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“Do profoundly deaf people who learn to talk have a voice in their head?”
– Heather & Allen Exby

“My best answer to this,” Hauser wrote, “is that the brain has a special capacity to develop phonological representations, even when it does not have auditory input. The representations might be dramatically different from what hearing individuals hear. Nevertheless, they function in the mind as ’sounds.’” Deaf schizophrenics, he continued, have auditory hallucinations, and blind schizophrenics have visual ones.

This is a good link. I think thoughts are just what they are, thoughts. They don’t really exist physically but from our minds and apparently, 99% of them express theirs phonologically while we express with our hands visually in Sign.

Ben Bahan. One of the greatest ASL storytellers.

There are many good writers out there but one of the best writers I’ve come to know is my friend, Megan Malzkuhn. You can visit her blog at www.malzed.com/blog.

She’s trying to start a new organization body for those who are fresh out of high school and realize that life after high school isn’t exactly very pleasant or glamorous.

Join Deaf Youth USA if you’re still reading this and agreeing with what I have been saying. Deaf Youth USA (DYUSA) is a new concept, borrowed from our European friends. Last summer, I went on a backpacking trip with my sister and roommate, just three of us, for a month before joining up forces with other friends in Barcelona, Spain. Our destination: the World Congress of World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) in Madrid, Spain. Why? My sister was selected as a representative for National Association of the Deaf (NAD), acting as a delegate and spokesperson for USA in a huge international conference. Soon enough, my sister was voted in as the secretary for the youth board of WFD. Her mad English skillz helped. Anyway, once I was there, I met plenty of young people like me, whether they spoke/wrote in a different language, we could understand each other pretty well. With liberal amounts of sangria, beer, firewater, and campy atmosphere, I found myself analzying what was really wrong with America. We have it all, the laws and rights that allow us to get school, jobs, and live normally as we could. But, one thing was missing: a collective body of young deaf adults. There used to be College NAD (CNAD) but it fell one too many times. Duh. College kids all care about their grades, partying lessons, and nearest cash machine. Organizing a strong body of young deaf adults is a bit too much for them. Instead of relying on others for manpower and motivation, we have to look inside ourselves and decide whether we are capable of greater things.

Go join the organization.

Thanks to Don who posted a link to Google’s news archive. I decided to explore a little further and saw this great chart generated by Google. So I made this chart with a bit of ASL history.

ASL history chart.

1816 - Sign language from France was brought to the United States by Thomas Gallaudet, now known as American Sign Language.
1880 - ASL was banned in the 1880 Milan Conference.
1960 - Dr. William Stokoe Jr. published Sign Language Structure, showing that ASL is a complex natural language in its own right with an independent syntax and grammar.
1988 - Deaf President Now (DPN) began protest, selecting Dr. I King Jordan as Gallaudet’s first deaf president.
2000 to now - Another protest at Gallaudet University. Deaf blogsphere emerged. Videophone is invented.

techdigest.tv

viable.net

One of the more interesting products on show at CES Unveiled this afternoon was Viable’s video phone aimed at the deaf and hard of hearing amongst us.

The newly-established company’s put a lot of time and money into developing the phone, which is completely portable and wireless. With a 10.2″ touch screen, the unit has a USB port, audio and video inputs and outputs and the usual visual and audio alerts you’d expect for high quality two-way video conferences. At 30fps, it’s not too shabby.

What’s fascinating is the phone was developed by deaf people, for deaf people. Even the man on the stand telling me about it was deaf himself, and using sign language, communicated via a translator.

True Life: I’m Deaf

Do you have severe or total deafness? Are you a deaf student, about to graduate and go out into the world on your own for the very first time? Or are you currently attending a school for the deaf but about to transition to a mainstream school? Perhaps you’re trying to find a job but experiencing difficulty because you are deaf? Are you hoping to get a cochlear implant or to be fitted for a hearing aid to significantly improve your ability to hear? Are you a member of an advocacy group, fighting to gain more rights or assistance for deaf people?

If you fit any of these descriptions, MTV and Gigantic! Productions want to hear your story.

MTV’s True Life is a long-running, award-winning documentary series where young people share their stories in their own words. We hope that, by allowing people to tell their stories and communicate directly with their peers, we can impact the way people interact and engage with the world they live in.

If you appear to be between the ages of 16-28, and would like to share your story, please email us at casting@gigantic.tv and be sure to include your name, location, phone number and a photo.
Since 2001, Gigantic! Productions, a New York City-based production company, has been producing hard-hitting, award-winning documentary programming for networks such as MTV and CMT. Please visit our website: www.gigantic.tv

That’s cool they’re looking for a deaf person to be in their documentary. I know a few who would be a good fit for this.

Deaf Porn Gives Viewers an Eye-Opener

WN: You use deaf performers to create adult entertainment for an audience that includes deaf, hard of hearing (HH) and hearing people. What is unique about the performers’ interaction that viewers won’t find in mainstream porn?

Capone: Deaf Bunny uses deaf and HH actors and actresses primarily to connect with the majority of the viewers, who are deaf and HH. ASL is the common thread of the deaf community and the social behaviors — such as eye contact, body language, facial expressions and vocals (deaf people are loud!) — are unique to our culture. You won’t find that in mainstream adult movies.

Ha, I find it very funny. The guy sure knows how to give good answers to the questions she asked.

Crowd turns out for late Obama rally

“Hope” and “Change” is how Democrat Barack Obama described his path to the White House, and he urged the estimated 1,050 people who saw him Tuesday night at Iowa School for the Deaf to join him and bring a friend to Thursday’s caucuses.

It’s important to do so, he added.

“We are in a defining moment in our history,” Obama said.

He has my vote and my endorsement. :-)

Good story.

By Christina Salerno / The Modesto Bee

Lots of people make friends with their co-workers. Few go so far as to learn a second language to communicate with them.

That’s the story of Timothy Lopez and Brandon Bearce.

The duo have been hauling away piles of discarded furniture, yard debris and other materials for three years as employees of 1-800-GOT- JUNK?, a junk removal service with a branch in Stanislaus County.

The first time they met, Bearce was “a little skeptical” about working with Lopez, his randomly assigned partner on a junk removal truck.

Lopez, 25, was born deaf and has limited speech because of his disability.

Bearce’s doubts were erased when he saw Lopez in action.

Cool! wonder how many of these that are installed in airports around the U.S. ?

Known as a child of deaf family (CODA), Jodee shared her experience as the only hearing in her family.

from Guardian Unlimited interview:

Jodee Mundy is the only person in her immediate family who can hear. Her mother and father are both deaf. Her two elder brothers, Shane and Gavin, are deaf. So too are her two sisters-in-law (one of who comes from a family with three generations of deafness) and her her two nieces and nephew (one other nephew, Oskar, can hear). Cast the net wider and Jodee’s family includes a deaf aunt, uncle, two great-great-aunts and a succession of deaf cats.

“The fact that most people think talking is the only way to communicate is so narrow-minded because hearing people are the ones who can’t communicate when they are on a bus and there is someone outside waving goodbye. They are the ones who can’t communicate under water if they are scuba diving. They are the ones that can’t communicate across the street or in a loud nightclub. It’s deaf people who can. I wish people would see the richness and the wealth of the deaf world.”

Cool. :-)

MONTVILLE, Conn.—American Sign Language is, by some estimations, the third-most spoken language in the United States. And students in Montville High School’s ASL classes have found multiple opportunities to use their skills.

The Board of Education formally approved the ASL program at Montville High in 2004. Now about 70 students take three levels of ASL there, including six students who either are deaf or hard of hearing.

The ASL 4 students also have conducted a mock trial in sign language, learned holiday-related signs and studied the signs of other countries. Last year, Bell said, students created an “ideal room” for someone who is deaf.

The cultural aspects of the deaf community extend beyond theater or art. People who are deaf or hard of hearing, for example, have more in-depth conversations about each other when meeting for the first time, Perkins said.

“You could walk away from the person knowing their history without knowing their first name,” Perkins said.

But the deaf culture has no food specific to it. So when the world language department had its ethnic food night, Bell said, the ASL students found themselves in a bind for a cultural dish.

But they found a way to take part in the event.

“We made finger foods,” Bell said.

BANKSIA Secondary College student Ashleigh Kedge is one of her school’s greatest success stories. And that was before she found out yesterday she had earned a study score of 49 out of 50 for one of her subjects.

Ashleigh’s feats are especially remarkable because she was born deaf.

Her dedication has taken her to the top of the state in VCE Auslan (sign language).

Ashleigh, who taught herself to lip read and speak as a child, said she was shocked by her study score of 49 in Auslan.

Wow.

Saw this from friendsofwashoe.org that Washoe, the first non-human to learn sign language, has died.

Washoe was the first non-human animal to acquire a human language and her adopted son Loulis is the first to acquire a human language from another chimpanzee.

Her name sign is formed with the fingers of a “W” hand flicking the ear on the same side. She was named for Washoe county Nevada where she lived with Drs. Allen and Beatrix Gardner until age five.

Washoe was adopted on June 21, 1966. She was cross-fostered; that is, she was raised in the Gardners’ home as if she were a deaf human child.

She was 42 years old, a long life for a female chimpanzee. Most females in captivity live an average of 33.5 years.

I’ve always known that chimpanzees were capable of learning sign language but never thought about who was the first non-human to learn sign language. This sounds like something that should go into Guinness’ World Records.

by Jan-Karl, as told to Dustin Glick - the artist

Click on the pic to see the full comic strip.