Living through a pandemic without sound

There are 300,000 people in Northern Ireland affected by hearing loss. The BBC spoke to some of the about their experiences during the coronavirus outbreak here.

Gally gets new swim coach

image from Galluadet.edu

Nick Pezzarossi is the new men’s and women’s swimming and diving head coach at Gallaudet University. Pezzarossi, who is deaf, was twice an assistant coach at the school—three years under former head coach Bill Snape (2004-07) and one year under former head coach Rosemary Stifter (2003-04). The most recent head coach, Larry Curran, recently stepped down after eight years. Pezzarossi's wife, Caroline Pezzarossi, teaches psychology at Gallaudet. Read more about the new coach here.

Deaf-Blind artist wins National Magazine Award

Deaf-Blind artist John Lee Clark has won the 2020 National Magazine Award for "Tactile Art" in the category of Essays and Criticism. You can read Clark's piece in Poetry Magazine here and more about the award here.

Online Education Resources for the Deaf Community

Voice of America's Calla Yu has a video report on teachers who are creating online resources in American Sign Language.

The pandemic made life harder for deaf people. The solutions could benefit everyone.

"Floating captioning, live transcribing, and clear masks are only a first step to bridging the communication gap. This is all in the right direction, and people will say this ‘solves the deaf problem,’ but it doesn’t.” Read more at MIT Tech review here.

Video: "I am Deaf Enough"

Seattle-area deaf actress and YouTuber Cheyenna Clearbrook has put together a video for her more than 100K subscribers called "I am Deaf Enough." Born deaf, she was featured in a TEDx talk while a student at Gallaudet University student.

ADA law & wearing a mask in a business

Does ADA law require businesses to allow people into stories if the customer has a disability? Some experts say the answer is 'no.' KMIR-TV in Palm Springs has a video report below or read the story here.

Complaint says AP exams discriminate

New Jersey high school student Kaleigh Brendle has filed federal complaints saying the AP exams discriminate against the blind and deaf. A junior at the Scholars’ Center for the Humanities, Kaleigh is legally blind and has been reading brail since she was 3 years old. Find our more about why she says the test isn't set up properly in the New York Post here.

Temporary Layoffs at Michigan School for the Deaf

The Michigan School for the Deaf is cutting its staff down to four days a week. There will work for them on Fridays through July. This includes all academic, office, residential and administrative staff. Read more here.

Deaf woman’s social media post goes viral, raises awareness

Kimberly Fugate Kimberly is using a story of something that happened to her at a grocery store to raise awareness about what the Deaf and Hard of Hearing face every day. Her Facebook post recounting that moment has more than 30,000 shares. WTVQ-TV in Lexington, Kentucky has a video report below or read the story here.

Meet Gov. Cuomo's Terp

Arkady Belozovsky, an NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf) graduate is the sign language interpreter you will see on-screen alongside New York's governor during coronavirus briefings. Read more in a lengthy article published in the Democrat & Chronicle here.

Deaf Man dies after being trapped in fire

A Maryland man on the outskirts of Wash., D.C. who is deaf died after his home caught fire early Sunday morning. Firefighters rescued 55-year-old Norman Rogers III but he later died at the hospital. Rogers graduated from the Maryland School of the Deaf. Read more here.

Zoom fatigue is nothing new--to the deaf and HoH

Zoom fatigue is something the Deaf community knows very well. It’s called “concentration fatigue" and people who are deaf and hard of hearing deal with it every day. Read more about the topic in a Quartz article here.

The ASL Advantage

The Maryland School for the Deaf superintendent sees ASL as an advantage in the fight to remain healthy during the pandemic. WDVM-TV has a video report or you can read the story here.

Judge: Cuomo briefings must be more accessible to deaf

Disability Rights New York has gotten a preliminary injunction against the governor of New York over his failure to broadcast a sign language interpreter during his daily Covid press briefings. Last night, a Manhattan federal judge, Valerie Caproni, ordered New York Governor Cuomo to include an interpreter in the state-provided TV signal of his briefings. The governor's lawyers had argued there was no need of having an interpreter share the screen because of captioning and a separate a dedicated internet stream. But Disability Rights New York has pointed out that the captioning often contain errors while the separate feed is available only in broadband service. Read more from Buffalo News here.

How a Texas school is connecting with its students

The Sunshine Cottage School for Deaf Children in San Antonio is working to stay connected to its students. Preschool teacher Holly Mason says:

I record instructional videos every day and then send it to the parents so that they can view those videos at their convenience...We are shifting greatly to parents who are having to take the primary seat. But what parents forget is that they were the first teacher. Parents are the first teacher their child’s ever going to have.

Read more and see a video report from KSAT-TV here.

Musical collaboration

The musical duo called the Skivvies has joined with deaf actor Joshua Castille and others who work with Deaf West Theatre to perform in a short video of I Am What I Am from La Cage Aux Folles.

Deaf New Yorkers sue Cuomo

Disability Rights New York is suing Gov. Andrew Cuomo for not providing sign language interpreters during his daily televised coronavirus briefings. Executive Director Timothy Clune writes in a statement:

It is inexplicable that during this pandemic, the Governor would choose not to have ASL interpreters at his daily live televised briefings. As a result, deaf New Yorkers are unable to obtain vital life and death information at the time they need it most.

In response, Cuomo advisor Rich Azzopardi tells CNN there is a "dedicated (ASL) stream" on the state website and "all conferences have been close-captioned. Read the full statement here.