Deafness Blog

Q: What is the opposite of growing up deaf in a hearing family?

A: Growing up hearing in a deaf family.

"Jake" shared his personal story of growing up as a hearing child with deaf parents, with About.com. As you read this story, bear in mind that the experience described is solely Jake's experience. It does not mean that all children who grow up as hearing children of deaf parents, have this kind of experience.

Until I interviewed "Jake," I was not aware that hearing children who had grown up as CODAs could have problems that were related to their having been CODAs. For example, Jake was delayed in language. There were other problems as well.

The National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a technical college, is seeing an enrollment boom. I just received a press release from NTID stating that this year's enrollment hit a record high of 1,450, surpassing even the high they had when the children of the rubella baby bulge attended college in the 1980s. In fact, according to this press release, NTID had to hire more professors just to keep up with this enrollment boom. Just as the press release indicates, this is evidence that given the right kind of environment, deaf college students can and will choose a deaf college over a "hearing" college offering the same or similar education. I am aware that for some deaf college students, attending RIT with support from NTID gives them the best of both worlds - access to RIT for an education while benefiting from the social contact with deaf students at NTID.

Students representing each state - click for larger photo Photo © National Technical Institute for the Deaf

Related on About.com:

• Growing Up Deaf - the College Years
• NTID's 2+2 Program (blog post)
• NTID at RIT

Jschwech on the forum has a problem. Their daughter, who is apparently hard of hearing, attends a private school. Her parents want to know how their daughter can get 504 support even while attending a private school when the private school does not get any federal funding.

Does anyone know the answer for Jschwech? All the research I have done so far indicates that only private schools that get any form of federal funding, must comply with section 504. I answered Jschwech, but perhaps you have a better answer. If so, hop over to the forum and help Jschwech. (no registration required to post)

The string of sex assaults at the Louisiana School for the Deaf finally got to be too much for the state superintendent of education in Louisiana. (The most recent case involved a 16 year old and a six year old). On Tuesday, October 7, 2008 he announced he was closing the school temporarily for an undetermined period of time (one source says it will be for less than a month). During the closure, the school and its operating system will be overhauled.

Previous blog post: More on Sexual Abuse at Deaf Schools
Related on About.com: Schools for the Deaf

Kpsampson on the forum has a problem: neither a hearing aid is helping enough, nor a cochlear implant. In the message "hearing aid problems," kpsampson asks: "Are there others who have had the same problems? I have been profoundly deaf my whole life and it seems like each year, my hearing is slowly getting worse."

If you are deaf and have not been able to be helped by either hearing aids or cochlear implants, you could respond to Kpsampson and tell how you dealt with the problem. No registration required.

It took me an hour to read through the entire Glenn's Story Book blog, but it was worth it to get the big picture. Glenn, a deaf college student at Central Washington University, is chronicling his struggle to get adequate accomodations from the Disability Support Services office there. It is a complex saga, involving:

• Typewell (a trained transcriber listens and summarizes information) transcribers who quit their jobs out of dissatisfaction with DSS policy
• Students' grades being jeopardized by inadequate services
• Less skilled/experienced Typewell transcribers replacing the ones who quit
• Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) stenographers showing up late for class
• On-site CART transcribers producing sloppy work, with missed information. One professor tells Glenn that the CART transcript is so bad that it will be hard for him to pass the class
• Remote CART transcribers unable to hear the classroom audio, resulting in an almost useless transcript
• Budgetary politics behind the loss of skilled, experienced Typewell transcribers

Glenn's saga reminds me of what happened to me when I attended graduate school at a "hearing" college in Washington, DC in the late 1980s. There were no notetakers available for one class, and I had to stand in front of the class and beg for notetakers because the professor refused to ask for volunteer notetakers. No one volunteered, and I had to struggle to take notes by myself. The humiliation of that experience and other frustrations I had in getting decent interpreter/notetaker services, drove me to return to Gallaudet University when I changed careers and returned to college in the mid 1990s. At a deaf college I would not have to fight for interpreters and notetakers.

Related blog posts: CART versus Typewell: Does a College Have the Right to Choose?

MSNBC.com has a long article, "Older ears hear again with cochlear implants," about the growing popularity of cochlear implants among older people. Older people who lose their hearing generally do well with the implants, because they have had the experience of hearing. Mentioned in this article: Brenda Battat, executive director of Hearing Loss of America.

Just before bedtime, I saw this: "Deaf fans get key ruling in FedEx Field case," from the Maryland Daily Record. A Federal judge has ruled in favor of deaf plaintiffs who had sued over lack of accessibility at the Redskins sports stadium. While the case was working its way through the court system, captioning was added to FedEx field. The article also mentions that there is already captioning at the new Nationals baseball stadium in Washington, DC. (I didn't know that. Nice to know that when I get around to seeing a baseball game there, it will be fully accessible to me!)

This ruling is expected to have impact nationally, as according to the lawyer for the plaintiffs, it is the "first time" that a court has mandated captioning access for sports. Kudos to Shane Feldman, who was behind this lawsuit's inception. (Note: Feldman is a DeafDC blogger)

A deaf student in Australia, struggling with her courses, is suing Australia's LaTrobe University over what she claims are lack of interpreters/inadequate interpreters and poor quality notetakers. According to the article, an attempt was made at mediation to resolve the dispute. When that failed, the student took the University to court.

What can a deaf college student at a regular college do when they find their services are not meeting their needs? Is suing the answer when mediation fails? Lawsuits do take time to work their way through the courts. Bear in mind that the students need to finish their studies so they can get jobs.

A new school employee is frustrated and bewildered by the behavior of a deaf five year old boy. While the parents speak Spanish at home, the child is being taught at school in English with total communication. Plus, the child's behavior is "horrible," and the school employee doesn't know if it is the child's personality or the child's deafness.

I already asked if the child's language was inadequate. Join the discussion on the forum. No registration required.