Deaf Scientists Probe Hearing Loss Treatments

Deaf News: Team of Deaf scientists probe hearing loss treatments in Oregon.



PORTLAND, OR -- WISN Milwaukee: When Peter Steyger learned to speak, he had to wear hearing aids. At 14 months, he was struck with meningitis. The powerful antibiotic that saved his life largely stripped him of hearing.



His mother, determined to keep him in the hearing community, worked with him an hour a day for four years as part of an intensive regime of speech therapy. Sometimes it took him 10 minutes to learn a single word. He didn't start to catch up to his peers until eight years later.



But today at 54, Steyger is a prominent auditory neuroscientist. At Oregon Health & Science University, he's part of a team of researchers who are studying the auditory system in hopes of helping others who can't hear.



The 10 faculty members in OHSU's Oregon Hearing Research Center are considered trailblazers among their peers.



"I look at their program as a very unique one in the world because of the breadth and the depth of their auditory science and the high quality of the science that's done there," said Jennifer Stone, an auditory neuroscientist at the University of Washington in Seattle.



The center also stands out in another way: It has five professors with hearing loss. Few other auditory research departments have even one scientist with a hearing disability. None has as many as OHSU, experts say.



Their varied biomedical backgrounds allow them to study every aspect of the auditory system, and their personal experiences inform their research.



"They've all got pretty high profiles and are covering lots of different bases," said Jonathan Ashmore, a leading auditory neuroscientist based at University College London in Britain.



Their work has helped make the center, dating to 1967, one of the biggest nationwide. About a dozen other universities have hearing research centers with at least three faculty members. Only about five have 10 or more. OHSU's department of otolaryngology - an ear, nose and throat specialty - is No. 2 in funding from the National Institutes of Health, at $10 million a year, right behind Johns Hopkins University.



For the scientists, it's not been easy. Their hearing loss has complicated their lives. They struggled to follow their teachers and professors, keep up in graduate school and complete their post-doctoral training. They had difficulty taking notes. They suffered from a sense of isolation and found it tough to make friends.



But they found a home at the Oregon Hearing Research Center. They're not alone in their disability, and they have a personal motivation to succeed. Though their research might not cure their own hearing loss, they hope to help the hearing of future generations... Read The Full Story - WISN Milwaukee.

Why Deaf Americans Fear President Trump

Deaf News: VICE share an article by Deaf novelist Sara Nović explains why thousands of the Deaf community fears US President Donald J. Trump.



WASHINGTON -- VICE: "'All men are created equal.' Well, it's not true." That's President-elect Donald Trump, a clip unearthed for a PBS documentary that shone a light on, among other things, Trump's apparent belief that some people are born smart, born to be successful, born with what he has called "the winning gene."



"The [Trump] family subscribes to a racehorse theory of human development," Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio told the team behind the Frontline documentary The Choice. "They believe that there are superior people, and that if you put together the genes of a superior woman and a superior man, you get a superior offspring."



This belief, that certain genes make better people, is an echo of eugenics, a racist, pseudoscientific philosophy that aims to "improve" the human race by breeding out supposedly bad characteristics. When it became popular in the late 19th century, eugenics became the driving force behind a number of atrocities against many minority groups, including the Deaf community. The Nazis were the most infamous eugenicists, but there were many other believers. Alexander Graham Bell used eugenics to propose a ban on sign language and deaf intramarriage in his 1884 paper, Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race." Deaf people were institutionalized and some forcibly sterilized for years afterward; Deaf education was upended and students' hands were literally tied down to prevent them from signing. Bell's ideas about the superiority of oralism over bilingual schooling remain embedded in our education and legislative systems, despite having been scientifically debunked.



Today, many groups are worried about how a Trump presidency will affect them. But though the Deaf and Disabled communities were not the focus of much campaign rhetoric, it seems clear that Trump has contempt for people like me. Trump has publicly mocked a journalist with a joint condition, reportedly called Deaf actress and Celebrity Apprentice contestant Marlee Matlin "retarded," and perpetuated the false notion that vaccines cause autism. There have been multiple lawsuits against his properties for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Writing for the LA Times in October, disability advocate David Perry called Trump the "most ableist presidential nominee in modern American political history."



Policy-wise, the future for deaf people is as murky as it is for everyone else, as Trump constantly introduces and walks back proposals varying in levels of moral reprehensibility, legality, and feasibility. According to his most recent statements, his plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and "re-establish high-risk pools" (as his website puts it) would result in loss of healthcare coverage for many Deaf and Disabled people whose conditions can be classified as preexisting. Deaf and Disabled people who depend on Medicaid for insurance or medical devices not covered by traditional health insurance are also fearful, as Trump's rollback of ACA's Medicaid expansion could affect the approximately 7 million people who have gained coverage under it.



Deaf and disabled people have also voiced concern about a potentially weaker ADA under Trump. The ADA is enforced by the Department of Justice's civil rights division, and given Trump's properties' alleged ADA violations and the traditional conservative stance against government spending and oversight, cuts seem likely, leaving us at the whim of private companies' bottom lines.



The ADA bars employers from discriminatory hiring practices and protects our rights to "reasonable accommodations" like closed captions and sign language interpreters at work and school. For the wider disability community, the ADA ensures things like wheelchair ramps, elevators, and handicapped parking and bathrooms. An ADA weakened by lack of oversight and money could well mean continued police brutality against people with disabilities. In the case of Deaf people specifically, law enforcement already has troubling record of arresting and detaining people without providing interpreters, or even a pen and paper, to explain the reason for arrest or Mirandize them. Unarmed Deaf people, whom police misinterpret to be aggressive or using gang signs, have been killed with impunity—Daniel Harris, Edward P. Miller, and John T. Williams are among the more famous cases.



Questions of discrimination and accessibility if the ADA becomes less of priority in a Trump DOJ also extend to the education sector. Schools for the Deaf, branches of their state public school systems, are likely to be endangered by budget cuts and funding shifts from the public sector to charter and voucher systems, which Trump endorses. Deaf schools are often among the first to be cut from struggling districts, with Deaf students instead sent to mainstream schools where they are unable to communicate directly with their teachers and peers. Further, Deaf schools traditionally serve as hubs for Deaf culture, providing independent living and job training for post-grads, offering (often free) American Sign Language (ASL) classes to interested locals, leading research in linguistics and special education, and hosting social and cultural events—all resources left defunct upon the closure of a Deaf school.



And where fears of budget cuts and eugenics intersect, some worry about the threat of mandatory cochlear implantation, via which Deaf students could theoretically be integrated into hearing schools at a lower cost. Though it sounds extreme, it's not any larger a violation of one's individual medical choices than Trump and Pence's assault on women's reproductive rights. (The idea that the decision not to implant one's child is evidence of neglect has already surfaced in family court, though so far the argument hasn't been successful.)



Finally, as hate speech against racial and religious minorities spikes across the country, Deaf and disabled people have also experienced post-election hate speech in the name of the president-elect. In one example, Lena Van Manen, a CODA (child of Deaf adults who is a native sign language user) and a coordinator at the Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education in Indiana, wrote on Facebook about being confronted while facetiming with a Deaf friend in Starbucks. Used to people staring while she signed, she ignored the glare from a man across the store until he got in her face and screamed, "This is white America now. Take your retarded self and go somewhere else."



We can't know for sure what Trump will do, but if he does what he says he wants to do, it will hurt us. His words already have.



SOURCE



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Don't Erase School For Deaf History In NL

Deaf News: Don't erase school for Deaf history: former administrator.



ST. JOHN'S, NL -- The Telegram: John Reade points through windows of the former School for the Deaf and rhymes off classrooms and labs and how they were designed with no obstructions to students' ability to follow instruction.



John Reade recalls the home economics teacher who designed her own classroom and others who contributed ideas that made it easier for the students of the specialized facility.



His voice fills with pride as he recalls the Queen Elizabeth II's visit in the 1990s.



He remembers how he and other staff would visit the site in the mid-1980s when it was under construction and look over the foundation footings, imagining what would be a state of the art facility.



Before moving to Topsail Road, the school was located in an old military building by the airport and the windows would shake when planes took off and landed, wreaking havoc on those students who had hearing aids, he said.



Though many people in St. John's refer to it as the old School for the Deaf, there are no visible markings of that history and Reade said they disappeared two years ago.



The facility has had many uses since the school closed several years ago.



One wing now houses the school lunch program and it's filled in as temporary location for students from schools under construction.



The inquiry into the Donald Dunphy shooting is the latest tenant.



Reade, a former administrator who started teaching at the School for the Deaf in 1975, was leading a charge to have plaques returned to the school façade - one marked its opening and another a visit by Prince Edward.



While those plaques were removed, there remains on the grounds a memorial to the old sanatorium that once occupied the site.



Reade said he and a group of alumni want to see the plaques put back where they were on the brick façade, but even a marking beside the sanatorium plaque "would be something."



After The Telegram looked into the controversy, inquiring with the province and the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District about the issue, the board said late Friday it intends to have the two plaques reinstated next week.



Reade has been cataloging artifacts from the school - including a Steve Jobs-autographed early Apple that he said was bound for the trash when the Department of Education shuttered the school. He wants The Rooms to collect the artifacts.



He said it was only this summer during a come home year, that students realized the plaques had been removed from the school.



So Reade wrote to both Education Minister Dale Kirby and the English School District last month. He has no qualms with it being reused for other things, but lamented removal of its legacy.



"That building has a very important history," said Reade.



Prior to 1964 all children who were classified as Deaf were sent to first Montreal and later to Halifax for their education, Reade noted in his letter to officials.



In 1964, the Smallwood government decided to open a school for Deaf children in Pleasantville and the next year the school was moved to the U.S. barracks built in 1940 at the Torbay airport, Reade said.



In 1987, the students and staff moved into the modern Topsail Road building, but it was closed in 2010 with the province siting a lack of student enrolment.



"This building was much more than a school for four generations of Deaf Newfoundlanders. For some, it was a place of refuge from being bullied as being 'different,'" Reade said. "Through the (school's) home parent program, parents were taught how to communicate with their children and provide them with a basic language of everyday items that hearing children learn incidentally.



"(It) became a home away from home, an educational oasis, a place of acceptance, a recreation center, and most importantly, the introduction to Deaf Culture."



When the building was still known as the School for the Deaf, the Deaf community took pride in visiting and reminiscing about their time there and activities such as theatre productions by and for the Deaf or sports, he said.



"Now that the plaques were removed that dedicated the school by Premier (Brian) Peckford and commemorating the visit by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex the Deaf community, as a whole, feels as if they have been kicked in the stomach - again," Reade said.



SOURCE



Related Posts: #Deaf Canadians

Deaf Woman Loses Legal Battle To Be Juror

VIDEO [CC] - Deaf News: Deaf woman loses High Court bid to serve on jury in Australia, claims “a smack in the face” for the Deaf community.



BRISBANE, AU -- The Independent: The High Court in Australia has ruled to deny a woman the chance to become the country’s first Deaf jury member, a decision she later described as “a smack in the face” for the Deaf community.



In 2012, a registrar told Gaye Lyons from Queensland she should be excused from jury duty as a sign language interpreter could not be sworn into the conference room, according to state law.



The 69-year-old can lip read but needs an interpreter to communicate, and decided to take her case against the Queensland government to the High Court.

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The court decided to uphold state law and said the presence of an interpreter in a deliberation room would cause “an incurable irregularity” which could affect the outcome of a case, resulting in the dismissal of Ms Lyons’ appeal.



Queensland attorney general Yvette D’Ath said the confidentiality of jury deliberations and the right to a fair trial were “among the most fundamental tenets of Australia’s justice system”, according to AP Australia.



"We're the same as everybody else, we're human, we have kids, we go to work, we drive cars, we pay mortgages - I was just fuming because I could not have equal access to this," Ms Lyons told reporters outside court.



"Why should the powers that be decide what's right for me, why should they decide what I can and can't do? It just made me livid, I was seething about the whole thing.”



Ms Lyons has repeatedly cited her detailed interest in the law and said jury duty was “something I really wanted to take part in”.



"After five years of struggle, just fighting for access for the Australian Deaf community, it felt like a slap in the face.”



"For them [the High Court] to say that interpreters could not relay information accurately, that was the living end, that was the last straw for me. Deaf people should not be treated differently. The High Court does not see that,” she added.



In 2011, a Deaf woman served on an inquest jury in the United Kingdom after several legal challenges found Deaf people can fully comprehend courtroom discourse and jury deliberations through interpreters.



Exemptions for Deaf people carrying out jury service in criminal trials were removed in Ireland and the UK after legal challenges during the 2000s. In the United States, they have been serving on juries since 1979.



New Zealand is another country where sign language interpreters are employed by courts to help Deaf jurors contribute to trials.



SOURCE

IDHHC Poor Service To Deaf Illinoisans: Critics

Deaf News: Agency accused of poor leadership, service to Deaf Illinoisans.

SPRINGFIELD, IL -- The State Journal-Register: A tiny state agency says in a brochure that it exists to “decrease barriers” for Illinoisans with hearing loss.



But according to critics, the Springfield-based Illinois Deaf and Hard of Hearing Commission is squandering its $800,000 to $850,000 in annual state funding through inept leadership and weak oversight.



“They are incompetent,” said Corey Axelrod, president of the Illinois Association of the Deaf, referring to commission director John Miller and assistant director Janet Lambert.



“They really shouldn’t be leading this particular agency,” said Axelrod, speaking on behalf of the 500-member, all-volunteer association.



Added Alan Thomas, Deaf services coordinator at the PACE Center for Independent Living in Urbana: “I don’t think they have enough expertise to run that agency. When I contact them for information, they don’t have much to share.”



Money that is going unused by the commission should be devoted to hiring more staff, Axelrod said, while Miller and Lambert should be replaced.



"They are underqualified and overpaid," Axelrod said.



Critics of the commission launched an online petition this summer that has been signed by 235 people and calls for the commission to “commit itself to make actual systematic changes and ensure that the state of Illinois, non-Deaf individuals and service providers, not only hear, but also listen to the needs of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community the IDHHC is supposed to serve.”



Axelrod, 30, an Arlington Heights resident who works for a nonprofit group in the Chicago area, said he and others leveling criticism are "baffled" by the responses they have received from Miller and others at the commission the past several years... Read More at The State Journal-Register.



UPDATE: Deaf commission forming task force to address some complaints - Facing criticism from a statewide advocacy group for people with hearing loss, the Illinois Deaf and Hard of Hearing Commission voted Wednesday to form a task force to improve the quality of sign-language interpreters.



The commission, meeting at the Illinois State Library in Springfield, also decided to hold a “retreat” for commissioners the morning of their Nov. 10 meeting and use both public events to address concerns raised by the Illinois Association of the Deaf... Read More at The State Journal-Register.

Theater Cancels Until Deaf Actor Found For Role

Deaf News: Troupe seeks to collaborate with the Iowa Deaf community to create authentic portrayals.



CEDAR RAPIDS, IA -- The Gazette: The Deaf Community has spoken, and Theatre Cedar Rapids has listened.



The community theater is postponing its production of “Tribes,” after two weeks of rehearsals and protests over casting hearing actors in the roles of two Deaf characters.



In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Leslie Charipar, the theater’s artistic director said: “In light of conversation among and feedback from the Deaf community and after a great deal of conversation and soul-searching with TCR staff, Tribes director David Schneider, and the cast of Tribes, TCR has decided to postpone our production of Tribes until we can gain the support of the Deaf community and collaborate with them in finding Deaf actors to play the Deaf roles as well as ensure that we are portraying the Deaf experience in an authentic and respectful way.”



New production dates haven’t been chosen yet.



“It might be possible that it’s next year,” said Casey Prince, TCR’s executive director. “What we’re most excited about is quickly getting people plugged into the production.”



TCR will contact ticketholders; information also is posted on the theater’s website.



Those options could include workshops to promote education and understanding between the Hearing and Deaf communities, from sign language and culture to theater studies.



“This postponement is our sincere and earnest way to meet our mission of serving the entire community and specifically to do right by the Deaf community as we share their stories in an authentic and collaborative way,” Charipar said.



The message spread on social media as swiftly as the protests posted the past two weeks.



“WOW! Thank you, TCR for listening to the Deaf community,” wrote Carly Armour of Iowa City, who helped initiate the early discussions on Facebook and spoke passionately - using American Sign Language and her voice - during a public forum Tuesday afternoon in Cedar Rapids. “This decision will not only bridge the gap between the theater and Deaf communities but also create a STRONG partnership for years to come. Thank you to our community - Deaf and Hearing allies - for coming together to make this change!”



“We will work together to help and heal,” wrote Robert Vizzini of Cedar Rapids, chairman of the Cedar Rapids Association of the Deaf, reiterating what he said at the forum.



Prince, who attended that event, made good on his promise to take their comments back to his team, continuing a discussion already underway at the theater.



“We’ll regroup,” he said, “(and) get feedback from those who want to participate going forward.”



The cast’s reaction was “very emotional,” he said. “They were very invested in the piece for their own personal reasons. The story, the material really resonated with them. In light of the public nature of this conversation that’s been playing out, they connected with each other over a short two weeks in a way that some casts never do over multiple months. I’m certainly sad for those who are sad, but I’m very happy that they found each other and grew through the material with the limited time that they did.”



“I hope this proves to you that we were listening and silently observing,” cast member Mindy Oberreuter said via Facebook, where much of the controversy played out. “I truly hope both sides can move forward in collaboration. The very heart of theater is telling a story, and we want to tell it honestly and correctly. We all love theater that is why we are a part of this group. ... I wish you all could have seen our rehearsal on Monday night. I don’t know if the universe was telling us something, but it was beautiful. We rehearsed the second act and if you are familiar with the show’s end, you know how emotional and raw it is. It ends with love and tears and hugs.”



SOURCE

Deaf Reacts To CHS' Announcement On New CEO

VIDEO: Signed - Deaf Canadians reaction to the Canadian Hearing Society's announcement on Julia Dumanian as new president and CEO.



TORONTO - The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Julia Dumanian has been appointed President and CEO, effective July 6, 2015.



"We are very excited about having Julia join us. She is a visionary leader with a track record of success in change management and innovation. We had a very complex and thorough search. She was clearly the right choice for CHS as we celebrate our 75th anniversary," says CHS Board Chair Timothy Andradé.

For more than 20 years, Ms. Dumanian has been a leader and accomplished executive in the field of healthcare. Serving in the public, non-profit and private sectors, she has held CEO and senior executive roles in many Canadian organizations, most recently as President of Canadian Lab Solutions, President/CEO of Cambridge Memorial Hospital, and Provincial Supervisor and CEO of CCACs in Hamilton and Niagara. Ms. Dumanian has also been a United Way CEO...Read more



OAD's take on CHS' Announcement on new CEO - The Ontario Association of the Deaf was founded in 1886 by Samuel Thomas Greene and William Nurse, both teachers at the school. Members have since worked to improve the lives of Deaf Canadians and that's still needed.

Prof. Donald Bisson - See the "alleged fraud" with this CEO's past: http://m.therecord.com/news-story/expenses-of-cambridge-memorial-s-former-president-revealed



Speaks Up, Speaks Out! Canadian Hearing Society Needs Change Now!

Read more - An Open Letter For Canadian Hearing Society



About the Canadian Hearing Society - The Canadian Hearing Society has proudly served Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities for 75 years. CHS was incorporated in 1940 and in 2015 is celebrating 75 years of providing services, products and information to people who are culturally Deaf, oral deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing and educating the hearing public. CHS is governed by a board of directors, the majority of whom are Deaf or hard of hearing. CHS is a charitable organization funded by government, grants, membership and generous donors. For more information or to find your regional office, visit www.chs.ca

Boycott Wells Fargo Ad 'Learning Sign Language'

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Franklin Graham calls for Christian boycott of Wells Fargo for featuing lesbian moms, who learns American Sign Language their advertiser.



CHARLOTTE - The Rev. Franklin Graham is changing which bank his organizations will use because he objects to a lesbian couple and their Deaf daughter who appears in a Wells Fargo ad.



Graham is calling on Christians to boycott corporations that promote homosexuality, and says he will do his part by moving all of his ministries' money out of Wells Fargo.



Graham says he is not targeting companies that hire or serve gay and lesbian customers because that's a part of doing business. But he said he wants Christians to stop giving their money to businesses that use their advertising dollars to promote homosexuality. Graham is the CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse.

He says one way Christians can speak out is by not doing business with those who he says promote sin and stand against God's laws.



A spokesperson for Wells Fargo says the bank has proudly supported the LGBT community for a long time and the advertisement reflects the company's values.



The Charlotte Observer reports that accounts for Graham’s ministries could total in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Graham says he plans to publicize a list of companies that feature same-sex couples in their advertising.



A spokesman for North Carolina-based BB&T, a statewide LGBT rights group based in Raleigh said Graham is on the losing side of moral history. Source



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