What’s Up With the Deaf Bilingual Coalition: www.dbcusa.org
Mark Your Calendars:
Our next big event will 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 from 5 to 9, Saturday, Feb. 27th:
Irish Heritage Center: 4606 North Knox Ave. Chicago, Illinois
News From DBC…
Editorial Note:
The author of this post would like to retract this statement:
“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.)”
And replace the statement with this clarification:
“The Deaf organizations that attend the conference and individuals who support bilingualism through ASL and English 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 are asking for equal representation at the conferences as representatives on the planning committee, as workshop presenters, and as keynote speakers. We even had a post-EHDI conference with top officials from EHDI to voice our concerns and offer suggestions.
This year there are 12 Deaf professionals who are presenters out of a total of 278 presenters. There are no Deaf professional plenary keynote presenters. There are 4 people who identify themselves as deaf on the planning committee. One of the larger groups of presenters are audiologists.”
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 to 4:00 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, 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 7 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 tremendous positive response! 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, 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 (agreeing with us) when we speak candidly about the importance of visual language ASL, the unethical medical referral practices occurring in early detection, and 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 DBC is doing, please spread the word that we are totally walking the walk. (even through the Alaskan snow:))
Our next big event is attending and presenting at the 2010 Early Hearing Detection and Intervention conference in Chicago on March 1 and 2. We will have a Pre-EHDI workshop sponsored by the Chicago Club for the Deaf on Saturday from 5 to 9, Saturday, Feb. 27th:
Irish Heritage Center: 4606 North Knox Ave. Chicago, Illinois
We are working on getting that info posted on our website.
EHDI is the federal program under the Center of Disease Control 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 it fails 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 and 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 year conferences, is extremely pathologically biased with 70% of the presenters are audiologists. The Deaf organizations that attend the conference such as the National Association of the Deaf, the American Society for the Deaf, and professionals from the Clerc Center and other Deaf Schools have been working hard on spreading awareness of the importance of a balance in the EHDI program and conferences that 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 representatives on the conference planning committee, workshop presenters, and 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 to be politically correct and ask for another meeting again this year with the top EHDI directors and planning committee to discuss the imbalance and bias. We will again ask that a balanced number of Deaf professionals be included in all areas of EHDI including the conference
I hope this gives you a bigger picture of the state of early intervention.
After EHDI, DBC has been invited to attend the Early Childhood
Education Summit at Gallaudet University in April.
I hope that give you a better idea of what DBC is doing.
Please consider donating to DBC’s efforts. Go to www.dbcusa.org to find out how to donate.
Picture attached with First Lady Sandy Parnell, Erica Hossler,
Tami Hossler, John Egbert, and John Miranda (Alaska Deaf Council)
