Should oralism be promoted within the deaf community?

Should oralism be promoted within the deaf community? The BBC has a video debate here.

Memphis TV interview on Oral School

The head of the Memphis Oral School For The Deaf sat down with WREG-TV for an interview. The video is below but there are no captions.

Jacobs visit PA school

image from ESU website

A former Gallaudet professor spent last weekend talk about his research and books at a Pennsylvania University. Paul Gordon Jacobs particularly focused on his autobiography novel called Neither-Nor. Jacobs is oral deaf, doesn't use sign and left Gallaudet because "he felt his views differed from the professors who taught there." The Pocono Record has more on his visit to East Stroudsburg University here.

Oral program gets funds

Southern Miss is getting more than a million dollars for its training program for teachers of the deaf. The five year Education Department grant will provide full-tuition scholarships to 40 people who want to earn a master's degrees focused on oral intervention--instead of teaching sign language, the program tries to get children to attempt spoken English. Read more about the grant here.

Central Institute for the Deaf marks 100 years

The Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The Associated Press reports, "Rather than sign language, CID uses the acoustic approach, where students are aided by digital hearing aids and cochlear implants allowing for partial hearing, while also learning to read lips." Read the full story here.

New Mexico services for children

A look at Albuquerque's Presbyterian Ear Institute, it's work with cochlear implants and its oral school on KOB-TV's morning show in the video posted below on DeafNewsToday.com.

Oral history and hearing loss

Oral histories can be made more accessible to those with hearing loss through a series of simple steps, according to an essay written by Michigan State University professor Brad Rakerd. One is to "make a video of an interviewee available for viewing in synchrony with the audio so that a listener can have access to lip reading cues. Another example is to allow the pace of an oral history presentation to be adjustable so that it can match the information processing preference of an individual listener." Read an interview with Rakerd at the Oxford University Press blog here or you can see Rakerd's entire essay can be read in the most recent issue of The Oral History Review here.

Getting to Know.. Clarke School for the Deaf

Founded in 1867 as the nation's first permanent oral school for the deaf in the U.S., the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts changed its name in 2010 to the Clark Schools for Hearing and Speech. Opposed the use of sign language, Clarke works with children before school age to prep them for mainstreaming and sends master's degrees teachers into mainstream classes as “itinerant teachers." The private school has branches in Canton, Massachusetts, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, and New York City, New York. At last report, the average cost for attending the school is more than $55,000 and enrollment has dramatically dropped in the last decade.

Colorado's Listen Foundation

KDVR-TV has a video interview with children who say they have been helped by The Listen Foundation, an oral training center based in Denver (no captions).

Dad: "It was heart-wrenching"

Family stops signing at home to boy who now works as a firefighter. Read the story here.

Getting to Know... Sue Thomas

Sue Thomas became the FBI’s first deaf agent and even had a TV show based on her life (The PAX show Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye). She was born on this date (May 24) in 1950. She grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, where her parents discovered she was deaf at the age of 18 months old. Thomas was sent to an oral school and mainstreamed. She learned to read lips and speak naturally, but was still mercilessly taunted. She sought refuge at a local skating rink where a determined coach helped her become state champion at the age of seven. She attended Springfield College in Massachusetts, earning  a degree in Political Science and International Affairs, before going to work at the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC in1979. She worked in a program to train deaf people to classify fingerprints. After she successfully told agents what was said in a surveillance video of a gambling operation which had no audio, word spread of her ability to read lips. She served as a tour guide and made appearances on behalf of the Bureau. Thomas left Washington to attend South Carolina's Columbia Graduate School of Bible and Missions in 1983. She ended up in California where she began working with the U.S. Center for World Mission. Her 1990 autobiography entitled Silent Night was the basis for the show. In 2001, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She now lives in Vermont. Below is a video from 2010 of her speaking at a Bill and Gloria Gaither Homecoming special (no captioning).

Parents Confront new School Board Members

The board for the Indiana School for the Deaf faced protesting parents today, upset over what appears to be the preference of oral training over ASL instruction. At today's meeting, the board promised not to do away with sign language at the school and emphasized plans to work out of a bilingual philosophy. The board has been under fire ever since the governor picked 4 new board members, three of whom were assumed to be in the oralist camp. There is now only one deaf person on the six member board.

Omaha Hearing School To Close

An oralist school in Nebraska is closing. Enrollment at the Omaha Hearing School dwindled to the point the facility fell a quarter of a million dollars in the hole. Executive director Suzanne Rogert told KETV the school focused on lip reading and used "very little, if any, sign language." You can see the full KETV video report here.

School Buildings Up for Sale

A large portion of the Clarke School for Hearing and Speech is up for sale. While the school's administration consolidates operations in a newer building on the edge of the property in Northampton, Massachusetts, a for sale sign is up for other parts of the more than 10 acre campus including 6 buildings, an Olympic-sized pool, and playing fields. The site is considered historic since the oral school was founded in 1867.

Desert Voices

KSAZ-TV reports on a fundraiser for an oral focused school in Phoenix, Arizona.

Video About Protests

Here's a video report from WISH TV about planned protests in Indianapolis today concerning the state school for the deaf.

Indiana Protest

A protest is planned today in Indianapolis against the governor's decision to appointment supporters of oral education to the 4 member board that runs the Indiana School for the Deaf. Mitch Daniels has put 3 people on the board who want to phase out American Sign Language from the curriculum, according to some parents of students at the school.

Celebrating 10 Years of Education

The Moog School of Columbia, Missouri is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony today in celebration of a decade of serving deaf children and their families. The facility focuses on kids up to age six. There are 16 students enrolled now. It is the only oralist program in Central Missouri. KOMU-TV in St. Louis has a video report here.

Book Reissue

Henry Kisor's 1990 memoir, What’s That Pig Outdoors? has been reissued. It explains the controversies surrounding oralism. The title refers to an early lipreading error when Henry’s young son asked, “What’s that big loud noise?” 70-year-old Kisor speaks and reads lips. He knows no ASL. Read more about the book at Kisor's website.

Oralism Support in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania lawmakers are showing support for orals schools focused on mainstreaming children. The state House Education Committee has passed a bill to give The Clarke School Approved Private School status which would provide it with state subsidies. The Pennsylvania Department of Education had turned them down. The House may take up the bill in the fall. A representative of the school says students should be kept out of "expensive, specialized deaf schools." The only other private school recieving state money in Pennsylvania focused on oral deaf education is in Pittsburgh.