When Your Voice is No Longer Your Own-A Commentary on the Recent Controversy to Recognize Lingua dei Segni Italiana
There is a silent battle going on as I write this letter; a battle over a peoples’ voice, their right to be heard, and the ownership of their language, which may soon be wrested away from them. Most of the world does not think about sign language as a method of regular communication, much less [...]
A Guide to the Maternal Reflective Method
Often, deaf children learn to sign so that they can communicate their needs and also learn in schools for the deaf. However, signing is not the only method of communication. In schools today, there is a Maternal Reflective Method, sometimes called Oral Reflective Method, which teaches partially or fully deaf children how to learn and [...]
Xbox Kinect Learns to Understand Sign Language
A group of French hackers and developers have put together a cool demo of the Xbox Kinect understanding French sign language. Right now, it only supports two words (bonjour and desole, hello and sorry respectively). Read more at Popular Science. I was waiting for this to happen, after seeing so many hacks and cool tricks [...]
Institution Nationale des Sourds a’ Paris
Before heading to the World Federation of the Deaf Congress in Madrid, Spain, I went to Paris, France to visit famous landmarks such as the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and Versailles. On the third day, I decided to visit the Institution Nationale des Sourds a’ Paris, the Deaf institute where Laurent Clerc studied under the [...]
British Bioethics and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill
By now many of you are aware of the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (HFEB) in its second reading in the House of Lords in London and the response of the British Deaf Association opposing this bill due to its eugenics implications, which include the potential to place restrictions on certain kinds of reproductive [...]