A concept clouds the minds of mankind, the concept of the importance of human speech.  This pernicious idea has caused suffering to deaf people around the world. Human speech is unique in that it requires the organ of the ear to function.  It doesn’t matter if you are a Bushman of the Kalahari desert or an urbane Londoner, a Thai masseuse or fat Eskimo.  Human speech, via various spoken languages, [...]

[Editor's Note: The following is a list of contact information for survivors of domestic/sexual violence and/or stalking.  It is meant to be Part III of Deaf Echo author Adrienne Gravish's What Does It Mean to Be a d/Deaf Woman Living a Life That is Free of Violence series.   This information has been recently updated.]   National Deaf Domestic Violence Hotline: Video-Phone: (206) 787 – 3224 Monday  to Friday 9 am [...]

You’ve seen them by now: the vitriolic comments under news columns about the NAD suit against Netflix to begin providing captions for all its content, not just randomly chosen items. Let’s talk about this, let’s talk about what this implies for American Deafhood, and let’s compare this to other such items in American history. Let’s look at some examples of these quotes: by stepyourgameup (642 comments) June 20, 2011 10:04 [...]

How may our communities support the empowerment of Deaf survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, and stalking? Continue to support Deaf-focused domestic violence organizations in your community. Organizations such as Deaf Abused Women’s Network (D.A.W.N.) in Washington, DC, and Deaf Hope in Oakland, California are still working to erase barriers that keep Deaf survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, and/or stalking from seeking and receiving the help they need from [...]

A brief story to illustrate the point: I decided one morning two weeks ago that I wanted to go kayaking on the Potomac River. This is an easy enough thing to do. Right beneath the Key Bridge (this is the bridge that leads into Georgetown for you non-DC natives) is a little place that rents out kayaks, canoes, and those awesome newfangled board things that you stand up on and [...]

Individually: It means knowing we deserve love, respect and safety. It means feeling secure in our ideas, personal choices, right to autonomy, humanity, and d/Deaf identity. It means that our relationships, friendships, and communities affirm the same to us. It means that in a relationship, we are not demeaned, ignored, or belittled. Our ASL, English, or speech is not made fun of. We are not punished, shaken, hit, choked, accused, [...]

[Author's note: I have known Keith as a colleague and classmate in deaf education.  While watching Keith’s story through the Tedxislay series, I saw his perseverance and the can-do attitude I have known and adored.  While I knew he would be a good role model for his students, I instantly saw what a good role model he was to me as an adult.  He had grown considerably in teaching and [...]