Lipreading: What It Is, What It Isn’t

By Jean F. Andrews I read a children’s story about a deaf boy who purportedly was able to lipread a warning through a heavy snow and wind storm from the back of a ferry boat as he and his classmates were traveling to school on the mainland. The deaf boy was able to lipread the

Supreme Court Rewrites Miranda Warning

By BitcoDavid BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and an Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related

What does placing your signature on the Miranda Waiver Really Mean?

By Jean F. Andrews Jean F. Andrews is a Reading Specialist and Professor of Deaf Studies/Deaf Education at Lamar University. Deaf suspects are asked routinely to sign the Miranda Warning Waiver affirming they waive their rights. What does this mean? For the police and detectives this means that the deaf person understands the six statements

New Book Examines Drug Use in Treatment of Mentally Ill

The International Society for the Psychological Treatment of Schizophrenia (and other psychoses) U.S., is having their annual convention this year in Chicago. I am going to give a speech called, “The Lone Ranger is Busy and Tonto Has Split.” No matter what health plan is adopted for this country, it is going to feature large

Abandoned Youth

When we abandon our youth, they have no option but to abandon themselves. Lives are wasted, dreams cast away in trade for an existence of solitude, bitterness and victimization. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the man hanged by the Gestapo in 1943 for treason against the Nazi regime said, “The test of the morality of a society is

This Guy’s Been Reading My Mail

Christopher Petrella is a columnist for Nation of Change. On BusinessInsider.com (which is a much better site than its name would lead you to believe), he offers a trenchant and insightful article about ways this country can reduce its burgeoning prison population. He didn’t miss a beat with this article. These are the things we’ve

A Disturbing Trend: Deaf Youth and the School to Prison Pipeline

“The School to Prison Pipeline” is a disturbing trend found in Deaf Education today. A metaphor coined by the Harvard Civil Rights Project, the “School to Prison Pipeline,” refers to two parallel concepts. For one, youths are being removed from school environments and are sent off campus to alternative schools or incarcerated in juvenile corrections

Probation: A Cycle of Despair

Probation for the deaf offender can be a cycle of despair. It is a tangle of complex and confusing rules with heavy consequences if the rules are not followed.  This is ever so certain particularly if the deaf individual has poor sign skills, a low reading level, a poor educational history.  Interpreters are often provided

I Didn’t Hear the Guard

Through the back door he came dressed in a gray prison jumpsuit. His ankles were shackled in chains as were his wrists at his waist. Escorted by two armed guards the men made their way down a narrow corridor and entered the audiologist‘s office. After exchanging polite greetings, the doctor motioned the three men into