How Rochester Became a Hub for the Deaf

Rochester is home to one of the largest deaf and hard-of-hearing populations in the U.S. Read about how that came about in an article from the Daily Beast here.

1st Transgender Student Graduates from Rochester School for the Deaf

"If it wasn't for RSD, I wouldn't be the person I am today," Cori Moquette told Spectrum News. Read more about Moquette here.

The challenges facing Rochester's Deaf Community

Spectrum News takes a look at the challenges facing Rochester's Deaf Community with a masking policy in place here.

NTID partners with Beijing school

The National Technical Institute for the Deaf is partnering with a Chinese university to create student and faculty exchange programs. A delegation from Beijing Union University visited the Rochester campus where they signed a Memorandum of Understanding yesterday. Read more about the agreement here.

Historic marker unveiled for Rochester’s School for the Deaf

A roadside marker was unveiled yesterday to honor the role of Rochester’s School for the Deaf in the community. The school was established in 1876. RochesterFirst.com has a video report (or read the story here).

Minor League Baseball Team Holds Deaf Culture Day

The Rochester Red Wings' Deaf Culture Day got some attention on ESPN's SportsCenter over the weekend. It was featured as the Minor League Baseball Promotion of the Week. Rochester wore uniforms spelling out "Red Wings" on their jerseys. To purchase a ASL Red Wing cap or jersey, click 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.

Stanch Deaf Community Supporter in Congress Passes

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter has died at the age of 88. Slaugher was a Democrat who represented the Rochester area since 1987. The RIT/NTID president, Gerry Buckley, issued a statement calling her a "steadfast supporter of the Deaf community in Rochester and throughout the country." The statement mentions that she received the RIT Presidential Medallion in 2010 in honor of her support for NTID and for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. She was an honorary member of NTID's National Advisory Group, helped launch our Task Force on Health Care Careers for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Community, worked in support of the Americans with Disabilities Act, supported legislation that requires captions on TV programs and more. There is more about her from Associated Press here and the New York Times here. Here's a video from the Democrat & Chronicle (no captions).

NTID's 1st Diversity Director

image from RIT.edu

The Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf has its first director of diversity and inclusion. Stephanie Smith Albert has worked at several deaf schools, the latest being the Ohio School for the Deaf. Read more about her here.

NTID 1st Deaf Prof gets his own Postage Stamp

Robert Panara will be honored with a U.S. postage stamp. The stamp "shows Panara, who died in 2014 at 94, signing the word 'respect,'" according to the Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Read more about NTID's first deaf professor be-immortalized-postage-stamp">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.

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.

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.

ASL typeface

Peter A. Blacksberg
(image from RIT)

ASL Manutype Black is a modern typeface for American Sign Language designed by Peter A. Blacksberg. Blacksberg attended Rochester Institute of Technology where he studied photography and developed an interest in sign language when he took part in an NTID summer interpreter program.  He says:

As a photography student in 1972, I became fascinated by the visual aspects of fingerspelling and the challenge of representing hand shapes as graphical forms. I proposed an independent study project and developed a complete typeface along the lines of the international signage that I had seen in Europe. I spent hours reducing visual complexity while retaining and enhancing elements which made each letter shape identifiable.

The RIT official announcement is here.

RIT gets financial boost for DeafTEC

The National Science Foundation is giving $4 million to the National Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology. The money will go to keep DeafTEC going after a gift of $4.45 million got the project started four years ago. DeafTEC partners "with high schools, community colleges and industry with the goal of building a professional community that will improve access to technological education and employment for deaf and hard-of-hearing students." NTID’s principal investigator on the project is Donna Lange. She says, “DeafTEC’s goal has always been to successfully integrate more deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals into the workplace in highly-skilled technician jobs in which these individuals are currently underrepresented and underutilized." Read the details at RIT.

$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.

What Life is like for a Deaf Rabbi

image of Rabbi Yehoshua Soudakoff from Chabad.org

Yehoshua Soudakoff is "just a handful of Deaf rabbis in the world." He led the "first public Chanukah menorah-lighting ceremony last year at Gallaudet University" and will be part of the Rochester Deaf Chanukah Celebration taking place December 22 at the University of Rochester. Read more about Soudakoff and the Deaf Chanukah Celebration planned in Rochester here.

Force for Deaf Education Passes

Rober Parara
Photo from NTID website

Deaf educator Robert Panara has died at the age of 94. He passed away of natural causes this past weekend in Rochester, New York. Panara taught at both Gallaudet University in Washington, DC and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, which he helped to found in Rochester. He also started Connecticut's National Theater of the Deaf.  Parana's full story is told in the book Teaching from Heart and Soul: The Robert F. Panara Story, starting with his loss of hearing at the age of 10 because of spinal meningitis.  NTID President Gerry Buckley says, "Bob's legacy is indeed vast. Thousands of students and graduates have been influenced by his genuine love of teaching and his generous sharing of his beliefs, values and knowledge." NTID plans a memorial for Panara in September. Read more at the NTID website here.

Rochester School for the Deaf anniversary

It was on this date (Feb. 3) in 1876 that the first school for the deaf in western New York was founded. It was called the Western New York Institution for Deaf Mutes and in 1920 became the Rochester School for the Deaf. One of the school's early superintendents only allowed students to use finger-spelling speech rather than sign language, which became known as the "Rochester method" according to Peter V. Paul's Language and Deafness.

NTID students accepted into startup accelerator

A group of student researchers from Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf have been awarded $25,000 and is one of ten teams acceptance into a business startup accelerator called Leap Axlr8r based in San Francisco. It's for companies building on the gesture-based technology called Leap Motion. The $80 device allows users to interact with technology through motion rather than screens, keyboards, mice, and consoles. The technology is playing a critical role in 3D human computer interaction. The students are working on a program to help the deaf and hearing better communicate. They call themselves MotionSavvy and their application is designed to translate a hand shape into a text letter of the alphabet in sign language. Eventually, they hope it will translate sign language into words and sentences. Read more from NTID here.