Deaf News: Thembelihle Quze, who is Deaf and works at the coffee cafe, was robbed at knifepoint and stabbed.
CAPE TOWN -- Cape Argus: A Deaf man from Gugulethu who survived a near-death experience when he was stabbed twice in the chest and arm during an armed robbery said he fears for his life. Thembelihle Quze, 23, who recently re-integrated in society when he started working at a coffee shop in Claremont, said Saturday’s attack had made him vulnerable again. He was stabbed while walking home after visiting a friend near his home in Gugulethu NY111.
“Two men came walking towards me, I saw them talking but was not able to hear what they were saying. The one guy came up to me and demanded money. I tried to tell them I didn’t have any, but they weren’t even paying attention to me as I signed. The one guy pocketed me and then stabbed me.”
The two men fled the scene and Quze was helped by neighbours who had seen him. “I could not scream for help. I feel they targeted me because I am deaf; right now I am too scared to leave the house, I have no one to chat to,” Quze said, speaking through a sign language interpreter. For the past seven months, Quze had been working at I Love Coffee in Claremont as a barista. At the coffee shop, which comprise mostly Deaf employees, he acquired social and life skills training which is said to have helped him interact with others.
Quze had started gym training and was also teaching clients sign language. A part of his job also included travelling to Joburg which his father, Mbuyiselo Mbali, said encouraged Quze to be more social. “He refuses to leave the house and we, too, fear for his life. In this area, Deaf people are targets. My son right now is in pain, the stitches in his chest are bleeding. This is not right,” said Mbali. He said the incident changed his son. Coffee shop owner, Gary Hopkins said the sweat classes at the gym had helped Quze defend himself during the robbery.
He said the coffee shop, which employs mostly Deaf youth as part of its social enterprise work, hired Deaf people to escape violence and to boost the employment rate. Part of the work programme includes life skills training. “Most Deaf children grow up in homes where they are overprotected. They become easy targets because they don’t have the necessary life skills. “Thembe (his nickname), because of the gym partnership we have, has become quite an athlete. He was able to protect himself and smart enough not to carry money on him,” said Hopkins.
VIDEO [CC] - Deaf Artist and Photographer, Jennifer Tandoc of Philippines.
Jennifer Tandoc is a professional artist, photographer and very talent that strives to create art that represents the Deaf community.
Tandoc says "Over the years, My art work has drawn a lot of positive attention. One of my dream is to become famous and successful as an artist and also, I fell in love with photography the minute my Dad gave me an old Kinolta Minolta. Photography became my passion!"
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Filmed and Edited by Danielle Graybill.
The Daily Moth is a new ASL radio show, delivers news in video using ASL. The Deaf host, Alex Abenchuchan, covers trending news stories and Deaf topics. The video shows of artist and photographer Jennifer Tandoc, each piece of art takes hours and hours of work. There's something hidden in all of her designs.
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Check out and LIKE her artist page and LIKE her photography page. Jennifer Tandoc Artist and Photographer! Visit her site: http://jtandocphotography.com Related Posts:
Deaf News: Deaf people cross multiple divides at the United States border.
NOGALES, AZ -- Seated at Taco Yaqui in Nogales, Sonora last Friday, Reggie Holmes of Tucson tried to order lunch from his Spanish-speaking waiter – a familiar challenge for any non-Spanish speaking Arizonan who crosses the border.
But for Holmes, a 31-year-old associate at Goodwill, the cross-cultural interaction is even more complex. He is Deaf, and uses sign language, lip-reading and writing as his primary forms of communication. At first Holmes tried hand gestures with the waiter. But then he noticed the menu written on the wall and rushed over to it. He pointed to the “chiles verdes” tacos and held up four fingers. The waiter understood and Holmes was soon digging into his lunch.
Holmes, who regularly crosses the border for dental visits, doesn’t just navigate the English-Spanish barrier in Mexico, but also the hearing-deaf divide. Even when he meets Deaf Mexicans, he must find creative ways to communicate because he uses American Sign Language (ASL), which employs different symbols and grammar than Mexican Sign Language (LSM by its Spanish acronym).
Most people have encountered situations, while traveling or otherwise, in which they’ve had to find creative ways to communicate. But according to University of Texas linguistics professor David Quinto-Pozos, who studies bilingual language acquisition as well as interaction between ASL and LSM speakers, Deaf people like Holmes are especially skilled at communicating past language barriers, or picking up the local language in border and other multilingual areas.
After all, he said, Deaf people already navigate and communicate in a world designed for those who hear. Read The Full Story - Nogales International.
Deaf News: U.S. Justice Department concludes Philadelphia police discriminate against the Deaf or Hard of Hearing.
PHILADELPHIA, PA -- A U.S. Department of Justice review has found the Philadelphia Police Department discriminated against people who were Deaf or Hearing-Impaired. Philadelphia police handcuffed Deaf people behind their back, thus making them unable to communicate with sign language, DOJ wrote in a Dec. 7 letter to the department. Police did not inform courts that defendants appearing for a video arraignment were Deaf, so the individuals did not understand what was happening, according to the review. And police failed to provide qualified sign-language translators or other services to defendants, victims, and witnesses, according to the review.
DOJ said it was seeking to remedy the problems cooperatively through a consent decree with the department. "In the event that we are unable to reach such a resolution, the Attorney General may initiate a lawsuit pursuant to the [Americans with Disabilities Act]," the letter states. The Police Department issued a statement Friday evening saying it would work with DOJ to fix any problems.
"While the finding and conclusion regarding the complaint are sobering, we appreciate the DOJ's work and their input regarding the matter," the Police Department said. "We are using this as an opportunity to address a legitimate concern and make necessary improvements. The department's goal is to move beyond remedial measures with a commitment to making this department a model for others in adhering to the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act." The Police Department said it would collaborate with the city's Office of the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and with the Mayor's Commission on People with Disabilities. The Justice Department review was prompted by a complaint from a man who had been arrested, and that led to four other people who alleged discrimination by police.
According to the original complaint:
In 2013, a 23-year-old man who was Deaf was arrested in court after he threw a bracelet hitting two people during a sentencing hearing for his brother. He was handcuffed behind his back, making him unable to use sign language. While in police custody, a radio room staffer was identified as having some sign language ability, but the man could not understand what was being communicated. The man asked for a qualified interpreter, but police ended their attempt to communicate and placed him in detention for 16 hours. During his video arraignment the next morning, the judge was not told he was Deaf and the video was not captioned. Two months later, police arrested him mistakenly for failing to appear in court. His hearing had actually been scheduled for a later date. He was again handcuffed behind his back, but after his mother intervened, the officers cuffed him in the front. When he explained the hearing had been rescheduled, the officers asked for documentation but would not allow him to search for it. After he was detained and released, he asked for a telecommunication system for the deaf, but the one police provided him did not work.
VIDEO [CC] - Republican Donald J. Trump has been elected president of the United States of America, Deaf feminists and queers stunned.
WASHINGTON -- CNN: Donald Trump will become the 45th president of the United States, CNN projects, a historic victory for outsiders that represents a stunning repudiation of Washington's political establishment. The billionaire real estate magnate and former reality star needed an almost perfect run through the swing states -- and he got it, winning Ohio, North Carolina and Florida.
The Republican swept to victory over Hillary Clinton in the ultimate triumph for a campaign that repeatedly shattered the conventions of politics to pull off a remarkable upset. Clinton conceded to Trump in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
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Speaking at a victory party in New York, Trump was gracious toward Clinton and called for unity.
"We owe (Clinton) a very major debt of gratitude to her for her service to our country," Trump said. "I say it is time for us to come together as one united people."
He added: "I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans."
Trump won with 288 electoral votes compared to 215 for Clinton, according to CNN projections. Latest election results.
Trump's supporters embraced his plainspoken style, assault on political correctness and vow to crush what he portrayed in the final days of his campaign as a corrupt, globalized elite -- epitomized by the Clintons -- that he claimed conspired to keep hard-working Americans down.
His winning coalition of largely white, working-class voters suggests a populace desperate for change and disillusioned with an entire generation of political leaders and the economic and political system itself.
Now, Trump faces the task of uniting a nation traumatized by the ugliest campaign in modern history and ripped apart by political divides exacerbated by his own explosive rhetoric -- often along the most tender national fault lines such as race and gender.
Trump is sure to follow his own playbook -- Trump will be the first president to enter the White House with no political, diplomatic or military executive experience. His victory will send shockwaves around the world, given his sparse foreign policy knowledge, haziness over nuclear doctrine, vow to curtail Muslim immigration and disdain for US alliances that have been the bedrock of the post-World War II foreign policy.
His promises to renegotiate or dump trade deals such as NAFTA and to brand China a currency manipulator risk triggering immediate economic shocks around the globe.
Global markets already began tumbling late Tuesday.
Trump, 70, will be the oldest president ever sworn in for a first term and will take the helm of a nation left deeply divided by his scorched-earth campaign. His victory was built on fierce anger at the Washington establishment and political elites among his grass-roots voters, many of whom feel they are the victims of a globalized economy that has resulted in the loss of millions of jobs.
His victory ends Clinton's crusade to become the first woman to ever rise to the nation's highest office. It's a humiliating chapter in the long political career of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Trump's win also deals a painful rebuke to President Barack Obama, whom he pursued for years with his birtherism campaign built on the false premise that Obama was born outside the United States. Now Trump will have the power to eviscerate Obama's political legacy -- including the Affordable Care Act, the latter's proudest domestic achievement.
But there are deeper, more fundamental questions about Trump's presidency that will be key to his capacity to unify a deeply divided country and appeal to Americans who will feel outraged and disgusted by his victory.
He's got the attention of the whole world -- Trump's campaign was built on rage, falsehoods and singling out culprits for the ills of modern America, including undocumented migrants, foreign nations such as China and Muslim immigrants.
He mocked a disabled New York Times reporter, vowed to use the power of the presidency to put Clinton in jail and pledged to sue women who accused him of sexual assault.
Trump has promised to build a wall on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it, and to deport undocumented migrants. He has vowed to reintroduce interrogation methods for terror suspects that are more extreme than waterboarding.
So the demeanor that Trump will adopt as president and the manner in which he will behave will be closely watched -- not just in the United States, but among nervous leaders abroad.
One of the many uncertainties about Trump's coming presidency is how his White House will interact with Republicans in Congress - and whether he and GOP leaders will heal their rift from the campaign.
Republicans repelled a Democratic bid to recapture the Senate, giving the GOP control over Capitol Hill and the White House.
That means it would fall to the GOP either to rubber stamp policies likely to mark a break from conservative orthodoxy or to provide a check on the power of Trump, who has shown every sign he will use executive power aggressively.
House Speaker Paul Ryan will face intense pressure from pro-Trump members of his own coalition to cooperate with the new president.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to hold Trump's feet to the fire to ensure he lives up to his promise to appoint justices who could ensure a generational conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Clinton apparently failed to reassemble the diverse coalition that helped Obama win the presidency in 2008 and 2012.
The events of Clinton's terrible final week on the campaign -- the revival of her email controversy by FBI Chief James Comey and a damaging drip, drip, drip of revelations by WikiLeaks which her campaign says was orchestrated by Russian intelligence -- could have helped consign her to defeat.
There also is the question of Trump's temperament. Clinton repeatedly warned that he was unfit to control the nuclear codes because he could be baited with a tweet.
Obama passionately denounced Trump as intellectually and temperamentally unfit to succeed him in the Oval Office.
But now, he will be forced to greet his successor on the morning of Inauguration Day in January, and look on while he is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.
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Deaf News: Profoundly Deaf people and Hearing Impaired persons are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired.
New Vision share an article by Cecilia Okoth: "We are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired, potential employers consider our disability over our qualifications and ability to deliver on jobs." The Deaf are concerned that the job market is not fair to them a move they say has worsened their predicament.
"We are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired. Potential employers consider our disability over our qualifications and ability to deliver on jobs," Ambrose Murangira, Uganda National Association of the Deaf (UNAD) executive director, said.
According to Murangira, the lack of a policy by public service ministry to promote employment for marginalized groups makes it worse for people living with disabilities (PWDs) to get and retain any form of employment.
"We have been relegated to working in Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs) and in the informal sector because the chances of getting employed in the public service and mainstream organisations are very limited," he added.
Murangira, also a Deaf and Disability scholar was speaking at a press briefing that was attended by 20 representatives of Deaf graduates sponsored by UNAD at National Theatre early this week.
"This is double jeopardy for us because to study and graduate as a Deaf person means overcoming great odds only to be shunned by the job market," said Rogers Kadoma, one of the graduates.
According to the 2014 census, there are 1.083,456 Deaf persons in the country. However scanty information shows that around 1% are in formal employment.
Doreen Sandra Kauma the gender and vulnerable groups' coordinator at UNAD said without affirmative action, more employers will not feel a sense of obligation to employ the deaf and PWDs as a whole.
A recent Disability Rights Coalition report suggests that employees with disabilities should at all times not be less than 5% for private employers and 10% for the public service.
However the labour market in Uganda presents multiple hurdles for the deaf and PWDs to overcome if they are to be absorbed in the job market. These range from physical access, access to information about vacancies, and self-confidence of PWDs to seek out opportunities because of the unique challenges and what society perceives them as... Read More at New Vision.
Deaf News: A six-year-old schoolboy facing deportation has begged to stay in the United Kingdom because he is on the ISIS hit list for being Deaf.
LONDON, UK -- The Sun - Lawand Hamadamin fled Iraq with his parents and brother last year after learning that the sick terrorist organisation had ordered the killing of disabled kids by lethal injection.
There were also rumours Al-Qaeda and Islamic State were recruiting young people with disabilities to become suicide bombers.
Mum Golbahar Hussein, 33, and dad Rebwar Golbahayh, 35, set off on a treacherous journey across Europe with Lawand, who was born profoundly Deaf and unable to communicate, and his nine-year-old brother Rawa.
In order to protect Lawand's cochlear implant during his perilous trip across the water, his parents put a plastic bag on his head.
They then spent a year living in a French refugee camp before they came to Britain and settled in Derby.
Lawand got a place at the Royal School for the Deaf in the city, where he has learned to communicate via British Sign Language.
His parents thanked the school for "saving their son's life" and he has continued to thrive with his teachers saying he is making "extraordinary progress."
But this week, his shocked parents were told the devastating news by the Home Office that they are now likely to be deported to Germany and warned they'll be given a week to leave on January 9.
Staff at the non-maintained residential special school say they are heartbroken at the prospect of Lawand leaving.
They are now working with solicitors supported by charity DeafKidz International in a bid to reverse the decision by the Home Office.
Head teacher Helen Shepherd said: "Lawand's family are understandably devastated that they are being deported, especially since he has made such extraordinary progress in the few months he has been with us.
"When Lawand arrived at the school in September, he had no means of communicating with anyone - even his own family.
"In the very short time he has been with us, Lawand has made exceptional progress.
"He is signing incredibly well and we have been so proud of him - he has made good friends, has grown in confidence and exceeded all our expectations.
"It is inconceivable that he should be removed from the school when he has only just begun.
"Lawand's cochlear implant processor has broken and so he has no functioning hearing aid yet.
"He has an appointment this week so that he can get a referral to the Nottingham Cochlear Implant Centre.
"There is little chance that he will get that appointment before the New Year, by which time he could have gone."
Deaf News: Deaf and dying: How a volunteer team brings palliative care comfort through communication in the capital of Canada.
OTTAWA -- Ottawa Citizen: The first experience Monica Elaine Campbell had with palliative care was helping a woman who had lost her ability to speak because of throat cancer.
Campbell, profoundly Deaf since birth, is an excellent lip reader and staff at an Ottawa Hospital asked if she could interpret the dying woman’s words. The woman had been communicating with paper and pen, but now was too weak even to do that.
“I was very hesitant. Then I thought, well, the least I could do is give it a try,” said Campbell, who is able to speak despite never having heard a word herself. “I put my hand on her right arm and said, ‘I’ve never done this before. I will try my best.”
WATCH: Video with CC - Ottawa Citizen.
Campbell leaned close as the woman mouthed her words. Campbell repeated it back and had the woman nod yes if she had understood correctly. She spent five hours with the woman, relaying messages between her and her family and the medical team. She was able to interpret about 85 per cent of what the woman told her.
“I came away a different person,” Campbell said. “I was very touched by the experience.”
The dying woman had not been Deaf, but the experience got Campbell thinking about the communication needs of people like herself: the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. A few years later, Campbell was asked to help a Deaf friend who was about to receive bad news about her cancer diagnosis.
“I didn’t know much about palliative care, but she was struggling with her terminal illness,” Campbell said. “I thought, my goodness, what if that was me? I thought, I should talk to my Deaf friends about death and dying and what our experiences have been.”
Those conversations led Campbell and her friend, sign language interpreter Christine Wilson, to start up the Ottawa Deaf Palliative Care Team, a group of volunteers that provide end-of-life care for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and their families. In 1999, she enrolled in palliative care courses at Algonquin College with two Deaf colleagues (the Deaf use a capital D to refer to the sub-culture of people who communicate with sign language; “Hard of Hearing” are those who have lost some or most of the hearing but can still use some speech, sometimes augmented with sign language; the “Deafened” or “Oral Deaf” have lost some or all of their hearing, but either learned to speak before their deafness or, like Campbell, learned to speak despite it.) Read More at Ottawa Citizen.
VIDEO [CC] - Deaf Parents learn they will be grandparents for the first time goes viral on the Internet.
A Deaf couple in Michigan receive gift bags from their daughter and her husband in Florida containing a framed ultrasound of their first baby that is on the way. While connected over FaceTime, their heartwarming reactions are captured on camera. What a special moment!
Kimberly Lynn, sister and her husband live in Florida and their Deaf parents live in Michigan. They are expecting their first baby in June and wanted to make the moment special.
They invited them to her house for dinner, set up a face-time with Kristy and Timmy, and then gave them gift bags that contained a framed ultrasound.
Deaf News: Police: Woman found burned on Dale Street in Rochester.
ROCHESTER, NY -- Rochester Police say that a woman was found burned on Dale Street on Sunday, and the incident is being investigated as a suicide attempt.
News10NBC does not normally report on suicides, but many people in the area had questions about what happened on Sunday in broad daylight.
Officers say they were called to a home on Dale Street around, where they found a woman on fire in a field located on a empty lot of the street.
The woman, reportedly somewhere between 40 and 50 years of age, was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital, where she is in guarded condition.
Tony Alonzo Thompson- a neighbor of the woman- was among those who found her. He was walking around the neighborhood when he found her, and immediately called 911.
"I'm trying to tell her, 'ma'am, it's gonna be alright.' I'm telling her it's gonna be alright. It's going to be alright.... but I'm crying because I knew her."
"She's looking right at," he said, "She's Deaf... and she pointed. She's naked, her pants are down to her ankles... and she was smoking."
Holly Mortensen, who lives across from the field where the woman was found, is still in shock over what happened.
"That's a little too close to home, that's my first reaction."
Mortensen was awakened by the police and firefighters that had arrived in the neighborhood, and when she looked outside, she saw one of her neighbors on fire.
"She wasn't moving, she was just laying there at the middle of the field," she recalls, "The EMTs put a respirator on her, or a resuscitator on her."
Fire and police have confirmed the event is now being investigated as a suicide attempt and that there is no danger to the public. Because of the sensitivity of the situation, News10NBC will not be releasing the name of the woman.
Deaf News: Deaf and dying: How a volunteer team brings palliative care comfort through communication in the capital of Canada.
OTTAWA -- Ottawa Citizen: The first experience Monica Elaine Campbell had with palliative care was helping a woman who had lost her ability to speak because of throat cancer.
Campbell, profoundly Deaf since birth, is an excellent lip reader and staff at an Ottawa Hospital asked if she could interpret the dying woman’s words. The woman had been communicating with paper and pen, but now was too weak even to do that.
“I was very hesitant. Then I thought, well, the least I could do is give it a try,” said Campbell, who is able to speak despite never having heard a word herself. “I put my hand on her right arm and said, ‘I’ve never done this before. I will try my best.”
WATCH: Video with CC - Ottawa Citizen.
Campbell leaned close as the woman mouthed her words. Campbell repeated it back and had the woman nod yes if she had understood correctly. She spent five hours with the woman, relaying messages between her and her family and the medical team. She was able to interpret about 85 per cent of what the woman told her.
“I came away a different person,” Campbell said. “I was very touched by the experience.”
The dying woman had not been Deaf, but the experience got Campbell thinking about the communication needs of people like herself: the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. A few years later, Campbell was asked to help a Deaf friend who was about to receive bad news about her cancer diagnosis.
“I didn’t know much about palliative care, but she was struggling with her terminal illness,” Campbell said. “I thought, my goodness, what if that was me? I thought, I should talk to my Deaf friends about death and dying and what our experiences have been.”
Those conversations led Campbell and her friend, sign language interpreter Christine Wilson, to start up the Ottawa Deaf Palliative Care Team, a group of volunteers that provide end-of-life care for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and their families. In 1999, she enrolled in palliative care courses at Algonquin College with two Deaf colleagues (the Deaf use a capital D to refer to the sub-culture of people who communicate with sign language; “Hard of Hearing” are those who have lost some or most of the hearing but can still use some speech, sometimes augmented with sign language; the “Deafened” or “Oral Deaf” have lost some or all of their hearing, but either learned to speak before their deafness or, like Campbell, learned to speak despite it.) Read More at Ottawa Citizen.
Deaf News: 'Deaf' fashion show gets resounding round of applause.
CAPE TOWN -- Africa News Agency: Hands shot up and voices shouted as people vied for outfits at the Solidarity through Fashion auction in Newlands, Cape Town on Saturday night.
The models were Deaf and wore Binca Smith’s Zonya D collection, which was a delightful expression of summery colours and playfulness with contemporary lines and African prints. The collection included bridal gowns.
Newly crowned Mr South Africa Habib Noorbhai was a guest.
The MC, DeafSA Western Cape provincial director Jabaar Mohamed, kept the audience entertained with witty comments that were interpreted for members of the audience who did not understand South African sign language (SASL).
After two musicians played Mohamed quipped, “I’m Deaf but I can feel the vibrations.”
“I am proud to be Deaf,” he went on, explaining that he did not ascribe to the “shame factor” that some people had towards people with disabilities, as a disability did not define one’s ability.
Prizes were announced during the lucky draw and two winners received free SASL lessons with DeafSA, while one won a two-day stay at a Radisson Blu Hotel.
The concept for the fashion show came about after a few ideas were thrown about and Smith was willing to explore the concept and work with the deaf community.
Mohamed, who started up the Silent Walk in 2012 to create more awareness about deafness, said he was passionate about the Deaf community and advancing its rights.
“There are a lot of challenges in the community” and the fashion show “was a way to create awareness and an opportunity to give back to the community and raise funds for the community”.
Mohamed told Africa News Agency (ANA), “I’ve seen a lot of hearing people do fashion shows and I have seen them run the Mr, Miss, and Mrs Deaf competitions. I felt there should be a fashion show that wasn’t a competition and continued to uplift and empower all Deaf participants afterwards, and that it should be something fun.
“There needs to be more awareness about deafness and I want to see all government departments and the private sector become more involved in deaf awareness and see that they can make a difference through the Solidarity through Fashion platform.”
It was very important to raise Deaf Awareness through such platforms as “you don’t know who is deaf or who is hearing as the audience is mixed”, he said.
Noorbhai, who can sign, told ANA that “It is fantastic you can do solidarity shows like this. It is needed across many disability spheres to raise awareness and educate people about the cause. With the Deaf community, society needs to realise that the Deaf can do anything but nothing, which means we need to trust their ability.”
Smith told ANA that at the start of the project, which took two months to come to fruition, she was nervous. “I had never worked with the Deaf community.
“It was a very humbling experience as it made me realise how lucky I am to be able to hear.”
She said she enjoyed working with the Deaf models, “they walked perfectly even though they didn’t hear the music”.
“The show was very creative and beautiful,” said Kathija Khan, a Deaf project manager who attended. “Fashion is a big world and it is good to get deaf people involved and include them in this world as it opens doors for them. Deaf people can do anything and they are perfectly capable of doing something when they are given the platform.”
Deaf News: Two pedophile Roman Catholic priests arrested for allegedly abusing Deaf children in Argentina.
MENDOZA -- Two Roman Catholic priests have been arrested on suspicion of sexually and physically abusing at least eight children at a school for youths with hearing disabilities.
The priests are Nicolas Corradi, 82, and Horacio Corbacho, 55.
Three other men who worked at the school in northeastern Argentina were also arrested this week. The suspects have not yet commented publicly about the allegations.
The government of Mendoza province has suspended classes at the Antonio Provolo Institute, the school for children with hearing impairment.
It has also banned faculty and staff from having any contact with students.
The Mendoza archbishop's office expressed solidarity with the victims and said it is cooperating with authorities.
The abuse allegations surfaced after a complaint by provincial lawmaker Daniela Garcia, who spoke to a witness through an interpreter.
"It was the first way so that other witnesses and victims could then come forward and denounce what was happening," Garcia said.
Authorities are taking testimony from students as well as parents who suspect their children were subjected by the accused to oral sex, fondling and sexual intercourse over the past decade, Fabricio Sidoti, the investigating prosecutor told local radio.
VIDEO [CC] - Deaf News: Robert Panara, became the first National Institute for the Deaf faculty member to be featured on a United States postage stamp.
ROCHESTER, NY -- Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Robert Panara, who was the first Deaf faculty member at Rochester Institute of Technology's National Institute for the Deaf, knew no limits for what a Deaf person could accomplish.
As a tribute to his achievements, Panara will be honored on a new U.S. postage stamp showing him signing the word "respect."
Panara, who died in 2014 at age 94, joined the NTID faculty in 1967 and for two decades was an inspirational and innovative educator, as he had been previously at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.
"During his 40-year teaching career, Panara inspired generations of students with his powerful use of American Sign Language," said the Postal Service, in its announcement Tuesday that the new stamp featuring Panara will be part of the Distinguished Americans series.
The stamp was designed by Ethel Kessler, art director for the Postal Service, and based on an image taken by RIT/NTID photographer Mark Benjamin.
Panara's son, John, who is an English instructor at NTID, sent an email to the NTID community Tuesday saying that the "picture on the stamp is one that you certainly are familiar with, for it has been seen often around campus the last few years, in offices and on hallway walls."
Benjamin's photograph of his father signing the word "respect," John Panara added, is a "theme that will 'ring out loud and free' (to borrow a line from my dad's famous poem) every time the stamp is placed on an envelope!"
John Panara said that when he received an email a year ago telling him that the Postal Service's Stamp Advisory Committee had recommended the issuance of a stamp of his father, he read the email over and over again to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
Harry Lang, a professor emeritus at NTID and author of Teaching from the Heart and Soul: The Robert F. Panara Story, posted on Facebook: "What a nice Thanksgiving present! Bob is certainly looking down with his famous smile right now."
Lang, who was an adviser to the Postal Service on the stamp, noted in the foreword to his biography that the senior Panara was a poet, author, lecturer and theater aficionado.
Panara, Lang wrote, was largely self-educated at a time accommodations were not available for Deaf children.
"He was also among the first wave of Deaf scholars in the twentieth century, and a pioneer in the field of Deaf Studies," Lang noted.
Panara's poem "On His Deafness," written in 1946, has been reprinted many times and won first prize in the World of Poetry contest in 1988. Lang, in his biography of Panara, said the poem is about "how Deaf people can 'hear' with an 'inner ear' of imagination." ... Read The Full Story - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
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.
VIDEO [CC] - Deaf News: Deaf mum hearing her family speak for the first time goes viral on social media, will bring you tears of joy.
MANCHESTER, UK -- The Channel 4 documentary has single handedly restored our faith in humanity, after the TV show introduced us to single mum Rebecca, her sister Amy and her three-year-old son.
9 years ago Rebecca had an unexplained loos of hearing in her right ear. Then, as if that wasn't enough, 16 weeks ago she tragically went deaf in her left ear too.
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"I've had to learn new ways of trying to communicate with him" explains a defiant Rebecca, as she bravely battles her condition, to give her son the best possible life.
However, with the help of audiologist Hugh Cooper, everything is about to change for the better.
When the mother of one visited Manchester Royal Infirmary with her sister Amy as part of Breaking the Silence Live, we see her hear again for the first time since she lost her hearing, thanks to the help of a cochlear implant.
The show has clearly struck a cord with viewers who have taken to Twitter to discuss the importance of communicating with Deaf people so that they don't feel alienated.
People take being able to hear for granted, have the upmost respect for my deaf family and all they've achieved #breakingthesilence.
VIDEO: New York Times - Lee Duck-hee, 18, of South Korea, is ranked 143rd in the world in a sport in which hearing the ball is considered crucial.
ASAN, South Korea -- To improve its chances in the boys’ team tennis event at the National Sports Festival here, Mapo High School in Seoul brought in a ringer from Jecheon, two hours southeast of the capital. His name was Lee Duck-hee, and he had first caught the coach’s eye when he was in elementary school.
Mapo High’s players pressed against the fence beside along the dusty hardcourts and chanted in support while Lee, 18, crushed forehand winners past his bespectacled opponent in the final. The 6-1, 6-1 win took little time - no surprise, as Lee is the best teenage player in South Korea, and a professional ranked 143rd in the world.
“Seeing the level of skill, power and returning is totally different than high school level,” said Jeong Yeong-sok, his doubles partner at the tournament.
Lee is exceptional among professionals, too. He is Deaf, and no Deaf player in the sport’s history has reached these heights. In tennis, simply seeing the ball is believed to be insufficient. Hearing the ball, top players say, enables faster reactions - a crucial advantage in a sport where powerful serves and groundstrokes mean that every tiny fraction of a second matters.
Wimbledon's Rob Walker takes a look at Duck Hee Lee. Video Credit: Wimbledon
“There are so many different spins in tennis, and I can hear a lot of them coming off someone’s racket because I know what they all sound like,” said Katie Mancebo, a college tennis coach and volunteer coach for the United States Deaf tennis team. “But a Deaf player doesn’t know that sound, so they have to focus more on what the other person is doing, how they’re making contact, and what the ball looks like as it’s coming over the net.”
Joo Hyun-sang, the tennis coach at Mapo High School, said he was skeptical of Lee’s potential at first.
“When I met him the first time, I had certain doubts that being deaf would prevent him from being a great player,” he said. “But I grew confident from watching him develop and improve. I was very confident he could do it.”
Though already the second-highest-ranked player of professionals 18 and under, Lee has not fully broken through. He has yet to play a main-draw match at an ATP tournament or a Grand Slam, though he reached the final of a Challenger event, the level below the ATP World Tour, for the first time in September in Taiwan, and has made two semifinals since... Read The Full Story - New York Times.
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.
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.
Deaf News: California Deaf man beaten, tasered and choked by police for not understanding commands awarded $55,000 settlement.
LOS ANGELES, CA -- PINAC News: After mistaking a Deaf man for a thief, beating him, tasering him and choking him because he was unable to understand their commands, the Hawthorne Police Department in southwest Los Angeles has settled a lawsuit for $55,000. The settlement was approved by the City Council on Tuesday in California.
The Deaf man identified as Jonathan Meister and co-plaintiff Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness Inc. will receive the settlement on the basis of civil rights violations under the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
Meister was at a friends house in February 2013 gathering items from his vehicle when a neighbor called police thinking he was a car thief, according to NBC Los Angeles.
Although there were four officers that responded to the call, Officers Jeffrey Salmon and Jeffrey Tysl were identified as the aggressors.
Once on scene, they yelled out to Meister and he in return motioned that he was Deaf.
The officers motioned for Meister to come towards them, which he did, but then they grabbed his wrists and placed his hands behind his back – a very uncomfortable position for Meister given the fact that he is Deaf and uses his hands to speak.
The lawsuit, which can be read here, describes how officers Salmon and Tysl got close to Meister and roughed him up. Amidst the miscommunication, Meister ran away from the officers who gave chase, only to catch him, fight with him more and taser him.
The officers pushed Meister up against the wall. Officer Salmon put Meister in a choke hold and subsequently kneed him twice in the abdomen.
Officer Tysl then punched Meister in the face repeatedly.
That was when Salmon shot Meister with a Taser X-26 which brought Meister careening to the ground. Officers kicked and elbowed Meister repeatedly while another officer shocked him a second time with the taser.
After a second choke hold and third Taser shock, Meister lost consciousness.
According to the suit, the officers, “shot taser darts into Mr. Meister, administered a number of painful electric shocks, struck him with fists and feet, and forcibly took him to the ground.”
“They ended up grabbing his arms and turning him around, and if you do that to a deaf person, it’s like gagging them. It would be like if I put my hand over your mouth if you try to tell me something,” says Meister’s lawyer John Burton.
Meister was arrested, taken to the hospital, and then into custody at the county jail, but officials dropped the charges at the jail due to the circumstances.
The suit claims Meister suffered, “extreme physical pain and suffering, humiliation, hardship, anxiety, and indignity, and severe mental and emotional anguish pain.”
Meister is a graduate of the University of Ohio and holds a Masters degree in Architecture. In a recollection of events, Meister’s wrote:
“I didn’t mean to resist — it’s ultimately my responsibility. But, with claustrophobia, logic gets pushed down a bit! I did not mean to resist, only to put space between myself and the officers so I could communicate.”
Just a few months ago in Charlotte, NC a Deaf man was shot and killed by a state highway patrol officer. The man lead officers on a brief high speed chase. When the chase came to an end, the Deaf man exited his vehicle charging at the officer on foot who in return fatally shot the man after repeated verbal commands to stop.
The North Carolina Highway Patrol officer has not yet been charged with a crime because the investigation is still pending.
VIDEO [CC] - Deaf News: Deaf Man receives $250K settlement after being jailed with no access to interpreter in Virginia.
ARLINGTON, VA -- NBC4 Washington: A Deaf man will receive a $250,000 settlement from the Arlington County Sheriff's Office after it failed to provide a sign language interpreter for him while he was jailed, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Friday.
The man, Abreham Zemedagegehu, has said he spent part of his six-week stay at the Arlington County Detention Facility in 2014 unaware of the charges against him. The Justice Department launched an investigation into Zemedagegehu's claim last year.
NBC News covered a story about Abreham Zemedagegehu and his experience in jail without an interpreter.
"I felt like I was losing my mind," Zemedagegehu said through an interpreter in an interview at his lawyer's office. "I thought Virginia would give me an interpreter and they said no. That's why I felt lost."
Zemedagegehu also said the jail failed provide a communications device to help him communicate with his lawyer and performed medical procedures on him without explaining them or getting his consent.
A native of Ethiopia, he can communicate in American Sign Language but is largely unable to communicate in written English.
Zemedagegehu sued the sheriff's office in federal court, saying his treatment failed to meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Among the concerns raised in his lawsuit was the jail's reliance on teletypewriter devices to allow Deaf inmates to communicate with people outside the jail. The sheriff's office has defended its use of the TTY machine, but Zemedagegehu's lawsuit said the device is useless for someone who can't read English and obsolete because videophones are now used predominantly in the Deaf community.
Zemedagegehu's ordeal began Feb. 2, 2014, when he was arrested after being accused of stealing another man's iPad. He said he pleaded guilty to the charge because a plea bargain offered him a sentence of time served. Later, though, the man who accused him of the theft said he'd found the device and rescinded his accusation.
Under the settlement, the sheriff's office will pay $250,000 to Zemedagegehu, and must take steps to comply with the ADA. This includes appointing an ADA coordinator, providing ADA training to its staff, and ensuring that auxiliary aids and services are provided. The Justice Department said the sheriff's office has taken several steps to improve its ADA compliance even before finalizing the settlement agreement.
"People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing must be able to communicate clearly with law enforcement officials," said Tracy Doherty-McCormick, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, in a statement Friday. "Through this settlement agreement, the Arlington County Sheriff has taken important steps to ensure that the operations of the Arlington County Detention Facility are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act."
The blog coverage on Marlee Matlin's ‘Retarded’ and Deaf American's ‘White America’ is misleading and possibly rigged.
Share from Facebook: Let this be clear. This isn’t a pro-Democrat or Republican blog, no taken sides in the presidential race, just expressing the opinions.
Here's the blog coverage on Marlee Matlin's ‘Retarded’ and a Deaf American's ‘White America’ There's something fishy going on, is it a rigged or not, you decide.
Donald Trump repeatedly called Marlee Matlin's "retarded"
Three NBC staffers on the reality TV show, who requested anonymity due to non-disclosure agreements, told the Daily Beast that Trump often treated Matlin with disrespect and called her “retarded,” both behind her back and in front of her, as seen on Marlee Matlin Slams Donald Trump ‘Retarded’.
Thousand of Deaf American voters, mostly Republican supporters does not believe three NBC staffers' claimed, because, there was no proven or evidence that a Republican presidential candidate Trump repeatedly called her “retarded”.
Rigged is a conspiracy theory that circulated alleging Donald Trump repeatedly called Marlee Matlin's “retarded” before the Presidential Election 2016, apparently, Matlin appeared on the Celebrity Apprentice and the second place on season 11 in 2011, it was 5 years ago, when the Presidential Election is near an end and three staffers of the NBC of Democratic Party too soon announced in 2016 five years later regarding Trump's comment's “retarded”, which three NBC staffers were in fear the Republican Donald Trump would be president, and they set up an accused of discrimination as bait Deaf Americans to vote for Hillary Clinton, that figures, unfortunately, it was not work that way. There seems to be something fishy going on with the NBC of Democratic Party. 'Rigged'?
#2: Something fishy going on about the image of Deaf American man claims.
“This is white America now.” Deaf American man abused in cafe.
Deaf American man has written about the abuse he faced in a cafe just hours after Donald Trump’s victory in the Presidential election.
Deaf American man nor woman is a Democrat supporter, who's possibly make it up the story to the Deaf community. Some of voters find quite bizarre strange about this image.
First of all: Ironically about this texts image and it seems not make sense, because, the media claimed "Deaf American Man" has written which Lena is a female given name, not a male given name. However, Lena Van Manen is a child of Deaf parents (CODA) and has native signing skills. She is a freelance interpreter with a NIC Master certification from RID, which must be her associate has written on her Facebook, it's not clarify enough as misleading.
Nyle DiMarco reposted and share, to protect the user (Lena Van Manen)
Second: Many Deafies puzzles this texts image, how the hell he has been communicate with a racial slurs hearing person which he could not understand what a guy was saying and screaming from two inches of nose to nose? Lena was with her associate the whole time at Starbucks in early morning? There was no proven or evidence. There seems to be something fishy going on. 'Rigged'?
Hillary Clinton's campaign were disappointment from the Republican swept to victory over Hillary in the ultimate triumph for a campaign that repeatedly shattered the conventions of politics a remarkable upset, that's mainly reasons. They are probably pissed off because, they got their asses whipped by Republicans. What a butthurt for Democrat supporters these today in America.
