A Culture Clash Between Police and the Deaf

by Jean F. Andrews, Ph.D. There is often a conflict between the Deaf and the police. This combustion fuels itself by the marked differences in belief systems and communication methods. Deaf people in the United States make up a distinct group because their worldview—by necessity—is visual. They are powerful because of their shared experience, history,

A New Life for Felix

By Pat Bliss It took me 5 1/2 hours to drive to Jarratt, VA to see Felix at his new prison camp, Greensville Correctional Center. I spent the night on Friday May 6th, and visited on Saturday, May 7th. He was very excited because it was not only our first Virginia visit, but also Mothers

When Should Deaf Babies Learn Sign Language?

By Jean F. Andrews Deaf babies should learn sign language just as soon as their hearing loss is diagnosed, at birth, 3 months, 6 months or before the age of two.  Recent research in Neuroscience and Psycholinguistics has shown that when a baby’s brain is exposed to two languages between the ages of 6 and

A Show of Hands—An Evening with the National Theater of the Deaf

By Jean F. Andrews On Friday, November 13, 2015, at the University of Houston’s Jose Quintero Theater on campus, the National Theater of the Deaf entertained a mixed audience of hearing and Deaf members. They presented a show called “A Show of Hands.” Behind a bright green vertically slotted curtain, you could only see the

ASL Immersion Learning at Northeastern

By BitcoDavid My Sign tutor recommended I watch the following video. It offers a unique insight into Deaf culture and the problems associated with intercommunication between our two languages, English and ASL. I had hoped to embed the video, but the original publisher blocked embedding on their YouTube page. Below please find the link to

A Quick Update

By Jean F. Andrews Recently, I covered the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf, in Greece. Here’s an update on that story. In the Maryland Bulletin (Spring, 2015, p. 12), James E. Tucker, Superintent of the Maryland School for the deaf  in Frederick, Maryland wrote about the recent lack of sign language interpreters

!!!100,000 Views!!!

By BitcoDavid I made this graphic to commemorate our 100,000 views. It’s taken us almost 4 years to do. In that time, our 7 authors and numerous supporter contributors have created 573 posts. We’ve reached 43,000 individual visitors, and our message has been seen at least once in every country on Earth. Now, we’re officially

Another Move Another Home For Felix

By Pat Bliss You sometimes wonder – will the moves, the accusations, the disruptions ever end for Felix?  Well, here we are again having to have Felix moved from his home camp of Marion Correctional to protect his life. We had to move him fast, when he was at Tomoka C.I., because he divulged to

Jill’s Dilemma

By Jean F. Andrews In a southern state in a Federal prison, Jill is serving a 10-year term.  While sign language interpreters are provided for her when her attorney comes to visit or during her hearings with the judge, she does not get interpreting services within the prison. For example, she does not fully understand

More on Si5S

By BitcoDavid A few months ago, we did a piece on Si5S, a written form of ASL. Si5S deserves your attention because it nullifies the argument that ASL isn’t a language due to the fact that it has no written form. But its relevance goes beyond that. For one thing, it can help non-Signers learn