From the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER:

Cleveland Theater group for the deaf repaid after theft

By Gabriel Baird

October 21, 2009, 5:05PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The family of a man accused of stealing from a Cleveland-based theater company that adapts plays for hearing-impaired children repaid the company last week.

Sign Stage on Tour was repaid a week after The Plain Dealer ran a story about the theft.

James R. Jones III, 27, of East Cleveland racked up nearly $4,000 on company credit cards, according to a warrant accusing him of aggravated theft. It was unclear Wednesday whether Jones has been arrested on the warrant.

While serving as the stage manager for the company, Jones used the company's credit cards for personal purchases to places like Dave's Supermarket, Cleveland Motel, Passport to Peru and Diana's Deli.

The total was significant to the modestly funded for-profit theater company, officials said.

Det. Frank Zagami of the Cleveland Police Financial Crimes Unit is working the criminal case.

HELP PUT "AUDISM" IN THE DICTIONARY!

From Don Grushkin:

I, and some other people contacted the Oxford English Dictionary, and they informed us that OED is currently in the process of investigating the inclusion of the word “audism” in its next edition, and it is possible that this might happen as early as next year. This will be great for establishing the validity of audism as a concept to be included in legislation which aims to establish certain groups as “protected”.

Want to lend your support?

OED appeals and submissions

To suggest a new word, or contribute new evidence for a word already in the OED, please read How to contribute words to the Reading Programme and contact us as follows:

Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford University Press
Great Clarendon St.
Oxford OX2 6DP

Tel: +44 (0)1865 353660
Fax: +44 (0)1865 353811
E-mail: oed3@oup.com

FREE MOVIES!!

Have you heard people talking about the documentary

THROUGH DEAF EYES ?

Or have you seen it and want to watch it again?

NOW YOU CAN!

(but FYI - no captions of voiced sections for ASL users;

and no sound after the first several minutes for hearing viewers)

It's available FREE thru on-line streaming at

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-102699269939096465# !

THE SOUND AND THE FURY is ALSO available:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-102699269939096465#docid=4538436001954313679

And so are performances by KEITH WANN:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-102699269939096465#docid=-4124919523670223460

and

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-102699269939096465#docid=5904903091245550252

Then enjoy watching the Wild Zappers:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1802291/lonely_little_monster_american_sign_language_music_video/

WANT TO SEE A STATUE COMMEMORATING DUMMY HOY IN COLUMBUS??

From Steve Sandy:

Please pass this out to your readers.

www.legacyforohio.org, click Blog, H and Hoy then input their comments
to support Dummy Hoy.

In CLERCSCAR 15.9, it was announced that a new play will be opening:

I NEVER SLEPT WITH HELEN KELLER
by Raymond Luczak

In Raymond Luczak's new play I NEVER SLEPT WITH HELEN KELLER, the statue
of Helen Keller wakes up and confronts her creator.

Want to see what Luczak has to say about working in blended theater (D/H/D-B)?

Check out: http://signcasts.com/node/214

Do you know about INJS? I bet you DO!

L'Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, 254, rue St Jacques

Doesn't sound quite familiar?

You know the story of Laurent Clerc? The National Institute for the Deaf, in Paris? THAT's INJS! And it's not just a piece of history - it's still a school, with students, teachers, and an art exhibit of Deaf artistis....

Check out INJS's website at http://www.injs-paris.fr/

Take a YouTube "tour" of INJS at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSfpkAOp7GY

__________________________________________________________

While watching videos, check out this one suggested by Theresa C., one of our great mentors at the main lab!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veTHjmk3bx8

Ever want to know more about why the northeast Ohio area has a history as being one of the larger Deaf communities in the nation? Check out http://depts.gallaudet.edu/deafeyes/exhibit/community-01wartime.htm

THEN....

Click here to go to INSIDE DEAF CULTURE (Padden http://books.google.com/books?id=2B4XWIFPgowC&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=deaf+family+ohio+bradley&source=bl&ots=Fm3U9yah3b&sig=pV85-_aeo-foXL8AEUbAFCnVqRk&hl=en&ei=YOfRStL6GoiSlAfemNGoCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CA0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=deaf%20family%20ohio%20bradley&f=false), read more about the importance of this area in Deaf history AND..... I bet many of you should recognize the name of the person interviewed on the bottom of page 88!

(then read about how the importance of this area for Deaf history started even EARLIER....in TALLMADGE (right near Kent, Akron, Stow: http://www.deafbiographies.com/schools/oh-osd-fay20.php You'll see the same name again....)

Check out some videos...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FIG_vK1ypw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edeaf%2Dbay%2Ecom%2F%3Fp%3D1113&feature=player_embedded (thanks to Irene T from Poland, Ohio for this link!)

http://www.deaf-bay.com/?p=1588

Learn about H1N1 thru ASL Videos:

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/deaf.htm

From Irene T in Poland, Ohio:

Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 1:27 pm Eastern Time

1950s-era blind, deaf schools prep for $43M facelift

Business First of Columbus - by Robert Celaschi For Business First Media

Friday, October 2, 2009 | Modified: Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 8:00am

Good lighting and acoustics play a crucial role in any classroom. They take on even more importance at schools for the blind and the deaf.

Bright, glaring backgrounds or bold color patterns can interfere with a deaf student trying to read sign language, for instance. The student in the next seat might have a cochlear implant, which means good acoustics are crucial, too. Likewise, classrooms for the blind need good lighting and visual cues for those students with partial or blurred vision.

SHP Leading Design in Columbus tackled these challenges and more as it drew up plans for new buildings for both the Ohio State School for the Blind and the Ohio School for the Deaf.

The schools are neighbors, built in the 1950s on a former golf course. Access for the school for the blind is off North High Street, while the school for the deaf fronts on Morse Road.

The $43 million construction project calls for new academic centers and individual dormitory cottages for each campus. The remaining buildings will stay untouched, including those now used for programs such as therapies and training, screening children and individual education plans. Bovis Lend Lease will serve as the construction manager.

Robert Grinch, senior project administrator at the Ohio School Facilities Commission, said if all goes as planned, construction will start in the spring, and the schools will move into the new buildings during the summer of 2011.

"We hope this fall we can actually bid a site package that would include earthwork, underground utilities, building pads and preparation," Grinch said.

Both schools have students from kindergarten through high school, and sometimes a little beyond. Both will continue to have all grades under one roof, but they'll occupy their own zones within the buildings.

The commission has its own manual for school design, but quickly realized that this tandem project involved special challenges.

"I'm very much involved in the process," said Edward Corbett Jr., superintendent of the Ohio School for the Deaf. He's been attending meetings every couple of weeks to keep tabs on the details such as flooring and wall coverings, and their impact on the students.

Details, details

In the design process, SHP tapped the specialized knowledge of consultants from Colorado and North Carolina. The firm also spent a lot of time observing how the students interact with one another and their surroundings.

In the deaf school, for example, students often walk three or four abreast and sign to one another, said Andrew Maletz, vice president of SHP. The new school was designed to encourage such clustering in some places with 12-foot-wide hallways, and discourage it in other areas by narrowing the hallways to eight feet.

"There are so many little details like that that have to be taken in consideration," Maletz said.

The firm tapped Joshua Predovich as project manager for the construction.

Sound and light naturally were primary concerns. For blind students, and for students with cochlear implants, high-pitched sounds can be a great distraction. Sources can include air rushing through duct work and the buzz of fluorescent lights. SHP cut down on the former by minimizing the number of bends in the ducts, and the latter by using a special ballast that can be mounted in the hallways, away from the light fixtures in the classrooms.

In a hallway, the clicking of heels on a hard floor can be heard by some students and felt by others. Resilient floors should eliminate that distraction.

In the deaf school, students will be seated facing away from windows and the visual distractions they can introduce. Strobe lights will signal fire alarms and another special light will signal a building lockdown, Grinch said.

In the school for the blind, floor patterns will help students with poor vision navigate.

"If we can create a high-contrast boundary where the floor meets the wall, it will give some visual cue of where the hallways end and the walls begin," Maletz said.

A school hallway can be an obstacle course to blind students if classroom doors suddenly open outward. SHP's answer was to put most of the doorways in alcove-like recesses so that they won't stick out into the hallway when opened.

But the doors to maintenance rooms and other areas not accessible to students will be flush with the walls. The notion is that the doors will be used by people who can check the hallways first. Students also will be better able to tell where they should and shouldn't go based on the type of doorway.

Blending old and new

Extra storage space was a must at the school for the blind. "The typical Braille book can be 10 to 12 times the size of a normal textbook," Maletz said.

Some traditional features will be retained. At the school for the blind, SHP is updating a bell tower and water fountain at the entrance to give visitors an audible signal that they have arrived.

Both schools will get energy-efficient buildings, with a plan to achieve gold certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program of the U.S. Green Building Council. The school for the deaf will get a one-story academic building in keeping with the surrounding architecture. The school for the blind will get a two-story structure.

Integrating old and new construction always is a challenge for an architect.

The existing deaf campus is low lying, the masonry buildings set at a variety of angles among large trees. SHP is continuing with masonry construction and a similar palette of colors.

The challenge was to get the right orientation for solar panels and to get indirect lighting into the classrooms. The aim was for no windows facing directly east or west, for example.

The buildings on the campus for the blind are laid out more at right angles, which SHP likewise is continuing. The dorms will be on either side of a street that's closed to traffic. The idea is to help students be aware of the relationships from house to sidewalk to road.

Also part of the design is a bridge that would span the ravine on the property and tie the two campuses together.

"We are exploring a possible connection between the two that would allow for ease of maintenance, and for students and staff to pass between the two campuses," Grinch said. "The methods that are used for the students are different for the different populations, so there are limited opportunities for the students to intermingle. But we do want to promote efficiencies with the operations of the facilities."

That could include maintenance and food service.

One-fourth of the old buildings will come down on each campus, with the rest finding new purposes. For now, there's no money for demolition, so the old buildings will be mothballed, Corbett said.

Robert Celaschi is a freelance writer.

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/10/05/focus1.html?b=1254715200%5E2201231

From Clerc Scar (if you haven't subscribed, you ought to consider it....)

LIPREADING
Lawrence Newman
[Inspired by John Lee Clark's poem "Braille"]

Endlessly
Jawing
Blur.
Waterfalls
Without captions
I see the world
Through the eye of a needle

=====
Lawrence Newman had a distinguished career as a teacher, winning
California Teacher of the Year honors, and is also a past president of the
National Association of the Deaf. His writings and poems were gathered
together as a book called I Fill This Small Space, recently published by
Gallaudet University Press, and available at
http://www.clercscar.com/books

In 2007, a Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities was held, through the United Nations' Office of Human Rights. Have you ever read what came out of that convention? You can, at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/disabilities-convention.htm

And then, after you're familiar with the outcomes of the convention, see the ASL report from the White House at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geoEVbaNBPc

(Thanks to Irene Tunadais for this video!)

Gallaudet's search for their new president continues, stretching now into several months. They now have approximately 20 nominations ro review. The names of the final candidates are expected to be announced later this summer, with interviews occurring in October, and the new President hopefully assuming the presidency in January 2010. See updates on the process at http://psac.gallaudet.edu/PSAC/Announcements_and_Updates.html

Meanwhile, Gallaudet's budget request has been submitted, and shows some interesting info concerning enrollment, graduation rates, and employment rates:

PROGRAM ENROLLMENT AT GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY

	2008	2009	2010
Degree seeking undergraduate students	973	937	1020
International Students (in degree and non-degree programs)	141	127	285
Hearing undergraduate students	32	39	50

Assessment of Progress: The persistence rate for undergraduate students did not meet the target for fiscal year 2008, but increased 6 points above the rate for fiscal year 2007. At the same time, the persistence rate for graduate students far exceeded the target for fiscal year 2008. The University believes that the decline in the undergraduate persistence rate was due to a large number of students who transferred out of Gallaudet because of negative publicity associated with the student protests in fiscal year 2006 and the University’s accreditation status being changed to probation in fiscal year 2007….The Department lowered the targets for fiscal year 2009 and 2010 for the undergraduate measure, partially to account for the circumstance related to Gallaudet’s accreditation status.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Measure: The percentage of first-time, full-time degree-seeking baccalaureate students who graduate within 6 years of enrollment.

	TARGET	ACTUAL
2007	31	25
2008	32	28
2009	32
2010	32

Assessment of Progress: …..Gallaudet did not make its target for fiscal year 2008. However, the rate was higher than the rate reported for fiscal year 2007. The University believes that decrease in fiscal year 2007 was due to students who dropped out or transferred because of negative publicity associated with

the student protests in fiscal year 2006 and Gallaudet’s accreditation status being changed to probation in fiscal year 2007.

Measure: The percentage of graduates with baccalaureate degrees who are employed, in advanced education or training, or are neither employed or enrolled in advanced education or training during their first year after graduation.

	TARGET		ACTUAL
	Students Employed	Students in Advanced Study or Training	Students Employed	Students in Advanced Study or Training
2006	82	41	73	37
2007	82	37
2008	82	37
2009	82	38

Assessment of Progress: Gallaudet met the target for students in advanced education or training. However, it did not meet the target for students employed or not engaged in either activity. The fact that the percentage of students employed declined is not, in itself, a concern. The Department considers both employment and attendance in postsecondary education programs as satisfactory outcomes. However, the increase in the percentage that are doing neither is a concern….

Efficiency Measures

Measure: Federal cost per Gallaudet graduate.

2005	$227,453
2006	$219,065
2007	$230,214
2008	$245,356

OTHER PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). The MSCHE conducted a midcycle review of Gallaudet’s accreditation status in fiscal year 2006. The Commission identified a number of concerns during its review. In order to retain its accreditation, MSCHE required Gallaudet to make substantial improvements in a number of areas. The University took numerous steps to meet the MSCHE requirements, including appointment of a new provost, establishing workgroups of faculty, staff, and students to address each of the concerns, making staffing changes in key positions, creating a new school of general studies, and creating a new Office of Multicultural Affairs and Student Engagement. Despite these efforts, the MSCHE placed Gallaudet on probation on June 29, 2007. The University retained its accreditation. However, it was given until November 2008 to come into full compliance with each of the MSCHE goal areas. Based on continuing improvement taken by the University to address recommendations of the workgroups, MSCHE removed the University from probation status in June 2008.

SEE THE WHOLE BUDGET REQUEST AND REPORT AT http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget10/justifications/m-gallaudet.pdf

“…when I turn to ask

if I can ease their curiousity.

Their jaws drop in disbelief:

‘Holy shit…you can speak?’

All the sudden now. I’m a circus freak.

There is one thing hearing folks don’t get.

there’s a difference between

hearing.

understanding.

and listening.”
- Mark Levin, "Truth"

That's a section from a poem in a new on-line Deaf literary e-zine. The technology of the site is amazing, and the articles, stories, and poems in the first four editions have been awesome! (If you remember Adrian Blue from his time here in Cleveland with Fairmount Theater....he's a contributor to volume three.)

The new e-zine is called KISS FIST and it is DEFINITELY worth looking at!

Subscriptions are free - Check it out at http://issuu.com/kissfist/docs/fourth-issue (after subscribing, click on the magazine cover you'd like to look at. Then click on any page, and let it load. Your floating curser will zoom and reposition the page.....)

American Sign Language Pedagogy at Kent State