Gally gets grant for new online effort

A grant of a quarter of a million dollars will support Gallaudet University's ASL Connect effort. The funds will come from The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. ASL Connect won't go live until next year, but when it does it will offer online ASL education--including an ASL certificate program, a ASL Placement Test, ASL coaching and tutoring, as well as MOOC (massive open online course) classes and much more. Read more about the grant and ASL Connect here.

Missouri Baseball Camp

There's a baseball camp in Missouri just for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. KSDK-TV has a video report about the Mike Bush Fantasy Baseball Camp.

Zeke wants to join the NBA when he grows up

image from NBC News video

An 8-year-old deaf basketball player is making an impact on the hearing team he joined. NBC News has a video report about Zeke Ortiz of Frederick, Maryland here.

Canada reverses Immigration decision

It was back in May when we told you about a Filipino girl who was denied entry into Canada to be with her mother. The government rejected her--because she is deaf. Here's a update: Ottawa now says she can get an immigration visa. The Star explains why the change for Jazmine in an article here and read the Vancouver Sun's version here.

Is FCC serious about closed captioning?

IS the FCC's new captioning rules for TV being enforced? Not according to a Cleveland, Ohio columnist for the local Beacon Journal newspaper. Read what he discovered here.

Nobody graduated this year from this deaf school

The Rochester School for the Deaf has no official '15 grads. The only other time in the school's 139 year history this happened was more than 40 years ago. Find out why in a Democrat & Chronicle article.

$4 million for science careers

Steve Dewhurst
vice dean for research at UR
image from UR website

A $4-million federal grant will open the door for more deaf and hard-of-hearing scholars who want to pursue science careers beyond a master's degree. The University of Rochester's School of Medicine and Dentistry program "not only ties into our broader theme of scientific workforce development, but it creates a specific pipeline for deaf and hard-of-hearing scientists to enter academy," says Steve Dewhurst, Vice Dean for Research at the UR School of Medicine and Dentistry. Read more in the university's news release.

Murder Plot Caught on Video say prosecutors

Three deaf people are facing murder charges in Australia. Prosecutors say the trio was caught on CCTV trying to decide whether to strangle another deaf man or push him off a balcony. Robert Wright fell from his apartment balcony in Melbourne and died in January. 9News has a video report. No captions but you can read the story in the Independent here.

Robbery and Beating at Coffee Shop

There's video of a deaf man getting beaten by thieves who took his laptop. He was just sitting outside a coffee shop in the Los Angeles suburb of Riverside. KTLA-TV has a video report. No captions but you can read the story here.

Indianapolis Conference this weekend

The American Society for Deaf Children Conference 2015 takes place in Indianapolis this coming Sunday (June 28). For more information, click here.

Meet the Dance Company

Upworthy posted a video yesterday Gallaudet about the dance company.

"It's not a deaf movie"

The Tribe is catching movie reviewers off guard. Set in a Ukrainian boarding school for the deaf and made exclusively in Ukrainian Sign Language, many assume the film has "more to do with the novelty of sign language than any merit of the actual film." Sara Nović, who is deaf, found much more. She writes, "What sets this film apart is the fact that the deaf people here are people first." Yana Novikova is one of the leads and Nović interviewed her  here. Below is a clip from the film.

Sign to dine

Customers at Vancouver's Sign to dine rrestaurant "are encouraged to order using basic sign language and each table has helpful sign language booklets to help customers communicate with their servers." CTV Vancouver has more about this unusual business here.

Suit filed to get Terp in Delivery Room

Margaret Weiss is due to give birth to her second child next month. But her hospital is refusing to provider her an interpreter in the delivery room. Instead, Bethesda Hospital East in Boynton Beach, is only willing to do VIR--that is, have an interpreter on video relay. So Weiss is suing the hospital. She explains why in a video interview with The Palm Beach Post.

Virginia Conference this week

The Virginia Association of the Deaf will hold its 59th Biennial Conference in Roanoke this week (June 26-27). For more information, click here.

Illinois Conference this week

The 48th Biennial Illinois Association of the Deaf Conference takes place this coming weekend (June 25-27) in Moline. For more information, click here.

Deaf-Blind NC man trains for triathlon

Patrick Vellia is working hard to get ready for triathlon next month. He was inspired to try by another triathlete he met more than a decade ago. Charlotte's WBTV has a video report.

WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC

Deaf girl fights for right to play softball

A 16-year-old Indiana girl is asking the Civil Rights office to intervene on her behalf. Athletics officials have limited where the deaf girl can play softball. WXIN-TV has a video report. No captions, but you can read the transcript here.

Rules for reporting missing captioning

A new notice from the FCC explains how distributors will be expected to notify the commission about programmers who don't put captioning on their videos. The notice requires distributors to send out notices telling programmers they have 30 days to get the video captioned-and report to the FCC anyone who refuses to do it. Read the notice here.

Implant company gets new CEO

There's a new CEO at Cochlear Limited. The Australian company is trading Chris Smith for Chris Roberts in August. What does it mean for the world's largest cochlear implant company? An article in Money Morning explains here.

Austin Conference Next Week

The National Student Life for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Biennial Conference takes place next week (June 22-26) Austin. For more info, click here.

Deaf man sues Sheriff

James Piunti is suing a sheriff's office in Indiana after he was fired. Piunti says his supervisor gave him the duty of taking phone orders--something he couldn't do because he is deaf. Read the details in the Northwest Indiana Times.

NYT reviews The Tribe

The new film The Tribe takes place in a Ukrainian boarding school for the deaf--and it's disturbing. That's reflected in today's review of it in the New York Times that reads in part, "Having provoked the audience’s curiosity, the film punishes us, using the bodies of its young performers.. as tokens in a prurient, punitive spectacle." Read the full review here.

Should a child with an implant learn to sign?

That's the question posed to a group of experts. Their opinions, based on recent research, are in the most recent edition of the journal Pediatrics. Their conclusion: “The benefits of learning sign language clearly outweigh the risks. For parents and families who are willing and able, this approach seems clearly preferable to an approach that focuses solely on oral communication." Linguist Donna Jo Napoli tells Reuters Health, “Children should be surrounded by sign language as much as possible as soon as the audiological status is determined. If the child gets a cochlear implant and does well with it, fantastic. Then the child is bi-lingual.” You'll find the abstract here and you can read the Reuters story here.

Deaf and Blind school gets temp leader

Mark Gandolfi will oversee the daily operation of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind temporarily. Administrator Lynn Boyer is retiring this month. Gandolfi has served as the schools’ director of finance the last couple of years. Read the full story in the Charleston Daily Mail.

DeafFestival in Rochester

Rochester DeafFestival 2015 takes place in upstate New York this coming Saturday (June 20) at Genesee Valley Park. For more information, click here. Below is a video welcoming you to the event from the Rochester Deaf Festival board members.

Rachel Maddow, Franklin Graham and an ad about a deaf girl

Rachel Maddow talked about an ad about a deaf girl during her MSNBC news show. Evangelist Franklin Graham has criticized the ad for featuring a gay couple. Here's a video showing what she had to say about the ad.

The Signing-Impaired

Image from TEDx video

Rachel Kolb writes in a recent New York Times opinion piece, "I long to say to my hearing companion: 'Hold on. We can see each other perfectly well, but we still cannot communicate. Do you realize that, when your capability to hear fails you, you are essentially disabled?'" Kolb studies education at Oxford University. Read her Help for the Signing-Impaired here.

Arrest in killing of Deaf Poker Player

A man is behind bars for killing a deaf poker player from Minnesota. Las Vegas police took Rufus Anthony Smith into custody for the May murder of John Collins. Police say the confrontation was the result of a drug deal gone bad. Authorities are still looking for a second person. Read the full story from the Associated Press.

Captioning bill doubles for Texas city

Closed captioning is costing the city of Austin $10,000 every month. Read the full story in the Austin Monitor.

Fierce Sign Language

The New York Times says the new Ukraine film called The Tribe "tells its story of violence and love through visuals alone" through "fierce sign language" and "despite the absence of subtitles, the characters’ actions and emotions are vividly clear. The physicality of the sign language gives the drama a bracing directness as tensions rise or moods fade." Read the full review here. Here is the trailer.

Head of Deaf School Stepping Down

image from the
Illinois School for the Deaf website 

Leadership is changing at the Illinois School for the Deaf. Superintendent Janice Smith-Warshaw will take a position teaching at Fresno State University this fall after just two years at the helm of the school. Smith-Warshaw was the first deaf woman to serve as superintendent. A petition popped up on change.org against her earlier this year, suggesting she was the cause of adding cued speech into the school’s curriculum--something she denies. You can see the petition here and read the full story in the Jacksonville Journal Courier.

State gives go-ahead for Construction project at deaf school

The Tennessee School for the Deaf is getting a new high school building. Read more details about the $29-million Knoxville project in the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Reversal of ruling terminating deaf mother's parental rights

A deaf Iowa woman has gotten custody of her baby back. An appeals court said the state Human Services Department failed to properly provide her a sign language interpreter. The Iowa Appeals Court has reversed a ruling that took away the parental rights of a deaf woman to her infant child. The Mason City Globe Gazette reports on the full story here.

Deaf catcher drafted for pro ball

image from Facebook

A deaf high school catcher was picked in the Major League Baseball draft yesterday. The Atlanta Braves selected Troy, Alabama's
Chase Smartt in the 35th round, according to AL.com. Find out why the Braves are high on Smartt--only the second player taken straight out of an Alabama high school this year. Read the details here.

Arkansas DeafFest this weekend

The Arkansas DeaFestival takes place this Saturday (June 13) at the Arkansas School for the Deaf. For more information, click here.

Kansas Conference starts Thursday

The yearly conference of the Kansas Association of the Deaf and the Kansas Association of Interpreters-Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf takes place in Overland Park, Kansas this coming Thursday to Saturday (June 11-13). There's more information here.

Gally Student appeals to Canadian gov. for help

A Canadian student wants help covering his tuition at Gallaudet University. His Manitoba family is appealing to the government to provide funding. CBC news has a video report.

Trial ordered for deaf man in Comic-Con crash

A San Diego judge has ordered a deaf man to stand trial for hitting pedestrians during a Comic-Con Zombie Walk last year. "Matthew Pocci feared for his family's safety. However, the prosecution said Pocci plowed through the crowd out of anger" reports KFMB-TV. Read the full story at here.

Replacing Bailey's Stolen Implant

There's an update on the teen we told you about yesterday whose had her cochlear implant stolen. The family of Bailey Matney set up a GoFundMe account, which you can see here. It has already reached its goal of $10,000 thanks to 200 donors. While she won't have a new device in time for her graduation, Matney's audiologist has loaned her one in the meantime.

Deaf School faces layoffs

Employees at the Arkansas School for the Deaf are concerned about possible layoffs. KNWA has a video report.

"Zombie Walk" Deaf Driver Back in Court

A San Diego judge is holding a hearing today to decide whether a deaf man should go to trial for driving through a crowd at last year's Comic-Con convention. Matthew Pocci could get as much as three years in prison for running into a crowd crossing the street during a "zombie walk." KFMB-TV has a video report.

CBS News 8 - San Diego, CA News Station - KFMB Channel 8

Implant Stolen: Teen "Devastated"

A teen is hoping someone will return her cochlear implant after it was stolen in Fresno, California. Bailey Matney told KFSN-TV "Right now I just feel so awkward, I just feel so different, I can't hear anything." A video report is posted below.

Report: Wasteful spending by the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf

Money wasted distribution free telephone equipment to deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Louisiana. That's the finding of Inspector General Stephen Street whose just released report details "unnecessary spending on contractors and equipment by the Commission for the Deaf." Read the full story here.

Alabama Conference starts this weekend

The Alabama Association of the Deaf Conference starts this Sunday in Florence. For more information, click here.

Brain stem implant trials on children underway in US

Lauren Silverman/KERA

A six year old named Jiya gets an auditory brain
stem implant at the University of North Carolina. Doctors will watch and wait for the next couple of years to see how she responds. Clinical trials are also taking place at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles and the New York University School of Medicine. Read or listen to Jiya's story at NPR here.

Optimus Prime in Portland

Optimus Prime visited an elementary school in Portland Friday to help raise money for its oral program that puts deaf and hearing children together. KPTV has a video report on the Transformer's visit.

KPTV - FOX 12

Oregon Conference this Friday

The Oregon Association of the Deaf holds its 45th Biennial Conference this Friday (June 5) in Eugene. Find out more here.

Nebraska Conference this weekend

The Nebraska Association of the Deaf Biennial Conference takes place this coming weekend in Lincoln. Find out more here.