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Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Learn American Sign Language For Deaf Student

VIDEO [CC] - Deaf News: Signing club helps Deaf student feel at home.





PEORIA, IL -- WMBD/CNN: Inside the library at Mark Bills School, class begins with the Pledge of Allegiance. But here, they’re doing things a little differently.



Students are using American Sign Language to say the pledge.



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“It’s like they want to be like me,” said fifth-grader Rhemy Elsey, who was born almost completely Deaf. A set of cochlear implant help him hear, but he relies heavily on sign language and his interpreter, Tammy Arvin, to communicate.



“It’s tough for a kid that has an interpreter,” Arvin said. “Following them around all day, you know, especially if the rest of the class can’t really communicate.”



Rhemy’s classmate Dexyrae Clarke said, “I wanted to be able to talk to Rhemy, and I wanted to be able to communicate with him.”



That’s how the American Sign Language Club was born at the school - with a group of students who wanted to be able to talk to a friend.



“I was thrilled that they were interested and that they wanted to learn some sign language,” Arvin said, “and that they were taking some initiative to able to communicate more effectively with one of their classmates.”



And this is not like their Spanish or French classes - students say they are finding there’s a lot that goes into learning this language, and things aren’t always easy. Tabria Smith explained the difficulty.



“Sometimes you really want to talk while you’re signing, but then you have to get used to just using your hands instead of your mouth to communicate with other people,” Tabria said.



But in Rhemy, they have a teacher and friend, showing them that so much can be said without saying anything at all. “It makes me feel, like, happy,” Rhemy said. SOURCE

Monday, February 15, 2016

Deaf Community & NMSD Opposes HM 21

VIDEO: Deaf News - New Mexico School for the Deaf and Deaf community opposes HM 21. A big win-win for the community in the state of New Mexico.



Today the New Mexico School for the Deaf (NMSD) and Deaf community came together to oppose HM 21, a controversial proposal to change the campus to a four-year college program. The motion was withdrew. NMSD Alumni Mark Ramirez fills us in what happened. Here's video in American Sign Language.





To view HM 21: http://bit.ly/1Sedgy0.



Transcript -- Hello, I’m at the Roundhouse, it’s an government building in Santa Fe, New Mexico.



There was just a proposal and a discussion. Check out the people here. See the NMSD community. Teachers, staff, students, and alumni came in big numbers to be supportive. Family, friends, and parents also came. It’s very inspiring. There’s more people around the corner.



What happened? One representative proposed HM 21, and in the language, it proposed NMSD be changed to a four-year college program, to offer more collegiate options other than Gallaudet.



Naturally, this change would negatively impact NMSD’s K-12 program, early intervention, outreach, and other services. Those services reach a multitude of students and people.



After the representative proposed it to the committee, the committee asked who was opposed to it. Many parents, student, alumni, students, staff, and faculty shared touching stories of their experiences and the importance of Deaf community, culture, and language - and the outreach services.



After this touching display, the committee asked who was in favor of HM 21. Nobody showed support for it. Some was neutral. In the end, the committee, including the representatives and the chair - discussed amongst themselves and asked HM 21 to be withdrawn. They said they might re-evaluate this later. They told the representative to work with the NMSD/Deaf community, to not work without them. This was a big win for us.



The final result: the representative withdrew HM 21. It’s over. But, we’re looking at the possibility that it might happen again in the future. We will stay vigilant. -- with Mark Ramirez. Source.



Read the comments on Facebook - NMSD Deaf Community Opposes HM 21

Thursday, February 4, 2016

New Classroom Technology Helps Deaf Students

VIDEO [CC] - Deaf News: RIT on TV - New classroom technology helps Deaf and Hard of Hearing RIT students.





ROCHESTER, NY -- WHEC-TV: New technology is being used at Rochester Institute of Technology to help students learn and communicate in and out of the classroom.



The new technologies include voice recognition apps, video remote-interpreting and captioning services, just to name a few. This is technology that students say is changing the way they're communicating both in an out of class.



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The ability to fully hear is something some of these RIT students do not have, but the ability to communicate is something they do, and it just got a whole lot easier.



“The world is becoming more accessible to Deaf people,” says Rico Petersen, Assistant Dean and Director of the Department of Access Services. “Typically they might not know sign language, or they might prefer English instead of sign language, so we have a provider that is trained in specialized software. They go into class and type live what is being said.”



It starts with captioning services for entire classrooms - lectures scrolling on a screen in front of the students in real time. The technology can even be brought out of the classrooms and into the lives of the students at home, or with friends thanks to the Ava app, making group face-to-face conversations that much easier. People looking to download the AVA app can email Hello@ava.me and ask how to sign up or get more info.



Even for those one-on-one studying sessions, new video remote interpreting, or VRIS used.



“It's much easier and more clear using your expression and so forth rather than writing back and forth,” says Bryan ward, RIT gradute.



With 130 interpreters on staff and more than 4,000 hours of interpreting done a week at RIT, this new technology is needed. “It really is having an impact on the Deaf world because it makes access easier to come by,” says Peterson.



The entire Deaf community has access to this new technology. Professors say there are still some situations where interpreters work best, but the new technology is simply a way to make every-day actions easier. Source

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Hearing People Should Sign For Themselves

VIDEO: Deaf News: A psychologist is calling for signing to be available as a ‘foreign language’ option for hearing children.



LONDON -- Dr Jim Cromwell said that learning British Sign Language (BSL) would benefit all students’ education and make life easier for Deaf people, bringing ‘extraordinary’ benefits for those without hearing.



In an ‘ideal world’ BSL would form part of the National Curriculum and be a compulsory element in mainstream schools, he added.



“Bilingualism gives a huge advantage in terms of thinking skills,” said Dr Cromwell, a clinical psychologist at Exeter Deaf Academy.



Having a wider population of people with BSL would make life easier those without hearing, he said. More than 900,000 people in the UK are severely or profoundly Deaf, according to the charity, Action on Hearing Loss.





Dr Cromwell also believes that those of the country’s 45,000 Deaf children who are taught in mainstream schools are not receiving the education they deserve.



“There is not the right support for them,” he said.



“They are being helped by teaching assistants with Level 2 BSL – that’s less than an O Level.



“Schools are getting away with that. There is the attitude of ‘they (Deaf children) are not doing well, but they are disabled, aren’t they?’



“Relying on education through spoken (rather than signed) lessons is like trying to learn maths A Level in Russian. Lip reading is 40 per cent guess work.”



Dr Cromwell, who has BSL at Level 4 – equivalent to degree standard – is believed to be the only clinical psychologist on the staff of a UK specialist school.



While a Deaf child ‘can do everything except hear’ many came to the Exeter school with attachment disorder, language delay, and behavioural problems because of a lack of access to BSL.



“They fall behind in primary school and are regarded as ‘problem students’,” he said. “Not all of our students are like that by any means, but we get those.”



Linguistic deprivation was one of the consequences of deafness that often began in the home as 90 per cent of children who were born Deaf had Hearing parents.



“Some (parents) will have never met a Deaf person, have no BSL and struggle to know what to do,” he said.



Their children were then learning BSL from a parent who was also learning the signing language. That might lead to learning deals that could give rise to behavioural problems, said Dr Cromwell.



Further problems might arise at schools without teachers qualified in BSL at a high level.



Part of the problem was that BSL was seen by many as a ‘pidgin’ form of English, instead of a language that was ‘heir to a rich cultural landscape’.



Widespread learning and use of BSL would help address many of those problems leading to an extraordinary increase in the well-being of Deaf children, said Dr Cromwell. Source

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Deaf Protest Athens 2015 Live Video

Deaf News: Deaf Greek protests shouting "Give money to Providence Education, go get them from the plutocracy".





ATHENS - Thousands of disabled, chronically ill, parents and guardians with disabilities from across the country of Greece, and teachers in special education and mainstream schools gathered early in the afternoon in the center of Athens, participating in nationwide pananapiriko rally.



The mobilization involved the Coordination Committee Struggle Disabled, the Single Parents Association, Guardians of Disabled Attica, the Association of Workers Unit, Foundations, Schools Special Education, and the Deputy Initiative, demanding "No more mockery, teachers in all schools" as wrote their banners.





The demonstration was attended by the KKE MP Christos Katsotis.



The disabled and chronically ill gathered at Omonoia Square and made protest to the Constitution, shouting slogans such as "Give money to Providence - Education, go get them from the plutocracy" and "euro sacks to bankers, the Special schools were doing warehouses.'



The third memorandum the lowest disability pension is 87 euros, the retirement age for disabled workers go to 67 years and 50% reduction in the state budget expenditure on Welfare, leading to the closure of institutions by loading higher cost care to families. Moreover abolished and cut disability benefits and chronic sufferers and Special Schools close, imposed alimony.



Among other claims, the SEAAN: No cut in benefits and disability pensions, extending them to groups who do not get benefits, such as Deaf, Alzheimer. No pension below 600 euros unemployment benefit of 600 euros to all unable to work disabled, chronically ill and massive recruitment with constant work. No payment for drugs and treatments. Open all Special Schools in full operation, massive recruitment of permanent staff, to repeal the alimony. Source



Related Post - @Deaf Protest

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Campaign: Build a Deaf School in Monze, Zambia

VIDEO [CC] - GoFundMe campaign "Deaf Perspective" featuring Lauren Hostovsky: Charity to build a Deaf school in Monze, Zambia.





Lauren Hostovsky has a dream: she wants the Deaf students in Monze, Zambia to go to a school of their own. Watch this week’s episode of Deaf Perspective and check out her fundraising page, https://gofundme.com/deafschoolzambia.





Lauren Hostovsky: As you may or may not know, only two percent of Deaf people worldwide have access to education in sign language. How are Deaf children supposed to learn?



Many Deaf and Hard of Hearing children the world over do not have access to education, often because they are viewed as mentally challenged, unimportant, mute. This appeal is about making the world a better and safer place for Deaf children everywhere, but specifically in a very special place called Monze, Zambia.



In the village of Monze, Zambia, we are trying to build a school for over 60 Deaf and Hard of Hearing children whose parents and guardians have no resources to give them the proper education, health care and adequate living conditions needed to ensure their survival. We want to build a school in which to instruct and house these children, but also to create the kinds of self-sustaining projects that will be necessary to keep the school up and running once it has been constructed.



The Zambian government does not care about these children, and their parents are often uneducated and helpless. There is currently only one teacher working with the children of Monze, Zambia. Her name is Lisa Zahra, and she has been working tirelessly to provide appropriate education and protection for these Deaf and Hard of Hearing children.



Right now we need $3000 to help cover the cost of renting a classroom for one year for these children. Please help to raise the money needed to provide a classroom and instructional supplies and food for these children for the current school year... Read More: https://gofundme.com/deafschoolzambia



Learn about Deaf Education & Arts for African Families - http://www.deaaf.org
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