Through my experience at being involved in the DYUSA petition to CSD Fremont to move The Bear Hunt statue, I have experienced many reactions from other people — from the beautiful to the ugly. One thing I have taken away from all of that is the extreme importance of safe spaces. Quite often I felt uncomfortable, unwelcome, and/or unsafe where I was. And when I discussed this with others, especially [...]

Since I wrote my column about Rocky Mountain Deaf School’s battle with 2090 Coalition, a number of people have reported misconduct or deception by the coalition’s members and petition circulators. Lakewood citizens have written letters about their experiences – including one in which a coalition supporter referred to “stupid deaf people” – and even captured video of a circulator lying in order to obtain a signature. The behavior of coalition members and supporters [...]

    In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, a battle is unfolding that could have implications for the future of deaf education. During a week when much of the Deaf community’s attention was elsewhere, a small charter school went head to head with a local neighborhood group, with the future of hundreds of deaf children at stake. The Rocky Mountain Deaf School won that clash, but the [...]

  On June 29-30th, cuers of all ages gathered at Nazareth College outside of Rochester, NY for the annual Cue Camp, which alternates locations every other year between New York and Maryland.  Cue Camp is a place where people of all ages, hearing levels, languages, and backgrounds can come together to practice Cued Speech, meet other cuers, or learn the system from scratch in a single weekend. Cued Speech is [...]

  I am back with another dialogue about the phrase “the elephant in the room.”   I am positive that most have heard this phrase before.  The problem is that there are so many different interpretations that my friends and I decided to dissect it. The conversation started because there has been an election.  The National Association for the Deaf (NAD) presidential election.  Shortly after the election, conversations from both sides—those [...]

  All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.
–George Bernard Shaw Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people’s idea of it is that they are free to say what [...]

  Deaf Youth USA- Bay Area chapter released a public letter and petition to the California School for the Deaf, Fremont and wider Bay Area Deaf communities following an announcement about three new brands that CSD superintendent, Sean Virnig developed in collaboration with Convo Relay.  The three brands were modeled after a statue that is placed at the front of the school’s campus, “The Bear Hunt,” created by Douglas Tilden, [...]

  It was a sunny and beautiful Saturday afternoon. We were gathered to celebrate the graduation of several African and African American men. For us, it was a milestone of great accomplishments. After fixing a plate of fried plantains, Jolly of Rice and chicken stew, and mixed vegetables, an excellent impromptu conversation began. This time, the conversation was about the acronyms TUGs (Traditionally Underrepresented Groups) and thugs (here is another [...]

Dear Mr. Brauchli: I am contacting you as a member of the #captionTHIS social media movement, and as a member of the Deaf Community. I want to make you aware via this open letter of the #captionTHIS social media movement.  We want the Washington Post, among other major internet news outlets, to caption ALL of its online video content. Please watch this video. It is about the lack of online [...]

  Dear American Association of Retired Persons (Board of Trustees): I am sending you this letter to make you aware of a political movement that has arisen within the Deaf Community of the United States called #captionTHIS. Its aim is to confront major media outlets about the lack of accessibility to online videos via internet captioning, and to work with them to resolve this issue. Deaf and hard-of-hearing people deserve [...]