Deafx

Marlee Matlin had an idea for a reality show that she hoped would bring some insight into the lives and struggles of deaf people and how they cope. But while reality TV has brought us wife swappers, party girls, aging rock stars and dieting divas, apparently no one was ready for something that real. So instead, the hearing-impaired actress who won an Academy Award as lead actress for her role in "Children of a Lesser God," took her show "My Deaf Family" to Google's YouTube. You can watch it here. "Deaf and hard of hearing people make up one of the largest minority groups," she said in an interview through her interpreter, Jack Jason, "and yet there has never been a show, a reality documentary series that features what life is like for them." Matlin financed the show, which tells the story of a family in Fremont, Calif. All the family members are deaf, except for the oldest son, Jared, and the youngest, Elijah. It is narrated by Jared. Matlin shopped her pilot to network executives, wh ...

While the state is focusing on repairing its damaged mental health system, the deaf who need those services have been totally shut out of getting any help, according to a federal lawsuit. The suit was brought by 25-year-old Gwinnett County woman and a 22-year-old Harris County man, but they ask the court to allow 350 other deaf people with mental be included in the complaint as a “class.” The federal lawsuit says the state has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution because there is no system for matching those with mental disabilities with providers who are fluent in American Sign Language. “How would you ever be able to be able to diagnose someone if you couldn’t communicate with them?” attorney Lee Parks said to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s a good example of a hole in the public health matrix that is heart rending." Tom Wilson, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Develop ...

For more than a century, the name Clarke School for the Deaf was instantly recognizable to nearly everyone in the deaf community throughout the country. Now they will have to get used to another name. The landmark school atop Roundhill Road, along with its four satellite campuses, will henceforth be collectively known as the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech. The change was approved by the Board of Trustees late last year and is now being implemented, according to Clarke President William J. Corwin. He said the wording better reflects the school’s mission. “We had done a lot of research with constituent groups and one of the strongest messages was the idea of our school helping children learn to listen and talk,” Corwin said. There has long been a divide in the deaf community between those who advocate maximizing what auditory ability the hearing-impaired have and those who favor the use of sign language. Clarke has emphasized the former and does not teach sign language. Cor ...

Louisiana will receive $1.4M on Tuesday. It's a portion of $160M in federal stimulus funding being distributed to several states. The Pelican State's share is headed to the Deaf Action Center of Louisiana. The Shreveport center will use the money to purchase more than 80 Video Remote Interpreters (VRI). VRIs allows interpreting to take place from another location. David Hylan is the center's director. He says VRIs will be beneficial in places like banks and medical facilities. "That deaf person can walk into that bank and talk to a bank official that has VRI and be able to instantaneously speak with that bank officer," says Hylan. "So no pre-arranging, no waiting." The Deaf Action Center of Louisiana says the hearing impaired can pay $55/hour for an interpreter, which are usually needed for at least four hours. With VRI the hearing impaired will pay about $2.50/minute for the service. The average time needed is about ten minutes. http://arklatexhomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=10052 ...

Gesticulating wildly and never losing sight of each other or the ball, the footballers dashed across the field attempting to land the last goal and equalise the score. The final score was 5-4 and as the two teams shook hands and cheered each other there was little to distinguish the victors from the losing team - except that all the opposition players were deaf. The so-called Deaf Kavallieri team was closely edged out by a selection from third division Swieqi United and officials. The deaf team was established around two years ago, but last Thursday's game was only the third match they had played this year and the first time they had played against an established football club, as they struggle to find opponents willing to give them a game. It all started when the Sports Council contacted the Deaf Association to see if they would be interested in forming a team, as part of its efforts to make sports more inclusive. They are sponsored by Nivea, which is responsible for their navy blue ...

A central Kentucky museum of deaf history is being reviewed with the aim of putting together a long-term plan to display the trove of items in its collection. The Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that Jacobs Hall Museum on the campus of the Kentucky School for the Deaf has received a grant from a national preservation organization to conduct the work. The grant, from the Conservation Assessment Program administered by national nonprofit group Heritage Preservation, will provide funding for two museum experts to complete a study of Jacobs Hall and offer their suggestions about how to proceed. Kentucky School for the Deaf teacher and grant liaison, JoAnn Hamm, said a museum collections specialist and architectural specialist will be in town the week of April 12 to conduct their assessment. Once they are done, Hamm said, they'll develop short, mid-range and long-term preservation plans. The specialists will assess and offer guidance during an exit meeting before offering a detailed re ...

Rome has seen a lot of things come and go between 1875 and 2010 - but one thing that has stood strong all those years is the New York State School for the Deaf. This week the school celebrates its 135th anniversary and on Thursday, the campus celebrated with a play demonstrating the evolution of deaf education. School Superintendent Carriann Ray said that while the school has been a mainstay in Rome, it hasn't been without it's own share of changes. "I think it's looking at a total education for deaf students, as their needs are very different," Ray said. "Each student may be hard of hearing...deaf. Some students may have hearing aids, some have cochlear implants. So, deaf education has had to change to meet the many needs that students have." Deaf students signed, sang and even played instruments Thursday in front of a crowd that included Rome Mayor James Brown. The celebration began earlier in the week with a Historical Celebration on Monday, a picture, art, and poetry celebration o ...

The sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church came to the Pope’s doorstep last night as a group of victims appeared on Italian television to claim that two dozen priests had for decades abused children at a school for the deaf in Verona. Three former pupils of the Antonio Provolo school who spoke on RAI, the state broadcaster, confirmed allegations made in a signed statement last year by 67 ex-pupils who described a regime of sexual abuse, paedophilia and corporal punishment from the 1950s to the 1980s. They said that 24 priests and lay brothers from the Company of Mary order were involved. The three said that the priests had “fondled and masturbated” them as well as sodomising them in dormitories, bathrooms and the priests’ quarters. Among the accused is Monsignor Giuseppe Carraro, Bishop of Verona from 1958-78, who died in 1981 and whom the local diocese has sought to have beatified, a crucial step on the road to sainthood. Gianni Bisoli, 62, one of the victims, told vi ...

Teamwork and education are a couple of the benefits two local students received while taking part in Academic Bowl 2010 in Oklahoma. Dan-O Laurion and Kelly Lanning are seniors at the Washington State School for the Deaf in Vancouver. Kelly lives in Longview, recently moving from Tacoma. Dan-O is a lifelong Kelso resident. The Academic Bowl is sponsored each year by Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The school was founded in 1864 by an act of Congress, with its charter signed by Abraham Lincoln. The university's programs and services are specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hearing-impaired students. The Academic Bowl includes a series of quiz tournaments in which teams of high school students compete against each other in local, regional and national events, answering questions on a variety of subjects. Although the four-member team from the Vancouver school didn't advance onto the national finals held in the nation's capitol, Dan-O and Kelly said they didn't mind. "W ...

Like many pageant contestants, Andrea Vigil has spent countless hours developing her talent, trying to find the perfect song to accompany her hip-hop routine. But unlike other beauty queens, Vigil cannot hear the music she will dance to. Vigil is Miss Deaf Utah, serving as a role model and spokeswoman for the deaf community in Utah. Now Vigil is preparing for the Miss Deaf America pageant this summer. The 22-year-old from Taylorsville had to overcome more than hearing loss to accomplish her goal. Born prematurely and weighing just over two pounds, Vigil had to endure years of braces on her arms and legs to correct defects. A tumor behind her left eye as a toddler left her blind on that side. Despite her physical challenges, Vigil has always kept a hopeful attitude and, after studying at the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind, graduated from Skyline High School. She now works for Sorenson Communications, teaching hard-of-hearing customers to use video-relay services. Vigil also works t ...