During a surprisingly snowless November in the cozy town of Orebro, Sweden, I was visiting a conference for hard-of-hearing young people run by the hard-of-hearing youth organisation Unga Horselskadade. While the conference discussions continued, something struck me – a lot of hard-of-hearing people in Sweden know sign language very well and use it whenever helpful […]
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Pakistan may be known to the world deaf community for a few achievements as employing deaf staff to run fast food outlets – an outstanding example for a country where disability services are scarce. To look into realities of life for deaf and hard of hearing people in Pakistan, I talked to the founder chairman […]
Read MoreShe is widely known as a person with many hats and as a globe trotter. Her deaf friends, when expressing her name in sign language, integrate a sign “globe”. No wonder – Vanessa Migliosi has traveled to almost all continents of the world, from China to Australia and Central America, and is bound to continue […]
Read MoreGood networking often brings wonder and surprise, as I found out not long ago. I was fortunate enough to be introduced by a mutual friend to Duong Phuong Hanh, a hard of hearing project officer for the Deaf Club in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Hanh graduated from the University of Technology majoring in Chemistry […]
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Considering what Lance Allred went through to get where he is now, the rest of his journey shouldn’t be so difficult. Allred, a 27 year old, 6-11 center, signed a contract to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA. Allred’s contract, signed on April 4, provides him for a chance to play the remainder […]
Read MoreWhat is behind Marlee Matlin’s sudden career surge and spotlight redirection? Matlin, best known for her Academy Award winning portrayal of deaf janitor Sarah in Children of a Lesser God (1986), has been grabbing headlines over the past year. Just last week, it was announced on Entertainment Weekly’s Hollywood Insider Blog that Matlin would be […]
Read MoreMy wife and daughter recently went to a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. One cool facet of this show was that it was in ASL. Nobody’s Perfect, originally written by Marlee Matlin and Doug Cooney (Simon and Schuster, 2006), tells the story of 10-year old Megan meeting a new hearing classmate, Alexis, […]
Read MoreVisualize this: you are a young teenager growing up in a largely rural area where you are pretty much the only person with hearing loss, minus the senior citizens. Very few people actually sign, and none of them fluently. Not even your immediate family. Add into the mix being a teenager and all of the […]
Read MoreNot everyone works for money. There are many important community-building tasks that don’t generate money, but need to be done anyway. Usually these efforts, like caring for the homeless, cleaning up a neighborhood, teaching people to read – get done by volunteers. These people squeeze in extra work in between and on top of their […]
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Education spends quite a lot of money every year for a variety of reasons. One good reason is to determine whether the money being spent on educational programs is money well-spent. Is it helpful? Is it effective? Getting answers to these questions isn’t cheap either, but it’s better than throwing program […]
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