Volume 29 Issue 5

HOH-LD-News
Vol. 29, Issue 5
November 4, 2006

Copyright (C) 2006 Hearing Loss Web. All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents
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- Article 1: Requiem for Gallaudet University - Part 1

- Article 2: ALDAcon 2006 Plenary Keynote by Dr. Sanjay Gulati - Part 2

- Article 3: Sorenson is at it Again

- Article 4: Short Takes

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First Premium Placement:
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Classified Section:
Two Online Stores and Two Employment Opportunities

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Contact information and disclaimers are at the end of this newsletter.
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- Article 1: Requiem for Gallaudet University - Part 1
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I have to second the statements from so many in the hearing loss community who have expressed regrets at the way the situation at Gallaudet ended. Of course, it hasn't really ended, as we'll see shortly.

The Gallaudet Board of Trustees voted on Sunday to rescind their appointment of Jane Fernandes as the next University President. In so doing they have hastened the demise of Gallaudet University as the institution we know today. It was doomed to go the way of previous "centers of Deaf culture" (Deaf clubs and residential schools) in any case; it will just happen that much faster now; hence the call for a requiem for Gallaudet University.

The Board of Trustees succumbed to the pressure applied by the faction that was determined that the next Gallaudet president be culturally Deaf. The Deaf militants have been denying that position throughout the demonstration, but their proclamations following the Board's decision made their motivation clear.

Dr. Chen Pichler summed it up pretty well in her statement to the New York Times (http://tinyurl.com/yh927c):

"Dr. Chen Pichler said that protesters doubted Dr. Fernandes's commitment to upholding the primacy of American Sign Language on campus, and that the next person selected would have to be strongly committed to reinforcing what is often referred to as Deaf culture - with a capital D - at Gallaudet.

"'While the university is open to students from all traditions - those who sign exclusively, who speak and read lips or who sign spoken language - many protesters want the university to ban spoken language in classes and official meetings because it is easier for deaf people to understand American Sign Language. The next group chosen for finalists have to be sensitive to that,' Dr. Chen Pichler said."

So the protest was never really about Dr. Fernandes' leadership style or management ability, as the protesters claimed. It was, as Dr. Fernandes has stated all along, about the fact that she isn't Deaf enough for the militants. It was about her unacceptable vision that Gallaudet welcome ALL students with hearing loss, not just those who are culturally Deaf; it was about the protesters' insistence that Gallaudet serve as the cultural center of the Deaf world.

The protest was really about who runs Gallaudet University, and now we know.

The New York Times article quoted above also reports on an email message written by student leader Joshua Toz as the demonstrators burned Jane Fernandes in effigy. He wrote, "We worked hard and finally broke the hold [Jane Fernandes] had on the president-designate's position. Gallaudet University is now ours."

So where does Gallaudet go from here?

As the New York Times noted in their October 31 article entitled, "At University for Deaf, Protesters Press Broader Demands", the ouster of Jane Fernandes is just the first item on the demonstrators' agenda. Now that that's been accomplished, the next item of business has to be the selection of the next president.

I. King Jordan is scheduled to step down on January 1, 2007, which is just two months away. There has been some speculation that the board might ask him to postpone his retirement, but the real powers at Gallaudet have already labeled that a non-starter. "Inside Higher Education" reports (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/30/gallaudet):

"The Faculty Senate this month voted no confidence in Jordan - and protesters interviewed Sunday night on campus said that they would not support his staying on longer to deal with the leadership void. Said [Student Body President Noah] Beckman: 'He has to go.' . . .

"Richard Lytle, a professor of education, said that in the wake of the last few months, it would be 'a disaster' if the board kept Jordan on."

So we're looking at someone new, and that person should be in place by January 1. With two months remaining, there's no time to form another search committee, engage consultants, conduct interviews, select finalists, conduct more interviews, and finally select the next president. Fortunately, the Gallaudet community can forgo all that bureaucratic nonsense.

I'm sure the Board of Trustees has already come up with this idea, but if not, I suggest they convene the faculty and students who led the demonstrations and simply ASK them who the next Gallaudet president will be.

It may be that different factions initially prefer different Deaf individuals. Even so, they should be able to caucus and appoint the next president by Tuesday or so. If it appears on Monday night that a Tuesday anointment is in jeopardy, they can hasten the process by simply hanging a couple of pictures of Jane Fernandes in the conference room.

With the next president selected, the demonstration leaders can move on to broader issues of University governance.

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- Article 2: ALDAcon 2006 Plenary Keynote by Dr. Sanjay Gulati - Part 2
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Here's Dr. Gulati's very inspirational opening keynote address. This is part two of three parts.

Dependency

We fear dependency on others, especially in our society where independence is valued. Last week I interviewed a quadriplegic friend named Valerie. She broke her neck falling out of bed. Her boyfriend soon left her, because she could no longer participate in the outdoor activities they had enjoyed together. She has regained the ability to walk a bit, but she lives in fear of falling again, because she may again become totally paralyzed. She's also concerned that if she does fall, she can't get up by herself, and that makes her dependent on others, probably complete strangers.

Attitude

Attitude is of central importance in adapting to disability. At age 17 Laurent Grenier dove into the shallow end of a swimming pool and broke his neck. He now looks back on that day as the day of his second birth, because he now knows that happiness doesn't depend on any specific external circumstances. He says that it took him a long time to realize that he was less a victim of his circumstances than of his attitude towards those circumstances.

Ron Heagy was a high school athlete who drove into a wave, hit a sand bar, and broke his neck. His book is called "Never Give Up", and it's a great read. He writes that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly! The meaning, of course, is to get out and do things, even if you can't do them well.

Internally we go through a process of reimagining ourselves. It's about calling on all parts of ourselves and thinking about how we can proceed. Accepting disability is often compared to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' five stages of dealing with death. When we lose our hearing, our identity as hearing people is gone forever. The funny part about that is that we never knew we had that identity. An important aspect of attitude is accepting what has happened and incorporating it into our new identities.

Dr. Shlau found during her thesis research that the remaking of the self following hearing loss involved three steps: giving up the hearing self, reflection, and purposeful change. When I was despondent over my hearing loss and angry at my ears, my girlfriend told me that I can't heal until I learn to love my ears.

Spirituality

Grenier perceived a deeper connection to all of life. His reflection brought him to a place similar to that which Heagy describes from a Christian perspective. Valerie says that wholeness and okayness are central issues in disability.

So far I've been talking about internal experience. Now let's move on to the relational and societal perspective. We need to consider the position of the "normal" folks, and how they view people with disabilities.

A man told me about his mother's hand, which was deformed. To him that was her hand, the hand that fed him and put him to bed, and it did that just fine. But on the street people stared at her hand, because it was different. So where was the disability?

The Need to Stare

Strangers stare at people who are different. I worked in the burn unit of a hospital, where people are torn between staring at a disfigured person and looking away. It's hard not to stare. One burn victim tells people to go ahead and stare for as long as they like. Once they've gotten past the staring, he can tell them how he got burned and about his life now.

Sometimes we resent the confusion and awkwardness of others. Last year I went to visit Gallaudet and I asked about the subway stop to use. They gave me a large print map!

The Fear of Offending

Grenier noted that none of his visitors ventured to burst his bubble with their realism. Able-bodied people often try to understand how they would deal with a disabling situation, but most people are unable to really grasp a situation so different from their own.

Guilt

When I went to visit Valerie, I bicycled the 20 miles to visit her. Should I have felt guilty that she can barely walk, and I'm out here enjoying a beautiful day on my bicycle?

Social Freedom

For me deafness has brought freedom. I've become very unconcerned about being conspicuous, and I'm more aware of who I am and what I want and need.

Our Need for Open-Minded and Caring People

We all need people in our lives who see beyond the disability. The fear of embarrassment is one of the main reasons that people avoid those with disabilities.

Society

Our adaptation occurs within society. Disability is about belonging. Societies choose who they accept and reject. Deaf culture has its circle, and ALDA has its. Martha's Vineyard gives a classic example of turning the feeling of belonging on its head. A group of people from a village in England settled in a village on the Island. They had a recessive gene for deafness, and a quarter of the population was deaf. Everyone signed, so the disability became invisible.

The most striking thing about some of the research and interviews of the last remaining people who lived in those times is that they often couldn't remember who was deaf and who was hearing, because it wasn't a significant feature.

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- Article 3: Sorenson is at it Again
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Editor: I just saw ANOTHER press release from Sorenson about how their video relay service (VRS) is such a great service for the DeafAndHardOfHearing. I've backed off on commenting on these deceptions for awhile, because the folks at Sorenson told me about a year ago that they were going to stop perpetuating the fallacy that VRS provides communications access for people who are hard of hearing. See http://tinyurl.com/yyg5m3 (http://www.hearinglossweb.com/Issues/Identity/
ohl/nat/ohla/ed/2005/shame/sor_pr2.htm) for the exchange that led to that promise. At the time they said it would take them two or three months to complete the transition to more honest statements.

Well, it's a year later, and they're still blowing the smoke that hard of hearing people use ASL to communicate on VRS. (Yes I admit that a tiny percentage of hard of hearing folks can do so. I don't want to argue whether it's 2% or 3%, but in either case, representing to the hearing world that hard of hearing people are generally able to use VRS is OPPRESSIVE to our community, because it prevents the general public from realizing that the hard of hearing community - unlike the Deaf community - does NOT have functionally equivalent telecommunications access.)

I know some of you defend the claims that hard of hearing people can use VRS by saying they can lipread using that service. Sadly Sorenson (and all the other VRS providers as far as I know) don't seem to be interested in promoting VRS for lipreading, because they require ASL fluency to get their equipment. Sorenson's statement is, "Please note that the customized Sorenson videophones are available for deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals who primarily use ASL to communicate."

Anyway, I'm deeply disappointed that Sorenson has reneged on their plan to stop promoting these fallacies, and I want to do what I can to inform the 30 million hard of hearing Americans that Sorenson is contributing to their oppression.

For a broader perspective on the oppression surrounding the use of 'DeafAndHardOfHearing', please read some of the articles at: http://www.hearinglossweb.com/Issues/Identity/ohl/nat/nat.htm

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the offensive press release.

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Salt Lake City International Becomes First Airport in U.S. to Offer Sorenson Communications' Free Videophone Booths for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Travelers

Two New Videophone Booths Allow Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Travelers to Place Calls Through an On-Screen American Sign Language Interpreter to Any Hearing Individual in the U.S.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Sorenson Communications(tm) today announced it has installed videophone booths for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals at a public airport for the first time, locating one booth in each of Salt Lake City International Airport's two baggage claim areas. The innovative videophone booths, most often installed in deaf schools and community access centers, make communication between the deaf and hard-of-hearing community and the hearing world easier than ever.

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- Article 4: Short Takes
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Editor: Here are our picks of some additional stories that you may find interesting. For more, please point your browser to: http://www.hearinglossweb.com/news/curr.htm

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Bilateral Cochlear Implantation - Selected Bibliography of Peer-Reviewed Publications

Here's a great resource for people looking for the latest research on bilateral cochlear implants. It's a table summarizing the test populations and results of about twenty peer-reviewed studies of bilateral cochlear implants.

http://tinyurl.com/ychfy2 (http://www.bionicear.com/printables/reimbursement/
BilateralCIBibliography-092006.pdf)

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Could you repeat that? Baby Boomers are getting early hearing loss

Think of hearing loss and it may conjure up the image of an aged grandparent leaning forward, cupping a hand behind one ear and shouting: "What did you say?" While gradual loss of hearing is a common occurrence as we pile up the birthdays, it's no longer an affliction only of those in their senior years. Baby boomers, that postwar demographic whose generational mantra could be summed up as "forever young," are also beginning to join the ranks of the hard of hearing - and they don't like it one bit. "Hearing loss, especially age-related hearing loss, is thought to be something that naturally happens as you grow older, people thinking older meaning 70-, 80-plus," says Richard Bowring, senior manager of programs for the Hearing Foundation of Canada. "Now baby boomers who are 40 and 50 are thinking, 'Well, I don't feel old. I don't look old. Therefore these things that happen to old people shouldn't be happening to me until I'm 80 or 90,"' says Bowring. "So they don't want to admit that they have a hearing loss."

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/061021/x102104.html

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IR Listening Systems

October 2006

For infrared (IR) listening systems, all market indicators point skyward. Whether for assistive listening or language translation applications, sales prospects simply couldn't be rosier. The reasons? First, with populations aging, more people are developing hearing impairments. In addition, with new legislation in some jurisdictions requiring audio description for the visually impaired, a single-channel system will no longer suffice. A third factor: Immigration patterns are creating more multilingual communities, which, in turn, boosts the need for second- (or even third-) language translations. Finally, post-9/11 security consciousness has prompted a move to keep all government proceedings strictly contained within four opaque walls.

http://tinyurl.com/yzarhn (http://svconline.com/audioplayback/products/
avinstall_ir_listening_systems/index.html)

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- Classifieds
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Two online stores and two employment opportunity appear in this issue. (Ads appear after this brief table of contents.)

WCI. Providing Solutions for People with Hearing Loss.
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Potomac Technology. Everything You Need Under One Roof!
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Employment Opportunity 1
Various Positions
GLAD
Los Angeles

Employment Opportunity 2
Executive Director
California Center for Law and the Deaf
San Leandro, CA

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Employment Opportunity 1
Various Positions
GLAD
Los Angeles
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GLAD is an Affirmative Action Employer with equal opportunity for men, women and people with disabilities. For more information on the following positions, please go to: www.gladinc.org. The status of all positions is: Regular, Full-time, Non-Exempt, Full Fringe Benefits unless otherwise noted. All positions are open until filled.

* Director of Human Services - Los Angeles, CA
* Community Interpreter - Riverside, CA
* Job Developer/Interpreter - Crenshaw, Norwalk and West Covina, CA
* Community Health Educator-Los Angeles, CA
* LIFESIGNS Dispatcher - Riverside, CA
* Community Relations - Los Angeles, CA
* Accounts Receivable Specialist - Los Angeles, CA
* Program Assistant/Interpreter - Los Angeles, CA

If interested for any of these positions then please submit resume and application to:

Jeff Fetterman
Human Resources Specialist
Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness, Inc.
2222 Laverna Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90041
V/TDD: (323) 550-4207
Fax #: (323)550-4204
E-mail: jfetterman@gladinc.org

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Employment Opportunity 2
Executive Director
California Center for Law and the Deaf
San Leandro, CA
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The California Center for Law and the Deaf seeks candidates for Executive Director. The position will be open as of July 1, 2007.

CalCLAD was established in 1978 and is the first and only non-profit full-service legal services corporation in America devoted exclusively to serving deaf and hard-of-hearing people. Its mission is to protect and advance their legal rights to enable them to live independent, productive lives, with full access to the rights, privileges, entitlements, services, educational and employment opportunities available to others. CalCLAD is located in San Leandro, CA, and provides services statewide.

For more information about duties, qualifications, and how to apply, please go to www.deaflaw.org or submit an inquiry to calclad@deaflaw.org.

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