Terps Laid Off in Conn.

The state of Connecticut is laying off sign language interpreters working with the Department of Rehabilitation Services. The switch to private interpreting services starts July 15. Dozens came to protest the change today in Hartford at the department's offices. Read the full story at the the Hartford Courant.

Lawsuit: Deaf woman wrongly arrested, no terp

A deaf women is suing the sheriff's office in Shawnee County, Kansas. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Carolyn Hans called 9-1-1 and deputies ended up arresting her and putting her in solitary confinement in the jail’s psych ward-all without providing an interpreter, a phone, or explaining why she was arrested, according to the lawsuit. Read the full story here.

Supreme Court will hear case about deaf students

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider a case involving deaf people this fall. They sued because Texas driver instruction schools refuse to allow them to take classes. An appeals court ruled against them but the deaf group is appealing. The case is Ivy v. Morath (Ivy Donnika is the main plaintiff). Read details of the case here.

Private schools and ADA law

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) 

Should private schools that take federal money be required to follow the ADA law? They won't have to if this senator gets his way. Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has proposed legislation "would prohibit the Justice Department from enforcing key provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act at private schools," according to the Washington Post. Read the full story here.

Tech in the Deaf World

"The impact of video relay services, or VRS, has been titanic for businesses owned and operated by the deaf. VRS has grown into a half-billion-dollar-a-year industry as more and more deaf Americans gain access to speedy mobile data and sophisticated phones," reports Wired magazine. Read more about the technology here, including a look at San Francisco's deaf-owned Mozzeria pizza. Below is a Wired video that comes with the article, but Wired chose not to caption it.

Watch this on The Scene.

Profile of Deaf race car driver

Chris Kennedy and most of his pit crew are deaf. He's won dozens of titles as a kart and sprint car driver. WHTM-TV has a profile.

Deaf Teacher's Quest Inspires Student

image from Maryland Governor's office
of the Deaf & Hard of Hearing

Students at the Maryland School for the Deaf are silently marking Keith Nolan's attempt to join the armed services. He's been told "no" for more than a decade because he is deaf. His determination has led to passage of a House bill bearing his name — the Keith Nolan Air Force Deaf Demonstration Act of 2015, which called for a demonstration program, according to the Associated Press. Read the full story here.

Scam seeks donations for deaf students

Someone is going around several Michigan communities and asking for donations to "help send kids from the Michigan School for the Deaf to play football in Washington, D.C." But "police and school officials say the fundraiser isn’t real and an alleged scammer or a group of people bent on fraud has been raking in the cash." Read more here.

Police fail to provide Terp

Minnesota cops refused to provide an interpreter after making an arrest in 2013. Alan Read, who was born deaf, wanted one but Oakdale police would only write notes to him. Now they will pay $30k to settle his complaint, according to Minnesota Public Radio. Read the full story here.

What’s it like to be deaf in the workplace?

TotalJobs, a UK employment site, spoke to two deaf people about their employment experiences. One said she tried an experiment where she rewrote her resume "to remove any references or clues about my deafness and to appear as if I was hearing person who just happens to know sign language." This "resulted in immediate success with getting through to the second stage/interviews." Read the full story here.

Bride Signs Lyrics to Father-Daughter Dance Song

An Ohio bride "decided to sign the lyrics to the song she chose for the father-daughter dance." The CODA told Inside Edition, "I think I was signing before I was talking. When I am at a loss for words in English, I know exactly what to sign. I even dream in sign language sometimes." There's more in the video below. No captions but you can read the story here.

A young Syrian girl is left deaf and hopeless

Maram Lahham is going deaf but "a government siege of her home town of Darayya has prevented the seven year old from receiving medical care and enough food to eat," reports the New Zealand Herald. Her mother is quoted as saying, "You can't imagine how hard it is to watch this happen to your daughter and not be able to do anything about it." Read the full story here.

Court Papers: Principal tried to cover up sex assault scandal

Image from HawaiiNewsNow video report

The former principal at the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind was told many times about sexual assault allegations, according to newly released court records. But Hawaii News Now reports that she did not act while "dozens of students were robbed, raped and even gang raped by other students." Taxpayers ended up paying nearly $6 million to settle lawsuits linked to the crimes while some students were convicted of crimes. Hawaii News Now has the details. here. Hawaii News Now has a video report

Body of Deaf Mother of 4 Found

(image from Scotland Police)

The body of Kirsty Aitchison has been found in the River Clyde in Scotland after an intense search. The deaf mother of four disappeared after leaving a Glasgow bar a week ago. Police say they are not treating the death as suspecious. Read more from the BBC.

Pharmacy Program Graduation

Not only is Samantha Hert the first doctor in her family, and the first to attend graduate school, she's the first deaf person to graduate from South College’s School of Pharmacy in Knoxville. WATE=TV has a video report.

ex-NFL Deaf Player Pleads not guilty to hit-run, vehicular assault

Former Seattle Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman pleaded not guilty today to felony hit-and-run and vehicular assault, reports the Seattle Times. After an October car crash, Coleman fled barefoot down the block and did not call 911. Read the full story here or watch the video report below from Seattle's KIRO-TV.

Cuts at State Schools for Deaf and Blind

The Mississippi schools for the blind and deaf are facing major budget cuts for this coming year. The Clarion Ledger reports state lawmakers are cutting $332,264. Read more details here.

Woman pleads guilty to attacking deaf lesbian couple

Shaunda Lane pleaded guilty to attacking a deaf lesbian couple with a baseball bat in California a few months ago. KESQ has more on the story here.

North Dakota woman sues police over arrest

Christine Stein says police in Jamestown, North Dakota wrongly put her in jail last year. She called 911 using a relay service to tell officers about a suicidal man. When police arrived, they arrested her and she was denied an interpreter, according to the suit. WDAy-TV has a report here.

Equipment returned

A four-year-old in Indianapolis got the equipment back for his cochlear implant after the items were stolen. WTHR-TV has a report.

Cab Company hit with Lawsuit over Pickup

A New Jersey taxi company is facing a state lawsuit after it refused to let a deaf woman schedule a cab. Nicole Perkins made a relay call to Clifton Taxi service but someone hung up on her each time. Read the full story here.

Deaf entrepreneurs on the rise

"There is a revolution happening in Rochester and all across the United States, reports Rochester's Deomocrat & Chronicle. "The number of deaf people running their own businesses has grown by leaps and bounds. Technological advances have made it possible for these individuals to access networks, customers and suppliers. There are now growing networks of deaf entrepreneurs." Read the full story here.

Deaf-blind Catholic priest ministers in Rome

A deaf-blind South African priest was featured in the Catholic New Service for his ministry to the deaf in Rome. Father Cyril Axelrod, who has Usher syndrome, received the Order of the British Empire from the Queen of England in 2013--the first deaf-blind person to do so. Read the full story from CNS here.

Watch DiMarco sign the National Anthem

Nyle DiMarco performed the National Anthem at Thursday night's NBA championship game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. He signed while the crowd sang.

Nyle DiMarco to Perform National Anthem

Deaf Dancing with the Stars winner Nyle DiMarco will sign the National Anthem at the NBA Finals game tonight. Before the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors tip off in Cleveland tonight, DiMarco will sign the National Anthem in American Sign Language while the crowd sings. ABC News has a video report.


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Elderly Deaf Woman Sues

After her landlord kept sending pest control workers to her apartment, even though she asked them not to do so, because of her asthma, an elderly deaf woman is suing the apartment management. Read the full story in the Houston Press.

The Mississippi School for the Deaf

The Mississippi School for the Deaf is profiled by a Jackson paper: "The school has both commuter and residential students, and though boarding there is not a requirement, 80 percent of students, some as young as four, may use the dorm services at some point during the school year, so the school must operate 24 hours, six days a week. Children eat three meals and two snacks a day, and are supervised by a host of adults who perform distinct but critical roles: not only teachers, but also full-time audiologists, nurses, as well as residential parents who supervise students living in dorms from 3:30 p.m. until 8 the next morning. Students do not pay tuition to attend MSD." Read the full story in the Jackson Free Press here.

Deaf Comedian Advances on TV Talent Show

D.J. Demers advanced to the next round on America's Got Talent last night. The deaf comedian's material focuses on life as a deaf man and being a gay Canadian. One judge said Demers is "far beyond his years" while Simon called him "likeable." Here's a video of his performance on the NBC show (surprisingly there are no captions).

Accused of preying on elderly deaf man

ABC-15 in Phoenix has a short video report about a woman accused of taking advantage of an elderly deaf man.

Film about Rochester School History

image from Time Warner of Rochester video

A new film about the 140-year history of the Rochester School for the Deaf debuted last night. The film One Deaf Community Rochester was produced by a deaf-owned company. Nyle DiMarco played emceed and Time Warner Cable produced a video report, which you can watch here.

Former NFL fullback could spend more than a year in jail

Derrick Coleman, who played football for the Seattle Seahawks for four seasons, was dropped this year by the team. He's now facing charges that could put him behind bars for up to 16 months. Coleman was involved in a car crash last fall that prosecutors say was caused by his drug use. KING-5 in Seattle has more details in this video report.

Court discriminated against deaf man

Dustin King has won his lawsuit against an Indianapolis court for refusing to provide him with an interpreter during his child custody case. Read the details in the Indiana Lawyer.

Cochlear Equipment Returned

A boy in Indiana got back his $10K in equipment related to his cochlear implant. Two strangers dropped it off after it was stolen last week, says his mom. WISH-TV has a video report.

DiMarco’s win inspires deaf, blind Colorado Springs students

Students at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind say Nyle DiMarco’s win on Dancing with the Stars was an inspiration, reports KRDO-TV news.

Deaf family, school celebrates Nyle DiMarco's DWTS win

Fans are still celebrating Nyle DiMarco becoming the first deaf celebrity to win Dancing with the Stars. KATV in Little Rock has a video report about how the news was recieved in the town's deaf community.

New Show opening in Boston

A new play opens tonight in Boston that is a "completely inclusive and immersive production, designed to be accessible for the hearing and deaf alike at every performance," according to the Boston Globe. I Was Most Alive With You will be performed by the Huntington Theatre Company and tells the story of a deaf, gay recovering addict. Read the full story here.

More on Nyle's DWTS Win

Inside Edition has a video report on Nyle DiMarco's win at Dancing with the Stars. The TV show reports, "Backstage, DiMarco and his partner Peta Murgatroyd were elated after being crowned the season 22 champs." Unfortunately, no captions.

Deaf Teacher has to fight to take part in Graduation Ceremonies

A New Jersey teacher had to fight for a year to get the technology he needs to experience graduation along with the other high school faculty. Richard Koenigsberg wanted a CART (Computer Assisted Real-Time Translation) reporter but district administrators refused until the public and local media got involved. NJ.com explains he won in an article here.

the Deaf community reacts to DiMarco's Win

The Deaf community is excited to see Dancing with the Stars proclaim Nyle DiMarco the winner. Northern Indiana's WBND-TV has a video report.

ABC57 News - See the Difference Michiana

Top Speller is Deaf

image from spellingbee.com

One of the kids in this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee. going on now in Washington, DC is deaf. Neil Maes is from Belton, South Carolina. Just for him the bee's pronouncer will speak into a microphone that transmits an FM signal directly into his cochlear implants. Neil was born deaf, just like one of his sisters. He got his first implant before he turned the age of one. Read more about Neil here
.

Cochlear Implant Equipment Stolen

Someone stole essential equipment for a four-year-old Indiana boy cochlear implant last week out his family's car. WTHR-TV has a video report. No captions but you can read the story here.

Nyle DiMarco takes the Mirror Ball Trophy!

Nyle DiMarco's performance on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ this week was dedicated to the deaf community. The Washington Post wrote: Even grumpy Len Goodman was in awe: “You said that’s a dance for deaf people … that was a dance for everyone,” Goodman said. “Nyle, you’re a very special person. And that was a very special dance.”
Read the full story here.

Deaf Baseball Player Helping his Team Win

A Michigan high schooler playing third base for his school's baseball team has one of the best batting averages of anyone in the league. A fan would have to look closely before realizing Jaylen Chaney is deaf. “I hear through my eyes. You can just see my eyes widely opened,” Chaney said. “I’m focused on what you have to say and what’s around me. I’m very alert when I really can’t hear anything around me," he tells MLive.com. And Chaney plays football, too. Read the full story here or watch a video featuring Chaney below.

TEDxBroadway: ASL Superpowers

image from Tedx Talks YouTube video

A TEDx video featuring the artistic director of Deaf West Theatre is now available. DJ Kurs explains how our perceived limitations are actually our superpowers. Deaf West's version of Spring Awakening made it to Broadway and won awards for it's weaving of spoken English and ASL into the show. Watch the video here.

Communication in Deaf Dreams

How do most people communication the dreams of someone who is deaf? Adam Bulger writes that it often happens through telepathy. "Of course, deaf people do not all live the same lives and don’t dream the same dream. Indeed, several people interviewed for this story said they didn’t think their deafness had a great influence on their dreams, an idea supported by medical experts." Read the full story here.

Students cheer on DiMarco

Dancing with the Stars' Nyle DiMarco is being called an "ambassador for deaf" reports the Democrat & Chronicle. Students at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York, have been gathering for viewing parties at the Student Development Center to watch DiMarco compete. Read the full story here.

Suit: Jailed man sits in jail for 3 weeks with no interpreter

A deaf man spent nearly three weeks in Florida jail because he couldn’t get a sign language interpreter. Thomas Downing has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit and Orlando's WFTV has a video report.

$30K over interpreter

The Minnesota city of Oakdale is settling a complaint that it failed to provide a sign language interpreter. Alan Read will get $30,000 and the police department will work on its policies and training to meet ADA law. Find out the details of how it happened in a TwinCities.com article posted here.

Deaf couple found dead

Cincinnati police say a deaf elderly couple many have been dead for nearly two weeks when they were found dead in their home. Carbon monoxide poisoning might be to blame, reports Cincinnati.com. There's more information in the video below (no captions) or read the story here.

Nyle DiMarco: I've 'never wanted to hear'

Nyle DiMarco says he's happy with who he is and does not wish he could hear. The deaf Dancing With the Stars contestant tells People Magazine:

"'I've never wanted to hear, because that's never existed in my life. I'm happy... If I'd been born into a hearing family and went to a public school, I would have probably felt much more isolated, and being deaf would have become my identity," says DiMarco, who vlogs about his DWTS experience exclusively for PEOPLE. "Since I knew my deaf identity since birth, it wasn't hard for me to be comfortable, confident and independent in a hearing world." 

Watch the video report below (no captions) or read the full story here.

Web access challenge underway against real estate co.'s

Real estate firms are being challenged over whether their websites are ADA compliant. "Lawyers representing visually impaired, hearing-impaired and other clients say the vast majority of realty sites don't offer features needed to allow handicapped individuals to shop for homes and absorb content like other visitors. These include alternative texts accompanying images, transcripts for audiovisual content, descriptive links and resizable text, and a variety of other features," reports the Chicago Tribune. Read the full story here.

Judge: Pay former deaf inmate $70K

William Pierce will get $70,000 for the way he was treated in jail. A judge says the D.C. Department of Corrections violated Pierces rights with "willful blindness and (a) half-hearted attempt" to accommodate him, according to the Washington Post. Read the full story here.

Def Leppard meets Deaf Leppard

Before the rock band Def Leppard played in Little Rock yesterday, they meet with students from from the Arkansas School for the Deaf.--whose nicknmae is The Leopards, of course.  Photos of the meeting have been going around social media.

Bridging Language Gaps for Deaf Children

"Brain systems are on different maturation timetables, and one of the most unforgiving is the system for language development," says Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto of Galluadet University. "It peaks at age 3.. and if the child doesn't experience exposure to the fundamental patterns of language in early life—6 to 10 months old—you are putting the child at severe risk" of major language, reading, and even math delays later on. "That may explain why deaf children of parents who sign from birth perform significantly better in reading and attention outcomes than deaf children whose parents did not sign," according to Education Week. Read the full story here.

Arizona: Anger over state budget cuts

Deaf Arizonans marched on the state Capitol this week. Their message: Don't shortchange a program designed to help the deaf find work. "After years of budget cuts followed by no additional funding, there are hundreds on a waiting list for assistance," reports KTVK (channel 3 in Phoenix). The full video report is below.

azfamily.com 3TV | Phoenix Breaking News, Weather, Sport

Lawsuit: Failure to Provide Terps

A Florida lawsuit claims the Miami-Dade County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation "systematically violates their rights by failing to provide interpreters" for the deaf. An attorney for the legal advocacy group Disability Rights Florida says, "We're not suing for damages. We would just like them to fix it." Read more here.

Deaf West up for major Awards

Deaf West's'Spring Awakening' got three Tony nominations yesterday. The show is now set for a national tour and the LA Times explains why the producers are surprised at how far the show has gone here.

A Punk Rock and Storytelling Show, for Deaf People

A New York deaf club event pulled together "the alienation of punk in the ’70s and the underserved Deaf community." Read the full story in the New York Times here.

DiMarco is headed to big DC event

Nyle DiMarco (image from ABC)

People Magazine will have Nyle DiMarco as one of it’s guests at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Find out who the Dancing with the Stars contestant is bringing with him in an Washington Post article here. There's also been talk of a feud between DiMarco and another dancer on DWTS, which you can read about at Radar Online here
.

Arrested for Obscene Sign

A Rhode Island man who attends Gallaudet University is suing the Woonsocket Police Department. David Alves was arrested for a misinterpreted sign language gesture--and held overnight. The police department refused his request for an interpreter. WJAR-TV has a video report.

Nyle DiMarco: Why I travel

Dancing With the Stars' Nyle DiMarco backpacked solo around Europe as well as North and South America for a year. He sat down with Conde Nast Traveler last week to talk about his experiences, the same day he scored the first perfect ten of the season on DWTS.

Watch this on The Scene.

Deaf women ritualistically beaten & killed

The bodies of three women in Haiti were found in a ditch after they were "beaten, stabbed and burned. The relatives who identified "them in a morgue said their tongues were cut out" raising speculation they were targeted because they were deaf and seen using sign language. Read the full story from Associated Press here.

When Prince Played at Gally

In 1984 Prince played a free, unannounced concert at Gallaudet University's field house. Alum Stephen Hlibok talked to WUSA-TV about a night he'll never forgot.


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Deaf Lawyers welcomed into Supreme Court Bar

Chief Justice John Roberts 

There's a formal ceremony admitting attorneys to the Supreme Court Bar. And for the first time spoken English was not the language used by Chief
when administering the oath to new lawyers. Yesterday, ASL was used. Read the story in the Wall Street Journal here.

Film about Deaf Teens

Dreaming of Peggy Lee is a short film about two deaf teenagers who sneak away from their home to sneak into jazz club in London during the 1940s. It was premiered this week at the Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth in Vancouver on April 14. Read more about the film festival here. Below is a trailer for the film.

Dreaming of Peggy Lee - trailer from One Big Mop on Vimeo.

10 things to know about Nyle DiMarco

Staten Island live has come up with a listicle about deaf reality start Nyle DiMarco. Like #7, why he's good with numbers (hint: it's what he studied at Gallaudet Univerisity). Read the full list here. The video below is a sample of DiMarco on Dancing with the Stars.

Cali School gets new leader

The California School for the Deaf at Riverside has a new superintendent. Nancy Hlibok Amann will take the role this summer. Amann has worked at Deaf Community Services of San Diego and served as assistant superintendent of the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind. Read the press release about the appointment from the California Dept. of Education here. Parents of a student at the school filed a lawsuit in 2015, accusing administrators of allowing a sex club to exist on campus. The school denied that accusation. Read more about the suit here.

Florida gets new deaf ed advanced degree program

A Florida college is going to offer a master's degree in deaf education. Here's a video report about the new program at Flagler College from WJAX‑TV in Jacksonville.

Suit: Prison refuses to replace hearing aids

The ACLU is suing Ohio's corrections department for not replacing a deaf inmate's hearing aids. James Handwork was given the hearing aids more than decade ago and the prison audiologist says they are wore out and obsolete. Read the lawsuit details here.

Deaf School Suddenly Closed

A UK school for the deaf was suddenly shut down because the residents were being abused. The Care Quality Commission said some of the residents were pushed, hit and mistreated at Margate’s Westgate college in Kent. There were also financial problems at the facility. The local MP KentOnline, " “These allegations are simply horrifying. Residents were abused by the people they trusted the most. It was wrong and without excuse." Read the details here.

DiMarco-Dancing part 3

Nyle DiMarco says on his third Vlog, "The judges' feedback (on Dancing with the Stars) was kind of negative.. Some of the feedback was that I lacked musicality, which is difficult because, obviously, I'm deaf."

The deaf women in Obama's White House

Meet the two deaf women who have risen to prominent positions alongside Barack Obama in the White House--and they aren't the only deaf people working in the White House. Read the story from the BBC here.

image from disability.gov

image from whitehouse.gov

College Professor teaching students "what discrimination looks like"

 image from the Univ.
of Houston website

Professor Terrell Brittain teaches ASL and Deaf culture at the University of Houston. He tells the school's student newspaper, “If we can have students and other people able to sign a little bit that would be really great. What I’d like to see is a completely ASL-friendly environment where languages aren’t discriminated against so that UH becomes a model as a deaf-friendly university.” Read the full story about professor Brittain here.

NYTimes: Deaf and Hard of Hearing Fight to Be Heard

The New York Times quotes a lawyer who specializes in cases involving the deaf and hard of hearing as saying that despite the lawsuits:

"Time and time again, people ignore the laws that are written.” What’s more, he added, some A.D.A. violators have been sued multiple times, including the New York Police Department. Recently, however, a deaf rights movement has begun to gain ground, particularly in New York.

Read the full story about the stuggle in the state of New York here.

Seattle Film Fest

The 2016 Seattle Deaf Film Festival gets underway this Thursday. For more information click here.

Summer STEM Camps

Image from RIT.edu (the 2014 girls camp photo)

Deaf and hard of hearing middle school students will gather from around the country for camps at the Rochester Institute of Technology to talk about STEM. The week-long camps will focus on science, technology, engineering and math. The school says, "Through hands-on activities, campers will explore chemistry, computers, engineering and science--even building their own computers to take home and commanding simulated missions to Mars. They also will meet other students with similar interests and enjoy social activities." Classes are held in both English and sign language from July 23-28. Find out more at RIT's TechGirlz
site and TechBoyz site.

Nyle DiMarco's first "Dancing with the Stars"

Nyle DiMarco says he slipped up during Monday's episode of Dancing with the Stars-but the judge's didn't catch it. He explains how the first live show of the season went in his vlog.

Deaf women "brutally attacked"

KESQ-TV reports that two California deaf women were attacked with a baseball bat and their home broken into shortly thereafter. No captions provided by the TV station, but you can read the story here.

Deaf Contestant on DWTS wows Judges

Nyle DiMarco made a splash on Dancing With the Stars. The deaf America’s Next Top Model winner performed to DNCE’s Cake By the Ocean during the week one show with partner Peta Murgatroyd. Nyle and Peta earned a 23 out of 30 for theircha-cha. Here's a video report from Yahoo News.

the story of a deaf Taiwanese dancer's rise to fame

Lin Ching Lan was "turned away by dance schools" but that didn't stop the deaf Taiwanese dancer from "defying the odds and dancing her way to stardom." Read more at Mashable here. Below is a video about her.

App helps Deaf-operated biz "Glide"

image from crepecrazy.com

An Austin, Texas restaurant with a large deaf staff is using a video app to communicate with its customers. The Glide app was not built with the intention of helping deaf-operated businesses like Crepe Crazy, but the real-time visual messaging service is doing just that. Read the full story in a KUT radio article posted here.

EDM "Concert for the Deaf" in South Beach

Dutch DJ Martin Garrix created an immersive music experience for deaf people at the sold out Ultra Music Festival this weekend in Miami, Florida. Here's a video about the effort called "Concert for the Deaf."

Implant activation with a twist

When Andrea Diaz had her cochlear implant turned on, her boyfriend, Kevin Peakman, told her, "I wanted to make one of the first things you hear.." and then he got down on one knee (no captions).

NBA's First Deaf Player starts tech business

image from Lance Allred
Keynote Speaker video

He was the first deaf player in the NBA. But Lance Allred retired from the game in 2015. What's he been up to since then?
Turns out he's "creating a tech company called Manestream that he says will provide radically faster access to internet resources," according to Forbes magazine. Read the full story here.

Nyle DiMarco on Access Hollywood

Access Hollywood takes a look at Nyle DiMarco's planned appearance on Season 22 of Dancing with the Stars. The show spoke with DilMarco and his pro partner, Peta Murgatroyd who says they are "ready for the unique challenges they’ll face." Here's the video:

"Contentious" assessment debate

State Senator Dennis Pyle

Kansas lawmakers are battling over a bill that would change how deaf and hard of hearing are assessed in school. State Senator Dennis Pyle told a Senate Committee on Education, "If we’ve had data proving there was this major of a problem, I’m very concerned as to why we’ve waited this long to act,” according to the Salina Post. Read the full story here.

Switched at Birth coming to an end

The creator of Switched at Birth says the show is coming to an end. Lizzy Weiss tweeted that the coming fifth season will be the last one. The Freeform network (formerly ABC Family) says the ASL-driven show will conclude with a special 90-minute finale. Switched at Birth centers on two teenage girls who discover they were swapped as newborns in a hospital mix-up.  It's not a surprise that the show is ending-considering there are now 100 episodes--an important number for syndication. Also, the Freeform cable network is pulling away from family-oriented shows and rebranding itself as a network about issues facing people who've recently graduated from college--getting that first job, serious love interests, and the like. Weiss didn't say when the final season will begin.

New CEO at Deaf School

image from Google maps

The Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf has a new CEO. Steven Farmer was the director of student life at the Tennessee School for the Deaf. He'll take over in July for Donald Rhoten who is retiring. Board of Trustees Chair Melissa Scheffler said:

We’re thrilled that Dr. Farmer has accepted our offer to become our new CEO. The decision was the result of an intensive 8-month search process during which our Board interviewed numerous candidates, introduced them to students, parents and alumni, hosted site visits and evaluated what each candidate could bring to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community at WPSD. Ultimately, we found that Dr. Farmer would best position our school for the future due to his vast management and leadership experience and his steadfast commitment to deaf education and communication throughout his career.

Read the full announcement here.

Fast-Food Sign goes viral

A deaf woman in North Carolina was surprised when a Chick-Fil-A employee responded to her order in sign language. A video of the encounter has gone viral. WTVD-TV has a video report.

Deaf baseball player Still Inspires

The Columbus Dispatch takes a look at a new children's book about a deaf major leaguer called The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game. Author Nancy Churnin writes "He showed how a deaf man could succeed in a hearing world at a time when deaf people encountered great prejudice. That’s one of the reasons he is such a hero in the deaf community.” Read the entire review here.

Want to learn something about Chinese Sign?

Chinese Sign Language is "slowly gaining ground in the online community, with social networking sites and blogging platforms being used to share materials and spread awareness of basic sign language. Online media is also acting as a space for deaf people to interact with CSL and use CSL in new ways, such as in online videos and music," according to an article on What's on Weibo written by Cat Hanson. Read the full story here. Below is a sample of Chinese Sign Language in action.

Nyle DiMarco & the Cast of Dancing introduced

Nyle DiMarco was introduced on Good Morning America as the first deaf contestant who will compete on ABC's Dancing With the Stars. We told you last week that the winner of the final season of America's Next Top Model would be joining Dancing when it premieres March 21 at 8pm, Eastern. However, it was Oscar winner Marlee Matlin who became the first deaf contestent on the show in 2008. Here's a video from GMA but the captions don't seem to be working.

Implants puts boy between two worlds

this is the model implant referred to
in the article

A New York mom writes that the decision to give her son cochlear implants puts him, "in between two worlds: He is not a member of deaf signing culture, but neither is he fully part of the hearing community. Instead, he lives somewhere in the middle, joining the 48 million Americans who are challenged with some level of hearing loss." Read full article in the Atlantic here.

Tensions between the Deaf community and Starkey

A Deaf advocacy group objects to how the Starkey Hearing Foundation operates. The California Association for the Deaf is calling on Starkey to stop exploiting the people who are receiving hearing aids from the group and slogans like “hearing brings joy.”The CAD president told Minnesota's Star Tribune “Their marketing approach is really hurting us. They are pushing the concept that we are OK only if we can hear, that hearing equals joy. Hollywood loves that, but it is just not true.” Starkey won't talk about the controversy. Read the full Star Tribune here.

2nd Deaf Contestant on Dancing with the Stars

Dancing with the Stars will have a deaf contestent on season 22. America’s Next Top Model winner Nyle DiMarco will be the second deaf contestant on the show. When Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin competed during season six she came in seventh place. Here's a video of DiMarco from an appeareance this psat fall on Entertainment Tonight.