More on the Passing of Dr. McCay Vernon

By BitcoDavid Three posts today. I would have done them as a digest post, but I think they each bear too much weight to handle that way. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the man whom we should probably start referring to as our Founder, Dr. McCay Vernon, passed away on Wednesday. Here’s

Dr. McCay Vernon Passes Away

By BitcoDavid From our Author’s page: McCay Vernon is the inspiration behind DeafInPrison.com. Upon learning of Felix Garcia’s plight in Florida, Vernon contacted Joanne Greenberg about writing a book regarding the struggles of Deaf inmates. Ms. Greenberg liked the idea, but thought a Blog site may be a more effective method of reaching an audience.

#JusticeForFelix and now #JusticeForRicardo

By BitcoDavid I was alerted to this story by this FaceBook page. I was immediately struck by the similarities between this case, and that of innocent Deaf prisoner, Felix Garcia – whom we’ve been working on freeing for the past year and a half, and Pat Bliss has struggled with for for over 17 years

Best Digest Post Ever

By BitcoDavid Wow! What a week last week was! Three important milestones took place last week. Some good news is definitely welcome. Up until now, phone companies and the institutions themselves have profited off inmates use of phones. The rates inmates and their families have been charged for calls can be as much as 10

Cued Speech – Gregg Shorthand Marries ASL

By BitcoDavid Shanna Groves – the Lipreading Mom – did a fascinating post this morning, on an alternative method of communication called Cued Speech. Apparently, this is a system by which, both lip-readers and Signers can communicate with each other, and the Hearing. The system works on phonemes. That’s a fancy – yeah, I got

An Interview With Prison Author Glenn Langohr

By Glenn Langohr As most of your readers already know, you’ve spent some time in prison but have now turned your life around.  Can you tell us what happened to land you there and how your change/rehabilitation came about? Two good parents raised me, but they divorced when I was 12 years old. Being a

A Brief Discussion on C.I. Debate with Jean F. Andrews

By BitcoDavid There appears to be an ongoing debate on the value of Cochlear Implant technology within the Deaf community. Many people see these devices as a threat to ASL. Others believe its an attempt by the medical community and other hearing people to fix what isn’t broken. Still others feel that C.I.s can enhance

A Quick Addendum to the “Little Books” Post

By BitcoDavid Jean F. Andrews asked me to post the following citations: Little Books are the intellectual property of Dr. Jana Mason from the University of Illinois and Dr. Christine McCormick from Illinois State University. They gave Jean permission to use them for the Alabama Study, and also to distribute them to other researchers, parents

The Child First Campaign/Alice Cogswell Act, Read About It And Vote

By Jean F. Andrews Dr. Ron Stern, superintendent of the New Mexico School for the Deaf, spoke to the Texas Association of the Deaf in Galveston, Texas on August 3, 2013 about the Child First Campaign. This is a national movement that is working toward ensuring that deaf and hard of hearing children receive full

I Review the “Little Books” ASL Discs

By BitcoDavid The 3 stages of difficulty in learning ASL – for me, anyway – are 1) memorizing the vocabulary, 2) learning the grammar and 3) reading other people’s Sign. In other words, it’s more difficult for me to understand other people when they Sign to me, than it is for me to learn how