Today, cochlear implantation is considered one of the most effective methods of rehabilitation of deaf children. Cochlear implantation is a surgical operation, a type of hearing replacement. But, unlike a conventional hearing aid, which only amplifies sounds, a cochlear implant allows completely deaf people to hear and understand speech. It replaces damaged auditory receptors and…
The Costs Incurred: Hearing Non-Signers and Signed Language Interpreters
Deaf people and signed language interpreters live in an uneasy co-existence. We need access to the hearing world; interpreters need to work for their livelihood. The irony of entering a dependent relationship in order to obtain enough information to be autonomous as a professional has always rankled, but that is the state of play*. A…
Dr. Rashid’s Response to the Wall Street Journal article on Signed Language Interpreting
This originally appeared as a Facebook entry on behalf of Dr. Khadijat Rashid who does not use Facebook and has just recently learned of the article published in the Wall Street Journal. I have received permission from Dr. Rashid to post this on Deaf Echo. It was she and one of her economics majors from…
Jeffco Schools clears way for deaf school to buy land
The Rocky Mountain Deaf School saga continues! Deaf Echo writer Tara Schupner-Congdon reports on new updates in denverpost.com!
The Mad Lib legacy
In October, the world lost the humorist Larry Sloan, best known for creating Mad Libs. In this popular kids’ game, one volunteer asks the players to fill in the parts of speech in a story. Only the volunteer doing the asking knows the story, and the players’ random nouns and adjectives make for some ridiculous…
So Expressive!
Lydia Callis, signed language interpreter for New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg, is getting a lot of attention these days for her interpreting during Hurricane Sandy. She’s been spoofed on Chelsea Handler’s show, she has Tumblrs dedicated to her, and she’s even been named Hot Slut of the Day by Dlisted. Why all the attention? Is it because she’s an attractive woman doing…
Caption Success Story with Game Show
Recently, many people in the signing community have pushed hard for more captioning on internet video — from Netflix to YouTube, Amazon to Hulu; and I want to share with you a success story! When a friend tipped me off to a Kickstarter campaign for a web series of shows about a fantastical arcade where…
Hearingsplaining
Mansplaining has now become mainstream – that phenomenon of an arrogant man explaining what he thinks he knows about a subject to a woman who knows more than he does about the subject. Or as writer Rebecca Solnit notes, the “intersection between overconfidence and cluelessness where some portion of (the male) gender gets stuck.” I’ve experienced my share of…
Exploring Hearing Privilege
In her 2008 Masters thesis, Tiffany Tuccoli states: “…hearing privileges are advantages or entitlements that are enjoyed by people who can hear which are denied to those who are Deaf. These advantages give hearing people power and authority to decide how society should be designed (p. 23).” In exploring this further we have drafted an introduction…
Finding My Name Sign
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.…