DeaFestival-Kentucky 2018

DeaFestival-Kentucky 2018 will be held this Saturday (Sept. 1) at the Galt House in Louisville. Special guests include Kyle Schulz, the two-time competitor on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior who is deaf, and Broadway and film actor Miles Barbee. There will be more than 50 visual and performing deaf and hard of hearing artists, including rappers, hip-hop musicians, comedians, storytellers and dancers. He will preview his new movie The Silent Natural. It's the story of baseball legend William Hoy who was nicknamed “Dummy” because he was deaf. It's a free event. There's more info here.

Deaf Businesses in Austin

KVUE-TV has a video report about a Deaf-owned and operated business in Austin, Texas. For captioning, click here.

Test-Maker Sued Over Divulging Students’ Disabilities

Students have filed a lawsuit against the makers of the ACT test, saying ACT, Inc. has illegally disclosed students’ disabilities. “I was shocked to learn that ACT was using my disability information against me and making it more difficult for me to get into college and get the money I need to go to college," Halie Bloom told DisabilityScoop. Read the full story here.

Deaf candidate for Kansas House aiming to make history

If Chris Haulmark gets elected he would become the first deaf legislator in U.S. history, according to the National Association of the Deaf. The Kansas City Star has his amazing story.

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article216073410.html#storylink=cpy

Threatening Caller contacts School for Deaf Again

Whoever made a threat to the Oklahoma School for the Deaf last week has called the school again. The FBI is tracking down the person. The Daily Ardmoreite here.

He's Bringing Hip-Hop to the Deaf

Matt Maxey is the founder of DEAFinitely Dope, "an organization that aims to bring the deaf and hearing communities together through music." CNN has a profile of Matt here.

South Korean capital gets 'first deaf taxi drivers'

There are deaf taxi drivers on the streets of Seoul, South Korea this week, thanks to some new software. Two deaf drivers are using dual tablets to communicate in Korean with passengers using an app called Silent Taxi. Read more from the BBC here.

Deaf man hit by car

A deaf man is in critical condition after being hit by a car in Ocala, Florida. Gary Hamilton was attempting to cross the street at the time. Read more in the Ocala StarBanner here.

Threats Shut Down School For The Deaf

The Oklahoma School for the Deaf closed yesterday following a threatening phone call. It may be connected to "threats against a transgender student who attends another school that was shut down earlier this week over safety concerns," reports the Associated Press. Read the full story here.

Filling gaps in the ASL lexicon

A small team at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York, is busy creating signs. They've been working to fill gaps in the ASL lexicon since 2014. Hundreds of ASL signs have been created—such as a sign for the words "verb" and "prototype." Even "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." One of the people involved in the project, Ruth Anna Spooner, tells Inside Higher Ed, “We know that it’s an artificial language ‘dump,’ and by this I mean that natural language growth usually does not entail 1,400 new terms being introduced into a lexicon in four years.” Read more about the effort here.

Streetcar 82 Opens

The Washington, DC suburb of Hyattsville, Maryland has a new brewery that opened this summer. And this isn't just any ole brewery; Streetcar 82 is deaf-owned—the first of its kind on the East Coast. The small building used to house an auto repair garage, but now people play "cornhole or joke and chat over drinks." Read more in the DCist here or watch the video below. You'll find the Streetcar 82 website here.

School District accused of Discrimination

Deaf educators and students are rallying against the Corpus Christi school district. Among the issues: a deaf man was hired to teach ASL and wrestling, but school administrators later withdrew the offer. What was the problem? They didn't want to pay for an interpreter to attend a conference. Read more in the Corpus Christi Caller Times here.

Between Sound and Silence

Filmmaker Taylor Brodsky writes, "A lot can happen in two generations. I was born to deaf parents and now I’m the mother of a deaf son. He was sitting on my lap in diapers when the audiologist first detected he couldn’t hear everything. By the age of 4, he heard nothing." Read more about her experience in a New York Times opinion piece here.

Fire-pit accident burns Teen

A deaf Texas teen is recovering from burns she received from a fire-pit mishap. KFDM-TV has a video report.

Philly Police Agree to Settlement over treatment of Deaf

The Philadelphia Police Department has settled a complaint over how it handles deaf people. The department will pay eight people $97,500 and update its procedures and equipment. Read more about the settlement here.