Category: News

Captioning News: Not Good News

Time to start writing! From DeafNetwork: The News Just Got Worse! By Cheryl Heppner In addition to the two exemptions announced today, the Federal Communications Commission has sent out 250 more letters granting captioning exemptions! They are apparently poised to send out another huge batch of letters that will amount to a total of about …

Continue reading

Cartoon Features a Guest Who Is Deaf

PBS cartoon Maya & Miguel celebrates Deaf Awareness Week (September 24–30, 2006) by featuring a character who is deaf and uses sign language to communicate. The episode, “Give Me a Little Sign,” premieres on September 25 and runs daily until Friday, September 29. This episode will have open captions, a first for PBS KIDS GO!sm …

Continue reading

Gene Responsible for Hearing Loss

Researchers have found another gene that increases a person’s risk for hearing loss. The gene known as KCNQ4 may be the cause of “age-related” hearing loss rather than long-time noise exposure. Here are previously mentioned genes also linked to hearing loss.

Deaf Actress in Jericho

Shoshannah Stern, a deaf actress, is a cast member of Jericho, a new CBS TV show about the after-effects of a nuclear mushroom cloud appearing in the distance from Jericho, a small town in Kansas. Stern is a fourth generation member of a deaf family. Her brother and sister are also deaf. She attended California …

Continue reading

News Links: 08-11-2006

* U.S. Army in Iraq and the International Kids Fund donate funds to help an Iraqi girl get a cochlear transplant. * Discrimination in golf. Makes me grateful I never had a problem with sports or lessons and I’ve played or tried most of them (basketball, soccer, volleyball, softball, tennis, golf, and racquetball). * Two …

Continue reading

Heroic Dog Motivates Kid

Take a bow-wow-wow tells the story of a dog who helped a boy. Jordon Marchant-Winsor lost his father when he was 18-months-old and he stopped speaking.

Virtual Reality Teaches Math to Deaf

Purdue’s Envision Center for Data Perceptualizatoin reports its computer graphics students have created a virtual world using high-tech cameras and “cybergloves” that can translate body and hand motions into digital images to help teach math to deaf students. This technology lets a user interact with virtual characters. [Link: Kotaku]

Gallaudet President Update

A press release indicates that “The Board of Trustees of Gallaudet University is meeting this Friday, July 28 and Saturday, July 29, 2006 for a two-day session which will include at least one closed-door meeting.” As Wonderland’s Alice said, “Curiouser and curiouser.”

Pro Football Player and Brother Plan Camp

Carolina Panthers quarterback Stefan LeFors, a CODA (child of deaf adults), and brother, who is deaf, Eric LeFors are planning a football camp for the deaf at Camp Lakodia in South Dakota.

Vote for Deaf Race Car Driver

Mike McConnell has been keeping up with Greg Gunderson, a race car driver who happens to be deaf. Gunderson is up for an upcoming TV reality show called “Racin’ for a Living.” If Gunderson gets enough votes, he’ll become the first deaf driver to compuete in the show. Voting ends on July 31. I even …

Continue reading