Looking Back... the First Film

The earliest known film depicting a deaf person and sign language is one of a collection of short clips made by Thomas Edison to demonstrate what "moving picture films" could do in 1902. In the film, a deaf woman recites the Star Spangled Banner in sign language. Made by the American Mutoscope and Biograph company, The Library of Congress has preserved a paper print copy of the film, but the film itself was not preserved, and the identity of the woman, is unknown.

Google's Video Chat

Google will start offering an alternative to Apple's Facetime in the next few weeks. The new video chat service for Android smartphones works over 3G as well as WiFi networks, unlike Facetime. It uses the front-mounted cameras on high-end Android handsets and works with users' Gmail contacts list.

City to Pay Family

Seattle has agreed to pay $1.5 million to the family of a partially deaf man who was shot and killed by a police officer last fall on a downtown street in the middle of the day. John T. Williams, a member of the First Nations Tribe and woodcarver, can be seen on the video below holding his carving knife while crossing the street. When he did not drop it when ordered to do so by police, he was shot five times. The city's police department investigated and called the shooting "unjustified" but prosecutors said no charges would be filed against the officer who did the shooting, Ian Birk, who resigned. The Justice Department is now investigating the police department. The video below does not show the actual shooting, but the policeman can be heard shouting, “Hey, put the knife down.”

Police Kill Deaf Woman

LA Police shot and killed a deaf woman on the porch of her house last night. She apparently did not hear police ordering her to put the gun down. The LAPD says she fired at family members before they arrived. The unidentified women died at her home.

Live Theater Terp Dies

A sign-language interpreter who worked hundreds of theater productions, including many on Broadway has died. Alan Champion was 55. He passed away in Romona, Oklahoma, near his hometown, after undergoing treatment for appendix cancer which was diagnosed in 2009. Champion was a CODA (Child of a Deaf Adult), both his parents were deaf. He performed on stage as well as interpreted. He was part of a group that interpreted the first Broadway show in 1980 shortly after his move to New York. The show was The Elephant Man starring David Bowie. There is a video about interpreting for the stage featuring Champion here.

Theater Captioning

Cinemark will put closed-captioning equipment in all of its 64 California theaters in the next year. The agreement is part of its settlement of a lawsuit filed in Alameda County, California against the nation's third-largest movie chain by Disability Rights Advocates out of Berkeley, California. Cinemark says about half of those 64 theaters already have wireless captioning devices that include a visor to shield the caption from other patrons. The two other big theater chains, Regal and AMC, offer some captioning and is facing lawsuits in other states.

New Gally Project

Gallaudet University broke ground on a new building project yesterday. The new residence hall will be the second to include what's being called the DeafSpace Architectural Concept using design features that maximize deaf people’s visual access by emphasizing sensory awareness, mobility and proximity, acoustics, and light and color treatments. The Sorenson Language and Communication Center, which opened in 2008, was the first construction project on campus to offer DeafSpace. This new residence hall will rise five stories high, cost $16 million, house 175 students and take up 60,000 square feet. The project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2012.

Challenge to Mental Health System

A lawsuit is moving forward against the state of Georgia, filed by deaf residents. A federal judge has approved their challenge of the state's mental health policies. The suit asks for more ASL translators and group home funding for the hundreds of deaf residents in need of specialized mental health care.

Video Mocks Deaf People

KOKI-TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma reports on a video made by high school girls at school that mocks the deaf among others. A video from the TV station is below or you can read the story here.

Name Change

The House Ear Institute in Los Angeles is changing its name to the House Research Institute. The nonprofit plans to continue its work in the area of cochlear implants and brainstem implants, but put more of its focus on genetics, regeneration, prescription drug-induced hearing loss, neural tumors, and autism.

Gally Baseball Record

Gallaudet's baseball team swept a double hitter against Penn St.-Berks yesterday, giving the Bison the most wins in a single season (17-21) for the first time since 1899. That clinches a 3rd place finish in their division. The final scores were 9-8 and 6-5. Gally closes its season with a game today at 3pm against McDaniel College. This Friday the team plays in a division tournament, the first postseason appearance for Gallaudet since 2007.

Lawsuit Threatened

Members of Alabama's Public Service Commission are threatening to sue the state if lawmakers pass a bill that would take $30 million dollar out of the phone service provided for the deaf and put it into the state education budget. The measure is already through the Alabama House and will be discussed in a Senate committee Wednesday. 15 cents comes out of the money paid by landline customers each month for the Dual Party Relay Fund, which pays for relay operators.

Virginia ASL Law

A new sign language law takes effect July 1 in Virginia. Governor Bob McDonnell signed the bill that allows ASL to satisfy foreign language requirements for students. He skipped his first opportunity to sign it, sending it back to state lawmakers for changes. They pass it by a 95 to 3 margin in the House and 34 to 6 in the Senate.

School Layoffs Considered

The Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs is considering firing 5 teachers to save money. The Iowa Board of Regents say the move is necessary because of a lack of funding. The Board will formally consider the move next week.

Furloughs for Schools

The Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind are putting employees and interpreters on 3 days of furlough covering 3 of the next 4 four Fridays. The goal is to make up a $600,000 budget shortfall.

Security Breach

The records of 4,500 kids is missing from a speech and hearing clinic from the University of West Ontario, containing the records of children for more than a decade. The breach is the result of breaking a fundamental privacy rule in the Canadian province for health care facilities - never transferring unencripted data to a portable device. There are concerns of possible identity fraud from the blunder, since the memory stick contains names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, and medical information.

Interim Theater Head

Betty Beekman is the new interim director of the National Theatre of the Deaf, replacing Aaron Kubey. Beekma has served as the West Hartford-based organization's tour director and will take her new position on July 1. She wrote Stories in My Pocket which is being used right now at Little Theatre of the Deaf.

Beverly School for the Deaf

The Boston Globe takes a look at the nearby Beverly School for the Deaf and its new building in an article here.

Hearing Aid Study

An audiology professor is getting $1.5 million to study hearing aids. The National Institutes of Health grant is going to University of Memphis prof Robyn Cox over a five-year period. Cox will compare the effectiveness of features in aids used by older adults.

TEDx Islay

A TEDx event focused on deaf issues takes place this Saturday at Cal State Northridge. For more information, click here. The TEDx events are associated with, but not organized by the famous yearly gatherings in California where TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. This TEDx event is called Islay, which is the name of a 1986 novel by Douglas Bullard, who envisioned a place where the deaf community could call its own. We picked the name because TED requires us to name our event after a place, and if there’s a place for the deaf community, it’s Islay.