Principal at Deaf & Blind School Reassigned

The beloved principal of the Hawaii School for the Deaf and the Blind has been transferred to another school and alumni and parents don't understand why. They gathered to protest yesterday, telling HawaiiNewsNow, “He has a deaf education background. He knows how to manage and make deaf people learn...Teachers were so thrilled. They worked so well with him.” Read the full story and watch a video report here.

A problem with New Orleans Movie Theaters

Deaf movie-goers in New Orleans say the local theaters don't accommodate them as prescribed by ADA law. The closed-captioning devices are often broken. WWL-TV has a video report below or read the story here.

A first for a deaf person in the UK

Matthew Johnston is believed to be the first profoundly deaf person to sit on a jury in a crown court in England and Wales. He's a 54-year-old technology consultant from London. The Guardian quotes Johnston as saying, “It’s all about inclusivity, isn’t it. It’s a big thing for me. We don’t want to turn our backs to society, we want to be part of society. We want to feel included. I feel great that I can be one of a jury.” Read the full story about how the deaf have been kept out of jury rooms in the UK here.

Woman says she was refused service at fast food restaurant because she’s deaf

Rachel Hollis claims workers at a Burger King drive-thru in Oklahoma City refused to serve her because she is deaf. She explained what happened to KFOR-TV in a video report (or read the story here).

Deaf Coaches Teach Gymnastics

The head coaches at a gym in Utah are both deaf. KSL-TV has a video report about Champion Sports Center below or read the story here.

Burning Man sued over terps

Two deaf men are suing the California desert celebration known as Burning Man after the organizers refused to provide sign language interpreters. Read more from Bloomberg news here.

Cochlear implants for one-sided hearing loss

A research team looked at whether cochlear implants could help people with hearing loss in one ear. WRAL-TV has a video report.

First Deaf Tennis Pro on Tour wins Match

The ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) has its first deaf player on the tour. South Korea's Duckhee Lee, who has been deaf since birth, won his first match yesterday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He's only 21 years old and beat Switzerland's Henri Laaksonen 7-6 (4), 6-1 in the first round of the Winston-Salem Open. Next up: Hubert Hurkacz of Poland who is seated #3. Here's a video about him from the ATP.

Texas Senior Making his Mark on the Football field

Billy Haynes is not only a hard-of-hearing senior at a Texas high school, he's an important part of the school's football team. Haynes plays for Robert E. Lee High School in Baytown, Texas and has been hard of hearing since he was born. KTRK-TV has a video report (or read the story here).

Alabama man charged with kidnapping deaf child

An Alabama man is behind bars and facing kidnapping charges according to the Gadsden Times. Darrell Wade Watkins is accused of taking a deaf 4-year-old girl out of his family's year. Read about it here.

Deaf customer discriminated against while trying to order food

In a recent episode of ABC's What Would You Do? a deaf actor was discriminated against while trying to order food in a restaurant. Nyle Dimarco, winner of Dancing With the Stars and America’s Next Top Model winner watched what happened behind-the-scenes. He said it resembled his own real-life experiences living as a deaf man and was overwhelmed by the passionate reactions.



And after a time, Nyle Dimarco stepped in to play the actor:

The deaf YouTuber campaigning over poor Captions

Rikki Poynter's #NoMoreCRAPtions campaign to get YouTubers to ditch the site's automatic captions "highlights how impressive advances in assistive technologies such as automatic captioning can obscure these technologies’ imperfections. The campaign is Poynter’s way of pushing back against any misguided notion that deaf people live in a technological future that hasn’t yet arrived for everyone else." Read more about the deaf 28-year-old in a piece published by The Atlantic here.

Myths about making your website accessible

More than 2,250 federal lawsuits were filed against websites for ADA compliance issues in 2018, according to Amihai Miron, who heads User1st, a website accessibility firm. That's triple the number the year before. He says there are six myths related to the ADA issue including the idea that "No one’s complained, so there’s no problem" and "There’s no clear legal standard." Read more at Technical.ly here.

Theater loses appeal: Must provide terps

The Fox Theatre in St. Louis must provide interpreters for the deaf when asked —- not just once for the run of a show. That's the ruling of an appeals court panel. The 8th U.S. Court of Appeals voted two to one to uphold a lower court ruling. Tina Childress sued the theater when it refused to provide her captioning for a performance of Rent. She was told there was only one interpreted show and she would have to attend it if she wanted a sign language interpreter. You can read the ruling here.

Researchers say they're a step closer to new ways of restoring hearing

Researchers say they have figured out which proteins control the formation of hair cells—a finding that could lead to new ways of restoring hearing by triggering hair cells to grow. The findings come out of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine based on the use of genetic tools. Read the details of the study here.

The Deaf Teen taking Esports by Storm

image from CNN video

Soleil Wheeler was born deaf and now at 13 years old, she's an international star in the world of esports. Known as Ewok, she has 200,000 followers on Amazon's Twitch streaming service and is the first female to join Faze Clan, a famous esports organization that helps promote its 80-or-so players and train them for competitions. Wheeler attends the Indiana School for the Deaf and tells CNN, "I wanted to really make history. It's a great opportunity to help inspire other girls... they can join any organization. They can play any game." Watch a video report here.