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http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051202/NEWS01/512020308/1079
The Iowa School for the Deaf was founded in 1855 in Iowa City and moved to Council Bluffs in 1870. Now, 135 years later, a piece of history has returned to town.
"History Through Deaf Eyes," a traveling exhibit of the history of the deaf in America, now is on display at the University of Iowa's Hardin Library for the Health Sciences through the third week of February.
The exhibit, on the library's first floor, includes panels of text and photographs tracing deaf history and an interactive DVD. It also has instruments used by the deaf to improve hearing and by doctors to test hearing.
The UI display has been customized to add moments of Iowa history, including the founding of the Iowa School for the Deaf in Iowa City. It includes photographs of the school's first buildings, including one that still stands and now is an apartment complex at Jefferson and Clinton streets.
The display already has been to several locations, including the Smithsonian Institution. Richard Hurtig, a UI professor of speech pathology and audiology, was instrumental in bringing the exhibit here.
Hurtig said the diversity of the exhibit, with text, photographs, equipment and the DVD, makes it appropriate for young and old, those who can hear and those who are deaf.
"It's an exhibit you can go through in lots of ways," he said.
UI also was chosen because Douglas Baynton, an associate professor of history and American Sign Language, was a principal researcher and writer for the exhibit. He said he's seen many hearing-impaired people reminisce as they've gone through the display.
"Touches. It really touches their lives," he said.
It includes fun facts, such as the belief by some that football teams at deaf schools originated the use of the huddle to keep opponents from knowing their plays when they signed them. And it covers major events, from the founding of the first school for the deaf in America in 1817 in Hartford, Conn., to when linguists began recognizing sign as a language in the 1960s and '70s.
Since 1994, UI has allowed ASL classes to fulfill the school's language requirement for undergraduate students. ASL has the highest persistence rate of any language offered at UI, Baynton said, and it's particularly popular with nursing, special education, social work and theater students.
Shane Marsh, an ASL instructor, said it's also a good class for people who learn better visually.
"It's a nice language for people who might have struggles learning on an auditory basis," Marsh, who is deaf, said through an interpreter.
Most of the classes' students have their sense of hearing. But there are four deaf students at UI and about 40 others with hearing impairments registered with Student Disability Services. All classes are open to them, and they learn with the help of interpreters or transcription services required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
ADA, of course, is another important milestone marked by "History Through Deaf Eyes."
The exhibit is presented by Gallaudet University, which is in Washington, D.C., and is the only accredited university for deaf students in the world.
The Iowa School for the Deaf was founded in 1855 in Iowa City and moved to Council Bluffs in 1870. Now, 135 years later, a piece of history has returned to town.
"History Through Deaf Eyes," a traveling exhibit of the history of the deaf in America, now is on display at the University of Iowa's Hardin Library for the Health Sciences through the third week of February.
The exhibit, on the library's first floor, includes panels of text and photographs tracing deaf history and an interactive DVD. It also has instruments used by the deaf to improve hearing and by doctors to test hearing.
The UI display has been customized to add moments of Iowa history, including the founding of the Iowa School for the Deaf in Iowa City. It includes photographs of the school's first buildings, including one that still stands and now is an apartment complex at Jefferson and Clinton streets.
The display already has been to several locations, including the Smithsonian Institution. Richard Hurtig, a UI professor of speech pathology and audiology, was instrumental in bringing the exhibit here.
Hurtig said the diversity of the exhibit, with text, photographs, equipment and the DVD, makes it appropriate for young and old, those who can hear and those who are deaf.
"It's an exhibit you can go through in lots of ways," he said.
UI also was chosen because Douglas Baynton, an associate professor of history and American Sign Language, was a principal researcher and writer for the exhibit. He said he's seen many hearing-impaired people reminisce as they've gone through the display.
"Touches. It really touches their lives," he said.
It includes fun facts, such as the belief by some that football teams at deaf schools originated the use of the huddle to keep opponents from knowing their plays when they signed them. And it covers major events, from the founding of the first school for the deaf in America in 1817 in Hartford, Conn., to when linguists began recognizing sign as a language in the 1960s and '70s.
Since 1994, UI has allowed ASL classes to fulfill the school's language requirement for undergraduate students. ASL has the highest persistence rate of any language offered at UI, Baynton said, and it's particularly popular with nursing, special education, social work and theater students.
Shane Marsh, an ASL instructor, said it's also a good class for people who learn better visually.
"It's a nice language for people who might have struggles learning on an auditory basis," Marsh, who is deaf, said through an interpreter.
Most of the classes' students have their sense of hearing. But there are four deaf students at UI and about 40 others with hearing impairments registered with Student Disability Services. All classes are open to them, and they learn with the help of interpreters or transcription services required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
ADA, of course, is another important milestone marked by "History Through Deaf Eyes."
The exhibit is presented by Gallaudet University, which is in Washington, D.C., and is the only accredited university for deaf students in the world.