Breaking Records

SignHealth is going for a world record. The UK charity is organizing now to break the record for the most people signing and singing a song simultaneously. More than 500 schools and 80,000 children have signed up for the February 8th sign2sing event for which a song has been written. If SignHealth succeeds, the group will be breaking its own record. Earlier this year, 94,489 children took part in the sign2sing 2011 gathering that broke the old Guinness World Record of just 13,418. The fundraiser raises awareness of deaf issues and introduces sign to many children. There is more information here. Below is a video showing some 150 children and adults who gathered earlier this month to introduce plans for the record breaking attempt.

Deaf Football Player Shines

Below is a video report from WAGA-TV in Atlanta about a the success of a deaf football player.

Deaf Football Player Shines for Mountain View Bears: MyFoxATLANTA.com

Grant Money for Univ of Texas

Texas is getting $1.3 million in federal money to help improve dropout rates and employment opportunities for the deaf and hard of hearing. The money from the Department of Education will go to University of Texas at Austin educational psychologist Stephanie Cawthon who will oversee the school's part in the Center for Results in Education and Employment for Deaf Students, a newly formed national organization which includes California State University-Northridge, Wisconsin's St. Paul College, the University of Montana and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Austin Meeting

Deaf Women of Texas are holding a potluck meeting today at 4pm at the Austin Association of the Deaf. There will be discussion about affiliating with Deaf Women United and the selection of officers for the group.

ViUDA Bistro

Just south of Austin, a new restaurant has opened up in the town of Buda. The executive chef is deaf - and so is the sous chef, line cook and even a dishwasher. On top of that, the General Manager of ViUDA Bistro is president of the Texas Association of the Deaf, Paul Rutowski. Below on DeafNewsToday.com there is a video of him introducing ViUDA.

PBS airs Deaf Jam

PBS will air the film Deaf Jam this coming Thursday. The film is about a deaf teen living in New York City who discovers the power of ASL poetry. Check the time in your area here.  Watch the trailer below.

Deaf Real Estate Agent

WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh tells about how technology is helping to make a deaf real estate agent a success in a video report here. (No captions).

D-PAN ASL Music Video "We're Going To Be Friends"

The Loop

The New York Times takes a look at the hearing loop in a Health section article here.

Truancy Charges

A West Virginia mother says she plans to keep her daughter out of school, even though she faces misdemeanor charges for doing do. Regina Pine is letting Ariel Depp stay at home because the deaf girl is allegedly the victim of bullying and a sexual assault. She wants to attend South Charleston High, but the Kanawha County School District doesn't have an interpreter at the school. The fine could be as much as $100 for every day that Depp hasn't been in school - and so far, she's missed 35 days. Her mom has the option of home schooling the 16 year old. They are due in court November 9th.

Florida Cheerleaders

Here's a video featuring the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind cheerleaders about how they lead the crowd. It was shot during their last home football game against Cedar Creek Christian (includes captions).

Humanitarian Award Finalist

A volunteer at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind for more than half a century is a finalist for a humanitarian award sponsored by NASCAR. You can vote for Robert Weaver here or watch a video about him, posted below on DeafNewsToday.com.

Terp Survey

There's a major survey related to sign language interpreter specialization about to be undertaken through the combined resources of RID and NAD. The goal is to "identify the knowledge, skills and abilities that are currently required of certified interpreters" in the areas of "sign-to-voice and voice-to-sign" interpreting. An introductory video is posted below on DeafNewsToday.com.

South Africa 2011

Here's a short video of Gallaudet students who took part in the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf in Durban, South Africa this summer.

LA Times Hammer Review

The Hammer opens todayin limited release. Read the LA Times review of the film about deaf wrestler Matt Hamill here.

Visit From China

Representatives from a Chinese school for the deaf visit the Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, MA. Read the story here.

NTID Honors Partners

NTID is honoring 3 employment partners: Connecticut's American School for the Deaf, the Crane Group (Columbus, Ohio) and IBM. Each of these organizations have a record of hiring RIT/NTID deaf and hard-of-hearing co-op students and graduates. Nine Arts & Imaging Studies students have completed co-ops at the American school’s Printworks operation (three graduates have been hired full time). During the past five years, 14 NTID students received co-ops at various IBM locations (four graduates have been hired full time). Finally, the Crane Group of Companies began hiring RIT/NTID co-op students in 2007 and host the NTID Center on Employment’s “Working Together: Deaf and Hearing People” workshop. The owner, Jay Crane, is a member of the NTID Foundation Board. The National Technical Institute for the Deaf is part of New York's Rochester Institute of Technology.

Sean Forbes "Hammer"

Deaf Rapper Sean Forbes offers his new song "Hammer" in the video posted below on DeafNewsToday.com

Your Captioning Comments

You've got a few more days to make a comment about the FCC's plan to change the technical rules on closed captioning. The deadline was Oct 28, but the National Association of Broadcasters asked for more time. In response, the FCC changed the comment deadline to Nov 1. The Commission plans to extend its closed-captioning rules for TV to apply to PCs, tablets, smartphones, game consoles and set-tops as part of its effort to fulfill a requirement in the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010. The commission has until January 12 of next year to change its closed captioning regulations related to IP. The proposal would not only obligate the owners of video programming to caption, it would require the program distributors to allow those captions - which must at least have the same quality as captions provided for television. The commission is also considering allowing a variety of delivery options rather than mandating a single standard, in hopes of promoting "technological innovation." If you want to make a comment, click here.

The Hammer

A film based on the career of UFC fighter Matt Hamill opens today. The Hammer shows how the deaf wrestler won a National Collegiate Championship. Starring deaf actors Russell Harvard and Shoshannah Stern, it has won the AFI Film Festival’s Breakthrough Audience Award, the Cleveland Film Festival’s American Independent Award and the Heartland Film Festival’s Crystal Heart Award. Below on DeafNewsToday.com is the trailer.