TBC News, Issue 70

from Is the Audiogram Important to Consider When Determining Inclusion?

"It is the belief of this author that, if administrators who are making legal recommendations and placement decisions for inclusion had a better understanding of the audiogram and the effects of hearing on spoken language development, they may not be so quick to determine that full inclusion or mainstreaming is providing the best academic and social environment for the child who is Deaf or hard of hearing."

from Good Communication is My First Priority!

"I have worked as an interpreter/aide in the Mainstreaming Program for the Deaf in Fresno, California for the past 18 years. I am profoundly deaf and use ASL. At my job, I have seen the communications mess and the confusion among deaf students who use Signing Exact English (SEE) and cued speech, and never develop appropriate or adequate communication skills."

from There She Is

"More and more hearing people have joined us as allies to the Deaf community as we have slowly gained ground in our struggle to win respect as a distinct linguistic minority. Just this year, thanks to the hard work of Dr.Barbara Kannapell, Melvia Miller-Nomeland, and others, The National Association of the Deaf issued a postion paper supporting bilingual education for deaf children. We can be proud of our progress."

"Then one night, a ‘deaf’ woman, who chose to speak instead of sign, was crowned Miss America. All of a sudden, it seems, NAD and many others in the Deaf community forgot their original mission."

from Mind, Feeling, Soul

"I worked so hard to please that mean teacher by struggling to understand her lips, but I failed speech. Speech and lip reading were more important to her than academic skills. Several times she gave me and other Deaf classmates “F’s” because she caught us breaking her rule against Sign Language. We were punished by having our hands beaten hard by the map pointer."

from A View from the Back Seat

"Explaining cultural norms and values is very difficult. While most people would agree that the “deaf experience” is shared in some ways by everyone who does not hear according to some norm of hearing society, it is not the same as internalizing certain beliefs and behaviors that confer cultural membership."