Deaf Bilingual Coalition Newsblast: February 2010
What’s Up With the Deaf Bilingual Coalition: http://dbcusa.org
Mark Your Calendars:
The DBC’s next big event will be attending and presenting at the 2010 Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Conference in Chicago on March 1st and 2nd. We will have a pre-EHDI workshop sponsored by the Chicago Club for the Deaf on Saturday, February 27, 2010, from 5:00 to 9:00 pm at:
Irish Heritage Center: 4606 North Knox Ave, Chicago, Illinois. See flyer.
News From DBC…
Submitted by Tami Hossler (hearing mother of an adult Deaf daughter, Outreach coordinator for DBC)
Hello from Alaska…Yes, ALASKA. That is where the Deaf Bilingual Coalition is this week. John Egbert, Erica Hossler, and I are here advocating for Deaf babies and their families. The Deaf Council, with the support of the Governor’s Council, asked DBC to come and present… and here we are.
Yesterday we presented to a group of 30 people including their state EHDI (Early Hearing Detection and Intervention) director and several other EHDI agency folks, state commissioners for education, school administrators, audiologists, parents and First Lady Sandy Parnell. Yes, that is right, the Governor’s wife!!
We had from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm as the time slot for our presentation. It was wonderful to have so much time to cover everything from A to Z. We opened up their eyes on bilingualism through ASL and English and how important it is in early intervention, where parents get their first information on what to do, how to communicate with their children and later how to educate their children. We were interviewed on Channel 2, 11, and 13 and made the news Thursday and Friday.
On Friday, the DBC presented for two hours to a group of 80 professionals who were mostly school district administrators, state directors, educators, early interventionists, and parents.
Today, Saturday, February 6th, we will present to the Deaf community for another two hours to assist them in following through with the seven recommendations that the Deaf Council, along with the Governor’s Council on Disabilities, made to the Department of Education this past December.
We have gotten a tremendously positive response! The Alaska School for the Deaf has the same issues as most states. The population of students is dwindling, audiologists are referring parents to directly to cochlear implant surgeons rather than to early intervention programs, and there is a lack of Deaf professionals in all parts of the early intervention system in directorships and in Deaf Education.
I am almost always amazed at the head nodding happening (agreeing with us) when we speak candidly about the importance of ASL as visual language, and the dangers of the unethical medical referral practices occurring in early detection, as well as the lack of Deaf professionals in the system. People, Deaf and hearing, are on our side, but many can’t say anything for the sake of their jobs, BUT we can, through DBC!!
So for all those out there wondering what the DBC is doing, please spread the word that we are totally walking the walk (even through the Alaskan snow–smile.)
Our next big event will be attending and presenting at the 2010 Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Conference in Chicago on March 1st and 2nd. We will have a pre-EHDI workshop sponsored by the Chicago Club for the Deaf on Saturday, February 27, 2010, from 5:00 to 9:00 pm at: Irish Heritage Center: 4606 North Knox Ave, Chicago, Illinois. That info will be posted on our website very soon.
EHDI is the federal program administered under the Center of Disease Control (CDC) that gives grants to states to set up their own programs of detection and intervention. When a baby is born in the hospital, its hearing is tested, if the baby “fails” the test, the parents are supposed to be referred to the state’s early intervention program to get information on setting up further testing with an audiologist. Then the early intervention service agency meets with the family to start their family’s service plan with the support of qualified services providers and other professionals. Unfortunately, parents are not getting information from Deaf professionals through EHDI.
This year’s EHDI conference, like past years’ conferences, is extremely pathologically biased, with 70% of the presenters being audiologists. The Deaf organizations that attend the conference, such as the National Association of the Deaf, the American Society for Deaf Children, as well as professionals from the Clerc Center and other Deaf Schools, have been working hard on spreading awareness of the importance of bringing a balance to the EHDI program and the conferences to include Deaf professionals as directors, service providers, mentors, specialists, etc., in the state programs set up around the country. We have also been asking for equal representation at the conferences, as representatives on the conference planning committees, as workshop presenters, and as keynote speakers. We even had a post-EHDI conference meeting last year to voice our concerns and offer suggestions.
Unfortunately, those top officials from EHDI at last year’s meeting decided to ignore the Deaf organizations’ suggestions. Only two Deaf representatives were picked to serve on the committee of more than 15. Nine Deaf professionals had abstracts rejected out of 17 total (NAD, Clerc Center, two bilingual school Superintendents, and others very well-known Deaf professionals were rejected!). No Deaf keynote presenters were selected (instead they picked “Signing Times,” a hearing run company for-profit.)
The same coalition of Deaf organizations are working together once again, following proper procedures, asking for another meeting again this year with the top EHDI directors and planning committee members to discuss this ongoing imbalance and bias. We will again ask that a balanced number of Deaf professionals be included in all areas of EHDI, including the yearly conference.
I hope this gives you a better view of the bigger picture of state and early intervention issues and what the DBC is doing.
After EHDI, the DBC has been invited to attend the Early Childhood Education Summit at Gallaudet University in April 2010.
Please consider donating to DBC’s efforts. Go to http://dbcusa.org to find out how to donate.
Please see the photo below, showing First Lady Sandy Parnell, Erica Hossler, Tami Hossler, John Egbert, and John Miranda (of the Alaska Deaf Council).
CAL-ED 2010
The theme this year is “It Takes a Village”, DBC will participate. Please view this flyer for more information.
DBC: EHDI Reform Needed Now
The Deaf Bilingual Coalition represents stakeholders from all over the US and internationally who believe that Deaf babies and children deserve the basic human right to cognitive, social and emotional development, and have an inherent right to visual languages (in the US and Canada, those languages being American Sign Language, ASL.)
ASL is the third most widely studied and used language in the US. It is taught in high schools and colleges across the nation. Yet currently, 90% of Deaf babies are born to hearing parents who know very little about visual languages, or the importance of ASL, or even how Deaf babies acquire language.
The DBC’s goal is to help spread awareness that Deaf babies have a right to be bilingual in ASL and English (written and or spoken).
National organizations and bilingual (ASL and English) leaders have worked hard the past three years increasing awareness of EHDI issues.
The main issue at present is that the EHDI national directors and EHDI conference committee planners have failed to equally include Deaf professional participation and have kept Deaf people’s access to being presenters and keynote speakers to a minimum. The irony of this is that those overseeing the EHDI system are attempting to implement a system which is ostensibly for the benefit of Deaf babies, yet one WITHOUT the meaningful participation of Deaf adults.
Last year, the DBC, other organizations and Deaf leaders met with EHDI directors and conference planners to voice concerns about the imbalance and bias present that favors pathological approaches, not only in the yearly EHDIconferences but also in all parts of the EHDI system, national and statewide. Our goal was to start a productive dialogue in order to work together to resolve the problematic issues.
WHAT OCCURRED: The EHDI directors and conference planners ignored the recommendations given to them last year and have proceeded to plan another conference devoid of a proper and necessary balance that includes Deaf representatives as keynote speakers, presenters, and conference planning representatives. EHDI directors and planners rejected 60+% of the presentation proposals (abstracts) that were submitted by Deaf professionals.
Those who had abstracts rejected were from the National Association of the Deaf, the American Society for Deaf Children, the Laurent Clerc Center in Washington, DC, along with superintendents of Deaf schools and other very well-known and respected Deaf presenters. For the upcoming conference, no Deaf presenters have been chosen to be keynote speakers. Also, there are only two Deaf representatives on the EHDI conference planning committee. In addition, 70% of the presentations will be given by audiologists, with the biggest sponsors of the conference being cochlear implant corporations.
Unethical practices in early detection and intervention programs (including discriminating against Deaf professional participation in all levels of EHDI) have unfortunately lead parents on a path toward adopting a strict “ear-based” pathological view, rather than focusing on beginning language development from birth using a visual language that is 100% accessible to Deaf babies (i.e., ASL). Thus, Deaf babies will grow into adults with every part of their lives being negatively impacted due to language deprivation caused by the strict oral/aural-only approaches that are demanded by the errant Auditory Verbal Therapy philosophies which are usually associated with cochlear implantation. Over the years, there have been millions of Deaf adults who have been negatively impacted by the misinformation their parents received from so-called “professionals” who devalued ASL and propagated myths about speaking and listening.
The DBC is seeking an end to the EHDI system’s unethical practices. We demand that Deaf professionals be equally employed and represented at all levels in the conferences, and programs of EHDI.
Conference Information:
2010 Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Conference
March 1-2, 2010
Intercontinenal Hotel
Chicago, Illinois
This article can also be found on our blog, at http://deafbilingualcoalition.wordpress.com.
–The DBC
©2010 Deaf Bilingual Coalition, all rights reserved.
