For Police Officers: VRS, VRI or Live Interpreter?

By Jean F. Andrews A deaf person calls 911. Through a relay interpreter, she signs that her husband is beating her and she is afraid because he has pulled a knife. Now, she has locked herself in the back bedroom. Please send the police, she signs. Emotionally distraught, she sobs and hangs up. The relay

Promises Made, Promises Broken

By Joanne Greenberg Part of the problem of Deaf low reading levels is due to insufficient education. Why should this be? The problem of low reading levels among the Deaf was supposed to have been solved 30 years ago, when mainstreaming was instituted to give Deaf kids an equal classroom experience, among their hearing neighbors

Concern at a Distance

By Joanne Greenberg In Lakewood, Colorado as in many other places in the United States, people are protesting the placement of schools and other facilities for the Deaf. They worry about increased traffic, and the lowering of property values. They fear danger from the pupils in those schools, or the recipients of those services. ”We

An Enlightening FaceBook Exchange

By BitcoDavid We received this message from a FaceBook follower who – for obvious reasons – asked that I don’t post their name. Okay so I’m going to be a prison guard myself (maximum security male prison if I get what I want) and am going to be learning ASL over the summer (I have

In retrospect: On the state of seeking Deaf Smith

By Jean F. Andrews [Author’s Note: If you live in Texas, you know about Deaf Smith, a popular hero among deaf and hearing Texans alike. Dr. Steve Baldwin a prolific writer, presenter and trained historian, shares his Deaf culture research with deafinprison readers. Dr. Baldwin gives us a fresh perspective on Deaf Smith’s role in

An Excellent Video From DeafInc

By BitcoDavid This video is geared towards Police officers to help them communicate with Deaf individuals. It is a wealth of valuable information for all of us however. It’s extremely well made, making use of split screen and P.O.V. shots. It’s fully captioned and narrated in ASL. Well worth the watch. BitcoDavid is a blogger

The Role of Early ASL Learning and Linguistic Competence of Deaf Individuals

By Jean F. Andrews American Sign Language (ASL) is seldom learned early by parents of deaf children when the diagnoses of hearing loss occurs. As a result, few deaf children have strong ASL role models in the home. This has important educational implications. But it also has criticaL repercussions when the deaf child grows into

Guestblog: Marsha Graham on the Gallaudet Controversy

By Marsha Graham This is not a civil liberties issue. This is an employment law issue. McCaskell’s sin is one of rank stupidity. She is a non-tenured individual working for Gallaudet as the Chief Diversity Officer – not a secretary, not a janitor, not even a diversity underling. She speaks for Gallaudet in matters of

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

Deaf Couple use Internet and Technology to Run Restaurant

Today’s New York Times reports on a Deaf couple that have opened a pizzeria restaurant in San Francisco. Russ and Melody Stein, who are [D]eaf, own Mozzeria, a restaurant in San Francisco. Workers use sign language, pen and paper, bulletin boards and the Web to communicate. What strikes me, is something that I’ve been saying