Big Grant for Deaf Teacher Training

The Dept. of Education is giving a Texas school nearly $150,000 to start a program combining educational psychology and deaf education. The
will use the $147,000 grant to train a dozen "new school psychologists that specialize in deaf education, and 27 teachers of the deaf in how to apply principles of educational psychology in their work with children." There's more information from the school here.

America's deaf team

At Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the Bison football team is tackling lessons beyond the field. CBS News has a video report on America's Deaf Team.

Deaf Singer Gets Death Threats

Some people in the Deaf community sent Mandy Harvey death threats for her appearance on NBC's America's Got Talent. She says some activists objected to her "promoting a 'hearing' activity." Harvey got worldwide attention after working her way to the show's finals. She tells the BBC, "I used to get some pretty strongly-worded letters and death threats. I got a lot of backlash from certain people in that community because I was promoting oralism." Read the full story here. Below is a video of one of her AGT appearances.

Woman raped, robbed near Gallaudet

A woman was robbed and sexually assaulted across the street from Gallaudet University in Washington, DC this past weekend. Fox-5 in DC has a video report.

Discrimination Against Deaf People In The US

Two leaders in the Deaf community sat down with KCUR, public radio from Kansas City, Missouri, and discussed the "history of persecution against people with deafness in this country — and the milestones along the path to equal rights." Gallaudet University history professor William Ennis and Deaf International co-founder Debbie Buchholz. She says:

image: http://dicommunitychurch.org

I believe that people in the minority will have to fight, probably for the rest of their life. But that it's critical not to give up but to keep fighting because everyone has a right to receive the same things. And so it's important for people to realize that this is not over. Even though it's better, it's not over.. There's so many deaf people that want to work, so many deaf people who were criticized for not having a job and they're actually looking. And they're applying within and they're being turned down because just that piece of being deaf scares employers. And so they want to work and they are looking for positions. And if the accommodations were right and proper, they would all be able to work.

Read the entire interview here
.

What's wrong with Language Gloves?

image from UCSD academic paper
published in the PLOS One journal
describing a gesture-recognizing glove 

What's wrong with wearable technologies like the sign-language glove? Linguist and writer Michael Erard writes that the effort is "rooted in the preoccupations of the hearing world, not the needs of Deaf signers." The gesture-recogniztion glove overlooks the "intricacies of the language, as well as the needs of signers." Despite it's high cost and irrelavancy to signers, the technology has won prize money for its creators and "college students were gaining accolades and scholarships for technologies based on an element of Deaf culture, while Deaf people themselves are legally and medically underserved." Read more in the Atlantic about Why Sign-Language Gloves Don't Help Deaf People here.

On Deafness and Music

"When I got a cochlear implant seven years ago, after being profoundly deaf for my entire life, hearing friends and acquaintances started asking me the same few questions: Had I heard music yet? Did I like it? What did it sound like?" That's how Rachel Kolb started her essay On Deafness and Music published in the New York Times. You can read it here.

Growing Up With Deaf Parents

"Many CODAs act as interpreters for their parents from a young age, and this can mean taking on responsibilities generally reserved for adults.. In sign language, there are ways you can express or say things that seem better or more appropriate in English.. We sometimes sign something because it really captures what we're thinking." Read more in a VICE Austrailia here.

Virgin Photoshops Implant out of Ad

here are the two photos in question

Virgin Active South Africa health clubs is apologizing after removing the cochlear implant from a model in a promotional photograph it posted on Instagram. Simone Botha Welgemoed got the implant before she was two years old. The ballerina was crowned Miss Deaf South Africa fives years ago and is an active deaf advocate in that country. In response to the controversy, a Virgin spokesperson said:

“We issued an immediate apology to Simone. We had a good heart-to-heart meeting with her. We 100% accept that the action of photo-shopping the image is not in line with our values as a business, nor in keeping with the welcome we extend to everyone. We got it wrong and we realise that.

Making Room for Deaf Performers in Hollywood

The New York Times takes a look at the struggles deaf actors have had in Hollywood in an article that focuses on Millicent Simmonds, who stars in the film Wonderstruck. Read it here.

Website ADA Compliance put on the Federal Gov.'s Back Burner

The Department of Justice has put the issue website compliance with ADA law on its "inactive list." New regulations had been scheduled to start next year but the issue has been set aside for now. The Pepper Hamilton law firm tells its clients, "There is no longer an imminent expectation that the DOJ will provide new guidance regarding what type of private website formatting or accommodations must be provided to users in order to comply with the ADA. In fact, the DOJ’s newly professed lack of interest appears to weigh against an assumption that the ADA applies to websites." You can read more here.

Marlee Matlin honored in Israel

Oscar Winning Deaf Actress Marlee Matlin took her first trip to Israel recently. She was honored for disability advocacy and spoke with i24 News about life in Hollywood and her Jewish roots.

Wonderstruck's Deaf Breakout Star

Sorenson VRS has put together a video about Millicent Simmonds. She's the deaf actress starring in the movie Wonderstruck. The video has no audio but there are captions.

New Leader for DEAF Inc.

DEAF Inc. based in St. Louis has a new leader. Ernest E. Garrett III will take the reigns of the nonprofit working to improve interactions between the Deaf community and the hearing community. Garrett is the former superintendent of the Missouri School for the Deaf. He was the first deaf superintendent of the school. Read more about him here. Below is a video announcement about the appointment.

Meet the Child Star of Wonderstruck

Deaf actress Millicent Simmonds has made a big impression since her breakout performance in the new movie Wonderstruck. In the film, she plays a 12-year-old deaf girl living in the 1927 New Jersey who runs away from home. People Magazine offers "5 Things to Know about Millicent" here and offers a video interview here.

Meet Deaf Artist Bex

image from Convo Relay youtube video

Bex is a "28-year-old San Francisco Bay Area resident who believes people with disabilities face discrimination and lack of access – despite the existence of the Americans with Disabilities Act – and that people with disabilities incur additional costs that create barriers to art training," the Huffington Post reports. She says, “There is a very strong sense of abjection in my work. I believe it rises not just from being queer, but also from being disabled, as well as Jewish – the implicit knowledge that just by having the audacity to merely exist, you are loathed."  Read the full story here with a review of Bex art and some samples here or visit her website here.

Scientists say Protein may be key to Gene Therapy for Deaf Patients

Researchers say they've "developed a better way to test a specific protein that is essential for hearing" and it has to do with particular genes. They tell Oregon's Fox 12, "There's a lot of interest in this particular gene because it seems to be at the epicenter of the focus of general hearing loss. It seems to be a bit of a one trick pony in that it exclusively controls hearing and balance."

KPTV - FOX 12

Wonderstruck & the Deaf Community

Todd Haynes, director of the new film Wonderstruck did research to understand the history of Deaf culture in the U.S. He tells NPR:

It really wasn't until a leaven article that came out in 1960 that talked about sign language and described all the integrity of this language. And a new era of appreciation for what sign language was was ushered in. And I think you see in "Wonderstruck" both sides of that divide is played out in the two stories that parallel the film because Ben, the little boy in the '70s, also becomes deaf in the course of the film.

"In the movie Wonderstruck, children in different time periods embark on quests to find themselves," reports NPR. "Director Todd Haynes explains the film's artistic choices and its significance to the deaf community" in his NPR here.

Deaf Actors Sign and Sing on Broadway

NBC News spoke with Sandra Frank, lead actress in the Broadway musical Spring Awakening, a show that combines deaf and hearing actors in single roles.

Billboard campaign aims to connect deaf to religion

A Christian group in Western Michigan has launched a billboard campaign to reach the deaf with their message. But the billboards have caused some confusion. WOOD-TV has a video report.