News flash:
Dennis O’Brien, past-president of West Suburban Association of the Deaf and a long-time Republican, has announced that he will be voting for Barak Obama on Tuesday. *
*This public service announcement has been an outright lie, but it sure was fun to watch him walk around the Halloween party with that announcement taped to his back.
Last night, I attended a fundraiser for Equip for Equality, a non-profit organization that provides legal assistance for people with disabilities. I attended as the guest of Patrick Hughes, owner of Inclusion Solutions who co-chaired the fundraiser. You may remember Patrick from this interview over at Diversity, Inc.: Patrick Hughes, President of Inclusion Solutions.
Before I met Patrick, I knew about Equip for Equality from my friend, Howard Rosenblum, a deaf attorney who has been with the organization since 2001. When Steak ‘n Shake denied me service in the drive-thru back in January, I asked Howard to work with me to try and change the way deaf and hard of hearing people are served in the drive-thru. We’re still working together to make changes in the drive-thrus at Steak ‘n Shake.
There’s another reason I attended the Equip for Equality fundraiser. Several years ago, when I first started up Illinois Hands & Voices, I received information about a family from Naperville who was struggling to obtain appropriate support services for their son. I met with the Abou Ezzi family and met their son Tony, who is hard of hearing. Tony was attending a local high school and had a difficult time accessing all of the communication that was going on in the classroom. Believe it or not, one of the accommodations suggested by the school was a swivel chair, so that Tony could swivel around and read his classmates lips.
I met with the family and suggested using CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation). Tony was a bit hesitant to try it. “Can you just try it for two weeks and if you don’t like it, we won’t bring it up again,” I asked him. He agreed.
I joined the family at the IEP meeting and after a lengthy discussion, the school agreed to try CART in the classroom. The very first day, Tony came home and told his mom that he had no idea he was missing so much discussion going on around him in the classes. Tony continuted to utilize CART services throughout high school and graduated with honors.
Tony became a huge advocate of CART, but found himself encountering resistance from the college he choose to attend after high school. That’s where Equip for Equality came in; they stepped up to bat and helped to make CART a reality for Tony’s college classes. Tony is now about to graduate and plans to attend law school to become an attorney.
This is why I continue to refer families to Equip for Equality.
Left to right:
Michael Abou Ezzi, Tony Abou Ezzi, Howard Rosenblum, Karen Putz and Betsy Abou Ezzi
I love Twitter. Over on Twitter, I’ve been able to network and connect with a variety of people that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to know through normal networking channels. I consider Twitter to be my virtual watercooler– I go over there to hang out during my breaks and I get to join in numerous conversations at once. In real life, I can’t duplicate that without an interpreter in front of me.
I met Barbara Desmarais on Twitter–at least I think I did. With so much online networking, it’s hard to remember how some of the Twitter relationships originate. She’s CoachBarb over there, and we struck up a few deaf-and-parenting-related conversations. I learned that she teaches sign classes for babies and she raised twins who are deaf. She is a professional Parent Coach and helps parents tackle their parenting challenges. Since I’m always curious about parents of deaf and hard of hearing children and their stories, I asked Barb if she would be willing to share her experience in a guest post.
“I’d be honored,” she said. So without further ado, here’s Barb’s story:
In June of 1984 I attended a party where there were deaf people of all ages and people who worked with Deaf/deaf and hard of hearing people. I had been working with deaf and hard-of-hearing people in a variety of capacities for about eight years. At the party, I met Serge and his five-year-old Deaf, twin sons Adrian and Roger.
Serge and I began dating about two weeks later and married the following April. A few months before marrying, I moved in with the three of them to become step-mom to Adrian and Roger. They visited their own mother every other weekend and twice a week for dinner. I didn’t have my own children at
the time and Serge and I made a decision that I would work part-time to be available for the boys when they came home from school on the days they didn’t go with their mother.
That year, Adrian and Roger began attending Jericho Hill School for the Deaf here in Vancouver, British Columbia, which was a one hour bus commute from our home. They had been attending a pre-school for the deaf for three years. Sadly, Jericho closed at the end of their eighth year so they were moved to a new school where they were mainstreamed.
Before meeting Serge, American Sign Language was already a big part of my life as I’d worked with deaf children for a number of years and had deaf friends. Adrian and Roger communicated solely through ASL. It would have made things very difficult for me had I not known their language. They are both profoundly deaf and lip read very little. My formal background is in Early Childhood Education so my experience with children gave me a bit of an edge as well, although I quickly learned that being with children almost full time was very different than being with them in a classroom.
From the beginning, Serge and I shared a very similar approach to raising children with a disability. We did not want to pity them or assume their disability would severely limit them. We disciplined them the same way we disciplined the children we had later on. We both looked at them as being the same as any other children except they used a different language. Serge had immersed himself into the deaf community and learned ASL. He could easily converse with the boys. We always made a point to include them in conversations and fill them in on interesting things we heard on the radio or in the community. I used to read to them a lot at bedtime.
We lived in a townhouse complex where there were lots of young children. Adrian and Roger played with other children in the neighborhood although they usually preferred to play with each other. They were each other’s best friend. We made an effort to organize play dates with other deaf children
from their school though so they had plenty of opportunity to interact freely with children of their own age.
In June, 1987 Adrian and Roger’s sister Claire was born. They were ecstatic to have a new sibling. She picked up signs right away and could communicate her needs long before she could talk. Two years later their brother Marc came along so we were now a family of 6. By then the boys were well
entrenched in their school and had many close relationships with other deaf children. Claire and Marc got very used to having deaf people around a lot as well. In the early years we had deaf babysitters for all 4 of them.
Adrian and Roger are now 29 years old and leading full, rich lives. They both have stimulating and rewarding careers and active social lives. I’m grateful I had the experience of raising them as I know it has made me a better person.
I don’t remember who suggested it first, but I found myself writing down “lunch with Amy Derby” on my calendar last week. Yesterday, I headed out to her town to pick her up.
I’m bad with directions, she wrote. You might want to Mapquest it.
I’ve got a navigator in my van, I told her. I’m sure I can find it.
I dutifully followed the directions and found myself lost. The numbers didn’t match up. Thank goodness for good ‘ole texting, as I found Amy a quarter mile away, standing on a street corner hammering away at her iPhone.
Meeting someone for the first time is often awkward, but I think Amy and I hit it off pretty quickly. For one thing, we instantly bonded over hearing aid batteries. She needed a hearing aid battery and I had a stash of different sizes in my purse. We headed over to Chilis, but because I was driving and reading lips at the same time, we ended up in the Baker’s Square parking lot. Neither of us noticed, until we swung open the doors and saw a showcase of pies facing us. We laughed, and walked next door to Chilis.
It was heaven to connect with another writer and talk about the daily stuff that’s involved with churning out words. Heaven to bounce ideas off of someone who could give an honest answer (even if it was, “I don’t know”). And boy, was it fun to talk about all the people we know on the ‘net and how we got to know them.
So, if you don’t know Amy Derby, head on over to her blog, Write From Home and take a moment to get to know this sassy, talented writer.
I recently had the opportunity to chat with D-Pan founder, Sean Forbes, via videophone. D-Pan is a company that produces popular music videos signed in American Sign Language. Sean became deaf at the age of one from spinal meningitis. The son of two musicians, Sean was the only one of his two brothers to pursue a career in the music field. Sean grew up in the mainstream and learned American Sign Language as a young adult.
Sean compiled a collection of songs signed with American Sign Language and produced a DVD titled, D-Pan, It’s Everybody’s Music, Volume I. Included in the DVD:
“Waiting on The World To Change” By John Mayer
“Beautiful” By Christina Aguilera
Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” Performed by Sponge
Community Created ASL Music Video’s
Signing Songs: The Making of D-PAN Music Videos (Mini-Documentary)
Special Features & More!
All of the videos are closed captioned and subtitled on the DVD. Each of the D-PAN performers receive a royalty based on sales revenue. All of the sales from the music videos will fund upcoming projects.
As a special to the readers of A Deaf Mom Shares Her World, Sean is giving away a free copy of the D-Pan, It’s Everybody’s Music DVD. Everyone who leaves a comment below will be entered into the free give away. The deadline for this is Monday, September 22 at midnight. The winner will be chosen by Random.org. You must enter your email in the field (email will not be shown) and the winner will be notified on Tuesday. D-Pan will send the DVD directly to the winner.
Comment away!
No, no, it wasn’t me.
It was Meryl Evans.
To celebrate her blog’s eighth birthday, Meryl vowed to jump out of a plane if readers donated $5,000 worth of stuff to give away.
Five grand–she figured she wouldn’t get anywhere near that much stuff donated. So she thought she was pretty safe. After all, a mom of three kids shouldn’t be jumping out of planes, right?
At first, it looked like Meryl would be able to keep her feet on the ground. Then at the last minute, she received a donation that put her over the line. She made an appointment with Skydive Dallas to jump on June 20th.
She breathed a sigh of relief and dismay when the weather forced her to delay the jump. “Oh great,” she told me, “More time to be nervous.”
And then she got cold feet.
Yesterday, she sent me an email. “I’m not sure I am going to do it now,” she wrote. “Technically, I didn’t get the $5k worth of prizes by June 1. And hearing some stories just made me want to stay on Earth.”
That’s ok, I reassured her. Your readers will understand.
Hell, I understand– I’m a mom of three kids and the thought of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane gives me the willies. It would be fun, yeah, but going splat–that would hurt.
Well, what do you know, she jumped.
And she survived to tell the tale.
Meryl, girl, you rock!
“Hey, check this out!” said the hubby, pointing at the TV. A handsome guy stood next to Hulk Hogan on the American Gladiators show. As he turned his head, I noticed a cochlear implant on his right ear.
I had never watched American Gladiator before, but I did cover the death of Shelley Beattie, the deaf American Gladitor who played Siren for several seasons. I settled on the couch to watch Brick Reilly, who works as a tree climber in New Jersey, compete against Toby, a father of two from Tennesee.
According to the American Gladiator website:
Brick Reilly is a 27-year-old tree climber from Springfield, New Jersey. He was born deaf and has always deemed athletics an important escape from the realities of life. Though Reilly recently had a cochlear implant which gave him the ability to hear, he never used his disability as an excuse in his life. He works as a mentor for deaf children in the New Jersey area.
During the introductions, it appeared that Brick was handling the conversation well– I wasn’t sure if he was looking at an interpreter in the background or not. Two teachers and a group of children from an oral deaf school appeared on screen to wish Brick good luck. Brick responded in sign: “In the end, I’m going to win!”
Despite a rough start, Brick pulled ahead and had a 12 and half second lead going into the Eliminator contest, an obstacle course that determines the final winner. Halfway through the obstacle course, Brick landed on his shoulder and appeared to be in tremendous pain. He finished the course ahead of Toby and was declared the winner.
All that work seems to be worth it, as Brick walked off with a new SUV and $100,000 cash. Correction– Brick won that episode and he’ll go on to compete for more. The finalist will win at the end of the season. Congrats to Brick–you rocked that episode!
“It’s singing time and laughing time and playing time and now it is my favorite time, signing time!”
The first time I saw a tape of Signing Time, I couldn’t get the lyrics out of my mind. I suspect that’s one of the reasons that Signing Time has become successful in the mainstream. Little toddlers everywhere are listening to the songs, watching the videos and moving their hands to communicate.
Rachel Coleman, the mom behind Sign Language for Baby!,was recently nomimated for an Emmy. It’s been an amazing trip for her, especially since the intitial production was a family affair with her sister and husband helping to create the videos.
I did an interview with Rachel several years ago when the Signing Time series of videos was beginning to take off:
Meet the Colemans: The Story Behind Signing Time
Congrats to Rachel– all of her hard work has paid off!
I’ve been hanging out at Wendy Piersall’s new place–SparkPlugging, and I’m liking the digs very much. Wendy took her personal blog and grew it into a network with 17 other bloggers writing for her. And she has plans to expand her site even more!
Wendy started her blog as “Emoms At Home,” and it began to outgrow the name as the audience expanded to fathers and people without children. Wendy began to realize that she needed to re-name and re-brand to showcase the direction that her business was growing in.
Darren Rowse over at Problogger had the honor of unveiling the new name in his interview, Renaming Emoms At Home to Sparkplugging. As I told Wendy, when I first saw the name, my mind immediately flashed to a picture of an autobody shop. But the more I visit the site, the more the name has grown on me. I think Wendy is on to something that’s going to re-frame people’s minds. There will be a point where people are at a conference and asking, “Do you SparkPlug?” or “Are you SparkPlugging?” and people will know instantly what they’re talking about–the work-at-home generation.
For more information and an inside look at Wendy Piersall, Stephen Hopson from Adversity University featured Wendy in his interview series recently:
Adversity University Interviews Wendy Piersall, Part I
Adversity University Interviews Wendy Piersall, Part II
I met Marlene for the first time last summer. She and her husband Dale stopped by my parent’s house on Christie Lake to spend the day with us. My sister Linda met Marlene and Dale through the local Deaf Clubs in Michigan and they quickly bonded. Together, they worked the Dingo games and cooked large amounts of food for the gatherings. Linda began spending time with Marlene and Dale and enjoying their friendship and company.
As we took a slow pontoon ride around the lake and chatted with Marlene and Dale that day, I said to myself– this is a couple I wouldn’t mind getting to know better.
Someday, you know?
Someday, when there’s more time to sit down and connect.
Marlene and Dale found each other later in life and were married in 2005. It was easy to see that they were happy with one another and they were a couple that enjoyed life. They went on the Deaf Freedom Cruise last year. Before we left, Linda reminded me to find Marlene and Dale on the cruise and we planned to connect with them. Joe ran into them once during the week and we talked about getting together.
With 3,800 people on the ship, we didn’t connect with them again.
After a sudden, brief battle with cancer, Marlene passed away yesterday morning.
I guess the moral of this post is something to take with you today–those “somedays” that we promise ourselves may not happen. Each day, each connection, is a gift.
I know that my sister is really grateful for the connection she had with Marlene, for she enjoyed Marlene’s humor and friendship.
Marlene will be missed.