My first name sign was given to me by a hearing person. The A handshape tapped squarely in the feminine area on my cheek. It weathered years in a mainstreamed classroom, and traveled with me to the deaf school in eighth grade. The deaf school was also my eye-opening immersion into Deaf culture and history. No longer shackled by the limitations of Signing Exact English, I was free to [...]

  In a recent article, “The Distrust Runs Deep on Both Sides?” the author asserts: It’s not like these parents find out their child is deaf, go on the internet, discover a deaf community sharply divided between the oral and ASL-using camps, panic, and somehow decide they’ll embrace the oral camp while never trusting any single living ASL-using deaf person ever again. Doesn’t such a supposition seem ridiculous to you [...]

  I am sure that most readers are well aware, that the entire “system” for educating hard of hearing and deaf children in mainstream settings is generally a mess, the kids are suffering, and no one person or entity is really in control.  Included in this “system” is the  entire state of affairs with regards to sign language interpreters in K-12 classrooms, across the United States as well as elsewhere [...]

I was born in a small town.  And I live in a small town.  Oh those small communities.* Okay, so my town may not be Mayberry; we do actually have modern conveniences like electricity and cable TV.  But how do you find the best resources when the nearest deaf “person” is your neighbor’s 15-year-old dog? For my family, living in a rural area is great—lots of grass, plenty of cows, [...]

  For the background on the story, see Michele Westfall’s recent DeafEcho.com article. The following is a recent update on the issue: HB 1367 apparently passed in the House in Indiana, and will soon make its way toward a final vote (with amendments). Below is a slightly revised version (note to the general audience: don’t post on Facebook when you’re too upset to closely scan your first draft) of the post I made [...]

Many in the signing community feel strongly that the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) philosophy of focusing on auditory and oral approaches when teaching deaf and hard of children is wrong.  The auditory and oral approaches use the weakest point of a deaf or hard of hearing individual to teach language; which is ridiculous, especially when there’s a perfectly serviceable organ ready [...]

In addition to being a first-grade teacher, I’m also the geekminister for 15 brand-new iPad 2s at P.S. 347 The ASL and English Lower School in Manhattan. This is the first in what I hope will be a regular series on how my students and I are using the iPad to learn, read, create, and watch. Last spring, as soon as my principal and I discussed the possibility of having [...]

When we first confirmed my son was deaf, I had several communication choices presented to me by his Early Intervention coordinator.  I had never heard of cued speech, and at first I was ready to dismiss it solely because it was not the dominant form of communication among Deaf people.  But when an advocate of cued speech explained to me what websites couldn’t, I was convinced, and we proceeded with [...]

The National Association of the Deaf had recently joined an action against AGB by a group called “Audism Free America,” composed mostly of Deaf people fighting against perceived audism—situations (created or natural) where Deaf people experience discrimination. During this action – which was mostly people and children holding signs, peacefully – one person defaced a sign on the building, crossing out Deaf and hard of, leaving the words hearing. The [...]

There is a silent battle going on as I write this letter; a battle over a peoples’ voice, their right to be heard, and the ownership of their language, which may soon be wrested away from them. Most of the world does not think about sign language as a method of regular communication, much less place it on par with spoken and written language. But as research has shown time [...]