Eight students from across Pennsylvania received diplomas Wednesday evening as the Scranton School for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Children honored its first graduating class.

Among those receiving diplomas was Radoslava Slavova from Coyne Avenue, Scranton. She plans to attend Gallaudet University and pursue studies in psychology.

"We are delighted to confer diplomas upon these remarkable students," said Superintendent Donald E. Rhoten. "These young people have conclusively shown that academic excellence can only be achieved through personal integrity, determination and courage.

"They have persevered through trying times and very real obstacles. We honor their significant achievements," he added.

The graduates were addressed by Dr. Nathie Marbury, a nationally renowned educator of deaf and hard-of-hearing students from Texas. Dr. Marbury is the subject of the DVD "Nathie: No Hand-Me-Downs," featuring stories, observations and her American Sign Language poems.

Commencement exercises were held at the campus, 1800 N. Washington Ave., Scranton. The new school, a program of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, opened its doors in September at the former Scranton State School for the Deaf site.

The graduates are:

Byron Evans, Wilkes-Barre; Amy McCaffery, Dover; Matthew Mercadante, West Chester; Helen Paris, Philadelphia; Ronnell Perkins, Wilkes-Barre; Aharon Riolo, East Stroudsburg; Radoslava Slavova, Scranton; and Donald Stewart Jr., Bartonsville.

©2010 The Scranton Times Tribune

A barely passable documentary about a ground-breaking funny gal
By Josh Board

Roger Ebert said of the new Joan Rivers documentary: “It’s the most truthful documentary about show business ever.”

Wow. He couldn’t be more wrong.

This documentary tells us little about show business.

If you want to see a better documentary that chronicles the ups and downs of the business, rent Anvil – The Story of Anvil, from last year. A heavy metal band that was big and now plays small clubs.

Where Rivers complains about a mid-week performance at an Indian casino where the room will only be half full (I’m guessing she’s still paid handsomely), Anvil flies to another country on some big promises, to play one club that literally had three fans. The club owner decided this wasn’t enough and wouldn’t pay them. The singer has to pin the guy to the wall, who is saying “I’ll give you stew, and you can have a nice dinner.” The singer yells “I don’t want any f***ing stew, I want to be paid what we were promised.” They somehow settle on $45 or something like that.

Part of my problem with this Rivers documentary is that I had heard many of these stories before. I’m guessing if you didn’t know about how she was the permanent guest host of The Tonight Show, before leaving to get her own late night talk show that quickly flopped (and losing a friendship with Johnny Carson in the process), you’ll be interested in seeing these things.

Sometimes you can know lots of stories regarding the subject matter and still be interested. I was surprised I liked the Andy Kaufman movie with Jim Carrey so much, even though I knew most of the stories they tackled.

Rivers shows the living room of her place, and it looks like it would’ve been Liberace’s wet dream. We see a few short segments with her daughter Melissa. One involves them fighting over her continued smoking, and the other has her complaining about being fired from Celebrity Apprentice. She comes across as very spoiled. At least with her mom, we feel she’s earned it.

It was freaky seeing Rivers without make-up, but I’m not sure why she wants us to have sympathy for her plight. She complains about people making fun of her plastic surgery, but back in her day as a biting comedian, she made fun of everyone. She was relentless on Liz Taylor and her weight gain.

I was also disappointed to only see a few stars comment on Rivers. After all, she was a legendary, groundbreaking female comedian. Are Don Rickles and Kathy Griffin the only ones they can get commenting on her?

Some scenes with Rivers interacting with fans are cute, but disappointing. It’s strange that a person so witty can’t do a better job making idle conversation with fans gushing over her.

The scene involving a heckler is absolutely terrific. Rivers makes a joke about hating kids because they’re so loud and that Helen Keller would’ve been the perfect kid, because she’d sit there not making noise.

As Rivers makes a weird facial expression, a man in the audience yells, “That’s not funny.” Rivers replies, “Oh yes it is.” The guy mentions having a deaf kid and for parents of deaf children that’s not funny.

She then lays into this guy about how it’s comedy, and it’s just a joke, and if he can’t take it he should leave (which he does).

Rivers reveals that she has a deaf mother, which I’m guessing is true. She also mentioned dating a guy with one leg, that really isn’t relevant to anything, but funny nonetheless. When people get mad and start screaming, often times the things out of their mouth don’t make sense but are amusing.

It’s also interesting how a fan gets her autograph after that show and says how stupid the guy was to yell out. Rivers has now had time to think about it and says it wasn’t, and the guy had a point and has a deaf kid and how it was probably cathartic for him to say what he did.

There was an interesting working relationship Rivers had with a long-time friend that she finally fires for being flakey and not showing up. She cries as she talks about him being the only one she could ever talk about the early days with, because he was with her through the birth of her daughter, the suicide of her husband and so much more.

It’s strange that Rivers rants and rants about not wanting to see her calendar bare with no dates to perform, and it never is.

She does a conference call where she tells an agency she’ll do any commercial for any company, even if that means wearing diapers, or having her teeth knocked out so she can endorse a denture cream. You almost believe she would, and it comes off as pathetic.

And just as you start to feel a tad bit of sympathy for the state of her career, you hear a phone call come in that’s offering her $125,000 to do a 3-day cruise. She takes it, telling her agent, “Tell them if they bump up the offer, I’ll also perform.”

I immediately thought – what?! They were going to pay her that much and she wasn’t going to have to perform?!

I then thought about how she has multiple personal assistants, a couple that runs her house…cooks, cleans, and other errands. And I wondered what it was I was having sympathy for. What percentage of Americans even make $125,000 a year, the amount she was going to get for three days of “work.”

Rivers does a Comedy Central roast, but admits she’s doing it only for the money. We find out she also hates the comedians talking about her age and plastic surgery.

Rivers also takes negative reviews poorly. She writes a play that does well in Scotland, but not in London. Watching her assistant read reviews to her in the back of a limo is painful, even with the woman trying to make them sound better than they are.

Rivers is in tears as she tells her she won’t take it to New York because she can’t deal with such harsh reviews from those critics.

There’s an interesting scene where we see a library style cataloging system with all her jokes, and there must be a million written on index cards. She pulls out a few to read, and they’re great.

We see the expected clips of her on Carson, Ed Sullivan, and Jack Paar, but we’ve seen those clips before.

We don’t see any of her social life, and lots of other things that might’ve made this more interesting and complete.

I think this could’ve been edited down to an hour, and worked nicely as a TV special (with the subject matter and language, probably on HBO).

Rivers never reveals the face behind the mask (so to speak), but instead, it’s a mask behind the mask.

I’m a huge fan of her comedy, but not this movie. I’m giving it a D+.

About the author: Josh Board wrote stories for the North County Times while he was still in high school. After attending San Diego State University, he got a job at radio station KIOZ (Rock 105.3 FM), where he wrote for the morning show and did weekend and sports reporting on the air. He’s written jokes for several national comedians, including Jay Leno and David Letterman. Board wrote for the San Diego Reader for 15 years, and currently has a monthly column in Autograph Magazine...Watch for Board's movie reviews on Fox5 TV. More by this author

©2010 SanDiego.com.

Doctors and parents will tell you a baby know his mother's voice the first time he or she hears it.

And there's proof of that. An 8-month-old baby boy named Jonathan with a hearing impairment received a Cochlear Implant.

And just moments after the doctor turned it on he heard his mom's voice.

Jonathan's father, who was videotaping, called it an early Christmas present and he says it even brought him to tears.

Jonathan is now 2 years old, but just last week that video became a sensation on YouTube.

To see the video of Jonathan hearing his mom, click here.

For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.

© 2010 WHEC-TV, LLC

TALLEQUAH, Okla. — Reasor’s here claims it is the first retailer in Oklahoma to offer a technology at its pharmacy window for hearing impaired patients.

The technology is the installation of an induction loop system that makes it easier for hearing impaired patients with telecoil-equipped hearing aids to communicate with the pharmacist.

With a thin wire placed around the listening area, a special amplifier and a microphone, the system broadcasts the desired sound as a magnetic signal, which in turn is picked up by the telecoil in the hearing aid device. The system is in two of Reasor’s 15 locations and the retailer plans to expand the service to other stores.

Reasor’s advertises the service through signage at the pharmacy window. Customers are instructed to switch their hearing aid or cochlear device to the “T,” “T-Coil” or “telephone” position in order to receive high quality, amplified reproduction of the sound. The system nearly eliminates all background noise.

With the first baby boomers reaching age 65 this year — a segment with a high rate of hearing loss — Reasor’s recognized the need for such systems in order to better communicate with its patients. “Hearing impairment is on the rise for a variety of reasons and wellness and prevention are enhanced when all aspects of medication therapy and disease management are understood,” said Mike Dotson, Reasor’s director of pharmacy, in a press statement.

Dotson told SN the installations are a joint program with Hearing Loop Specialists, a company formed by a local audiologist to help those with hearing loss better communicate in public spaces. Under the program, it costs Reasor’s approximately $1,000 per installation, said Dotson. The technology is in widespread use in European countries rather than in the U.S., he noted.

© 2010 Penton Media, Inc.

A system for improving hearing in patients with cochlear implants, new environmentally friendly engineering technology, and polymers that shine blue—these are just some of the innovations that were showcased at this year’s Intarg National Fair for Economic and Scientific Innovations in the southern city of Katowice April 23-25.

This year’s event, held for the fifth time, focused on the subject of “Knowledge and Innovation as Best Business Assets.” Forty exhibitors, including entrepreneurs, research centers, universities and schools, displayed their innovations. Twelve exhibitors were named Innovation Leaders in a national competition that has accompanied the fair since it was launched in 2002.

This year, two “Innovation Super-Leader” titles were granted as well. The first one went to the Institute of Mechanized Construction and Rock Mining in Warsaw for being named Innovation Leader five times in a row. The other was presented to Deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak for his contribution and commitment to the implementation of the European Union’s Innovative Economy Operational Program.

Innovation leaders
The Innovation Leader competition was organized by the Regional Innovation Center/Silesia Province Club for Technology and Improvement in Katowice, in association with the Katowice International Fair company, the Upper Silesian Agency for Enterprise Restructuring, and the Eurobusiness-Haller company. The event was held under the auspices of the Ministry of the Economy, the president of the Polish Patent Office, and the chairman of Silesia province.

In addition to exhibition stands, the fair featured a series of seminars dedicated to issues such as investment in new technology, subsidies for innovation in the small and medium-sized business sector, and the use of innovative ideas in business practice.

Apart from inventions and new technology, new products based on inventions, innovative architectural projects, and leading data storage and processing systems were singled out for praise, along with modern educational programs, outstanding dissertations and new management ideas.

Award winners
The award winners this year included a number of engineering projects, such as an environmentally friendly technology for deep purification of coke-oven gas (Koksoprojekt Design Office); a new method for wet quenching of coke (Multicon Technical Modernization Company); and an invention called “a method and system for the separation of tar from coking waters” (Multicon Technical Modernization Company). The exhibition also featured other environmental projects, including “a technology for cleaning and low-temperature remelting of the metal components of waste batteries” (Orzeł Biały SA), and “a system for safe neutralization of asbestos-containing waste” (Środowisko I Innowacje Sp. z o.o).

Car cosmetics producer Melle showed several dozen car care and cleaning products, most of them made with the use of nanotechnology.

Two Innovation Leader titles went to inventions related to improving and testing hearing. The Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing in Warsaw won praise for its “system for the tele-rehabilitation of patients with cochlear implants,” enabling remote control, setting and adjustment of cochlear implants in patients regardless of their whereabouts.

A company called Instytut Narządów Zmysłów (The Institute of Sense Organs) was named Innovation Leader for its “Senses Examination Platform.” This is a portable device for the screening of hearing, sight and speech in children, teenagers and people with special educational needs. The device can be used for audiometric tests, screening tests of hearing, speech and sight, and for audiological testing, the company says.

The University of Silesia in Katowice, the Central Mining Institute and the Silesian University of Technology received a joint award for inventing a method for producing photoluminescent polymers. According to the inventors, these polymers could mark a breakthrough in the production of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays and computer monitors. In normal conditions, they look like transparent plastic film, the inventors say, but when stimulated with ultraviolet light or electric current, they shine blue. Blue polymers are the most difficult to make, the scientists say. They hope that their invention will result in the production of higher resolution displays.

The Silesian University of Technology, in association with the Wasko company, won another award—for their WAMAX broadband platform for wireless data transmission. This device, based on WiMAX technology, enables high-capacity radio access over large areas, the inventors say. It offers an alternative to wire networks, especially as it requires smaller financial outlays to build the necessary infrastructure, according to the inventors.

The Institute of Mechanized Construction and Rock Mining was named Innovation Super-Leader for winning an award in the competition for the fifth straight time. This year the institute exhibited an innovative technology for making composite boards from packaging waste for use in the construction sector.

Ewa Dereń

By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer

HAMILTON — The hearing world may not think of deaf people as a “minority population,” but Hamilton resident Jennifer Ficker-Halupnik said she faced elements of discrimination, oppression and ignorance from a very young age — and has eagerly fought for understanding and equal access.

Ficker-Halupnik, who is profoundly deaf from birth, recently received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Cincinnati and plans to be an advocate for the deaf, who need to be viewed as a cultural linguistic minority group, not as a medically disabled group, because their primary language — American Sign Language — is visual and spatial, and English is their second language.

“English can be a challenging second language to master for anyone, but without auditory information it can be doubly hard for the deaf,” she said in an e-mail interview. “Deaf people often struggle with English grammar and vocabulary because they do not hear English on a daily basis like hearing people.”

Although she can lip read, that process only gives her about 30 percent of the information.

“I must use contextual and other clues to figure out the message of what is being said,” she said. “This can be very stressful.”

A native of the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ficker-Halupnik said that her desire to be an advocate came as she was about to enter high school, where she was the only deaf person in the district. Her middle school teachers had recommended her for advanced placement classes, but her high school counselor discouraged her from taking those courses even though she already proved herself capable.

“The counselor was not supportive of my choice and predicted I would fail,” she said. “My parents always encouraged me to advocate for myself, which I did in order to have access to the education and services I deserved.

“In general, throughout high school and college, if any situations arose due to my hearing loss, or I encountered obstacles to accessibility, I was anxious to jump in and fight for necessary changes.”

Her biggest challenge to being deaf is the isolation of it.

“It takes a while for people to feel comfortable with me,” she said. “They are often tentative and unsure about how to communicate with me.”

And like other minorities, the biggest misconception among hearing people is that deaf people are all the same.

“Like all minority populations, deaf are individuals that deserved to be seen for individual qualities and characteristics,” Ficker-Halupnik said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

© 2010 Hamilton Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio, USA.

Scranton School for Deaf commencement

JACQUELINE LUKAS Times Leader Intern

SCRANTON – Like other area high school graduates, the young men and women from the Scranton School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are moving on.

Ten students of the Class of 2010 were honored in graduation ceremonies Wednesday night.

Donald Rhoten, superintendent for the Scranton school and the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, welcomed the graduates and their supporters.

“This is one of the best groups I have ever worked with,” he said.

He then introduced speaker Dr. Nathie Marbury, a professor at Austin Community College in Central Texas. Marbury went to a deaf school and then onto college.

Marbury talked to graduates about her feelings when she was a graduate.

“Cry all you want,” signed Marbury. “There’s no law against it.”

She told the graduates a story about never giving up. An ant couldn’t lift a piece of bread, but when another insect challenged the ant, he picked it up, just like that.

Then she asked the graduates what the story was about.

“Never giving up,” one graduate signed.

“If you have a bad attitude, change it,” another signed.

“Hard work can get you through anything,” signed another.

After Marbury’s speech, four awards were presented to three graduates. The first was presented to Radoslava Slavova from the North Scranton Rotary Club for a $1,000 scholarship. The award for academic excellence went to Aharon Riolo. The citizenship award went to Byron Evans and the award for leadership went to Slavova.

Both the salutatorian, Slavova, and the valedictorian, Riolo, spoke about their time at the school.

Slavova was born in Bulgaria and moved with her family to the United States when she was 12 years old with a kindergarten reading level. She went on to be prom queen, homecoming queen, salutatorian, Miss Teen Deaf Pennsylvania 2010, student government member and science fair winner.

“When you face trials in life, don’t ever give up,” quoted Slavova from one of her teachers. “Make your way through.”

Riolo, an avid NASCAR fan, applied real life to his NASCAR-themed speech. He told the group about teamwork and how important it is in real life and in the auto-racing world of NASCAR.

“You know, in racing, you race in laps. If the car isn’t handling well, you have a crew, kind of like your family,” Riolo signed. “Then your ‘crew’ is trying to figure out what’s wrong. You are working as a team, you rely on them. You trust them.”

After listening to the speeches, diplomas were awarded to each graduate and each signed something to the audience.

“I’m going to miss everybody here,” signed Demetrius Curtis. “My parents, my friends: I love you all.”

© 2010 The Times Leader.

By Bob Watson
For the Fulton Sun

Missouri's schools for the deaf and blind will continue operating in the future, but perhaps with a different role to play.

John Heskett, former assistant commissioner for Special Education in the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, told the state Board of Education Friday that current Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro challenged him to lead a task force that would recommend "significant budget reductions" while still operating the state schools for "children who are sensory impaired -- blind and deaf -- at a very high level of quality."

The task force this month proposed about $400,000 in budget cuts, and another $300,000 in savings by transferring some students to the state's Schools for the Severely Disabled, which are closer to their homes.

Heidi Atkins Lieberman, current assistant commissioner for Special Education, said the proposed transfers only involve "about 14 kids" who were allowed to stay at MSD and MSB several years ago, when the state changed its criteria to exclude "any children that would also qualify for Missouri's Schools for the Severely Disabled."

In 1851 Missouri lawmakers created the state schools for the deaf, in Fulton, and blind, in St. Louis. Both offer primarily residential programs to help educate those with severe sensory impairments.

"We convened a task force that involved representatives from the blind and deaf communities," Heskett reported, including school leadership, their advisory boards and alumni associations.

"We also had individuals representing advocacy groups within the state, that provide encouragement for the development of quality services for children who are blind and deaf."

Some of the savings would come from "additional personnel reductions that can be taken as a function of lower student enrollments at both of these schools," Heskett said.

MSD currently has about 110 students, while the MSB population is around 70.

"Those are down significantly, even over the last couple of years," Heskett said, noting the reductions have occurred even as the number of deaf children in Missouri has risen by 2 percent, and the number of blind students is up 14 percent.

That reduction at the two residential schools is possible, Heskett said, because local school districts can "better-serve the children at home" than in the past.

Among deaf students, he said, family decisions have led to "75 percent of children born deaf" getting cochlear implants "before age 2," letting most of those students stay in their local, home districts.

However, Lieberman said, those children still need extra help in their classrooms.

"Some people think that, because you've had a cochlear implant, you hear like everybody else," she noted, "and that couldn't be further from the truth. ... Part of this is resulting in a change in the role of the Missouri School for the Deaf.

"In the last couple of years, we have done a lot of work to increase our visibility in terms of outreach, and to provide assistance to schools ... so that we can keep those kids in their home districts."

But other children -- especially those for whom cochlear implants don't work -- go to school after having lost 2-3 years of learning because they haven't been able to develop any kind of communication or linguistic skills.

Often, they still need the concentrated help the residential schools provide.

Also, Nicastro said, DESE officials already have started working with the governor's office and others to change the state's Medicaid plan, so more federal money could go to the two schools' budgets. The process likely will take more than a year.

© 2010 The Fulton Sun.

McCann says cases were too old to prosecute
By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse on Wednesday accused retired Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann of failing to prosecute a Catholic priest accused of molesting as many as 200 deaf boys, saying at least one of the cases brought to his office in the 1970s was within the statute of limitations.

Victim Gary Smith, members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and a state official said McCann's office knew in 1974 that Father Lawrence Murphy had molested Smith, a student at St. John's School for the Deaf in St. Francis, as recently as 1970, both at the school and on several trips out of state.

McCann and his then-deputy, William Gardner, say they can't recall the details of events 35 years ago but that they knew of no cases involving Murphy that were within the six-year statute of limitations at the time. And Gardner, who met with at least one group of Murphy's victims around 1974, said he does not remember Smith.

"I don't recall any of these guys being under the statute of limitations," said McCann, who doesn't recall ever meeting with victims himself and insisted his office aggressively pursued offender priests, at one point even convicting a religious brother who was later exonerated.

On Wednesday, the Milwaukee chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests released an account by Smith, written in 1974, that alleges Murphy molested him at the school from November 1963 until he graduated in 1970, and again on trips to Washington, D.C., New York and Minnesota between March and May 1970.

Speaking through an interpreter from his home in Texas, Smith said he provided the document to Gardner during a meeting in 1974, but that Gardner didn't seem interested.

"He didn't really have a whole heck of a lot to say," Smith said.

John Conway, a state counselor for the deaf and hard of hearing in 1974, said he had more than one meeting and phone conversation with Gardner about Murphy's victims, including Smith.

"We were told most of the guys were beyond the statute of limitations, so we were very clear that Gary Smith was not," said Conway, now deputy administrator for the state workers compensation program in Wisconsin.

Gardner vehemently denied the allegations.

"Those guys are making up stories," he said.

Victims have long questioned McCann's handling of clergy abuse cases, saying he failed to aggressively prosecute pedophile priests.

The allegations have resurfaced in recent days as victims around the world question the Catholic Church's handling of clergy sex abuse cases, including the decision by the Vatican's Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, not to take action against Murphy when asked by then-Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland in 1996.

McCann, a Catholic who now volunteers with a Catholic charity, said he prosecuted several priests and an elderly nun over the years, examined the archdiocese's files for anything that could be charged, and reviewed an attorney general's opinion to determine what if any action could be taken against the archdiocese.

SNAP director Peter Isely used the latest allegations to call on McCann to drop his opposition to the Child Victims Act, which would make it easier for victims to sue their abusers for damages and open a three-year window for old cases that were previously blocked from the courts.

McCann said he opposed the legislation in part because it would financially harm the church, ultimately affecting the poor it serves today, but also because of the possibility that older cases - with faulty memories and lack of evidence - could result in prosecution and conviction of innocent people.

"Remember I'm the guy who prosecuted an innocent man," McCann said of David Sanders, who served five months of a 15-year sentence before another man came forward in 2007.

"And that's a sobering experience."

@ 2010 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Jessica Albert

HARRISONBURG, Va. — After being falsely pronounced dead at birth, Richard Pimentel was abandoned by his biological mother. Four years later, his grandmother adopted him from an orphanage and raised him.

Even with a rough start to his life, Pimental enlisted in the army during the Vietnam War, where he suffered a brain injury and severe hearing loss.

Now a disability activist Pimentel spoke in HHS Monday, during Disability Awareness Week, about his life and experiences with a disability.

Pimentel is a nationally renowned expert on disability management, job recruitment, retention and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Pimentel’s life was made into a 2007 film called “Music Within.”

The Office of Disability Services scheduled and planned events for Disability Awareness Week that go along with their theme for this year: “Anyone can change the world.”

“I’m the coolest old fat man you will ever meet in your life,” Pimentel said during his speech.

Pimentel humorously told stories about his life during the evening. He wanted the audience to understand why they would want to hear what he had to say.

Pimentel said he struggled as a youth because of his stay at the orphanage.

“I was a voluntary mute,” Pimentel said. “I didn’t speak in public and didn’t say much at home.”

Pimentel was considered mentally retarded by many school officials when he was younger. This, along with the fact that Pimentel’s family was poor, prevented him from going to college.

During the Vietnam War he got into an accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury and experienced significant hearing loss. This accident caused him to be removed from the army. After the army Pimentel enrolled in Portland State on his own dime.

After enrolling at Portland State, Pimentel and another disabled college friend were arrested 33 times while trying to get their point across about disabled Americans.

He became an advoate and activist for the Disabilities Rights Movement. Disabilities Services Specialist, Matt Trybus said, “He was instrumental in creating the coalition that eventually constructed and helped pass the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

At the end of his speech, Pimentel repeated the theme of JMU’s Disability Awareness Week to reinforce that he is living proof of it.

Unlike most campus events, there was a sign language interpreter for deaf individuals and a voice activated word processor that displayed the text of the speech live.

Disability Services was pleased with the number of people who showed up. Last year, a movie screening during Disability Awareness Week had less than 10 individuals attend.

@ 2010 the Breeze

By Staff Report

LEBANON — A deaf man remains hospitalized two days after he was struck by a vehicle while attempting to cross North Broadway near the Warren County Fairgrounds.

The condition of Kenneth Martz, 31, has improved from critical to fair condition this morning, April 1, according to officials at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.

Martz was trying to cross the street around 3:20 p.m. Tuesday, March 30, when he was struck by a woman driving a Buick Park Avenue.

Police said the driver of the car that struck Martz was Doris Clatty of Lebanon. Police at the scene said Martz darted out in front of Clatty and that they didn’t expect to charge her in the accident. Police said they believe Martz did not see the car before he attempted to cross the street.

Martz was transported by medical helicopter to the hospital where he was a patient in the intensive care unit in critical condition a day after the accident.

@ 2010 Dayton Daily News

A deaf West Side woman was charged with aggravated battery to a child Thursday for allegedly shaking and squeezing an infant she was caring for earlier this month.

Angela Harris, 47, of 5200 block of West Quincy, was charged early Thursday after police questioned her through a sign-language interpreter, police said.

On March 13, a 7-month-old boy was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston for breathing problems and a swollen head. He was later transferred to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, a police report said.

The baby was diagnosed with several fractures: at least three on the skull, two ribs which police said were healing, the left wrist, right femur, right tibia and left tibia (two), according to the report.

The child also had several new and old brain bleeds (subdural hematomas) and retinal hemorrhaging consistent with and indicative of shaken baby syndrome, the report said.

Harris was identified as a household member and caretaker for the victim, according to the report.

She was taken voluntarily to Grand Central Area headquarters where she allegedly demonstrated on a doll what she had done to the victim -- shaking him and grabbing the victim by the wrist, pulling him up from a bed and aggressively squeezing him, the report said.

Grand Central Area detectives are investigating.

@ 2010 Sun-Times

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state Senate has approved a measure that lets counties and the state increase a tax on landline and cell phone bills to pay for 911 system upgrades.

Under the measure that passed on a 29-12 vote Thursday, voice over internet services would be taxed as well. All the increases would take effect Jan. 1, 2011.

The bill lets counties increase their excise tax to 70 cents per month, up from the current 50 cents. And the state tax would increase 5 cents to 25 cents a month. The measure now heads to the House for further consideration

Supporters say the tax is needed to help modernize the 911 emergency response system, especially in rural counties. The new system would include voice and data texting to help hearing impaired or deaf residents.

@ 2010 Seattle Post Intelligencer

JILL CALLISON

When Brad Wyant learned sign language, he didn't know it was a method of communication that dated back centuries.

But when he researched its history, he found that in North America sign language extended back to Native Americans who used it to converse with members of other tribes.

Wyant, the first deaf student to attend Brandon Valley High School, also didn't know that the manual alphabet used in sign language dated back to a Spanish monk in the 16th century.

But what Wyant has learned during his years of using American Sign Language is that it, like any method of communication, must be receptive to change.

And the Sioux Falls man has a few changes of his own to propose.

Wyant has written and illustrated a book titled "Rhyming Signing: Proper Handshapes with Precise Movements for American Sign Language."

In the book, he suggests what he calls an innovative approach to teaching sign language.

Wyant groups similar hand signs together, even though they may be used to form words with completely different meanings in the English language.

By doing that, he says, "it is logical that students will learn to sign more vocabulary in less time."

For example, after Wyant learned the alphabet in ASL, curving his hand in different shapes to spell out words, he then learned the signs for different objects.

But his instructors would group the signs together.

"They teach you in groups like you learn everything there is in the kitchen: fork, spoon, bowl," Wyant says. "Or they talk about the living room: TV, couch, chair."

With Wyant's method, you learn the shape for the letter O, curving the first four fingers until they touch the thumb.

With both hands curved in the O shape, Wyant would teach an ASL student the word "owl," using both hands to circle the eyes and rotating the wrist.

Then he would move on to the word opportunity, which again uses both hands in the O shape, this time near the upper stomach with the elbows at the side. The hands are pushed forward, while the O changes to the sign for the letter P.

@ 2010 Argus Leader

Since Nov 2008, Deaf Today went inactive and have been hibernating for long time. It was inexcusable to let that happen. But I have decided to let Deaf Today shut down for good. Although the final day of going offline is unknown, maybe April 30, 2010 as I work to archive and remove this from the server and disconnect.

It's been great ten years since Deaf Today was conceived by Roger Vass and I took over in 2002. I enjoyed sharing news I collected all from over the world which created this motto: "Bringing you the news daily from a to z from around the world!"

Well, it's sad to see this go as I do not have time to focus on Deaf Today to bring you all the news to you.

I bid farewell to all of my readers!

Good Night!
Webmaster

UPDATE! This was a April Fool's Joke! Deaf Today is not dead! :)