. But in a cochlear implant, sound goes in and electric signals come out.” The theory behind the implants has been well-established for decades. But only recently have researchers begun to engineer and fine-tune them with such precision. “The concept of cochlear implants started back in the 1950s,” said Dr. Hamid R. Djalilian, director of the Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at the UC Irvine Medical Center. “The first cochlear implant device was implanted in the 1970s. The device was FDA approved in 1984 … and starting in the mid 1980s cochlear implants have been performed at UC Irvine.” Neuroscientist Dr. John Middlebrooks recently joined the research team to help decipher how the brain responds to the implants. “I look at optimal ways to stimulate them to transmit speech information,” Middlebrooks said, “and I‘m also working on a novel kind of electrode that might be the next generation of the auditory prosthesis.” These advancements in auditory technology have benefited scores of patients, many of whom have resumed normal auditory tasks. “One of our patients used to be a musician,” graduate student and researcher Janice Chang said. “But then he suddenly lost his hearing. He was implanted about two years later, and his wife convinced him to pick it up again. It’s amazing; he can tune his guitar through his cochlear implant.” Fellow graduate researcher Payton Lin was taken aback when he first met one of the beneficiaries of his research. “When you first meet cochlear implant patients and communicate with them, often times you’ll forget that they have some kind of hearing deficit,” Lin said. “I thought I would have to repeat myself or talk slowly. But a lot of times, I’m just talking at a normal speed and they pretty much pick up everything.” While most of their research focuses on cochlear implants, some of these students work to create implants that are hybridized with hearing aids. “I try to optimize a combination of cochlear implants and other devices to improve speech intelligibility for our subjects,” graduate researcher Hsin-I Yang said. One of the determinative factors in cochlear implantation is the age of the subjects. Young children tend to have better post-implantation results since they are still in the language development phase of their lives. “There is a time window during which they can get an implant and learn to speak,” Djalilian said. “From the ages of two to four, that ability diminishes a little bit. And by age nine, there is zero chance that they will learn to speak properly. So it’s really important that they get recognized and evaluated early.” Although his research focuses primarily on the human ear, Zeng noted that the technology could be much more far-reaching. “Once you can simulate a nerve using this device, you can put it anywhere. If you can stimulate the hearing nerve, why can’t you stimulate the visual nerve so we can restore vision to blind people?” Zeng said. “We’re working along those lines … to develop neuron technology, which has a wide range of applications.” The team of researchers is also trying to refine the device to help deaf people regain the ability to listen to music. They are also trying to lower the cost of the procedure so that it will be financially accessible to more people. They are hopeful that it will one day change the way deafness is treated. “My goal is to make the implant as safe and effective as possible,” Middlebrooks said. “And I’m optimistic that the penetrating auditory nerve implant will be a substantial improvement.”]]> UCI Research with Cochlear Implants No Longer Falling on Deaf Ears >>

Researchers at UC Irvine are developing a new breed of hearing implants that will reshape the landscape of auditory technology. The research has already been met with spectacular results on a global scale.

Cochlear implants detect external sound waves and translate them into signals that are relayed though tiny electrodes. These electrodes connect directly to auditory nerves, which in turn lead to the brain. They differ fundamentally from traditional hearing aids, which only amplify sound.

“[The cochlear implant] is essentially an electronic device that replaces the damaged microphone function in the human ear,” said Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng, director of the Hearing and Speech program at UC Irvine. “In a hearing aid, sound goes in and sound comes out. But in a cochlear implant, sound goes in and electric signals come out.”

The theory behind the implants has been well-established for decades. But only recently have researchers begun to engineer and fine-tune them with such precision.

“The concept of cochlear implants started back in the 1950s,” said Dr. Hamid R. Djalilian, director of the Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at the UC Irvine Medical Center. “The first cochlear implant device was implanted in the 1970s. The device was FDA approved in 1984 … and starting in the mid 1980s cochlear implants have been performed at UC Irvine.”

Neuroscientist Dr. John Middlebrooks recently joined the research team to help decipher how the brain responds to the implants. “I look at optimal ways to stimulate them to transmit speech information,” Middlebrooks said, “and I‘m also working on a novel kind of electrode that might be the next generation of the auditory prosthesis.”

These advancements in auditory technology have benefited scores of patients, many of whom have resumed normal auditory tasks.

“One of our patients used to be a musician,” graduate student and researcher Janice Chang said. “But then he suddenly lost his hearing. He was implanted about two years later, and his wife convinced him to pick it up again. It’s amazing; he can tune his guitar through his cochlear implant.”

Fellow graduate researcher Payton Lin was taken aback when he first met one of the beneficiaries of his research.

“When you first meet cochlear implant patients and communicate with them, often times you’ll forget that they have some kind of hearing deficit,” Lin said. “I thought I would have to repeat myself or talk slowly. But a lot of times, I’m just talking at a normal speed and they pretty much pick up everything.”

While most of their research focuses on cochlear implants, some of these students work to create implants that are hybridized with hearing aids.

“I try to optimize a combination of cochlear implants and other devices to improve speech intelligibility for our subjects,” graduate researcher Hsin-I Yang said.

One of the determinative factors in cochlear implantation is the age of the subjects. Young children tend to have better post-implantation results since they are still in the language development phase of their lives.

“There is a time window during which they can get an implant and learn to speak,” Djalilian said. “From the ages of two to four, that ability diminishes a little bit. And by age nine, there is zero chance that they will learn to speak properly. So it’s really important that they get recognized and evaluated early.”

Although his research focuses primarily on the human ear, Zeng noted that the technology could be much more far-reaching.

“Once you can simulate a nerve using this device, you can put it anywhere. If you can stimulate the hearing nerve, why can’t you stimulate the visual nerve so we can restore vision to blind people?” Zeng said. “We’re working along those lines … to develop neuron technology, which has a wide range of applications.”

The team of researchers is also trying to refine the device to help deaf people regain the ability to listen to music. They are also trying to lower the cost of the procedure so that it will be financially accessible to more people. They are hopeful that it will one day change the way deafness is treated.

“My goal is to make the implant as safe and effective as possible,” Middlebrooks said. “And I’m optimistic that the penetrating auditory nerve implant will be a substantial improvement.” ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72087-uci-research-cochlear-implants-no-longer-falling-deaf-ears.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72086-more-toddlers-get-cochlear-implants-they-face-strange-new-world.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:12:38 GMT As more toddlers get cochlear implants, they face a strange new world - The Denver Post

Fat tears are rolling down Eva Riggs' tiny face, and even with a pacifier stuck between her pink lips, she's sobbing hysterically.

The 1-year-old's parents, though, are choked up with happiness — beaming smiles and wet eyes.

In this moment, which has shattered little Eva to pieces, she heard her parents' voices for the first time in her life. She heard her 4-year-old brother say, "It's OK," and the chime of a xylophone sitting on the floor at Children's Hospital in Aurora.

Eva was born deaf. After 14 silent months, audiologist Jennifer Kolb switched on the toddler's cochlear implants, sending noise through electrodes surgically implanted in her inner ears.

A growing number of deaf babies are receiving cochlear implants soon after their first birthday — the Food and Drug Administration has approved the surgery for children as young as 12 months. For parents, that second the sound clicks on is overwhelming, nearly indescribable.

And for kids, especially those who receive implants about the same time hearing children typically learn to talk, it's usually terrifying but offers the chance to grow up with normal speech, even the potential to play the piano.

"To be able to give a child a gift of hearing and be able to open up a whole new world for them, it's very gratifying," said Dr. Patricia Yoon, Eva's surgeon. "You see them turn toward the sound for the first time ever. It's a pretty incredible thing to witness."

Traumatic start

On the October day Eva's implants were activated, Kolb gave her parents a five-second countdown. Everyone stared at the content, easy-going child with bright blue eyes, a whisper of blond hair and an angelic face — hoping she would laugh when noise tickled her ears.

But her face turned to a scowl, even though the first sounds flooding in were low volume. Soon Eva was burying her head in her mother's shoulder, clinging in fear, as her parents — Meghan and Justin Riggs — signed with their hands and told her, "This is good. You're OK." Eva calmed for a second, sniffling, but lost it again with one look at the audiologist — somehow she knew Kolb was responsible for this.

"Her crying is more reassuring to me than anything, really, to know it's working," Meghan Riggs said. After a while, Justin handed his daughter a cracker and walked her out of the room, hoping a change of scenery would quiet her.

They wondered how long it would take for the clearly traumatized little girl, now making the hiccuping gasps that come after a hard cry, to adjust. Eva, in her jean skirt and black leggings, clutched her polka-dotted blanket even tighter when the ear pieces got anywhere near her.

Ignoring the signs

Eva didn't pass the newborn hearing test on the day she was born, Aug. 19, 2008. But her parents weren't worried — lots of infants don't pass because they have fluid in their ears.

Meghan and Justin tried to ignore other signs. They told themselves their daughter was a hard sleeper; that's why she had never been awakened from a nap by a loud noise. They figured she was easily distracted by toys; that's why she didn't turn toward them when they called her name.

"If she was facing away from us, we could be screaming at the top of our lungs and there would be no response," Meghan said. "But we didn't want to see her as anything less than perfect."

The Riggses grabbed onto what they thought was proof she could hear. There was the time Eva, sleeping in her car seat on the living room floor, startled when someone sneezed. They know now it was the vibration of their pastor's foot stomping as he sneezed, not the noise at all.

When she was 9 months old, Eva was sedated at Children's Hospital so doctors could monitor her brain while sending sound waves into her ears through headphones. Her brain didn't react, meaning she was deaf.

Meghan, though, was prepared for good news, confident the audiologist would tell them they had removed fluid from Eva's ears and she could hear.

"I remember being in the gift shop looking at noisemaker toys," Meghan said. "When she told us that Eva had profound hearing loss, it really hit me like a ton of bricks because I didn't prepare myself for that."

Weeks later, the Riggses left their home, church and Justin's job as an electrician in Rapid City, S.D., to move to Denver, near the hospital's internationally known Bill Daniels Center for Children's Hearing. Now they live in a modest apartment a few miles from the hospital. Justin is struggling to find work.

"We took it for what it was, and we grew together as a family," Meghan said. "God wouldn't give us this if he didn't think we could handle it."

Another test determined Eva's auditory nerve worked, making her a candidate for cochlear implants. Eva's hair cells — thousands of tiny hearing receptors that normally would vibrate in her cochlea, in the inner ear — are damaged or absent.

Surgeon Yoon placed Eva's cochlear implants during an eight-hour surgery Sept. 21. Magnets were embedded under Eva's skin behind each ear, allowing 3-inch, oval devices with microphones and sound processors to stick to her head.

When Eva grows more hair, it will hide the devices wrapping around her ears.

Sound is picked up through the microphones, turned into electrical signals and sent through her scalp to the internal device. Inside, 22 electrodes — substitutes for the damaged hair cells — carry the signals to the auditory nerve, which takes them to the brain.

It's likely to take months for Eva to distinguish between her mom and dad's voices, to hear a slam and know it was the door, to associate a bark with a dog. Newborns have months to absorb such information, long before they talk.

People with cochlear implants, which were approved for 1-year-olds in 2002, do not hear the same broad range of frequency as a hearing person. The sounds Eva heard during the first few days after the Oct. 13 activation of her implants were metallic buzzing and beeps. Every few days, her audiologist ramped up the frequency.

"Calling her name or shaking a rattle, it sounds the same at first," said audiologist Kolb. "She's going to need to hear Dad talking and see him, so she can sort of map her brain."

Some kids laugh or stare, bewildered, when Kolb turns on sound for the first time. Most cry.

"We have no way of telling them this is coming," she said. "It's going from nothing to everything in a few seconds."

Children's Hospital surgeons will place 28 cochlear implants this year, twice as many as last year.

Cochlear implants are controversial in the deaf community. Not all parents of deaf children want their child to have implants, but "it's turning into the option of choice for a lot of families," Kolb said.

The hospital has a team that includes family consultant Stephanie Olson, who is deaf and got a cochlear implant about three years ago, to help parents decide.

Having a deaf consultant, whose hearing device is hidden under her brown hair, gives parents a powerful sense of calm.

"It's reassuring for families — the hopes and dreams are still there; they didn't lose them," Olson said. "Their child can still do what they hoped for."

Implant surgery, which costs about $35,000 just for the equipment, typically is covered by insurance.

The technology is far more advanced than a hearing aid, which only can amplify the sound a person already hears.

"If you view deafness as an ailment . . . then it is curing deafness," surgeon Yoon said.

Guy and Tenley Williams are proof.

Both of the Williams children received implants at Children's.

Their parents, Lindsay and Steve Williams of Columbus, Mont., had hoped Guy, now 6, who got one implant at 13 months and the second at age 3, would catch up to his peers by fourth grade. But in kindergarten this year, "he's right at the top of his class," said his mom. "It's beyond amazing to us."

Guy's speech is nearly perfect; he just doesn't pronounce M's and T's crisply. And in a crowded room, his parents sometimes have to tap him to get his attention.

Little sister Tenley, 17 months, whose implants were activated in July, already says three words: baby, kitty and hello.

Steve Williams was born deaf and communicates through lip-reading, sign language and text messages. At 31, he is now considering getting cochlear implants.

"He is happy that he has been successful in his time, but it was hard to overcome," his wife said. "Any way we can make our children's lives easier, he's happy to do so."

Successful experiments

Two weeks after Eva's "hearing birthday," the Riggses tried an experiment.

Four-year-old Myles hid behind his parents' bed and kept calling her name. Eva was sitting on the floor down the hall, in the living room. Slowly, pausing occasionally to listen, she crawled all the way to her brother.

Another day, Meghan was feeding Eva a bite of "shipwreck" casserole, pretending the spoon was an airplane and inflecting her voice up and down. Eva copied the inflection, "Ah-ah-ah." Another first.

"She used to be very silent," Justin Riggs said. "There was no reason to make a sound. I could have sworn she was copying the sound of a rooster the other day."

Eva wears her implant devices nearly all the time now, except when she's sleeping. It took her only a few days to take them without tears. Now, when she wakes up from a nap, she taps her ears, asking her parents to turn on some sound.

Other 14-month-olds learned to babble at 6 months and by now are saying their first words. The Riggses expect Eva will catch up within six months or so.

For now, it's small things that are huge to them — how she turns her head to look when someone laughs, claps her hands when her dad plays his guitar, makes a grumpy, annoyed noise when her brother messes with the drum she is banging.

Throughout all the appointments, the surgery, the "hearing birthday" that terrified her, the Riggses hoped they were making the right decision. Eva told them, in her own way, they are.

Last Thursday, after one of her new "ears" had fallen off while she was playing, Eva tried to stick it to her baby doll's head.

Tears instantly filled Meghan's eyes.

"It brings me joy to know that it's something that she understands," she said. "She wants to take care of her baby in the same way that she is being taken care of." ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72086-more-toddlers-get-cochlear-implants-they-face-strange-new-world.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72066-canadian-association-deaf-have-demanded-apology-iced.html Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:04:48 GMT » News & » Canadian Association of the Deaf

AUDISM FREE AMERICA: CAD Request Official ICED Apology and links

Great job, CAD! :applause: ]]> Deaf News Royale http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72066-canadian-association-deaf-have-demanded-apology-iced.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72012-deaf-safrican-indian-youth-wins-national-talent-show.html Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:16:09 GMT fullstory

Being deaf since birth did not deter 19-year-old South African Indian hip-hop dancer Darren Rajbal from beating hundreds of other contestants to win a three-month long TV contest to find the country's best talent.

He was named the winner of USD 33,000 at the finale of the show "SA's Got Talent" here and he promised to use part of his winnings to start a school for deaf students.

Rajbal, who also won the South African Mr Bollywood title in 2004, hopes the win would help him get more Bollywood movie roles after getting a small part in a locally-produced one.

A student of the Fulton School for the Deaf in Durban, he has a string of titles behind his name from competitions which he entered to show that even deaf people have talent. ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72012-deaf-safrican-indian-youth-wins-national-talent-show.html http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72011-life-deaf.html Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:08:53 GMT Life as a deaf | Manila Bulletin

My life started in Brunei where, in the early 80’s, my parents worked, my mother as a nurse and my father as an architect.

My two sisters and I were all born there. I am the youngest member of the family.

According to my parents, when my mother was three and a half months pregnant with me, she got German measles from patients that she took care of in the hospital.

When I was several months old, my parents began to wonder why I would not pay attention to them every time they called my name. They sent me to the hospital for a check-up where the doctor confirmed that I was indeed deaf. My parents were very disappointed and became depressed. But they continued to love me and raised me well because they know that God has plans for me.

My father wasn’t able to find a special education school for me in Brunei. I was thus sent home to the Philippines to study in a special school for the hearing impaired. I lived with my uncle and aunt while my family was in Brunei. I missed my family very much, especially my mother. I used to cry every time my mother left for Brunei.

LIFE IN SCHOOL

At four years old, I was enrolled in an oral school where sign language was prohibited and students were required to speak all the time.

I was required to practice talking all the time. I didn’t understand why I was not allowed to sign and I didn’t even understand why I was not allowed to learn to sign. The teachers, especially the executive director, always told me that using sign language will not lead me to success in life. I believed them and I thought what was the best for me was speech.

My mother sent me to a speech therapist whom I found very strict. He would get frustrated or mad whenever I mispronounced words. He would tell me not to use sign language and just to talk all the time. I was not happy though because all I did was to follow orders. I grew up thinking that using sign language was not the right thing to do because even my parents would not allow me to use sign language.

In Grade 5, we had new classmates from another school who were using sign language. They signed fast and were creative. I was amazed and I started to ask them to teach me how to sign. They told me that they couldn’t, because they knew that we were not allowed.

I begged and asked one of them to teach me even the basic signs.

I found signing very interesting and I wanted to learn more. Sometimes when the teacher was not around, my classmates and I would talk using sign language that we learned from our new classmates. Most of us used gestures. We were improving slowly without our teachers knowing. It was very interesting and at the same time, I was guilty for learning it since I knew we were not allowed to use it. The school added rules for us such as if the school caught a student signing, he/she must pay a peso!

I used to be very quiet and shy. I was not very confident. When I reached Grade 6, one of my classmates encouraged me to be active and funny. I learned a lot of jokes from my classmates and I soon developed my sense of humor. I loved making people laugh. They even said that I was like Mr. Bean!

Before I graduated from elementary, my father came home to the Philippines to stay here with my sisters and me. When my mother would come home for vacation, I felt very blessed to have my complete family here with me.

DEALING WITH DEAFNESS

One time in the mall, I saw a group of deaf teenagers joyfully communicating via sign language and being able to understand each other even though they didn’t talk. I was fascinated to see them without their parents with them and having freedom and independence.

I asked my mother to take a look at them. I told her I wanted to join them and learn more from them. My mother refused and told me they didn’t know how to speak like me.

I was depressed knowing that I was still not allowed to interact with the deaf people who use sign language. Was sign language bad or good?

My mother and my doctor said using sign language without speaking would not lead me to success.

But how come those deaf people could hang out without adults accompanying them, how come they could order their food, how come they did not feel ashamed if people see them signing?

In high school, many of us became more rebellious; we kept signing not minding anymore if the teachers scolded us. We felt like it was our right.

In my senior year, I had to transfer to the Southeast Asian Institute for the Deaf (SAID) because my school went bankrupt and was closed down. Here, I was required to take summer sign language class and I was determined to learn. I thanked God that He touched my parents to send me to SAID instead of a hearing school.

In SAID, I was surprised to see many deaf teachers. Some couldn’t speak, but were obviously succeeding. I started to stop believing my doctor and my mother that sign language would not lead me to success. I believe I can do it like them.

I learned Signing Exact English (SEE) and felt comfortable with this language rather than oral language. I liked the school, I liked the students because they helped me with SEE and they were nice to me.

Nevertheless, I would suffer at home where I wasn’t allowed to sign and spoke all the time. My speech therapist would scold me for using sign language, seemingly blaming my mother for allowing me to sign and study at SAID. He hurt my feelings every time, even pulling down my high self-esteem. He discriminated me for using sign language and not speaking well.

OFF TO COLLEGE

Miriam College was initially my school of choice for college but my family didn’t think the course was right for me. I first didn’t like to study at the De La Salle- College of St. Benilde because it was too far from my house and I didn’t like using FSL (Filipino Sign Language) for fear that my English skills would deteriorate.

But I respected my parents’ decision and went to CSB.

There I began to realize how important the use of FSL was. I started practicing using FSL – and enjoyed using it!

I was also surprised to see many successful deaf people who are now working. Some of them could not even speak! They made me very proud that I started to be driven to succeed in the future. I was very curious how they achieved their goals. I learned a lot from workshops, seminars and especially
classes.

One time, the doctor told us to go and see him, because it’s been a long time that I had not visited him.

I told my mother that I didn’t want to see him anymore. I want my freedom.

Yes, finally, my mother allowed me to sign on the condition that I study hard. My self-esteem is back and I am very thankful that CSB has provided with me a lot of opportunities, with my helpful professors, and the CSB community.

Anna Salvador is taking up Bachelor in Applied Deaf Studies with specialization in Multimedia Arts (BAPDST-MM) in De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies (DLS-CSB SDEAS) and the secretary of the Benildean Deaf Association. ]]> Deaf News Miss-Delectable http://www.alldeaf.com/deaf-news/72011-life-deaf.html