Deaf Day

Congratulations, you have just graduated from high school. This is the first time in your life where you have a chance to make life-altering decisions. One can decide from going to college or going to work, going to a two-year university or taking some time off to travel. For many, the next step after graduating high school would be going to college. What happened if one was deaf or hard of hearing and wanted to go to college and receive higher education? Gallaudet University was a pioneering school that led to many changes not only within the deaf community but also in the United States as a whole.

Fortunately, there are numerous resources available for people with disabilities that offer assistance and programs to meet their everyday needs. The Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind serves as an educational resource for individuals who are deaf, blind, deaf-blind, and multi-disabled. I decided to research this agency because it has been referenced in my communicative disorders classes. As a future speech language pathologist, I want to learn about this agency and discover the programs it offers to help me with my future clients. The Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind is relative to this course because as mentioned in the textbook and other course material, resources and programs that offer assistance to individuals with disabilities are essential to their successful futures. This agency is a means in which people who are deaf and blind can seek assistance to improve their skills of communication, and this is ultimately my goal as a speech language pathologist.

During my practicum I provided coverage for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing territory in our district. This is a specialty territory within our agency and one that I had not had much experience with. Most of the work that I have done with our agency has been with general field and transition territory. Working with the specialty territory gave me a new perspective of the challenges that individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing encounter daily in employment and community interactions. During my practicum I made contact with individuals interested in applying for services with WVDRS and scheduled appointment to complete intake/application. I first observed intake/application procedures and then began completing intakes/applications on my own. During the application process I had the opportunity to establish a

There are approximately 35 million people in the United States who are considered deaf or hard of hearing (Culture and Empowerment in the Deaf Community). The majority of these deaf people struggle in the hearing world until they can find a connection to their deafness. They constantly

Our topic of focus will be deaf individuals, both male and female, ages six through twelve in Erik Erikson’s stage of Industry versus Inferiority. We chose the deaf because they are a vulnerable population with a small community, and face language and communication barriers which can affect development. Since we were born with no hearing loss, we felt it is important to understand how we as future Registered Nurses (R.N.) can communicate effectively with these children. We want to be able to provide well rounded care, and give these families the most positive experiences possible. As we proceed, many of our sources are older than five years. Studies regarding the deaf don’t occur very often so resources regarding statistics in particular of this population are few and far between (Deaf Culture Competencies and Best Practices, 2014). Because of this, we felt it was important to include them regardless of their age because of the great insight and information they provide pertaining to the deaf population in general and within healthcare.

The National Deaf Education Project was founded in 1998 by Lawrence Siegel. Lawrence M. Siegel has been an advocate and attorney for special education cases beginning in 1979 (National Deaf Education Project). He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (National Deaf Education Project). He has strong beliefs regarding the Deaf community and culture and the Deaf’s rights and liberties as Americans. Specifically, he believes that communication and language is a right for human beings and should become a necessity for learning. He established the NDEP to become the model and articulate a plan for communication in the educational setting for deaf and hard of hearing students in the United States (National Deaf Education Project). The board of the NDEP consists of representatives of Gallaudet University and collaborators of the project of the American Society for Deaf Children, the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools for the Deaf, the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf, Gallaudet University, and the National Association of the Deaf (Gallaudet). This organization continues to aid in reforming the communication systems for the deaf and hard of hearing in public educational systems.

Ryan noticed that although other scholars had interviewed deaf survivors, there were several others who had not received the opportunity to share their recollections on video. The author writes, “The experiences of deaf people, who are often overlooked and underserved because of communication barriers, have been difficult for most historians to include. But the fact that people with physical and cognitive disabilities were selected for forced sterilization, marriage prohibition, and ultimately extermination was all too logical an outcome of Nazi racial theories and widely held eugenics beliefs” (Ryan, 2005, p. 44). Schuman and Ryan visited Canada, eight European countries, and cities in the United States to attend deaf community conventions in a search for witnesses. Ultimately, the researchers made some contacts through their affiliation with Gallaudet University, which is the only liberal arts college for deaf people in the world. Because Schuman is a CODA (child of deaf adults), his association with other CODAs allowed them to discover a group of deaf Jewish survivors in Budapest, Hungary. Schuman and Ryan then interviewed a dozen survivors over the duration of five days.

My first observation is that Martha exudes a tremendous amount of self-confidence. She thoroughly enjoys communicating with people and continually honing these skills. This girl has big dreams of being in the medical field. Martha is faced with some challenges as a Hard-of-Hearing individual, however, she overcomes them with grace and an eager willingness. She copes with communication challenges by using technology such as her videophone. This technology enables her to use American Sign Language with friends and family. In addition, Martha will write notes with people who may not know how to sign. Though this method may be time-consuming, it allows her to deal effectively with a communication challenge. Martha’s positive outlook on life shines through when she speaks to the camera; her positivity is infectious. She seems very approachable, and discusses how hearing individuals should be assertive and should not be afraid to speak with Hard-of-Hearing individuals. Also, Martha says she has many friends, and she appears to lead a relatively normal family life. She does not live in isolation, and she does not fear others’ perceptions of her disability. In fact, Martha welcomes individuals to communicate with her so she can better her communication skills with normal hearing people. Martha’s confidence, excitement, and approachability draw me to her and make me want to get to know

One of the biggest changes I have noted in myself in the course of the semester is how my view of deafness has changed through meeting Deaf people and experiencing Deaf culture. Prior to this course, or any of my sign language courses, it is safe to say that I would have considered deafness a disability. It is not to say that I considered Deaf people any less intelligent or able-bodied than those with normal hearing, I certainly did not. If the topic of deafness ever came up, I mourned for the sense that I considered Deaf people to be deprived of. Having met several Deaf people now, I understand that even though they cannot hear like the average person, they gained the support and the culture that comes with involvement in the Deaf community.

It is people like William J. Stokoe and many special educators that change the way deaf and hard of hearing has an impact on our life. We belong now. With the hard work of Stokoe, the deaf community can now rely on a successful education which includes a bilingual mode of communication that leads to a bright future. Hearing impaired students can practice self-advocacy in order to thrive. Educators can practice simple models and strategies and provide key accommodations to extend the education experience for those who are hard of hearing or

I am a passionate undergraduate student who is pursuing a clinical doctorate degree in Audiology, as well as a Ph.D in my areas of interest (psychoacoustics, speech development with cochlear implants). I want to impact the Deaf OSU community and the hearing OSU community throughout and past my time at Ohio State. Throughout my collegiate career, I have conducted research with the Psychoacoustic lab, the Western Reserve Reading project with Nationwide Children's Hospital, and the Sound Mapping project. For the Psychoacoustic lab, I ran MATLAB and collected data. I collected DNA samples in cooperation with Nationwide Children's, entered data, administered language, reading, and cognitive measures to children and adults with or without language

In conclusion, this paper explored the history of the Deaf Community and various issues that they have faced through time. Various hearing and Deaf leaders have made historical changes that have opened many doors to the Deaf community. They have few rights that give them full access to being full members of society. The change that needs to have for them to gain more

Chapter (29) summarizes the future of schools, supporting deaf children, and some of the pros and cons of attending day or public schools. In addition, there is a definite need of more outside support and general information towards parents of deaf children and teachers. The state should try to fund deaf education programs for both parents and teachers. When a child is in a public school class full of hearing children and they are trying to keep up, there is an issue that needs to be resolved.

I had a never ending list of patients to see, all of which also had a never ending list of questions to ask. Going through my routine, I worked my way down the list of patients. Then I found a familiar looking name, Sarah T. LiCari. Walking into the room I did my usual greeting. I noticed that she looked a bit different, but I could not quite put my finger on it. Had she lost weight? Did she do something to her hair? Was it just the new winter jacket? Regaining my focusI began to look over the lab results that were sent back from a hospital in Pittsburgh. They did not look good. There was no reason to try and sugar coat the situation, so I told Sarah outright what the results concluded. I could see the slight drop in her features. Knowing there was not a cure for the disease I told her about a new drug trial that was going on that she could be a subject in. This appeared to catch her interest a little, but I could see that her eyes drifted to focus on the model that sat on the windowsill behind me depicting a liver with cirrhosis. I felt some pity for the girl. She was quite young to have developed liver cirrhosis. I could tell she had zoned out by now, so I wrote down everything I was telling her to look at when sh got home. Sarah and her mother then left. It was just another day at the

Months later Robin decided to leave her beloved ambulance and work in a small fifteen bed emergency room of a hospital. Woking in the emergency room Robin seen the worst the world has to offer. Dealing with death and destruction was Robin’s cup of tea and she enjoyed her work. This type of job isn’t for everyone and as the years passed many of her coworkers have come and gone because they could not find that balance of work and home