Deaf News Today

ADA clarifications

2013-05-19T11:49:00.003-07:00

The EEOC is updating its guidance for understanding how ADA law applies to four types of medical conditions: cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, and intellectual disabilities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had a Q and A guide posted about cancer here , diabetes here, epilepsy here, and intellectual disabilities here. These guides are designed to help employers understand how to address these conditions.

Rochester School sets Record

2013-05-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

A record number of students graduated from the NTID this year. The National Technical Institute for the Deaf gave out diplomas this weekend: 121 associate degrees, 27 master’s degrees in secondary education, 54 bachelor degrees in interpreting, and 212 bachelor or higher degrees in other colleges of RIT. Stephen Aldersley, NTID’s vice president for Academic Affairs, told students to "become a success and to receive an award, you must be smart, determined, creative, motivated and hungry. And you need to do these things every day, all throughout the quarter. I’m confident you will carry these characteristics with you throughout the world after you graduate.” The National Technical Institute for the Deaf is part of New York's Rochester Institute of Technology. You'll find a list of awards given to graduating students here.

The Secret is in the hands

2013-05-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

To best understand someone, don't look at their face, look at their hands. That's the finding of Stanford University researchers. Here's why: Michael Slepian and his team showed videos to volunteers from the World Series of Poker. Some videos showed player's faces, other clips showed their hands. Some clips showed chest, arms and head. The volunteers weren't very good at figuring out the quality of the player's hands when watching just the player's face. Their guesses improved when the player's could be seen from the waist up. But the best guesses came when the volunteers could see only the person's hands. Slepian speculates that people break their rhythm in body movements when anxious. While the researchers didn't look into how this might play out with sign language, their findings may suggest that signers could be more likely to spot anxiety and thus deception on the part of other people because of the awareness sign language users have of a speaker's hands and arms. Details of the Stanford study are in the journal Psychological Science.

Proposed Ohio law on hearing aids

2013-05-17T15:52:00.001-07:00

Ohio lawmakers heard testimony on a bill that would stop the sale of hearing aids online in the state unless the user first sees an audiologist. The bill is considered an effort at consumer protection by supporters. Republican Rex Damschroder of Fremont is sponsor of House Bill 109. The Ohio House Health and Aging Committee is hearing from medical professionals and consumers. Read more about the bill here.

Hoops Camp

2013-05-17T04:30:00.000-07:00

The 34th annual Mike Glenn basketball camp is set for June 16 to 22 in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur. His life was recently turned into a movie called Spirit of Love: The Mike Glenn Story. Players from around the country will gather for the week long event to sharpen their skills. It is a tribute to Charles Glenn, the first basketball coach at the Georgia School for the Deaf. For more information on the movie go here and for more information on the camp go here.

Deaf Mom Killed While Walking on Sidewalk

2013-05-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

An alleged drunk driver killed a deaf mother of 3 children in Montana early this morning. Roberta Demmert and her sister were walking on the sidewalk when Tom Vineyard hit them with his pickup, according to Missoula police. Vineyard's Ford Ranger truck flipped over from the impact. Police say his blood alcohol level was triple the legal limit. Roberta Demmert died at a local hospital while her sister, Pamela Demmert, is recovering from serious injuries. Demmert was only 39 years old. A judge set Vineyard's bail at $200,00. He faces more than 30 years behind bars if convicted and will appear in court again at the end of the month. You can see the court documents here.

NFL players at Deaf School

2013-05-16T15:13:00.001-07:00

Green Bay Packers players stop at Wisconsin School for the Deaf as part of the team's eighth annual Tailgate Tour. Find out what they told students here.

Program for deaf and hard-of-hearing may not have 3rd season

2013-05-16T10:26:00.003-07:00

Find out why a half-hour weekly TV show may not survive in this article from the Austin Chronicle.

Report on Fire that Killed Gally prof

2013-05-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Fire investigators have completed their report on a fire that claimed the life of a Gallaudet professor and her daughter in Falls Church, Virginia. County fire officials say the January fire was definitely an accident and it was started by a wall mounted natural gas heater in the living room. Read more about the accident and Laura Gardner here.

Business Success in China

2013-05-16T09:52:00.002-07:00

A deaf couple from a town in East China run a successful business selling hand and footprint molds. Read the story here.

Visitors from the Philippines

2013-05-15T17:24:00.001-07:00

Deaf leaders from the Philippines visited the Rochester School for the Deaf Monday. WHEC-TV has a video report below (captions included).

Using Baseball to Raise Money for Implants

2013-05-15T10:02:00.002-07:00

A deaf Maryland man's fund-raising effort has made its way to Detroit. We told you about Jacob Landis's adventure back in April here. Landis is biking to every Major League Baseball park in the country. WJBK-TV sat down and spoke with him in the video posted below. No captioning but you can read the story here.

Fox 2 News Headlines

Free Films in Seattle

2013-05-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

Two films will be shown Saturday afternoon (May 18) at the University of Washington in Kane Hall. The Deaf Spotlight & Seattle Disability Justice Collective is providing an interpreted group discussion. The documentary Audism Unvieled will be shown first. The film includes interviews with various deaf people about audism and the treatment of deaf people. The second, and shorter film, is The End. With a running time of less than 30 minutes, the film written and directed by Ted Evans follows four Deaf children over a span of 60 years.

Texas Boy loses service dog

2013-05-15T08:17:00.002-07:00

A San Antonio deaf boy is looking for his missing service dog. WOAI-TV has a video report posted below on DeafNewsToday.com. No captioning, but you can read the story here.

Husband Shoots Wife

2013-05-15T08:09:00.002-07:00

An elderly man is in jail for shooting his deaf wife. WTVR-TV reports on the Spotsylvania, Virginia crime in a video report below. No captions but you can read the story here.

DeafNation in Puerto Rico

2013-05-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

DeafNation Expo hits San Juan (May 18). Join the trade show for exhibitions and entertainment at no charge. You'll find it at the Puerto Rico Convention Center. Find out more here.

Deaf athletes find success on the football field

2013-05-13T07:45:00.003-07:00

San Diego's KSWB-TV reports on two deaf flag football teams in the same a hearing league.

/>

Man Hit by Airplane

2013-05-13T06:37:00.001-07:00

A Texas man was killed in Northern California by the propeller of a crop duster as it was landing last Thursday. Willie Valdez Suarez is deaf and could not hear the small plane approaching the Biggs, California, runway, just north of Sacramento. Suarez was working on the private landing strip as part of a construction crew hired to repair it. The pilot circled the runway before making an approach but Suarez didn't see the plane coming and no one warned him. The FAA is investigating.

Deaf people's linguistic culture is being allowed to disintegrate

2013-05-13T06:21:00.001-07:00

The opportunity to train BSL interpreters is being taken away "and it's an outrageous loss – in terms of deaf people being denied communication, and in terms of hearing people shutting ourselves off from the world of the deaf.." The Guardian takes a look at why that's happening here.

Deaf EMT excels with ambulance company

2013-05-13T04:30:00.000-07:00

“His patients love him, our staff loves him, and he actually does a wonderful job in back of the ambulance, better than some of my hearing staff." Find out more about Chad Grabousky here.

Hurwitz honored

2013-05-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Dr. T. Alan Hurwitz picked up a Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at Fresno State University Friday. The president of Gallaudet University. Because he couldn't attend the school's commencement, a special ceremony was held to bestow the honor on him at the College of Health and Human Services Honors Convocation. Fresno State President John Welty praised Hurwitz as a well-known role model in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.

Oral history and hearing loss

2013-05-10T09:31:00.004-07:00

Oral histories can be made more accessible to those with hearing loss through a series of simple steps, according to an essay written by Michigan State University professor Brad Rakerd. One is to "make a video of an interviewee available for viewing in synchrony with the audio so that a listener can have access to lip reading cues. Another example is to allow the pace of an oral history presentation to be adjustable so that it can match the information processing preference of an individual listener." Read an interview with Rakerd at the Oxford University Press blog here or you can see Rakerd's entire essay can be read in the most recent issue of The Oral History Review here.

St. Paul Settlement Approved

2013-05-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

St. Paul's city council has officially approved a settlement with deaf activist Douglas Bahl. The Minnesota city will pay $93,450 and the St. Paul police has agreed to make "significant changes" in how it communicates with deaf citizens. One change is agreeing to provide a sign language interpreter when one is requested and officers will get special training for communicating with the deaf when no interpreter is present. Read more about what brought about the lawsuit in the first place in our post from last week (May 6) here.

Deaf Players in the NFL

2013-05-10T04:30:00.000-07:00

There have been only two professional football players who were deaf that played in the National Football League:

▪ Defensive linemen Bonnie Sloan who played for the Cardinals during the 1973 season
▪ Kenny Walker who played for the Broncos in 1991-92.

There could be a third name soon added to this list after the Seattle Seahawks added UCLA Bruins Star Derrick Coleman to the roster last month.

Goalkeeper Heading In Right Direction

2013-05-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Find out what a deaf goalkeeper studying at the University of Bedfordshire in the UK plans to do when she finishes her degree. Read the story here.