Yesterday, the RID Committee Chairperson for the Educational Interpreting Task Force, Susan Brown, finally replied to my concerns (originally outlined in ASL here and in English here). I'd been waiting for several days, so I was glad to hear from her - but she asked me to wait until, er, AFTER the vote to clarify the answers to my questions. (SMALL CORRECTION: After the vote is completed - the vote is online and will complete on April 12th, 2010.)

Video of this blog here.

Are we going to witness another Milan?

On April 12th the RID will vote on standardizing rules for educational interpreters. This means any Deaf or hard of hearing person who uses an interpreter in a school environment will have new rules to contend with. They're writing a "Standard Practice Paper" which you can read here. This will affect what the education of Deaf kids looks like in the 21st century-and soon, nearly all Deaf and hard of hearing kids. More and more deaf and hard of hearing kids are being mainstreamed. More and more Deaf schools are failing. And in many places, Deaf adults are struggling to find a place in the mainstream classroom.

Here's some points of confusion and concern:

This is a weekly roundup of national and international news articles about Deaf individuals and Deaf-related events and concepts. The aim is to give a slightly Deaf perspective on the journalism and story. This week: Purple Communications, Ohio and the Deaf Jurist Situation, autocaptions on youtube, and ASL poetry nights in Brooklyn.

This is a movie two ASL students made about the benefits of Residential Schools. Please feel free to post your comments!

Mod note: Edited to directly post the video. To "embed" a video, look for a section called 'embed' and copy the code here.