Facebook Opens Worlds For The Deaf

VIDEO: (Subtitles) - Facebook opens worlds for the Deaf.



Nbcbayarea.com - One billion people use Facebook around the world. Its reach is undisputed and unparalleled, but its impact on one specific community has opened up doors to a new world for the Deaf.



Christina Teani, 34, of South San Francisco is a teacher for special needs students. She understands putting in that extra bit of effort because she was born with what she calls “an invisible disability” unable to hear without wearing a hearing aid.



“You can often feel like that sometimes you are not good enough, you don’t feel like you’re part of a group,” Teani explained. “Human relationships are all about intimacy, getting to know people, feeling like you belong in a group and if you’re not able to connect, you emotionally feel left out.”



But her life has changed, much like it has for her Deaf friend, Sarah McBride of Palo Alto.



“With Facebook, I’m able to communicate with my friends through chat,” she said.

These women say the social media site has opened up a whole new world to them, offering up not only quick chats with friends, but the ability to share memories through pictures and videos especially satisfying for them because it’s one of the first times they’ve been able to communicate the same way the hearing community does.



So when the opportunity came up to visit the company that made it happen, they didn’t hesitate. Together with friends, they took tour of Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park to celebrate the changes they’ve experienced in their lives.



“That’s what I like about Facebook," Teani said. "We’re all on the same playing field we haven’t had before.” ...READ MORE: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Facebook-IOpens-New-World-For-Deaf-186194282.html

Technology Helps Deaf Students at Gallaudet

VIDEO: Technology Helps Deaf Students at Gallaudet University. (Captioned)



VOA - Gallaudet University in Washington is the world's only university with programs designed for Deaf students and those who are hard-of-hearing. But hearing disorders do not keep students from learning because of the university's heavy use of technology.



Students use interactive technologies in and out of the classroom, technologies such as webcam interactions on Skype. More than 90 percent of Gallaudet's classes use some form of online communication. Professor Gene Mirus says technology is important in the learning process. "So there are, you know, televisions and webcams and things like that. Students are able to record themselves doing projects in sign language, and do that at home. We use a lot of computer technologies, and webcams and things like that."

Video by VOALearningEnglish



Sonam Jain, a student from Sri Lanka, says his years at Gallaudet have offered experiences different from his childhood. "Sri Lanka has states. And they don't have one standardized sign language. So, in the United States, for example, there are signs for almost everything that you would ever want to talk about.



In Sri Lanka, there isn't. And so there are many things you find it very difficult to talk about in Sri Lanka." Another student says Gallaudet has helped him with his communication skills, especially with ASL - American Sign Language.



"When I grew up, I was signing in a way that was more English-like. Here at Gallaudet, I sign more like I sign in ASL - more visual and the communication is much easier, and the social life is wonderful here." That increased ability to communicate helps many students. "A lot of networking and reaching out to people and I've learned from - I've had role models that I've learned from here.



They provide workshops, there are a lot of sporting activities, intramural events that I've been involved with." "Most students increase their self-confidence, and improve their communication abilities and they leave Gallaudet ready to face the world." I'm Jeri Watson.

Source http://learningenglish.voanews.com



Similar article at Medical Research: Dual Adaptation in Deaf Brains

Deaf Pennsylvanians Lawsuit Welfare for Lack of Interpreters

Pennlive.com - Deaf of Pennsylvanians lawsuit welfare for lack of interpreters: U.S. judge eyeing deal to aid state's Deaf, intellectually disabled human service system clients.



HARRISBURG - A federal judge is being asked to approve a settlement of a class-action lawsuit that would ramp up the state's responsibility to individuals who are Deaf and intellectually disabled.



A key provision of the proposed deal U.S. Middle District Chief Judge Yvette Kane is weighing would require the state Department of Public Welfare to hire sign language interpreters and other specialists to improve communications with Deaf and intellectually disabled clients in the human services system.



About 250 such clients have been identified so far in the state's system of group homes and other service providers, according to filings in the case. Also, DPW would have to pay $450,000 to the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, which filed the lawsuit against DPW in 2010 on behalf of a disabled client identified in court papers only as Harry M.



In seeking approval of the settlement, the rights network stated that DPW officials also have signed off on the proposed deal. The rights network claimed in its lawsuit that the state is not properly helping intellectually disabled Pennsylvanians who are Deaf, because service providers often cannot effectively communicate with them.



Clients who would be affected by the settlement receive services from their home counties through the state-funded Home and Community-Based Waiver, also known as the Consolidated Waiver program. ... READ MORE: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/02/us_judge_eyeing_deal_to_aid_st.html

Medical Research: Dual Adaptation in Deaf Brains

The Scientist: Dual Adaptation in Deaf Brains.



The brains of people who cannot hear adapt to process vision-based language, in addition to brain changes associated with the loss of auditory input.



The brains of Deaf people reorganize not only to compensate for the loss of hearing, but also to process language from visual stimuli sign language, according to a study published today (February 12) in Nature Communications. Despite this reorganization for interpreting visual language, however, language processing is still completed in the same brain region.



“The new paper really dissected the difference between hand movements being a visual stimulus, and cognitive components of language,” said Alex Meredith, a neurobiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, who was not involved in the study.



The brain devotes different areas to interpreting various sensory stimuli, such as visual or auditory. When one sense is lost, the brain compensates by adapting to other stimuli, explained study author Velia Cardin of University College London and Linköping University in Sweden. In Deaf people, for example, “the part of the brain that before was doing audition adapts to be doing something else, which is vision and somatosensation,” she said. However, Deaf humans “don’t just have sensory deprivation,” she added they also have to learn to process a visual, rather than oral, language.



To untangle brain changes due to loss of auditory input from adaptations prompted by vision-based language, the researchers used functional MRI to look at brain activation in three groups of people: Deaf people who communicate through sign language, Deaf people who read lips but don’t understand sign language, and hearing people with no sign language experience.



The researchers showed the three groups videos of sign language and videos that held no linguistic content. The signing videos were designed to allow Cardin’s team to pinpoint which areas had reorganized to process vision-based language, as these areas would only activate in Deaf signers. In contrast, the language-free videos would allow the researchers to identify areas in Deaf brains that had adapted to the loss of auditory input, as these brain areas would activate in both Deaf groups, but not in the brains of hearing volunteers. ... Read more: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/34363/title/Dual-Adaptation-in-Deaf-Brains/

io9 - A Drug That Restores Hearing In Deaf Mice

A drug that restores hearing in Deaf mice.



Advances in regenerative medicine are coming in fast and furious these days, and a remarkable new breakthrough can be added to the list. Scientists at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School have restored partial hearing in mice suffering from sensorineural hearing loss a condition that happens after prolonged exposure to noise.



Given the rise of an aging population not to mention a preponderance of people who blast their ears with portable MP3 players it's an important bit of scientific insight that could someday help millions of people get their hearing back.



To learn more about this important breakthrough, we contacted lead researcher Dr. Albert Edge, whose study appears in the January 10 issue of Neuron.



Edge agreed that sensorineural hearing loss is a growing concern.



"The National Institute of Deafness and Communications Disorders of the NIH estimates that approximately 15 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 69 have hearing loss due to exposure to loud sounds or noise at work or in leisure activities," he told io9. "So this is a very serious problem with little that can be done to treat it."



No doubt, it's a problem that currently affects 250 million people worldwide.



Edge says that hearing aids can help, but his team is hoping to develop a treatment that goes all the way one that can actually replace the lost cells.... Read more: http://io9.com/5974633/a-drug-that-restores-hearing-in-deaf-mice



Related: Deaf Gerbils 'Hear Again' After Stem Cell Cure

FEMA Ignores Deaf Victim of Hurricane Sandy

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Deaf Staten Island victim of Hurricane Sandy says pleas go unheeded. When police with megaphones rolled through Carol Lazorisak’s Oakwood Beach neighborhood in the hours before the hurricane thrust ashore, she did not hear their announcement about evacuation help.



In the days after the surge ripped her Tarlton Street home off its foundation, filled it with water to a depth of 5 feet and tossed her shed nearly a block away, she joined the thousands of other dazed victims at Miller Field in New Dorp, seeking some answers and a measure of comfort.



But for Ms. Lazorisak, who has been Deaf since birth, walking through the bustling relief center was like being in a movie on silent. There were no signs providing information for the Deaf or directing people to translation services. She left feeling more isolated than ever.



“I am extremely frustrated because of the lack of communication, the lack of help, the lack of information. I was left lost and in the dark for the first two weeks after Sandy destroyed my home,” said Ms. Lazorisak, as her friend Marybeth Imsho translated from American Sign Language a service she has provided during virtually every face-to-face meeting with FEMA or city agencies, and at the borough president’s town hall meeting last month where no interpreter was provided for nearly a dozen Deaf audience members. “My home is going to be demolished by the city in the next week and I need information.” Read more: http://www.silive.com/eastshore/index.ssf/2012/12/deaf_staten_island_victim_of_h.html

Carol Lazorisak's Oakwood Beach home was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Adding to her frustration is the fact that adequate interpreter services from FEMA, the city and at public meetings relating to the disaster have not been made available, says Ms. Lazorisak, who has been Deaf since birth. Source: silive.com

Communication Barriers In Sex Education Put Deaf People At Risk

LONDON (The Guardian) - Communication barriers in sex education put Deaf people at risk.



A lack of resources in sex education for young, Deaf people is leaving many without the knowledge or skills to keep safe and recognise healthy sexual relationships.



There is a telling moment in a documentary called Snapshot: Dicing with Sex when a group of young Deaf people are shown cards with different words on them. They all instantly recognise the words Facebook, Wii and YouTube, but the words syphilis, genital warts and hepatitis ABC are met with blank expressions.



Broadcast in sign language on digital TV in 2010, the documentary revealed a remarkably uninformed attitude to sex, with several young Deaf people saying they preferred not to use condoms, despite experiencing sexually transmitted infection (STIs) or pregnancy.



The charity Deafax says Deaf people's lives are being put at "extreme risk" when it comes to sex education because their communication needs are not being addressed.



A survey for the charity's Education & Advice on Relationships & Sex  (Ears) campaign found 35% of Deaf people received no sex education at all while at school. Everyone else surveyed – 65% of respondents – said that what information they did get was inaccessible. Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/05/sex-education-communication-deaf-people-risk



Author by Charlie Swinbourne

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Visit: The UK's independent Deaf news and views website! Lays eggs every weekday morning: http://limpingchicken.com

To Educate Hearing Parents of Deaf Child

Video with captions - To Educate Hearing Parents of Deaf Child: Part I & II.



For hearing parents who are overwhelmed with Deaf child for the first time. My purpose is to educate Hearing parents of Deaf child about deafness, to understand the term "Deaf" better. I am here to prove Deaf child can do anything to overcome obstacles by using my experience. Plus, I am here to help how to be a good parent for your Deaf child. Inspiring hearing parents & Deaf children that Deaf people would like to share with them. Deaf children can achieve anything they want. Thank you for watching! Please share this video with anyone. Subscribe Stephanie Nogueras

Video by Stephanie Nogueras



Related Articles:

Educate For Hearing Parents With Deaf Childrens/Toddlers

Importance of Educating Hearing Parents

Interview With Hearing Parents Of A Deaf Son

ASL Rose: Two Deaf Babies

Deaf Korean Starbucks Barista, It’s All In The Signs

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - Deaf Korean Starbucks barista, it’s all in the signs. Although a Starbucks branch in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul, was bustling with coffee lovers at around noon on Monday, employees worked in silence.



Most baristas at Starbucks franchises receive orders from the cashiers verbally, with shouts of machiatto, mochachino and latte echoing throughout the store.



But Hwang Jin, a 33-year-old Deaf barista, receives her orders via hand gestures. Employees give a thumbs-up to signal an Americano and make a “G” sign to confirm it’s a grande.



“When making foam with milk, those who are hearing-impaired rely on the sensation in their hand when frothing the milk instead of the sound,” barista instructor Sung Jeong-min said. “They are more sensitive to the vibrations of the milk steamer and produce a smoother taste in the coffee.”



Hwang, who lost her hearing after health complications as a 4-year-old, has worked at the Seoul National University of Education Starbucks branch since November 2011... Read more: http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2948981



Video by DEAFSQUARE

Language They Speak, The (1960s)

Language They Speak, The (1960s) Documentary Film.



Talks about how the Deaf are capable data processing / computer employees.



Casts: The Girl: Harriet Herman. The Boy: David Machin. Photography: Jules Sindic. Music: Charles Morrow. Technical Advisors: WIlliam C. Hill (Maryland Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation) and Ed Waters. Other Students: Terry Ann Blumenthal, Woodrow Putman.



Help us get more films like this online! This film was digitized and uploaded by the A/V Geeks thanks to contributions to this project: http://www.avgeeks.com/wp2/avgeeks100miles

Video by theavgeeks

Deaf for a Day

Video with subtitles - Deaf for a Day. Boom 99.7's Kim Sullivan is invited by the Canadian Hearing Society to be DEAF for one day... despite having been a teacher for the Deaf before radio--Kim finds this to be one tough challenge!

Subscribe boom997ottawa

Video sources boom997ottawa

You've Got Marlee Matlin Advocating for the Deaf

Video with subtitles - In this edition of You've Got, Marlee Matlin talks about noise and silence in a Deaf person's world. The original: AOL.com Video Subscribe: AOL

video source aol

Black American Sign Language and American Sign Language Are Different Languages

THE WASHINTON POST - Sign language that African Americans use is different from that of Whites.



Carolyn McCaskill remembers exactly when she discovered that she couldn’t understand white people. It was 1968, she was 15 years old, and she and nine other Deaf black students had just enrolled in an integrated school for the Deaf in Talledega, Ala.



When the teacher got up to address the class, McCaskill was lost. “I was dumbfounded,” McCaskill recalls through an interpreter. “I was like, ‘What in the world is going on?’ ”



The teacher’s quicksilver hand movements looked little like the sign language McCaskill had grown up using at home with her two Deaf siblings and had practiced at the Alabama School for the Negro Deaf and Blind, just a few miles away. It wasn’t a simple matter of people at the new school using unfamiliar vocabularly; they made hand movements for everyday words that looked foreign to McCaskill and her fellow black students.



So, McCaskill says, “I put my signs aside.” She learned entirely new signs for such common nouns as “shoe” and “school.” She began to communicate words such as “why” and “don’t know” with one hand instead of two as she and her black friends had always done. She copied the white students who lowered their hands to make the signs for “what for” and “know” closer to their chins than to their foreheads. And she imitated the way white students mouthed words at the same time as they made manual signs for them.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/sign-language-that-african-americans-use-is-different-from-that-of-whites/2012/09/17/2e897628-bbe2-11e1-8867-ecf6cb7935ef_story.html



Sources: www.washingtonpost.com

Court Legal Interpreting Coalition: Share your Experience

Video with Subtitles - Court Legal Interpreting Coalition: Share your Experience .wmv



Court Legal Interpreting Coalition (CLIC) Can Help you. Share your experience and stories with us. Did you get an interpreterfor your day in court? Did you understand your interpreter? Did the interpreter understand you? We want to collect your information, your experiences and any concerns you may have encountered in the legal process and court system.Tell your story.



Share your experience and stories with us at CLIChelpme

Video source CLIChelpme

Subtitles Life For Deaf People

Video: Subtitle Your Life! New app subtitles life for Deaf people.



Crowdsourcing could help Deaf People subtitle their everyday life! Subtitles make TV far more accessible for DEAF people, but new research promises to give people with hearing difficulties the option to subtitle their everyday lives, too, using crowdsourced transcribers.



Researchers from the University of Rochester have developed an app which allows Deaf individuals to read subtitles that correspond to what's happening to them, in their day-to-day lives.

Video by SourceFed



The app, called Scribe, beams an audio track from the user's phone to a central server... Read more: http://gizmodo.com/5928856/crowdsourcing-could-help-deaf-people-subtitle-their-everyday-life

Short Film: 'Voiceless'

Short Film: 'Voiceless'



1 in every 1,000 newborns are Deaf. 10% of those children's families are DEAF as well. Out of the remaining 90%, only 1/4 of them ever learn to sign. The remaining 3/4? They go throughout their life without ever being able to communicate with their kids. This is the story of a girl whose family is part of that 3/4.

Video by vvizcardo



Familiar Stories of the Mainstreaming...



Alone in a Hearing World' shows true to life scenarios of a young Deaf boy growing up in a hearing world. With family members who can't communicate and continuous misunderstandings by his teachers and coaches, he is forced to live in a world of isolation. However, when he pleas for his Mothers understanding and falls short, he ends up in the only place he seems to find acceptance, as seen on YouTube: Alone In A Hearing World



'Alone In The Mainstream' (best seller book for the teachers) - A Deaf women remembers public schools - Gina A. Oliva in which a book is a part of education for hearing parents to understanding with Deaf children in the mainstream schools, as seen on YouTube: Alone In The Mainstream



Also and, check it out DrDonGCSUS's vlog with captions: Mainstreaming Is Failing Deaf Students

Deaf Sensitivity Training Video For Police Officers

Deaf sensitivity training video for police officers in captioned.



How to handle communication issues when facing Deaf and Hard of Hearing citizens? DEAF Inc., with collaboration with St. Louis County Police Academy, created a training video for police officers and other responders. Special thanks goes to St. Louis University for providing intern and sound support for this project.

Video by DEAFInc



DEAF Inc. - The Mission of Deaf Empowerment Awareness Foundation, Inc. is to dedicate themselves to reducing discrimination, bias and oppression towards Deaf and Hard of Hearing people by providing them with tools and methods that allow them to empower themselves and lead more productive lives, both personally and professionally. Visit http://www.DEAFInc.org/ for more informations.

Short Film: 'Language of Friendship'

Video: Language of Friendship in captioned.



This Video is to promote our irishsignlanguage app of 'Language of Friendship'



This is an App for all smartphones to help people to learn Irish Sign Language and communicate with the Deaf community.

Video by irishsignlanguageapp



Description: In Ireland the Irish sign language is not a recognised as a language only a teaching tool. we hope to this app will increase the amount of sign langauge users and to make learning to sign an easy task.

Deaf TV - OMNI Television Sign Language Series

Video: Deaf TV - OMNI Television Sign Language Series in captioned.



Sample from "Deaf TV" a pilot for a news and current affairs series produced entirely in American Sign Language for OMNI Television. Like the documentary" Deaf Pride", this was also a Canadian first.

Video by ftrpcanada



For the Record Productions (FTRP) is an award winning, full-service video production company in Toronto with over twenty-five years experience creating engaging content for corporate, non-profit and government clients. Visit us for more info: www.fortherecordproductions.com

To Educate Hearing Parents of Deaf Child

Video: To educate hearing parents of Deaf child.



For hearing parents who are overwhelmed with Deaf child for the first time. My purpose is to educate hearing parents of Deaf child about deafness, to understand the term "Deaf" better. I am here to prove Deaf child can do anything to overcome obstacles by using my experience. I also am here to help how to be a good parent for Deaf child.

Video by Noguerasgrlz



Thank you for watching! Please share this video to anyone. Thanks again! P.S. Please feel free to contact her for any advice!



Similar as seen on: Educate For Hearing Parents With Deaf Children/Toddlers