2019_fall_nl_fndc : simplebooklet.com

Fall (Sept 2019)FALLFNDC values sharing information to deaf children, families, professionals and the communities that support them. These events, advertisements and/or articles do not necessarily reect the viewpoint of FNDC or offer an endorsementTwitter: @FNDCandDYTFacebook: www.facebook.com/fndc.c aFacial Expression – how important is it?FNDC Editor’s Note: This is an article I wrote in June 1997 – when my daughter was only 6 years old. I was re-reading it recently and the info is still tting and a great reminder to me 12 years later about the importance of facial expression – which I admit – after all these years, I still have to work at it.I just nished an ASL course that had a lot of emphasis on facial expression. I entered the class thinking that I wanted to learn more vocabulary- after all, how important can facial expression really be?Then I started reading an interesting book called What’s That Pig Outdoors. A Memoir of Deafness, written by Henry Kisor. Henry is a deaf man that uses listening and speaking and is denitely not a sign language user. This is was he has to say about facial expression, based on his life experiences as an listening and speaking deaf person: “When I was growing up, almost all American elementary school teachers were women. American women, whose culture does not train them to suppress their feelings, are much easier for most deaf children and deaf adults to understand than are most American men, who have grown up in a society that values a poker face. For a lipreader, expressiveness must substitute for inections and differ-ences in emphasis that shade the meanings of spoken words. A cock of the head or slightly raised eyebrows, for example, can mean a question is being asked. Brows that reach the roof can indicate disbelief. A single raised eyebrow implies skepticism or contempt. The sentence “it was you who said it,” can have three meanings, depending on whether the stress is on “was” or “said”. A nod of the head, a jut of the jaw may be the only clues that a word is being emphasized.” The book really made me take a long hard look at facial expression. I was thinking that if this man who doesn’t sign nds meaning in expression, surely there must be something to it. It certainly made me think.I practiced and practiced, and lo and behold my 6-year-old deaf daughter approached me and said, “I love your facial expression, who taught you that?” She comments regularly about facial expression. It’s almost like we have discovered communication together for the rst time. When I burrow my eyebrows down, she guesses, “You’re going to ask me a question?” (and I haven’t even signed a thing yet!)How do adults and children add meaning to their sentences? Well, one of the ways is with facial expression, but how come it took me ve years to nally gure this out?So, is facial expression important? I have to tell you… from my personal experience… I am blown away by how much meaning and tone comes from watching a person’s face. And, I learned that from a 6 year old!Cecelia

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FNDC Fall • 20192 HOSTED BY PARENT SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS: Parenting Workshop Learning, Harmony & Fun: Parenting our Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children Barbara Desmarais, “The Parenting Coach,” has many years of experience leading parenting courses and workshops, as well as providing one on one parent coaching. Barb’s training in the area of early child education, as well as her personal experience as a parent, fed her passion for the quality of care we provide for our children. Barb and her partner have raised four children, including twin step-sons who are both Deaf, so she can personally relate to our experience raising children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Let’s learn together to live in harmony with our kids, to find the fun and reduce our parenting struggles! Specific topics will include: • Having effective communication with our children • Supporting our children’s social needs • Being mindful of the needs of our other children • Discipline & setting boundaries • Thinking about what messages we want to give our children • Maintaining life balance when raising a child who is DHH Parent Focused: This event is specifically for parents who have deaf/hard of hearing children or youth. Our organizations believe in the value of parent connections - the workshop will include opportunities to share your stories, ask questions, and network with other parents. ASL Interpreters & CART captioning will be provided. Saturday, November 16, 2019 9:45 am to 3:00 pm BC School for the Deaf Burnaby South Secondary 5455 Rumble Street Burnaby, BC WITH SUPPORT FROM: Workshop: $15.00 per adult - includes lunch Live Stream: $15.00 per adult - online workshop DYT: $10.00 per child - bring a bagged lunch Childcare: $10.00 per child - bring a bagged lunch Register by November 6, 2019 www.fndc.ca/parentworkshop REGISTER NOW! www.fndc.ca/parentworkshop For your Kids Childcare and Deaf Youth Today (DYT) Fun Day have limited space & will be provided on a first come, first served basis. Registration is required. Babies to Age 5: Onsite childcare for deaf/hard of hearing children and their hearing siblings. Ages 5 to 12: DYT FUN DAY! A day of fun activities for deaf hard of hearing child organized by our experienced DYT staff. We hope to have most of the day’s events onsite. DYT values the importance and benefit of sign language. Our staff use ASL in our program* *Based on response to DYT programming during past joint workshops, DYT emphasizes that staff may or may not use listening/speaking as a communication tool. This is an individual and personal choice which DYT understands and respects. DYT will provide interpreters so that children new to sign language feel welcomed and encouraged to join the program. This is a great peer/mentoring opportunity for deaf and hard of hearing children in an ASL-rich environment.

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FNDC Fall • 20196BC Children's Hospital opens rst-in-Canada hearing clinichttps://bc.ctvnews.ca/bc-children-s-hospital-opens-rst-in-canada-hearing-clinic-1.4486213 By CTV News Vancouver·Posted: Jun.27, 2019Lily Palmer got a cochlear implant - a device implanted in the brain that allows a deaf or hard-of-hearing person to hear - when she was just one year old.Since then, for more than a decade, her family has made the eight-and-a-half hour drive from their home in Prince George to BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver multiple times per year.On Thursday, they didn't have to. The rst of its kind in Canada, the clinic allows doctors to tap into a patient's implant remotely. (CTV)BC Children's Hospital has opened a permanent, remote clinical service for patients with cochlear implants in Prince George.The rst of its kind in Canada, the clinic allows doctors to tap into a patient's implant remotely. That means families like Palmer's don't have to make their way to Vancouver for the routine procedure known as "virtual mapping," a process that essentially amounts to tuning the device."Now we can have a patient visit our clinic that we have set up in Prince George, and we can remote in and remotely control the software that they need to be connected to while we program their cochlear implants," said audiologist Reagen Bergstrom, who conducted Lily Palmer's virtual mapping session Thursday."They don't actually have to be physically with us on the same site any longer," Bergstrom said.Andrea Palmer, Lily's mother, told CTV News Vancouver the new facility is going to make their family's life easier and more aordable."I don't think telehealth will take over from all of our visits because face-to-face is still really great," Andrea Palmer said. "But for the basic mapping sessions, when we don't have any problems and we're just checking in, it's fantastic."BC Children’s Hospital hopes to set up three or four similar clinics across the province over the next two years.Currently, there are approximately 250 deaf and hard of hearing children with cochlear implants in B.C., according to the hospital, which provides roughly 35 new cochlear implants each year. More than 40 per cent of the hospital's cochlear implant patients live outside the Greater Vancouver area.University of Rochester medical studentsspend the day in the shoes of deaf hospital patientshttps://www.rochesterrst.com/news/ur-medical-students-spend-the-day-in-the-shoes-of-deaf-hospital-patients/ Aug 23, 2019ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC-TV) — For those with hearing, it can be hard to imagine some of the challenges in Rochester’s deaf community. That’s why medical students from the University of Rochester spent the day in a “no voice zone.”First-year students were tasked with seeking advice from sta and doctors who only used American sign language. All the sta and doctors were deaf volunteers.Each student was given the ASL alphabet prior to the event as a base. The idea is for students to experience the same barriers many deaf people have navigating the complex healthcare system.“So it really shows them what deaf people experience, and other people from other countries who don’t speak English as their primary language, what their experience is. So when they graduate school and move to other places, hopefully, they can take this experience with them and work with these patients better,” said Kelly Matthews, senior research coordinator for the National Center for Deaf Health Research.The program is conducted early on in every fall semester.

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FNDC Fall • 20197Deaf student creates more than 100 new signs for scientic termshttps://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/deaf-student-creates-100-signs-scientic-terms-64691616 Posted: July 29, 2019When Liam Mcmulkin began his studies at Scotland’s University of Dundee, he quickly realized a glaring oversight not only in the program, but in British Sign Language in general: signs for science.As he delved into more complex topics, and learned words such as phosphorylation or oxidation, the signs that were used to commu-nicate the lessons often took up an inecient amount of time because they had to be spelled out with each letter, he said.“It’s not easy to convey complex processes with a few hand gestures,” he told ABC News via email on Monday. Mcmulkin , who is deaf, took it upon himself to x the problem. "With terms about developmental biology spring up, I made a conscious decision to start creating signs that I thought were required," he said. He has since created more than 100 new signs to use in his science courses. Mcmulkin said creating each sign requires following the grammar structure, hand shape and movement of British Sign Language. Then each term has to be agreed upon by a forum of sign linguists, deaf people and deaf specialists. It took him about two months.The University of Dundee, located in the city of the same name, plans to continue using the new signs for years to come. “Liam’s eort towards creating new signs is crucial to the future of the life sciences,” Dr. Marios Stavridis, the head of the biological sciences at the University of Dundee and Mcmulkin ’s supervisor, told ABC News in a statement."If you imagine having to nger spell highly technical terms whilst sitting in a lecture or having a quick conversation with a colleague, you can appreciate how taxing and dicult it has been for Liam."Simon Harvey, a spokesman for the ocial site for British Sign Language’s online courses, said new terms become part of the language once they are regularly used.“If these scientic vocabulary signs have begun to be used by others around the country then they will begin to be recognised as BSL signs,” he said.Mcmulkin , now in his third year at the school, hopes to continue his endeavor, which was rst reported by the BBC, and help more students as they make their way through complex science courses.Video Relay Service (VRS) Technologyto Empower Canadian Deaf Youth Today! With access to video relay service,Canada VRSis creating opportunities for Deaf Youth and Students across Canada. Young Canadians are able to build lifelong and meaningful connections with teachers, students, friends, family and future employers, for example. It isFREEof charge and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Registration is easy and using VRS results in many benets.Parents of Deaf ChilDrenA Deaf child under the age of majority can register to use theSRV Canada VRSapp with the authorization of their Parent or Legal Guardian. Parents or Legal Guardians can provide authorization via Online Form or Paper Form by following the instructions online: https://srvcanadavrs.ca/en/youth/sChool eventsOur Community Outreach Team will come to your school and give an educa-tional presentation on how VRS can empower your students and their families. Students will also be able to register, ask questions, get technical support and even share ideas with others on how to use the Canada VRS app. Find out how to host a Canada VRS School Event at your school and empower your students: https://srvcanadavrs.ca/en/school-events/Canada VRS is pleased to have a Community Outreach Specialist, Nadine Buchwald who works closely with British Columbia’s Deaf Communities. Nadine is ready to oer information and technical support in your region: nadine@srvcanadavrs.ca

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Reprinted with Permission – Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, Gallaudet UniversityFNDC Fall • 20198Leah began preschool with a Deaf teacheras well as a one-to-one aide who was fluentin American Sign Language (ASL). Thisenvironment not only benefited our owndeaf child, but the access to a completevisual language benefited each child in thatpreschool class. Having our deaf child’seducational needs met in the exact way wewanted was no accident; it was a result ofadvocacy andcollaboration. Collaboration firstcame throughconversations withother parents of deafchildren—parents whohad already gonethrough this sameprocess. We learnedfrom their mistakesand from theirsuccesses. We relied onthe expertise andkindness of Deafprofessionals, like Dr.Lawrence “Larry”Fleischer, whoattended Leah’sIndividualizedEducation Program(IEP) meeting as anadvocate. Dr. Fleischerarmed us with research and facts, and heshared his own life experience. Originally, our school district had hopedthat providing an ASL interpreter in atypical preschool class would meet Leah’sneeds. We explained that our deaf 3-year-old didn’t know English, and as hearingparents, we weren’t fluent in ASL. Leahdidn’t need someone to interpret what anEnglish-speaking teacher was saying; ourchild needed to acquire a first language. Inorder to do that, Leah needed access tofluent signers who could model a visuallanguage. Additionally, this would provideLeah with theopportunity to acquirelanguage incidentally.We had learned thathaving one fluentsigner in the classroomwas not enough; twofluent signers werenecessary for acomplete visuallanguage model.I recently sat downwith Dr. MarcMarschark, director ofthe Center forEducation ResearchPartnerships at theNational TechnicalInstitute for the Deaf,who, in no uncertainterms, expressed thatparent involvement isparamount when itcomes to a deaf child’s success. While Iwish the research showed that everything Ichose for my own deaf child is right for alldeaf children, it doesn’t. Instead, we findthat there is no one-size-fits-all approachRachel Coleman isthe executive director ofthe American Society forDeaf Children(www.deafchildren.org), theoldest nationalorganization founded byand governed by parents ofdeaf children. She is theEmmy award-nominatedhost and creator of“Signing Time!,” theAmerican Sign Languagevocabulary building series,broadcast on PBS stations,Netflix, Nick Jr., andwww.mysigningtime.com.Coleman and her husband,Aaron, reside inCottonwood Heights,Utah, with their youngestchild, Lucy, who has spinabifida and cerebral palsy.Their oldest child, Leah, isa proud deaf transgenderperson who is a senior atthe National TechnicalInstitute for theDeaf/Rochester Institute ofTechnology majoring inindividualized studies withthe concentrations of deafcultural studies, design,and social inequalities. THE BACK PAGEBy Rachel ColemanThe best IEPs are collaborationscreated by a team of expertswho trust andsupport one another throughout theprocess. Deaf Education: Let Advocacy andCollaboration Pave the Way ODYSSEY 201988Reprinted with Permission – Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, Gallaudet UniversityFNDC Fall • 20198

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FNDC Fall • 20199when it comes to educating deaf andhard of hearing children. We mustconsider the child, their strengths andneeds, follow their lead, and be flexible. As a student’s needs change, it isimportant that their IEP be reviewedand adjustments be made if necessary.One afternoon as the IEP team membersdiscussed Leah’s educational needs, theywondered if an ASL interpreter was stillnecessary in Leah’s mainstream highschool classrooms now that Leah had acochlear implant. Leah stepped into therole of self-advocate, and as the onlycochlear implant user on the IEP team,Leah’s firsthand experience provedinvaluable. Our child shared, “In anideal environment, I can understand agood amount of spoken English with mycochlear implant, but most classroomsare not ideal environments. ASL worksfor me in every environment.” Studentswho are able to advocate for themselvesplay a crucial role in educating andinforming other members of the IEPteam. Over the years we have had IEPmeetings where we felt frustrated orintimidated. One time we left thedocument unsigned since we felt theservices listed were convenient for theschool but would fail to meet our child’sneeds. One team member pushed forwhat had worked for a different deafchild, not realizing it would not work forour deaf child. Remember, IEP teammembers are only human; this is why anIEP is not determined by only oneperson. Over the years, we have also had IEPmeetings that were relaxed and easy.We’ve worked with administrators andteachers who stood shoulder to shoulderwith us, committed to solving andresolving all concerns. The best IEPs arecollaborations created by a team ofexperts who trust and support oneanother throughout the process. Parentsare the experts when it comes to theirchildren. Students bring their ownexpertise, especially if they have theability to self-advocate. Educators andschool administrators know whichresources and services are available.Teachers are involved in the day to dayimplementation of an IEP, and theysupport students in reaching their goals.We all want what is best for ourchildren, for deaf and hard of hearingstudents. We might define “what is best”differently, and that’s okay. Workingtogether, we can leave deaf educationbetter than we found it. Advocacy andcollaboration pave the way.Join our team? https://plan.ca/about/our-team/join-our-team/

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FNDC Fall • 201912 Family and Community Services (FCS) Provincial Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services For families who have school-aged deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind children and youth FCS offers services: Family and Parent Support, Children and Youth Services, and Language Support in individualized or group settings. Please contact 604 809 1547 (text) if services or sessions do not work for you and/or your family. On-line ASL Classes coming soon! PDHHS Link www.gov.bc.ca/deafandhardofhearing Provincial Deaf and hard of Hearing Services See us on Facebook Family American Sign Language Sessions Bear Creek Elementary School – 13780-80 Ave, Surrey Tuesdays, 4:30-5:30PM (all levels) October 8, 15, 22, 29 & Nov 5, 12, 19, 26 Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts – 32041 Marshall Rd, Abbotsford Wednesdays, 4:30 – 5:30PM (all levels) October 9, 16, 23, 30 & Nov 6, 13, 20, 27 Provincial Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services – 4334 Victory Street, Burnaby Thursdays, 6:00-7:00PM (all levels) October 10, 17, 24 & Nov 7, 14, 21, 28 (No class on Oct 31) Adult Classes Only Provincial Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services – 4334 Victory Street, Burnaby “Conversational ASL: Putting in Practice!” Wednesdays, 9:30-10:30 (Intermediate level) Oct 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, & Nov 6, 13, 20, 27 Youth and Family Socials Deaf and Hard of Hearing Social Club at PDHHS – 4334 Victory St, Burnaby Fridays 1:00PM-3:00PM (Sept 27, Oct 11, 25, & Nov 8, 22) Youth Freaky Night on October 29, 2019 (more information to follow) To register or make a service request contact: 604 809 1547 (text) or fs@gov.bc.ca

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FNDC Fall • 201913These Deaf Writers Couldn't Find A Community In LA — So They Created A TV Showhttps://laist.com/2019/09/11/sundancetv-this-close-shoshannah-stern-josh-feldman.php Posted: September 11, 2019Behind the scenes of SundanceTV's "This Close," starring Shoshannah Stern as Kate and Josh Feldman as Michael. (Michael Moriatis/SundanceNow)In the rst episode of Sundance TV'sThis Close, a deaf graphic novelist is asked why he didn't make his book about a deaf character. He replies: "I didn't think it would sell."There's a self-referential irony to that line. Series creators Josh Feldman and Shoshannah Stern are deaf writers who also star as deaf characters. In fact, they're the rst deaf writers and stars of a television showever.The show draws on their experiences, depicting life in Los Angeles and how the entertainment industry treats deaf individuals. "We wanted to tell an authentic story not just about people, but about the city we live in," Feldman said.When the pair started shopping the show around, "The number one feedback we'd always get was 'Why [are] the characters deaf to begin with? What's the point of having a deaf character?' They didn't see any value in having a deaf character," Feldman said.The original concept for the show featured a hearing person as one of the main characters, "because we thought that would actually be easier to sell," Feldman said. "Whenever you see deaf leading characters on screen, they always have a hearing person with them. So we just wrote what we'd always seen — and that's the reason representation is so vital. It really shapes our understanding of what works," Stern added.Josh Feldman as Michael and Lisa Rinna as Priscilla on the set of the second season of "This Close." (Michael Moriatis/SundanceNow)When those conversations went nowhere, they decided to make the show themselves, as a web series.They funded it via Kickstarter and produced the pilot for $250.The Chances, as it was called, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017. We caught it at a screening that year at L.A.'s Outfest, where the response seemed unanimous: no one had ever seen anything like it before.In the two years since, the series was developed by SundanceTV into This Close, a half-hour dramedy about two deaf best friends navigating their personal and professional challenges in Los Angeles.What makes both iterations of the show so ground-breaking is not that they feature deaf characters, but that the deaf characters are three-dimensional."Typically, deaf characters are these amazing people, or they're role models" Feldman said. "With our show, we really wanted to make sure that [our characters] Kate and Michael would not be mistaken as role models. They're just two normal young adults trying to do their best.""There are all kinds of people in the world," Stern added. "Deaf people can be a———-, too. It was important for us to show Kate and Michael being messy." We caught up with Feldman and Stern at AMC/SundanceTV headquarters. The two were doing press in the lead up to the show's second seasonpremiere, on Thursday, September 12.Feldman and Stern's connection was palpable. They were hugging, dancing and, at one point, an L.A. Times photographer had them squeeze into the same chair to illustrate just how close they are.But when I sat down to chat with the duo, they were quick to note it wasn't always this way.Before meeting each other, it had been hard for each of them to nd their people in Los Angeles."The deaf community tends to center around deaf residential schools or any large employer of deaf individuals" Stern said. When it comes to the L.A. area, "The deaf community tends to be more in Riverside County. People here [in L.A.] are looking for more of a community. Because L.A. is such a spread out city, people tend to stay in their own areas. If you live on the Westside, you don't go to Eastside. For deaf people, that can become very dicult for them to nd other deaf people to interact with."Starring in a TV series helped them create what they couldn't nd."We've set a lot of new precedents with our show," Feldman said. "That includes casting people in front of the camera [and] hiring people to work behind the camera."They have 25 deaf people, including actors, photogra-phers, editors and hair and makeup artists, working on the show. Stern and Feldman don't want to stop there."With each season, we hope to raise that number," Feldman said. "We increased that number between seasons one and two. We hope to do that going forward."Near the end of Stern and Feldman's photoshoot, they received one nal direction: "Do something totally unexpected. Do whatever you want to do."They looked at each other, shrugged, then burst out laughing and jumped up in the air, carefree, limbs waving in all directions. As with the rest of their careers, following their instincts produced the most compelling result.

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FNDC Fall • 201914UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (UBC) oers ASL courses to the public through Extended Learning https://extendedlearning.ubc.ca/study-topic/sign-language-americanIf you live or work with someone who is Deaf or with the Deaf community, learning sign language can help you create connections, bridge cultures and foster inclusivity.Our courses teach you the predominant sign language used by half a million North Americans. Understand how to use your hands, face and body to communicate, and be immersed in Deaf culture. Our instructors are native signers who use gestures, facial expressions – and even humour – to help you communicate condently and comfortably.Students in our classes have included counsellors, educators, human resources professionals, healthcare workers, rst responders, artists and designers, and parks and recreation program coordinators. Some of our students have friends and family members who are Deaf, and some come to us for the simple joy of learning a new skill.If you have previous experience in sign language, feel free to contact our oce at 604 822 1444 to nd out which level would be best suited to you.Sign Language Beginner 1This course is designed for those with no previous exposure to American Sign Language (ASL). The immersion approach is used to teach beginner level vocabulary and grammar. You will learn how to introduce yourself, discuss leisure activities and learn about deafculture. By the end of this class you should be able to engage in simple conver-sations.Sign Language Beginner 2Continue to increase your knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL)with this second level course. You learn complex number, natural and text nger spelling, develop narrative skills and continue to gain insight into sign language culture. Topics include discussing living situations, giving direc-tions, and talking about family. Note: Sign Language Beginner 1 (DS010) or equivalent is required for this course.Sign Language Lower IntermediateIn the Lower Intermediate level you continue to expand your vocabulary and elevate your level of language by discussing everyday activities and learning more complex structures such as indicating dierent tenses, sequencing activities, and plural pronouns.Note:Sign Language Beginner2 (DS020) or equiv-alent is required for this course.Sign Language IntermediateThis course coversUnit 5from the textbookSigning Naturally:Note:Sign LanguageLower Intermediate(DS030) or equivalent is required for this course.FOR All details go to UBC’s language website: https://extendedlearning.ubc.ca/study-topic/sign-language-americanFrom the Deaf & Hard of Hearing Department at Vancouver Community Collegehttps://drive.google.com/le/d/1x49FAMuZi0IKS6Vj67HN-2BE-6Cq4WAs/view Posted: Sept.23, 2019We made a short promotional video for DHH. We are undergoing a program renewal and would like to reach out to the community to let them know we are growing and, although our numbers are high, we would like to remind people about what a comprehensive program we have to oer.We appreciate your support, always!Thanks, Marcia and team

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FNDC Fall • 201916StorySign https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/storysign/id1479829238 StorySign helps to open the world of books to deaf children. It translates children’s books into sign language, to help deaf children learn how to read. There are 32 million deaf children in the world, many of whom struggle to learn to read. One of the main reasons being that deaf children can struggle to match printed words with the concepts they represent. With StorySign, we help change that. HOW DOES STORYSIGN WORK? Please make sure you have a physical copy of the book for StorySign to scan and bring to life. STEP 1 - Download the app and click on the selected book from the StorySign Library STEP 2 - Hold your smartphone over the words on the page of the book’s physical copy, and our friendly signing avatar, Star, signs the story as the printed words are highlighted StorySign is a free iOS app, that translates children’s books into 14 different sign languages: American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (BSL), Australian Sign Language (Auslan), French Sign Language (LSF), German Sign Language (DSG), Italian Sign Language (LSI), Spanish Sign Language (LSE), Portuguese Sign Language (LGP), Dutch Sign Language (NGT), Irish Sign Language (ISL), Belgian Flemish Sign Language (VGT), Belgian French Sign Language (LSFB), Swiss French Sign Language (LSF) and Swiss German Sign Language (DSGS). So far, the app offers five popular children’s books for each local sign language, including much-loved best-selling titles from Eric Hill’s Spot series. StorySign, a Huawei initiative, has been developed in close partnership with local deaf associations, deaf schools and the European Union of the Deaf, designed by Aardman Animations, and developed with classic children’s titles from Penguin Books. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lgmum0VpjM

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FNDC Fall • 201918You Are Not a Patient, We Will Not Provide Accommodations: A Father's Storyhttps://thedeafreport.com/home/2019/8/19/you-are-not-a-patient-we-will-not-provide-accommodations-a-fathers-storyMy name is Terry Hunt, and my wife’s name is Rebekah. I am profoundly deaf, but my wife is not deaf. This is about our experiences in two dierent hospitals and two dierent births of our children. With this article/blog, we are hoping that it would create more awareness and smoother communi-cation for the deaf community.Our rst child is our son, Asher, who was born in September 2017 at Tampa General Hospital.Our second child is our daughter, Ava, who was born in July 2019 at Morton Plant Hospital.Tampa General HospitalWe had two dierent experiences with both hospitals, needless to say, our rst child was the most traumatic experience for us. At Tampa General Hospital, we were denied for interpreter many times after we have requested it numerous times before the pre-registration, emergency visit, and during the day of labor. We have even asked if they can’t give us interpreter, then could we have video relay interpreter? Again, we were denied for that. One of the nurse sta has made a comment, “We have the thing for the deaf, and we don’t know where it is. It has taken up a lot of rooms and put away in one of the closets.Our rst visit at Tampa General Hospital for the tour, one of Rebekah’s question was, “How do we get an interpreter for my husband while I’m in labor?” and their response was “You won't because he’s not the patient.” The next question was “What if it was a life-threating situation and I’m not able to make a decision, but the decision must be made within a minute or less, and you have a communication issue with the deaf person.” Nearly everyone in that tour was shocked to hear the response from the tour guide, “Let’s hope we don’t go that route.”During the two emergency trips to Tampa General Hospital, both of our requests for interpreter or VRI was denied again.On September 27th, 2017, Rebekah went into labor with Asher, before we learned that she is a failure to progress, which can’t process to give natural birth. From the time she was on medication, and her mind wasn’t 100% there or fully alert of what was going on. As for me, I just sat in the corner, always asking my wife, what are they saying? What did that doctor say? What did that nurse say? Most of the time, she is too focused on trying to push out the baby, regain her energy, or trying to take her mind o the pain. Rebekah has been so frustrated that she would have to interpret for me, with all the pain, and IV that was inserted in her hand.For over two days of labor, around 10 am on September 29, 2017. The nurse team came in start rushing because the situation became severe and emergency. Rebekah was waking up all of a sudden, and I was woken up as well because I felt the vibrations o the oor. Nobody was letting me know what was going on, but everyone was talking to Rebekah. She was screaming at the nurses to tell me what was going on, and she as trying to sign to me as well, but she couldn’t. The doctor came into the room and pulled her bed out of the room into the operating room. The nurse came into the room and gave me the operating room outt to put on without saying a word or telling me what is going on.Finally, I went into the operating room and saw Rebekah laying, and I could tell that she had some good cocktails and prep for emergency c-section. There was no communication or anyone to sign to me during the operating room; the nurses and doctors kept looking at me and trying to commu-nicate with me with the mask covered their face. I’m always telling them, I’m deaf, and I can’t under-stand you with the mask covering your face.One nurse took o her mask to let me read her lips and know what was going on but still not a good source of communication. Finally, Asher was born at 11:00 am an as healthy baby. After Rebekah has regained herself from all the medication and had some rest, she has explained to me what happened that morning. Asher’s heart rate has dropped so low that he wouldn’t survive birth, and they had to perform an emergency c-section. Thankfully, that Asher and Rebekah are well today.A mystery nursing sta has come into the room with the VRI on the cart, and we thought it was one of their portable computers that all the nurses use. She plugged it, turned it on, and walked out without telling us what it is. The funny part about that, it was brought in right before the discharge.VRI issuesWhen we had the VRI turned on during the discharge discussion, the interpreter in VRI couldn’t hear or understand the doctor. That inter-preter was signing a lot of things that were never said by the doctor. Rebekah caught the inter-preter and corrected them many times. The inter-preter constantly said, they can’t hear the doctor and VRI couldn’t be unplugged from the wall to be moved closer to the doctor or the bed. So Rebekah asked them to stop interpreting, and she will start interpreting the discharge information to me. The issue with VRI is the internet speed was not fast enough for the streaming, and it couldn’t be unplugged from the wall.We wanted to get out of Tampa General Hospital as quickly as possible and go home!Morton Plant HospitalWhen we have learned that Morton Plant Hospital follows the ADA laws closely and have a sta inter-preter, Dana Kelly, at the hospital, Morton Plant has valued the deaf community signicantly, and Dana has gotten the interpreters for us from AQI Agency for the after hours. The decision was made quickly to have our second child born there without a question to ask. We were thrilled and excited that they have an interpreter on sta or they provide an interpreter from another agency. They also have a VRI equipment stored in an oce where the nurses can nd it quickly and kept it clean from dust.During our pre-registration, the nurse sta worked with us on the agency we prefer, without debating, we accepted the on-sta interpreter from 7 am to 3 pm and have the agency inter-preter to come in from 3 pm to 9 pm. The on-sta interpreter will go into the operating room with us during the day of delivery for Ava.First trip to Morton Plant HospitalRebekah started to have contractions and was in pre-labor, we rushed to Morton Plant Hospital and sent a text to the interpreter agency. The inter-

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FNDC Fall • 201919preter was at the hospital and waiting for us to arrive. We were sent home because it was false labor.Second trip to Morton Plant HospitalAgain, another trip to Morton Plant and false labor. However, an interpreter was waiting for us in the lobby after midnight. After everything was checked out, we went home again. The rst two visits, we had an interpreter ready for us.Happy Birthday AvaFinally, Rebekah was ready for pregnancy to come to an end. She was scheduled for a c-section since she can’t progress or give birth naturally. She was able to relax and not having to worry about inter-preting for me or let me know what was going on. We had an interpreter from the moment we walked into the hospital to when we were discharged. We also had the interpreter during the operating room. Our stress level was the ordinary parents going through delivery instead of overstressed about communication or knowing what is going on. Every interpreter that came to interpret for us has stood by my side for every doctor, nurses, and even food administrators that has walked into the room.During the delivery of Ava, we were able to enjoy the birth and ready to take more pictures without being stress. It was one of those happy moments.Ava has been a smooth delivery, and better hospital stay than Asher has been. Tampa General need to understand the ADA laws. If we are planning on our third child, Morton Plant will be our choice of hospital and AQI Agency will be our choice of interpreting services for after hours. Both Morton Plant and AQI Agency has done an outstanding job with communication.The last thing I want to say is Morton Plant does care for the deaf community if they are patients, families, or friends. They care for everyone that comes to Morton Plant.Terry Hunt is the president of It’s a Deaf Thing – Deaf Expo & ProjectDEAF. Rebekah Hunt is the event coordinator for It’s a Deaf Thing – Deaf Expo. Our focus is to help the deaf community to prevent any language barrier during any hospital, doctors, or any business visits. TRAINING OPPORTUNITY Empower U: Learn to Access Your Deaf Rights & Disability Rights Training on Canadian Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (CRPD) and its Optional Protocol (OP) VANCOUVER – October 28, 2019 This training aims to increase awareness of how to address discrimination using more familiar Canadian human rights laws, such as Human Rights Codes, and the newer laws, such as international Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This is the training for Deaf people, and for persons with all disabilities. The training is part of the project funded by the Employment and Social Development Canada, and it is implemented by the Canadian Association of the Deaf – Association des Sourds du Canada (CAD-ASC) in collaboration with Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), Council on Rehabilitation and Work (CCRW), ARCH Disability Law, DisAbled Women’s Network, and BC Aboriginal Network on Disability Society (BCANDS). The event is co-presented by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, and the Canadian Association of Deaf – Association des Sourds du Canada. October 28, Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street (at the corner of 15th Avenue), Vancouver Workshop will last from 9:00 to 17:00, with refreshments and lunch included. No Cost What will I learn? At the end of the training you will have: • Knowledge of how to use the United Nations CRPD and the Optional Protocol, as well as Human Rights Codes and the Accessible Canada Act • Understanding the systems where to seek redress for discrimination • Ability to access and navigate the system to redress for discrimination These workshops are for people with disabilities, Deaf people, allies, human rights activists, community change makers, students concerned with social justice, and disability support workers. Pavel Chernousov, Project Director, Canadian Association of the Deaf. Pavel@cad.ca Please register for the event at: https://secure.neads.ca/register/en.php?id=19BC. FNDC EDITOR’S NOTE: above registration requires “school and program” to be completed - this is glitch in system.

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FNDC Fall • 201920FNDC Newsletter Editor’s Note: While this recent news is happening in the State of New Jersey – it’s hopeful that something like this could happen in British Columbia. New Laws Aim to Improve Education for Deaf & Hearing Impaired Students August 5, 2019 https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/new-laws-aim-improve-education-deaf-hearing-impaired-students/ Laws Sponsored by Assembly Democrats Benson, Chiaravalloti, Mukherji, Caputo, Jasey, Quijano & Lampitt (TRENTON) –With the goal to improve education in New Jersey schools for children who are deaf, hard of hearing or deaf-blind, two pieces of legislation sponsored by Assembly Democrats Dan Benson, Nicholas Chiaravalloti, Raj Mukherji, Ralph Caputo, Mila Jasey, Annette Quijano and Pamela Lampitt were signed into law Monday by Acting Governor Sheila Oliver. “No longer will we treat deaf or hard of hearing children as second class students or with expectations separate from that which we would have for any of our children,” said Benson (D-Mercer/Middlesex). “These laws help both parents and students to ensure they are receiving the best education and given the best opportunities using multi-modal means of communication at school.” The first law (formerly A-1893) establishes a Working Group on Deaf Education to make recommendations on issues related to early linguistic developments of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. This group, established within the Department of Education (DOE), would consist of 12 members appointed by the Commissioner of Education. “All our children are unique. Parents with children who are deaf or hard of hearing face additional obstacles,” said Chiaravalloti (D-Hudson). “This law provides parents the support needed so they can make informed decisions about the medical, linguistic, and educational management of their child.” The group will examine, research, and make recommendations to the DOE for the development of a resource guide for parents to monitor and track their children’s expressive and receptive language acquisition and developmental stages toward English literacy. The group would also select one or more early intervention assessments to be used by educators to assess the language and literacy development of deaf and hard of hearing children. “The hardships that parents of deaf or hard of hearing children go through are unique,” said Mukherji (D-Hudson). “Providing a parent resource guide that will be made with recommendations from parents who are personally putting their deaf or hard of hearing children through school will undoubtedly provide support that may be hard to find for other parents.” The law also directs the DOE, in consultation with the Department of Health, to develop a parent resource guide. The guide will:

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FNDC Fall • 2019211. help parents monitor and track deaf and hard of hearing children’s expressive and receptive language acquisition; 2. be appropriate for use, in both content and administration, with deaf and hard of hearing children from birth to age five; 3. be written for clarity and ease of use by parents; 4. be aligned to existing instruments used by school districts to assess the development of children with disabilities pursuant to federal and state law; 5. include a statement that the parent resource is not a formal assessment of language and literacy development; and 6. include a statement that a parent may bring the parent resource guide to a child study team meeting for purposes of sharing observations about the child’s development. “This law will provide parents of deaf or hearing impaired children with vital and relevant information so they can advocate for their children and ensure they meet their potential despite their challenges,” said Caputo (D-Essex). “The importance of reliable and up-to-date support for parents’ decisions is critical to the overall well-being of their child,” said Jasey (D-Essex/Morris). “This law provides both support and comfort for parents with a common interest — the well-being of their children and their education.” In June, the measure passed the full Assembly 77-0 and the Senate 37-0. The second law (formerly A-1896) establishes the “Deaf Student’s Bill of Rights.” This measure would require school districts to recognize the rights of students who are deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind to: • Provide children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind with individualized and appropriate early intervention to support the acquisition of solid language bases developed at the earliest possible age. • Inform the parents or guardians of children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind of all placement considerations and options available to children and provide opportunities for parents and guardians to fully participate in the development and implementation of their child’s education plan. • Strive to provide children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind opportunities to meet and associate with adult role models who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind to learn advocacy skills, including self-advocacy. • Provide children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind opportunities to meet and associate with their peers in the school environment and during school-sponsored activities. • Provide direct instruction to children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. If that is not possible, school districts shall provide the children with access to qualified teachers, interpreters, and resource personnel who communicate effectively with each child in that child’s mode of communication.

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FNDC Fall • 201922• Include a communication plan in the Individualized Education Program of a student who is deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. Where appropriate, public schools shall include a communication plan in the educational plan prepared for a student who is deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. • Provide children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind placement that is best suited to the child’s individual needs including, but not limited to, social, emotional, and cultural needs, with consideration for the child’s age, degree and type of hearing loss, academic level, mode of communication, style of learning, motivational level, and amount of family support. • Provide children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind individual considerations for free, appropriate education across a full spectrum of educational programs. • Provide children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind full support services provided by qualified professionals in their educational settings. The Department of Education shall work with school districts to ensure technical assistance is available to support boards of education in meeting the needs of children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. • Provide children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind full access to all programs in their educational settings including, but not limited to, extracurricular activities, recess, lunch, media showings, and public announcements. • Ensure that parents and guardians of children who are deaf, hard of hearing or deaf-blind receive information from appropriately qualified professionals on the medical, ethical, cultural, and linguistic issues of individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. • Ensure that children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind have direct access to mental health services and supporting services from qualified providers fluent in their primary mode of communication. • Where possible, have deaf and hard of hearing adults directly involved in determining the extent, content, and purpose of all programs that affect the education of children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. “Around 96 percent of children with hearing loss are born to parents with intact hearing, who may initially know little about deafness or sign language,” said Quijano (D-Union). “This Bill of Rights would give parents a sense of both knowledge and security when it comes to the education their children should be receiving at school.” “Too often, our schools do not update their classrooms and lack the appropriate resources to support the communication needs of deaf or hard of hearing students,” said Lampitt (D-Camden/Burlington). “As a result, these students fall behind not only in language development but other academic areas. This law will prioritize the language needs of deaf or hard of hearing children in order for them to grow both academically and socially at school.” The measure passed the full Assembly in June by a vote of 77-0, and the Senate in January, 37-0.

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FNDC Fall • 201923This Is What Being Hard of Hearing Is Likeat the Movieshttps://www.hungtonpost.ca/jacki-andre/close-captioning-theatre_b_7974800.html?guccounter=1 Posted: August 18, 2016I am hard of hearing and rely on lipreading. Video can be dicult, for a variety of reasons, including camera angle, voice-overs, sound eects, accents, and animation. Every time captioning fails at the movies, I am reminded of my inability to participate in activ-ities many Canadians take for granted. I feel belittled, squashed, unimportant. I really wanted to seeSouthpaw. I really did. I tried. Twice. The rst time, I got there early and arranged my popcorn, drink, captioning device and was prepared to be blown away by Jake Gyllenhaal. And then about a half hour later I walked out of the theatre with a voucher for a free movie and a free popcorn. I tried again eight days later. But Jake had no love for me the second time either. I left about 40 minutes into the movie, again with a voucher for a free movie.I left because the captioning system didn't work.I am hard of hearing and rely on lipreading. Video can be dicult, for a variety of reasons, including camera angle, voice-overs, sound eects, accents, and animation. Turning up the volume doesn't help. If it's loud enough, I can hear noise, but my brain can't translate that into anything meaningful. It's likely comparable to a hearing person watching a foreign lm with the volume turned down. You can hear stu when you concentrate but you don't understand what you're hearing. You need subtitles. I need captions.I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, when captioning was just not available. I did my best to muddle through. I was completely puzzled the rst time I saw Dirty Dancing. I didn't understand that Robbie had gotten Penny pregnant. I knew Penny had an abortion, but the only possible father seemed to be Johnny, and that just didn't t into the rest of the plot. But hey, at least I enjoyed the dancing! If muddling is the best you can do, that's what you do. But it's a whole dierent ballgame in 2015, with (supposedly) better technology and improved accessibility.As far as I know, the rst closed captioning systems (Rear Window Captioning or "RWC") arrived in select Canadian movie theatres in the early 2000s. Saskatoon, my hometown, was not one of the locations chosen for the system. Although I was passionate about bringing it here, and did my best to reach out to those who could make it happen, nothing came of my eorts.So, I took in movies when I traveled -- and I was willing to travel to see movies. I saw my rst captioned movie in Edmonton. I still have that ticket stub fromRoad to Perdition tacked to my bulletin board at work. I also saw movies in Winnipeg and Vancouver. It was blissful and exciting to soak in the whole experience for the rst time in my life -- the darkened theatre, the big screen, the popcorn andall of the dialogue. I planned to see the rstSex and the City(SATC) movie in Edmonton. I was a major fan of the television series and had travelled to New York City just to go on a tour ofSATClocations. But when the movie was released, it wasn't scheduled into any Edmonton theatres with RWC. My closest options were Calgary and Winnipeg. In addition to travelling to another city, I also had to manage leave from my job, and arrange care for my two dogs. This all had to be done quickly, beforeSATCwas cycled out of the captioned theatre. I briey considered ying to Calgary. And slightly more seriously considered driving to Winnipeg with my dogs in tow, thinking to stay overnight at a campsite and leave them at a doggie daycare while seeing my movie. This was a little too crazy, even for me, aSATCfan who went all the way to New York, just to eat a cupcake from the Magnolia Bakery. In the end, I didn't seeSATCin the theatre.In 2012, a new captioning system was introduced across Canada. The day I found out it was available in Saskatoon, I played hooky from work to seeMagic Mike. Around the point where Adam and Mike start getting a little too deeply into drugs, my device quit working. I left the movie to nd someone to x it. I wasn't surprised since RWC could also be glitchy at times.Unfortunately, the glitches happened so frequently that I gave up trying somewhere between Grown Ups 2 and Magic Mike XXL. Sometimes the device displays a message saying that it is good to go but when the movie actually starts playing, nothing happens. Sometimes it stops displaying captions in the middle of a movie. If it can't be xed, I'm sent on my way with a voucher for a future visit. I decided to give captioning another whirl this summer, and to my delight,Magic Mike XXLwas absolutely glitch free. However, my experience at Southpaw totally destroyed any renewed optimism."Big deal," someone might comment, "At least she's getting free vouchers." But here's an analogy for you -- suppose you went to a concert. You made plans with friends, bought your tickets, maybe had to pay for parking, stood in line to get in, stood in line for your drink, and got settled in your seat, all pumped up to see a favourite performer. The opening acts are loud and not overly good. The main singer takes the stage and the sound equipment fails. Management tries to x it but after a half hour, they tell you, "Sorry!" and give you a free ticket to a future concert. At the next concert, this cycle of failing sound equipment and free vouchers happens again -- and it will continue for as long as you're willing to put up with it. How would it make you feel? Would you feel like your complaints are being heard? Would you feel angry or frustrated or discouraged? How many times would you try again?Every time I go through this process at the movies, I am reminded of my inability to participate in activities many Canadians take for granted. I feel belittled, squashed, unimportant. It brings home the idea that I am broken, and that the problem is with me. Although accessibility is often advertised with great fanfare, the reality is that this world is just not as accessible as it appears to be. And I continue to struggle to get people to understand how that makes me feel."HOH Oh!" pieces by Jacki Andre explore living life with a disability, and especially issues related to being hard of hearing (HOH).

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FNDC Fall • 201924Captioning Quality Standards https://blog.ai-media.tv/blog/captioning-quality-standards Let's take a look at the specific elements that guide the standards of captions. For the past 5 years, Ai-Media has been awarded a captioning quality score of over 99% by independent auditors. But how is a captioning quality score determined? What dictates good and bad quality captions? We're breaking down the basic guidelines that dictate how caption quality is measured and the importance of high-quality captions for media. Types of errors There are plenty of basic grammatical or formatting errors that can make captions harder to read. Anything from misspelling, punctuation, or speed of the text can impact someone’s ability to understand what is being said, and therefore will result in poor quality captions. The most common forms of mistakes include: o There vs Their vs They're o You're vs Your o Lose vs Loose Why does this happen? What affects the potential quality of captions? Well, there are a few reasons, including: o Difficulty of the language used o Multiple speakers o Number of natural pauses, and o Quality of the audio in the files provided Caption Guidelines Officially, many countries like Australia, the UK, and the United States, all have legislation, laws, and bodies that review and monitor the quality of captions that are allowed to be aired on screen. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States has official regulations and rules surrounding captioning on television to ensure that viewers who are deaf and heard of hearing have full access. The infographic below outlines the FCC’s closed captioning standards which provide guidance to video programming distributors and programmers.

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FNDC Fall • 201925Reading Speed Captions assist deaf and hard of hearing viewers access video content and understand what is being said. So, as a result, the speed at which the captions appear and how long they appear for are very important. Typically, captions should not be so fast that they are difficult to read. Most companies which produce captions for TV and cinema adhere to minimum word speeds (typically 180-200 words per minute or about three words per second). If the dialogue is faster than this, then the language should be condensed, with unimportant words and repetitions eliminated (such as, "umm" and “ahh”). Positioning and Colouring Captions should be displayed at the bottom of the screen. However, captions will be raised to avoid obscuring any additional content on the screen including logos, subtitles, banners, news tickers or other visuals. Captions will rarely ever appear on the centre of the screen as it may interfere with the visual storytelling. Captions for television are often coloured and positioned to help the viewer identify who is speaking. Media players depending on the type may not support or allow multi-coloured captions. In this instance, it is acceptable for captions to be all white and centred. In this scenario, the two speakers are differentiated by placing dashes before their respective lines, e.g.: – How are you? – I’m fine. Additional ways of indicating speakers involve character names or descriptions, such as: JOHN: Hello. OR WOMAN: Hello. Font Size Captions must be written in a font which is large enough to be easily readable, taking into account the size of the screen. There are no accepted standards for this, but captions on Australian television are a maximum of 37 characters per line. Line Breaks Line breaks should be made where there is a natural linguistic break in the sentence (e.g. after a comma). This helps audiences follow the natural rhythm and flow of a conversation, speech, or dialogue on screen easier. This also applies to longer sentences which go over multiple captions lines. Below, we see how proper line breaks can improve of the same caption:

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FNDC Fall • 201927The Rise of Deaf Architecturehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/09/12/feature/the-rise-of-deaf-architecture/ September 12, 2019 Bauman, now Gallaudet’s executive director of campus design and construction, recalls that at one point, the group toured the university’s existing audiology booths in the basement of a building that would later be demolished. For many in the deaf community, those spaces bring back horrible memories — being tested inside them as children and told, from a hearing person’s perspective, that something was not quite right. As the group walked among the booths, they reected that the sound chambers looked a little like gas chambers. “If you ever doubt the kind of experiences a building can convey, these would make you a believer in the power of architecture to infuse emotion,” says Bauman, who, though hearing, instinctively signs in American Sign Language (ASL) as he speaks.Over two days, the attendees discussed what they wanted in their new building, and their ideas crystallized a design and architectural philosophy. DeafSpace, as it’s come to be called, seeks to create buildings and public areas that arm the experience and culture of the deaf and hard-of-hearing — for instance, by ensuring that spaces are conducive to signed conversations. The resulting building, the SLCC, ushered in a new era of design at the 155-year-old university — and today, DeafSpace principles are poised to transform the surrounding neighborhood. In 2007, discussions began about re-envisioning the Sixth Street NE corridor that runs along the western edge of campus. After years of wrangling — a community group that was suing to stop the development lost its last appeal in March — the school now expects to break ground in 2021. Once completed, the Sixth Street Development will almost certainly be the rst spot in the United States outside the university to use DeafSpace design and architecture ideas in public spaces.Once completed, the Sixth Street Development will almost certainly be the rst spot in the United States outside Gallaudet University to use DeafSpace design and architecture ideas in public spaces.Richard Dougherty is a deaf Irish architect with Hall McKnight, a Northern Ireland rm that will be designing part of the Sixth Street Development. He and I communicated via video conference recently to discuss both the ideas of DeafSpace and how they will be applied to the project. (He used Irish Sign Language through a female inter-preter with a strong Irish lilt.)Shortly into our conversation, Dougherty gave me an example of spatial awareness dierences between the hearing and the deaf. He mentioned how, to him, a hearing dinner seems so formal, with people rmly stationed at square tables. By contrast, during a deaf dinner, people are contin-ually in motion, switching seats to touch one another or communicate directly with someone across the table. “For me,” Dougherty signed, “a deaf space is a multisensory experience. It’s not just what does it look like at face value. What is the experience of being deaf once I go through the door? What is the experience of me getting through the foyer? To the staircase? What’s the lighting like? What’s the material being used in the building?”He then described the house he lives in with his deaf wife and two deaf children. It is an old Edwardian home with roughly six-foot-wide hallways so his family can communicate while they walk, and oorboards that vibrate when stomped to grab someone’s attention.Sign language is vital to the concepts of DeafSpace. If you are hearing, imagine a space that through acoustics prevented you from adequately communicating. That’s how plenty of deaf people feel about architecture and design that includes narrow sidewalks and entryways, sharp angles that limit sightlines, or terrible lighting.You can nd several of these design aws at Union Market, across the street from Gallaudet’s campus. To be sure, the space is in some ways friendly to deaf people: Many of the food vendors employ deaf or hard-of-hearing baristas and cashiers. Yet, when I met Bauman there on a July afternoon, I was aware that the sharp corners of food stalls interrupted sightlines, and that the summer light streaming through the windows was blinding at times.Bauman agreed. “See that shine out there — that’s unbelievable,” he said. “If this were a signed conversation, I would probably have to get up. If all of your attention is with your eyes, your eye fatigue is wearing on you, you’re getting tired. So much of the design principles around the language goes back to minimizing eye fatigue.”We left the market so he could show me the layout for the Sixth Street Development, which entails four parcels of land, two on the eastern side of Sixth Street, on Gallaudet’s campus, and two on the western side that are separated by Union Market. Gallaudet bought the lots in the 1970s, when real estate in the area was cheaper than it is today. While each parcel will contain elements of DeafSpace, the two western parcels will be meant to match the ow and energy of Union Market, and so will likely use fewer DeafSpace principles.Bauman and I crossed Sixth Street toward Gallau-det’s campus and walked along a university parking garage that will be demolished when construction begins. In its place will be a building with ground-oor retail, businesses run by deaf entrepreneurs, perhaps even a theater, all built using DeafSpace ideas. When the building is complete, a corridor will be formed on the Gallaudet campus between this new building and a row of faculty housing that has been there since the campus was rst designed by famed architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Bauman calls this corridor Creativity Way, forecasting that it will showcase the ingenuity of both the Gallaudet community and the broader deaf world — through the businesses that set up in the space and also through possible artistic performances. Others involved in the project, including Dougherty, call this part of the development “the front porch,” suggesting that it will evoke the ethos of communities — deaf and hearing, university students and local residents — coming together.Jay Klug has been working on the project since 2013, when Chevy Chase, Md.-based developer JBG Smith — where he is an executive vice president Early rendering for a Gallaudet University building submitted by the design rm Hall McKnight. (Courtesy of Hall McKnight Architects)

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FNDC Fall • 201928— submitted a bid. “Part of the vision in creating development on these sites is to perhaps create a small village,” Klug told me, “a place that will be really welcoming to the deaf and hard-of-hearing around the world.” His colleague Bryan Moll has been working on the project for almost as long as Klug; neither had prior experience working with the deaf community. So, Moll and Klug and others at JBG Smith — which is building a majority, but not all, of the project — took ASL classes, watched documentaries about deaf culture, and met with Gallaudet sta.That education has helped them better appreciate what Sixth Street should be like for deaf people — from the need for adequate separation between buildings to the importance of canopies of light at night rather than the pinpricks of streetlamps. “It’s not just what we’re designing into the buildings or the buildings themselves,” Moll says, “but about the public realm — the spaces outside the buildings that are really important.”Moll is keen on the role technology could play on Sixth Street. He talks about stationing kiosks along the street where people can learn about the university and deaf culture, or potentially even including holograms that could teach you how to communicate in ASL.If JBG Smith is creating a front porch, Dougherty and his team at Hall McKnight are designing what could be called the front door. The main entrance to the university is farther east, but the corner of Sixth Street and Florida Avenue NE may soon become the primary gateway between the community and the college. Bauman and university ocials are not sure how they will utilize this space, which currently features a blue Gallaudet sign, a defunct Pontiac dealership and a slab of uneven concrete hidden behind brick and metal fencing. However, Hall McKnight has submitted a design for a path that starts at the gothic Chapel Hall, the administrative heart of Gallaudet’s campus, and extends west across Olmsted Green, toward Sixth, down Creativity Way, before opening onto the corner of Florida and Sixth. As Dougherty explained: “We actually visualized that as a long arm and a hand that would be handed over to the city from Gallaudet University.” It’s a potentially powerful symbol of the project’s aspiration: to bring together deaf and hearing communities in spaces designed with deaf people in mind.“For me,” signed architect Richard Dougherty, “a deaf space is a multisensory experience. It’s not just what does it look like at face value. What is the experience of being deaf once I go through the door?”Though DeafSpace is a modern idea, the concepts underlying it have been around as long as deaf people. Take a walk around Gallaudet, visit its student center, attend a football game: In each experience, you will see space used in a dierent way from how hearing people use it. “In many ways, DeafSpace and designing spaces around the deaf experience is empowering, and it takes back spaces that should belong to everyone, not just able-bodied people,” Sean Maiwald, a recent Gallaudet graduate who worked on the devel-opment while a student, told me via email. “I think it also pushes a broader point about human-centered design.”At the same time, Maiwald noted that the project is not without pitfalls: “My concern is that this area will become a new, trendy, hip area and push out the deaf community, which should feel some sense of ownership of the space. So, I am optimistic, and I know that there will be many things that will benet the Gallaudet community, but there will be conicts.”On a rainy day in early August, I went to campus to see DeafSpace in action. At Gallaudet’s newest dorm, built in 2012 using DeafSpace approaches, sliding glass doors open wide to allow the entrance and exit of signers engaged in conver-sation. The windows have retractable shades that can help modify natural light. Meanwhile, a sloping public space on the building’s eastern side is terraced into four wall-less rooms. Each “room” has a circular table and chairs where students can study or hang out, but the uid, open design means that someone on the fourth terrace can easily sign toward the ground level. If a lecturer stood at the bottom, students could arrange themselves in theater-style seating and see the ASL.Before leaving campus, I stopped by the Sorenson Language and Communications Center, the rst building designed with DeafSpace principles. I had visited several times before, and I always admired its broad foyer and open oor plan. But this time, as I walked around, I remembered what Bauman had said about the audiology booths in the building it replaced, the ones that looked like gas chambers, relegated to the basement, out of sight. Here, the booths are smack in the middle of the second oor, in an open area where light ows freely through glass walls.Saanich School District – seeking Interpreter (must be uent in American Sign Language) 27.5 hours | Needed: ASAP | $23.05 per hour9:05 am – 3:08 pm Monday to Friday, (includes 1/2 hour unpaid lunch) 10 months per year while regular classes are in sessionTo apply please send your application to hr_cupe@saanichschools.ca. We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. Seeking caregiver:Looking a caregiver / supporter worker for my  year old daughter who is deaf.The person. Need to know sign language.Deaf or hard of hearing or hearing anyone can apply for job as long as they know sign language. Please call or text me 778-319-2111. My name is Jatinder.

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FNDC Fall • 20192910 tips for IEP season(FNDC Newsletter Editor’s note: Heather Ratzla wrote this article for Adopted Families Association of BC. Heather is an FNDC member and a mom of three kids. Kiera, one of her children is deaf. Heather and her family are annual campers at our Hornby Island Family Camp and big supporters for our DYT program). From: https://www.bcadoption.com/resources/articles/10-tips-iep-seasonHeather Ratzla is an AFABC adoption key worker and an adoptive mom of three. She says she loves IEP meetings. (Did we mention she’s got a great sense of humor?)As if the back to school routine isn’t busy enough for families, there is also the added stress for parents of children with special needs to participate in Individu-alized Education Plan (IEP) meetings for each of their children. Here are 10 tips to help you go in with a positive attitude, a collaborative mindset, and a plan of action.Setting up routines and schedules for your child with special needs is key to their daily success. If your child is fortunate enough to have been at their school the previous year, the teacheror admin will probably be aware of some supports and goals already. However, many schools aren’t prepared to start initiating a personalized support plan until their funding and sta are in place, which typically happens in early October. This means that the start of each school year can be extremely stressful as the transitions just keep coming. 1) Have an interim planDon’t wait for the school to contact you. Send a short email or arrange a brief meeting with your child’s teacher and/or education assistant (EA).to give some coping strategies for your child to get through that rst month with the least amount of stress and disruption for both your child and the class (dgets, break ideas, behaviours to watch for, strategies to re-route, sensory aides, etc.). Mention the IEP meeting at this point and let them know you understand what that is and are looking forward to it.2) Prepare yourselfTake a deep breath. Have a snack. Go for a walk. Have a bath. It can be emotionally draining to talk about your child’s challenges. Set out your ideas on paper beforehand. What are your child’s strengths, challenges, and goals? Read through your child’s last IEP/report card to refresh your memory about what goals and challenges your child has been tackling recently. Be realistic about the school’s ability and your child’s ability. Make this a team meeting. You are all on the same side, you all want what’s best for your child and the school.3) Value the school’s time and the sta’s workSchools are busy places and it’s likely that your child is not the only one who will need an IEP. Email to conrm that everyone will be at the meeting, including the principal if you want them there. Bring a friend or advocate—sometimes there is a lot of information to process and you may need a friend to take notes. If you are an English language learner (ELL), insist on the school having an interpreter for you. Does your child have a community key worker or behaviour interven-tionist? You can invite this person to come and support you in this meeting. They may be able to oer the school valuable insight on what has worked for your child in the past in other settings.4) Get to know the Learning Support Services (LSS) teacherHow active are they in the classroom? Do they interact directly with your child or do they oversee the teacher or support sta? Do they know about the role of key workers? Have they connected with the provincial outreach programs (POPs) related to your child? Do they know of any new research or resources? Can they suggest professional development (PD) day activities for teachers and support sta that specically include learning more about supporting children with special needs in the classroom setting? Do they oer small support groups for reading or math or building social skills? How are children referred to those groups? Can your child be included in these supports?5) Get to know the classroom teacherKnow their name, their classroom, how much experience they have withchildren with similar diagnoses to your child’s, and what their level of comfort with special needs children. Try to build rapport and support the professionals in your school. They are trained for teaching and they wantto make your child successful. Educate them in a warm and positive way. I had one teacher who disagreed with my son’s diagnosis, telling me “Hedoesn’t look like he has FASD.” I tried to gently explain that FASD looks dierent in each child. My grandma always said “You get more bees with honey than vinegar,” and I’ve found that to be so true.6) Get to know the education assistant (EA)Do they have a long-term contract at the school or are they temporary? Find out how you can support and encourage them (owers, a note, etc.).7) Decide how to communicate with the schoolThis will help to build trust and consistency between home and school. Do you want to use a communication book, email, text? What will work for all of you? How often do you expect communication? What things do you want communication about? Do you want to know about proud moments from the day or incidents that involved the principal? Make aplan so that you don’t get all of one or the other. You want a balancedcommuni-cation model.8) Decide how homework will/won’t happenSome schools and classrooms are more exible than others. I haveexplained that my child exerts so much energy keeping himself regulated at school that our family doesn’t support doing more school work at home. For our children, it’s not realistic. Having said that, if mychild consistently ignores instructions or opportu-nities to nish workduring class time, then occasionally we will do catch-up work at home.9) Know your child’s diagnoses/labelsMake sure that the school has copies of any assessments or testing that has been done by professionals or past schools. This is key in getting your school the funding it needs to adequately support your child.Understand the provincial funding structure and where your child ts into this paradigm.10) Follow up and follow throughIf you say you are going to do something, make sure you follow through. Set up the assessment, make the appointment with the pediatrician, accompany the eld trip. Your stability and integrity increase your voice at the school and the school’s impression of your family. Don’t overpromise. Follow up on what they’ve committed to doing as well. Is the IEP being followed? Have the behaviour interventions been implemented? Be the squeaky wheel. Stronger togetherParenting kids with special needs is a marathon, not a sprint. You have time to work with the school and learn from each other. So often in this process we can become very behaviour-centered or production-focused. Remember that your child is a human being with all the feelings and challenges related to needing support or being singled out in their classroom. Assure them of your unequivocal love and support. Acknowledge their strengths, build on them, and have fun together!

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FNDC Fall • 201931‘She has no barriers:’ Meet Bethany Baker, UNF’s rst deaf nursing studenthttps://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190628/she-has-no-barriers-meet-bethany-baker-unfs-rst-deaf-nursing-student Posted: Jun.28, 2019Bethany Baker would have laughed if someone told her years ago she would become a nurse.Even with a family full of nurses, she still wouldn’t have believed it.Every person on her mom’s side of the family is deaf in one ear, but she is the rst fully deaf member of the family. She didn’t imagine that career path for herself.Baker marked another rst last summer. At 27, she became the rst deaf person admitted to the University of North Florida’s post-baccalau-reate nursing program.Baker’s parents discovered she couldn’t hear when she was 6 months old. After graduating from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine in 2009, she went to Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., to pursue a history degree.It wasn’t until the 28-year-old moved to Tennessee that she considered entering the medical eld. The idea started with a 96-year-old woman — Mama Ray.Baker cooked for Mama Ray, helped her use the bathroom and provided care for her in the summer. The deaf community in Tennessee knew the woman well.Baker quickly became an advocate for the deaf community there.“I was able to communicate with her directly, and that really hit me,” Baker said.She later took a certied nursing assistant’s class and worked in an emergency room for six months. After Mama Ray died in 2016 at almost 100 years old, Baker moved back to Florida to enroll in a nursing program.She said she not only wants to work with more deaf patients in Florida but also be an advocate for deaf people who want to enter any profession.Baker has one year left in the program and hopes to become a labor and delivery nurse or an operating room nurse when she graduates.Currently, Baker shadows Flagler Hospital’s patient care technicians with two interpreters. One typically follows her while the other waits outside. She joked she always has two bodyguards.“Right now, I watch ‘Dexter,’ but I have also been really into ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ and so it’s cool to see it real life,” she said.The UNF Disability Resource Center provides Baker with the interpreters while she does her clinicals at Flagler every Wednesday and attends classes. She also volunteers for service learning with the American Red Cross in Jacksonville. Next semester, she will start working in a room at the university that is set up like a real hospital with life-sized mannequins that sweat, urinate and have seizures. She will know before coming in to the room what the condition of the mannequin patient is so she can prepare, and will then be graded on her performance there.In addition, she will shadow nurses and doctors at Flagler in the next few weeks until she can be on her own with patients.“Right now in the health-care profession, there is not a lot of deaf people. Deaf people need to go get checkups too just like everyone else, but an issue is communication,” Baker said. “Sometimes doctors won’t communicate with them, and a lot of times they don’t provide interpreters like they are supposed to via the Americans with Disabil-ities Act. So they just won’t go to the doctor, and that’s upsetting.”Her time working as a nursing assistant in Tennessee led her to advocacy. One man in particular she remembered.A deaf man at the hospital was going to have open heart surgery and had no interpreter for three days. While Baker was in the hospital, she made time to check on him.“He didn’t have a clue about what surgery he was going to have,” Baker said. “He didn’t know what post-operation would look like, pre-operation. He was completely in the dark.”Baker convinced the hospital to hire her inter-preter who remains on sta now working with deaf, blind, deaf and blind and other handicapped patients.As a nursing assistant, Baker learned to commu-nicate with patients in dierent ways. She carried a pager for the nurses to contact her and used a tablet to access a remote sign language inter-preter to talk to the patients if no interpreter was available in person. Dierent lights meant they needed to use the bathroom or needed a nurse. She and the patients would also gesture to each other to show her what hurt or rub their stomachs if they were hungry.“For deaf people, I’m hoping to start this process and experiences and do great, and then I can really open some doors permanently for some other deaf people to get their foot in the medical door,” Baker said. “I’m really happy that the program took a risk on me. I feel more empowered to do a good job. I know that I can do it, and I want to show them that I can do it as well.In December, Baker will learn with the nursing students at Chiang Mai University in Thailand as part of a study abroad program. Workshops and lectures will be mixed in with a visit to an elephant sanctuary and a traditional massage.The students will have one free day to explore. Baker plans to visit the largest deaf school in Bangkok on her day o.Baker’s favorite part about the job is inter-acting with the patients. Last week, she met an 80-year-old deaf woman who attended Gallaudet too.The patient couldn’t believe she was there, Baker said.“I’m really looking forward to seeing more of that. If a nurse tells me there is a deaf patient in there, Bethany (Bebe) Baker is the rst deaf ursing student at the University of North Flordia. [Will Dickey/Flordia Times-Union]

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FNDC Fall • 201932I’m denitely going to make time to go say hi,” Baker said.Dr. Li Loriz, UNF School of Nursing director, said the university has had to change the way it teaches in some ways since Baker’s admittance.She has access to closed captioning for her classes, interpreters and specialized equipment, like a stethoscope that connects to her mobile phone so she can see the sounds others hear.“Initially, the rst reaction is people say, ‘Wait a minute. A nurse that can’t communicate? That won’t work,’” Loriz said. “The thing is that there is so many dierent roles for nurses that you don’t have to have hearing in order to t all those roles. And as you can hear from her, she has no barriers.”Other hearing-impaired students have been in the program before, but Loriz said none were completely deaf. The University of Central Florida and Jacksonville University also had hearing-impaired students who were able to speak. This was dierent.Next semester Baker will go to Brooks Rehabili-tation and work with psychiatric patients at either University of Florida Health or Baptist Health.“Those will be some of the challenges that clini-cally we’re going to face. But you see her and she’s bubbly and she’s funny and she’s just out there. So I don’t think she’s going to have those problems,” Loriz said. “I’m really excited that we are going this extra distance.”Drop in GYM is open!Basketball – Wednesday NightsWhere: South Slope Elementary SchoolAddress: 4446 Watling Street, BurnabyTime: 6:30 pm to 8:00 pmPickleball – Thursday NightsWhere: South Slope Elementary SchoolAddress: 4446 Watling Street, BurnabyTime: 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm

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FNDC Fall • 201933BWW Review: Historic Deaf Theatre Piece THE BLACK DRUMShines In Every Aspect Of Its Productionhttps://www.broadwayworld.com/toronto/article/BWW-Review-Historic-Deaf-Theatre-Piece-THE-BLACK-DRUM-Shines-In-Every-Aspect-Of-Its-Production-20190624 By Isabella·Posted: Jun.24, 2019THE BLACK DRUM is a multi-sensory examination of oppression and self-expression that shows just how necessary deaf theatre is. Produced by the Deaf Culture Centre and Soulpepper and directed by Mira Zuckerman, the story, written by Adam Pottle, draws from classic tropes - placing a down-and-out hero in an unfamiliar world, good facing o against evil, and a group of sidekicks with wildly dierent personalities - to great eect.The audience follows Joan (Dawn Jani Birley), a woman grieving her wife Karen (Agata Wisny) as she is transported to an in-between world controlled by a sinister leader, the Minister (Bob Hiltermann). Relying on the friends she makes in the netherworld and her newly-come-to-life tattoos, Buttery (Yan Liu) and Bulldog (Daniel Durant), Joan must learn to utilize her skills, move forward without Karen, and face o against the Minister to bring colour back to the world.As I am not familiar with American Sign Language (ASL), I was worried that it would be dicult to follow the story, but thanks to scene synopses delivered through pre-recorded audio and a comprehensive summary in the show program, THE BLACK DRUM ensures that anyone can partake in the performance. Even without those resources, the entire cast is able to convey emotion through strong facial expressions and each actor leverages their entire body while signing and dancing to ensure all audience members understand what's happening in the story.. As the heroine of the story, Birley delivers a power-house performance throughout the show. From her rst appearance at her wife's grave, it is unmis-takeable that Joan is a woman in mourning. She has great chemistry with each of her colleagues, although she shined most in her incredibly tender and highly moving reunion with Wisny.Liu and Durant make for a charming odd couple with Liu's owing, delicate movements contrast Durant's swagger to great eect. Portraying animals come to life poses an interesting challenge, and it's one that Durant excels at in this role - everything about his movements, character-izations, and even subtle actions like lifting a leg during a good head scratch scream puppy dog.The residents of the in-between world are brought to life beautifully, from Hiltermann's commanding presence and sinister facial expres-sions to the dance teacher Ava's (Corinna Den Decker) character progression, transforming from a nervous woman overseeing her wards (ballet dancers Jaelyn Russell-Lillie, Sita Weereatne, and Abbey Jackson-Bell) to a brave ghter.Setting a story in a fantasy world comes with its own challenges, but THE BLACK DRUM's creative team certainly goes above and beyond to make it convincing. Lighting (Chris Malkowski) is incredibly striking, with stage lights and LEDs at all levels and angles allowing for quick scene changes and moody moments. The costumes (Ruth Albertyn) of the netherworld citizens are a great contrast to Joan and her tattoos, blending steampunk and Victorian pieces in a way that screams goth and emo aesthetic in the best possible way.The projections (Laura Warren) are an ecient way to set scenes, although at times they seem more like computer screensavers given the stylistic 3D design. However, the use of a sheer curtain (set and props design byKen MacKenzie) to create a 3D eect helps create an interesting depth to the various environments.Although the production is completely signed, sound design (Adam Harendorf) plays a crucial role. Using an onstage drummer (Dimitri Kanaris) to create vibrations and boosting the sound and bass through speakers makes the room shake, adding to the concept of the drum's power in the Minister's world.THE BLACK DRUM is, at its core, a ground-breaking piece of Canadian theatre for the deaf community that will hopefully prompt other artists to come forward and share their stories and talents.On board soon: Employee uniforms to include Sign Language option https://news.delta.com/board-soon-employee-uniforms-include-sign-language-option Posted: July 17, 2019On the heels of being named "Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion" for the fourth consec-utive year, Delta will soon be rolling out a uniform language bar option for over 300+ sign languages around the world.Delta is the rst U.S. airline to oer this option; and with this improvement, customers and qualied employees will immedi-ately be able to visually recognizewhen they hold sign language as a common connection.) "Our mission is to connect the world, which starts with making travel easier for all people," said Ed. "It's a small step on our journey, but a powerful change as we seek to make the world a smaller, more inclusive place."This initiative came to life as a direct result of feedback from Delta's customers, ABLE Disability Business Resource Group for employees and Advisory Board on Disability (https://www.delta.com/us/en/accessible-travel-services/advisory-board-on-disabilities).Customers can expect to see uniformed employees sporting the new language bars later this fall.

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FNDC Fall • 201934Queer ASL helps various Metro Vancouver communities become more deaf- and LGBT-inclusivehttps://www.straight.com/life/1278256/queer-asl-helps-metro-vancouver-deaf-community-become-more-lgbt-inclusiveQueer ASL helps the deaf become more inclusive by using gender-neutral language. What would you do if you were the only person using the only means of communication you use? The mother of invention paid a visit to Zoée Montpetit when she was the sole signing deaf person in Victoria’s queer community. After Montpetit started hosting an ASL (American Sign Language) club in her living room, she soon recognized a need for queer people to learn ASL in safe spaces.Montpetit began Queer ASL as a drop-in club in Victoria in 2009. After she relocated to Vancouver in 2011, she continued to teach ASL and developed a curriculum in 2012 that has since been taught by a total of six teachers. Montpetit explains, in an email interview, that their primary focus is to teach ASL with an “anti-oppressive framework”. She says they emphasize gender-neutral language, avoiding things like teaching the signs formanorwomanby pointing to students.“Mainstream ASL classes also tend to include activities where students go around assuming people’s gender identities, which leads to misgen-dering,” she says. “In Queer ASL, we only identify each other as a person, and introduce gendered signs using iconic images and characters, such as the Flintstones, instead of assuming how students identify.”Queer ASL also oers workshops for queer businesses or organizations seeking to become more deaf-inclusive by examining “some of the cultural tendencies that may be considered appropriate or inappropriate by people in the deaf community”, Montpetit says. In addition, they also oer workshops for the general deaf community and organizations on becoming queer- and trans-inclusive, including how to become less oppressive. Kim Palmer, who was a Queer ASL student in 2012 and became a teacher in 2016, says by email that they teach deaf people vocabulary such asqueer, lesbian, trans, intersex, cis, androgynous, and more.Both Montpetit and Palmer identify several ways queer communities can improve access and communication for deaf people. Montpetit sees a need for more consultation and engagement with, and promotion of events within, deaf commu-nities. She also thinks ASL interpretation is “often undervalued by event planners and organizers”. Palmer also points out that needs can vary among deaf people.“Hard-of-hearing people may benet from assistive devices, deaf-blind people often require additional interpreters or intervenors, and nonsigning deaf/hard-of-hearing folks may benet from real-time captioning,” she says. “I would love to see more recognition that access is an ongoing process that can always be improved on, and it starts with consulting and listening to disabled people about their needs.”Palmer, who identies as an asexual cisgender woman, also sees many parallels between being deaf and being queer. “Both deaf and queer communities can be tremendous sources of culture, identity, and pride, while simultane-ously having to ght against oppressive politics,” she says. “It doesn’t surprise me that so many hearing queer folks feel compelled to learn ASL; they know what it’s like to be marginalized and often recognize aspects they can relate to when learning about ASL and deaf culture.”Language Line Video Interpretation - Now Available!http://www.yvr.ca/en/blog/2019/video-interpretation The YVR Blog team·Posted: Sept 10, 2019 YVR welcomes millions of passengers from all over the world every year—and with them a wide variety of languages. In keeping with our commitment to deliver an outstanding customer experience, we strive to oer services to meet the needs of all passengers, including our popular Language Line which oers phone interpretation in over 240 languages.Recently we launched our latest service: real-time video interpretation, available 24/7 in 36 languages including American Sign Language. The new service, which passengers can request through our frontline sta, comple-ments the existing Language Line and allows us to better serve passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing. It supports YVR’s goal of greater accessibility by making the airport a more inclusive and welcoming place for everyone.To learn more about our accessibility initiatives, go to www.yvr.ca/accessibility

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FNDC Fall • 201935Advocacy and Conflict Resolution for Students withDisabilities in BC EducationThe BCEdAccess Society is an entirely volunteer, parent run organization. We provide peer to peer support forparents of children and youth with disabilities and complex learners, advocacy training and education, and wedo systemic level advocacy for equitable access to education.be consulted about theplacement of theirchildrenbe involved in theplanning, development &implementation of their children's educationalprogrambe informed of their children's attendance, behaviour& progress in schoolexamine all records kept by school boardpertaining to their childrenregister their children in an educational programthrough a school district, independent school,home school, or regional correspondenceprogramappeal the decision of an employee of a board if itsignificantly affects the education, health or safetyof a studentParents have the right to:receive annual reports about the effectiveness ofeducational programs in the school districtHow does funding work?What is an IEP?The government provides supplementary funding tosome categories of students with disabilities andcomplex learners. Others do not receive supplementaryfunding but are still funded through the base perstudent amount. Funds are not attached to individual students, ratherschool districts pool the funds received and decide howto allocate those funds at the district and school level.An IndividualEducation Plan (IEP) is a document thatfeatures a student's strengths and areas of challenge.Goals and objectives are developed in consultation withparents/guardiansto support student learning.An IEP is not a legal contract and does not require anysignatures. The Principal of the school is responsible forensuring the IEP is implemented.Who might be supporting my child at school?Depending on your child's needs, he/she may besupported by: a Teacher;an Educational Assistant; aYouth Care Worker; a Learning Support Servicesteacher; School Counsellor; District Staff; Occupational,Speech Language, Physical Therapist; or others.PartnerConnectDocumentEngage in honest & clear communicationStart a binder and organize your documents-notes, emails, IEPs, assessments BCEdAccess Society -Information and peer to peer support for families of students with disabilities andcomplex learners, systems advocacy www.bcedaccess.comInclusion BC - Individual advocacy support for school and community issues for children and adults withdisabilities www.inclusionbc.org Family Support Institute - Individual navigation support, training and more for families of children andadults with disabilities www.familysupportbc.com BCCPAC - British Columbia Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, offers advocacy support tofamilies www.bccpac.bc.ca District PAC -May offer individual advocacy support to families, will be a great source of knowledge onDistrict Policies and Procedures Check your local School District website for information on DPACAdvocacy: Where do I start?Regardless of funding or category, all students with adisability have the right to the accommodations andsupports they need to equitably access their education.Follow up face to face meetings andconversations with an email stating yourunderstandingBe an active partner in planning anddecision makingAvoid labelling and/or blamingShow your awareness of unique strengths &needsYou are not alone! We encourage you to reach out for support & assistance at any time. What does the BC School Act Say?

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FNDC Fall • 201936Student Rights in EducationUN Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesArticle 24 - Inclusive EducationProhibits discrimination against children with disabilities and mandates the right to an inclusive educationFocused on removing barriers to participation in typical classrooms in public schoolsCountries are specifically charged with obligation to ensure access to inclusive general education with non-disabled peersThe Parliament of Canada and each Canadian province have ratified the Convention and the optionalprotocolsCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefitof the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin,colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disabilityMinisterial Orders(1) A board must ensure that a principal, vice principal or director of instruction offers to consult with a parent of astudent with special needs regarding the placement of that student in an educational program.(2) A board must provide a student with special needs with an educational program in a classroom where thatstudent is integrated with other students who do not have special needs, unless the educational needs of thestudent with special needs or other students indicate that the educational programs for the student with specialneeds should be provided otherwise.[en. M397/95; am. M32/04; am. 235/07]Ministry of Education Special Education Policy Manual"All students should have equitable access to learning, opportunities for achievement, andthe pursuit of excellencein all aspects of their educational programs."Must - requires compliance - no optionShould- encourages or provides incentives but is optionalMay - enabling statements but still optionalLegal PrecedentsMoore v. British Columbia (Education)The Moore Decision states that:"Adequate special education (or an accommodation)is not a dispensible luxury, but a "ramp" to accessthe statuatory commitment to education made toall children..."When denying accommodation "...the serviceprovider must show that it could not have doneanything else reasonable or practical to avoid thenegative impact on the individual."Hewko v. British Columbia (Education)The right to be a part of the IEP collaborativeprocessMeaningful ConsultationInstructional ControlHewko v. British Columbia, (2006 BCSC1638):"Reasonable accommodation is an integral part of theduty to consult. Reasonable accommodation in thiscase involves providing the best available teachingstaff for Darren Hewko in the school. In Darren's case,as in that of all children, special needs ornot, the bestteaching staff are persons who can demonstrateinstructional control of him."In the Policy Manual, Must, Should and May are words used to qualify the directions that are given.Example:All school boards must have appeal procedures to help resolve disputes.Example:For children in care, boards should ensure that the guardian is receiving relevantinformation from the school.Example:The IEP may be brief, or it may be more detailed and complex, depending on the complexityof the student's needs.The Hewko decision established:

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FNDC Fall • 201937When things aren't working ...Read Provincial and District Policies & theSchool Act, for guidance on what you canexpect, and reference these items in meetingsand communicationFollow up meetings/hallway/classroomdoorway chats with an email - summarize, seekclarification, make new requestsDocument everythingBring someone with you to meetings - to act asa witness, take notes and provide emotionalsupportAddress concerns by email and make clear requestsGive deadlines for response - 1 week if relativelyroutine, 2 business days if importantIs it urgent? Send an email, then follow up with a callor even an in person visit to the principal#1#2#3#4Discuss concerns with Teacher;follow up in writing. If no resolution,go to step 2Send email with concerns toPrincipal;if no resolution,go to step 3Send email with concerns toappropriate District contact;if no resolution, go to step 4Find and review your District's appeals process.Follow next steps as outlined. If no resolution, go tostep 5 Steps for Resolving ConcernsAppeal to Board of EducationFind and review your District's process for a Section 11Appeal. If no resolution, go to step 6.#5**Check your school district websiteto learn more about who toapproach for step 3Appeals at this level are limited. Please consult:https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/support/student-disputes-and-appealsAt each level, Districts have policies andprocedures to resolve concerns at school. Ifyou skip a step in the communication ladder,you will be sent back down to complete it.Following protocols will show your willingnessto engage in the process, and that you've madethe necessary effort to resolve the issue."NEVER STOP FIGHTING. Your child is entitled to what they need in order to besuccessful in school. NEVER LET THEM TELL YOU OTHERWISE! Keep going upthe ladder until your child gets what they need!"#6Ministry of EducationAppeal to Superintendent of Achievement Successful parent advocateWhat can I do if language is a barrier? Ask your school or district for aninterpreter, or to be referred to acultural/settlement worker. For moreinformation, see pages 22/23 of theSpecial Education Policy Manual.

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FNDC Fall • 201938Options for Filing ComplaintsThere are times when you may determine that the best course of action is to file a formal complaint. You donot need to wait until you have completed the whole appeals process in your District to take these actions.Here are some the avenues to explore.BC Human Rights TribunalThe role of the BC Human Rights Tribunal is to address discrimination.Complete the easy, online form: http://www.bchrt.bc.ca/complaint-process/complain/index.htmThe Office of the OmbudspersonThe role of theOffice of the Ombudsperson is to address administrative unfairness.BCCPAC recommends you contact the Ombudsperson when you decide to file a Section 11 Appealwith your Districtwww.BCOmbudsperson.caBC Teacher Regulation BranchThe role of the BC Teacher Regulation Branch is to review the conduct and competence of educators.https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/organizational-structure/ministries-organizations/boards-commissions-tribunals/commissioner-for-teacher-regulation/complaintParents may submit a complaint regarding either teacher conduct or incompetenceFirst Nations Caring Society / Jordan's PrincipleFirst Nations children are to receive the public services they need (including education) when theyneed them.https://fncaringsociety.com/jordans-principleSpecial Education Services: A Manual of Policies, Procedures and Guidelines; Ministry of EducationBritish Columbia School ActHelpful ResourcesSupporting Meaningful Consultation: BC CASE, 2008Everyone Belongs in Our Schools:Inclusion BC 2014bcedaccess.combcedaccess@gmail.comConnect with us!http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96412_00https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/kindergarten-to-grade-12/inclusive/special_ed_policy_manual.pdfhttp://www.sd41.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/meaningfulConsultation.pdfhttps://inclusionbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ParentManualInclusiveEducation_2014.pdf

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FNDC Fall • 201939 YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSION The Government of B.C. is asking British Columbians to help define future legislation that will make B.C. a more accessible and inclusive province. The B.C. Government is committed to developing new laws, standards, and policies to better support people with disabilities to live with dignity and to meaningfully participate in their communities. Accessibility legislation would empower government, persons with disabilities, and the broader community to work together to identify, remove, and prevent barriers. Shane Simpson, Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, would like your feedback in preparation for the development of new laws, standards and policies. The opportunity to provide feedback will be open from September 16 to November 29, 2019 at 4 pm. Participate by: •Completing the online questionnaire available at https://engage.gov.bc.ca/accessibility; •Sending comments by email to engageaccessibility@gov.bc.ca or leaving comments by phone 844 878-0640 (toll free); •Participating in a virtual town hall. Register at https://engage.gov.bc.ca/accessibility; •Community groups, libraries, and other organizations can access resources of up to $2,000 to host their own conversations and provide feedback. More information is available online at http://www.sparc.bc.ca/accessibility-legislation/ •Organizations, self-advocates and advocates can make a formal submission on the Framework for Accessibility Legislation. Information about formal submissions and accessible versions of the Framework can be found at https://engage.gov.bc.ca/accessibility; •Attending an in-person session. Register at https://engage.gov.bc.ca/accessibility to take part in a meeting in one of nine locations around the province. •Tuesday, October 15 – Fort St John – 5 pm to 7:30 pm •Wednesday, October 16 – Surrey – 6 pm to 8:30 pm •Friday, October 18 – Comox – 5:30 pm to 8 pm •Saturday, November 2 – Vancouver – 2:30 pm to 5 pm •Tuesday, November 12 – Kamloops – 6 pm to 8:30 pm •Wednesday, November 13 – Penticton – 6 pm to 8:30 pm Supports are available to help you participate including ASL & CART captioning, funding for child-care support, transportation, as well as other disability and health supports. After the consultation period ends, the B.C. Government will provide a summary of the feedback and input that has been received. Your feedback and input will be used to inform the development of accessibility legislation for B.C. We hope you will participate and look forward to your contributions. Accessibility Secretariat, Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction Email: engageaccessibility@gov.bc.ca

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FNDC Fall • 201943 FAMILY NETWORK FOR DEAF CHILDREN NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING & Parent Social (appetizers) NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Annual General Meeting of Members of FNDC The FAMILY NETWORK FOR DEAF CHILDREN (the “Society”) will be held on Friday, November 15, 2019 at 7:30 pm at Firefighter’s Club, 6515 Bonsor Avenue, Burnaby. We have a semi-private room booked for the AGM, then followed by an appetizer social (appetizers provided by FNDC), beverages paid by individuals. The purpose of the meeting will be to transact the following business: 1. To receive and consider the Report of the Directors and the financial statements of the Company for the fiscal year end March 31, 2019 together with the report of the Auditors thereon; 2. To determine the number of Directors at ten; 3. To elect Directors of the Company to hold office until the close of the next annual general meeting. 4. To appoint Auditors for the ensuing year April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020. DATED 25th day of September, 2019. BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS FAMILY NETWORK FOR DEAF CHILDREN Per: “COLLEEN PETERSON” President and Director NOTE: • Members in good standing are all members who have paid their annual membership for 2019/2020. Voting members are parents or legal guardians that have been a parent or foster parent of a deaf or hard of hearing child, youth or adult. • All members of the Family Network for Deaf Children are encouraged to attend this important meeting. • Interpreters will be provided. PLEASE RSVP (so we can plan for the appetizers) Email: fndc@fndc.ca before November 8, 2019

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FNDC is a non-prot society (S-33351) that was founded in March, 1995 to bring together families of deaf children in British Columbia who share common concerns. Federal Registered Charity Number: 88622 5655 RR0001. Deaf Youth Today (DYT) is a program administered by FNDC.What is FNDC all about?Deaf Youth Today (DYT), is FNDC’s summer social/recreational program and is committed to providing recreational experience and leadership opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing youth in British Columbia that use sign language for all or part of their communication or who are interested in learning sign language.FNDC Board of DirectorsHester Hussey ...................................................Mentor, AdvisorColleen Peterson ..................Board President | colleen@fndc.caNicki Horton ..................................................................DirectorKaren Jackson ................................................................DirectorCharlie Coyle .................................................................DirectorJoy Santos ......................................................................DirectorGwen Wong ....................................................................DirectorLaura Batista ..................................................................DirectorLeigh Chan .....................................................................DirectorDan Braun ......................................................................DirectorBobbi Taylor ..................................................................DirectorPauline Anderson ...........................................................DirectorThe Board of Directors are parents of deaf children.FNDC StaffDYT StaffCecelia Klassen .......................................... Executive Director | cecelia@fndc.caBella Poato ......................................... Executive Assistant | accounting@fndc.caScott Jeffery ............................. Info Tech Manager FNDC/DYT | scott@fndc.caJason Berube ......................Newsletter Tech & IT Support | webmaster@fndc.caFNDC ..................................................................General Inquiry | fndc@fndc.caDYT (General Inquiries) ................................................................... dyt@fndc.caMembership (Paid)Join Our E-Mail List (for free)Contact UsMembership is open to those who support the goals of our Organization. * Our membership is open to individuals, schools, and organizations. Parents/guardians of deaf and hard of hearing children are eligible to vote.Join our email list (for free) and receive: * Our newsletter (which is published four times a year) * Email Updates regarding upcoming workshops and courses, children & youth programs as well as community updatesContact us below and be added to our email list or to request a membership form:Family Network for Deaf ChildrenP.O. Box 50075 South Slope RPOBurnaby, BC V5J 5G3604-684-1860 (voice/text message)www.fndc.ca (website) fndc@fndc.ca (e-mail)Family Network for Deaf Children (FNDC) is a parent run, non-prot, charitable organization supporting families with deaf and hard of hearing children that use sign language or are interested in learning sign language. Even though technology and methodology have changed over the years, we seek the wisdom of parents, professionals and Deaf/HH adults so that common themes of “access, equity and a sense of belonging” continue to be highlighted in areas such as: social/recreation, leadership, education, employment, general services and community involvement.What is Deaf Youth Today?