Preserving Sign Language Stories

Originally published February 28, 2007

By Bill D’ Agostino
News-Post Staff

A few months before he unexpectedly died from a heart attack, 37-year-old deaf comic Stephen Michael Ryan told his wife that he wanted a scholarship established for the study, teaching and preservation of American Sign Language storytelling.

The conversation was prompted by the couple’s concerns about the rise of cochlear implants and other threats to deaf culture, deaf clubs and deaf schools, his wife Laureen Lynch-Ryan recalled, speaking through an interpreter.

More than a decade after Ryan’s sudden death in 1995, his wife and friends are working to fulfill his dream to preserve ASL.

“We don’t want to see it fade out,” Lynch-Ryan said.

On Friday, three deaf storytellers will perform in Frederick at the Third Annual Stephen M. Ryan ASL Storytelling Event at the Maryland School for the Deaf. Proceeds will go to a fund, in Ryan’s honor, benefiting Gallaudet University’s Department of ASL and Deaf Studies, to preserve ASL stories and the ASL language. Ryan taught ASL at Gallaudet.

This is the third annual event in the area, but the first in Frederick. Interpreters will be present for hearing audience members. This year’s event is for ages 14 and up.

Ryan’s sudden death was a shock for many in the deaf community.

“We really miss him,” said Manny Hernandez, Friday’s master of ceremonies, also speaking on the telephone through an interpreter.

Modern technology, such as the “video relay service” Hernandez used to communicate with this hearing reporter, has been a mixed bag for the deaf community and its culture. The technology allows greater communication and access with the hearing world, but also presents risks.

Deaf students can now attend mainstream colleges using interpreters, Hernandez pointed out, whereas in the past they would only go to Gallaudet. There’s nothing wrong with that, he said, while cautioning that “we want to preserve our heritage — that’s very important too.”

A clip of one of Ryan’s performances, with English captions for those unfamiliar with ASL, can be seen on YouTube. In it, he jokes that he became deaf when his mother’s legs snapped shut as he was being born. By pushing his head through his hands, Ryan does an amusing impression of himself as a fetus exiting his mother’s womb. Most of his stories and jokes concerned deaf issues. Hernandez compared Ryan — both physically and in spirit — to the late “Saturday Night Live” actor John Candy.

Not all ASL storytellers are comics, of course.

At Friday’s event, Monique Holt, an actress who played Cordelia in a production of “King Lear” at D.C.’s acclaimed Shakespeare Theatre Company in 1999, will perform an Asian folk tale and a Shakespearean sonnet.

Video is a great way to preserve ASL storytelling, Holt said, also speaking through an interpreter. Unlike spoken English, ASL relies heavily on gestures and facial expressions.

While performing the folktale, Holt will create worlds and actions with her body. Her hands will, in effect, become the actors and the sets in the dramas she’ll perform.

With ASL, Holt said, she can do a lot of impossible things in storytelling that she couldn’t do in life.

What: The Third Annual Stephen M. Ryan ASL Storytelling Event

Where: Maryland School for the Deaf, Ely Building, 101 Clarke Place, Frederick

When: Friday, March 2 at 8 p.m.

Tickets: $25 for adults, $15 for students with ID

Information: SMRASLStorytelling@yahoo.com

*Note: See this article and photo of Stephen Michael Ryan, click: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/art_life/display_ent.htm?StoryID=57400 *

Chicago on I-294, whose idea was that?

We got it from someone, is it a hoax or not?

WATCH FOR DEAF CHILD!!!!!

* SCREEEECH* Deaf Child signs are posted to warn the drivers that there is a deaf child in the area and proceed with caution. Do we really need a street sign for the drivers to watch out for deaf child in the area?  Every time I see it and it makes me wonder why do the cities posted like that. This doesn’t slow every driver down, nor is it a guarantee of your child’s safety, however, it will bring neighborhood a wrong idea that the deaf children are not able to “hear” the cars.. I think it is okay to post ” children in the area” sign not just ” Deaf Child” sign.

Deafness Clinic

Federal Judge Sides With School on Deaf Boy’s Service Dog

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (1010 WINS)  — A federal judge refused to order a Long Island school to allow a hearing-impaired teenager’s service dog to school.

A lawsuit was brought by 14-year-old John Cave, Jr. and his parents after the East Meadow School District stopped him from taking his dog, Simba, to class. The boy uses cochlear implants. The lawsuit says the dog is less effective if it is not with the teenager all day.

The Westbury family also is seeking $150 million in damages, alleging discrimination.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court said the school district’s decision is keeping the teen from attending school and violates the Americans With Disabilities Act.

School District Superintendent Robert Dillon said service dogs are barred from schools “to foster a safe and effective school environment.” School district officials have also said the boy doesn’t need the dog to access school resources.

http://www.1010wins.com/pages/267868.php?contentType=4&contentId=350104

Deaf Woman Looking For Her Dog

A deaf Hammond woman wants to find her dog, which is the trained to respond to sign language.

Rosana Plaza thinks he’s lost somewhere in the Twin Cities. Her dog, Fluke, ran off two weeks ago while being cared for at her son’s home in St. Paul. The rat terrier is white with brown and black spots. It was found that same day, but then turned over to an unidentified Minneapolis couple before he could be checked into an animal shelter.

http://www.weau.com/news/headlines/6078511.html

_______________________________________________________________

Deaf woman counts on dog, but he’s gone

Rat terrier ‘Fluke,’ who aids his owner, is now missing in Twin Cities

BY JOHN BREWER

Pioneer Press

Rosana Plaza just wants her dog back.

Plaza, a Hammond resident, is deaf, and Fluke, the trained dog who acts as her ears, went missing two weeks ago while being cared for in St. Paul.

The unbearable part for Plaza is that Fluke was found the same day he ran off — and then turned over to an unidentified couple in North Minneapolis before he could be checked in to an animal shelter.

Now the dog, a white rat terrier with brown and black spots, could be anywhere.

“I guess basically my dog was given to a stranger,” Plaza said through an interpreter.

Fluke was at her son’s home in the North End neighborhood of St. Paul and ran off during a walk Feb. 5.

He had stayed at her son’s home before, Plaza said. This was the first time the dog, who could respond to sign language, had bolted.

Plaza said she trained the 3½-year-old dog to hear what she couldn’t, like a ringing phone, a running faucet or a knock at the door. Fluke once alerted Plaza that her daughter was violently ill in the bathroom. Without the dog, she wouldn’t have known, she said.

“The dog went right up to the bathroom door and stayed there. He would not leave, whatsoever,” she said.

He also has awakened her with licks when the light bulb on her alarm clock burned out.

Rania Armstrong didn’t know any of that when she chased down the cute dog near her North End home.

“It was really cold that day,” she said, explaining why she ran after Fluke.

She held onto Fluke for three days and even called the veterinarian listed on the dog’s rabies vaccination tag to find out who owned him. Armstrong said the Baldwin, Wis., animal hospital gave her a phone number to call. When she did, the woman who answered said she had no idea what Armstrong was talking about.

“I didn’t call that number back,” she said.

It turns out the number would have reached Plaza — had Armstrong first called a toll-free number for an interpreting service. Instead, she reached another home in Hammond.

Armstrong decided the best thing to do was turn the dog over to an animal shelter. While visiting family in North Minneapolis on Feb. 7, she said, she stopped by the city’s Animal Care and Control center.

Before she could turn Fluke over, an older couple approached her and offered to take him. They were looking for a present for their 8-year-old grandson, Armstrong recalled.

Fluke was still wearing his collar, according to Armstrong, when the couple drove off in their pickup truck. The unidentified pair didn’t appear concerned that the dog might have an owner looking for him, she said.

“They were more happy to just get the dog,” she said.

The next day, Armstrong saw an ad in the Pioneer Press: “LOST M tri-color rat terrier 2/5 @ Como/Front ‘Fluke’ Deaf-owner trained.”

She called Plaza and told her what had happened.

“I really do pray to God that she finds her dog. I just lost my dog, too, so that stuff hurt me,” she said.

Plaza is still baffled about the turn of events — the dog running off, the veterinary hospital giving out the incomplete phone number, the mystery couple taking the dog in Minneapolis — and hopes that news coverage will help to speed Fluke’s return.

“I’m really frustrated because I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m a little concerned about how difficult it is to get in touch with me because I’m hearing-impaired,” Plaza said. “I want my dog back. He’s a good dog.”

If you have any information about Fluke, please call Plaza at 1-866-327-8877; then give the interpreter the home number of 715-796-5422.

“Hopefully, this all works out,” she said. “If not … I’d rather not think about that.”

John Brewer can be reached at 651-228-2093 or at jbrewer@ pioneerpress.com

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/16770639.htm

Should We Trust Interpreters?

 Written by Bug

It is said that trust is given to someone automatically, and will slowly erode if not maintained. For many reasons, the opposite is true with respect to deaf people and interpreters. Many deaf people recount stories of feeling “violated” by someone claiming to be a “professional interpreter” (linguistically/culturally competent, flexible, ethical, non-judgmental, and unobtrusive). The form in which trust is “earned” varies, but an interpreter must earn a deaf person’s trust.

It’s frustrating when you put much trust in the interpreter because they act like they know everything what you say until you notice something wrong or someone else tell you that interpreter doesn’t voice right and the information becomes lost and screwed up like they are unable to match the elevated register, vocabular, or descriptive language used in a meeting because of limited sign language skills then the professional doesn’t have full access to the flavor of the meeting. If in the interpreter skills, he or she is unable to produce English utterance that are complete, cohesive, using the jaron for the setting and at an appropriate register or style level, a power imbalance occurs. The interpreter is oppressing the deaf client because of her lack of skill. I am sure there is a difference between a professional who is speaking vs speaking professionally.

A few years ago, the lawyer at the court quested the deaf rapist why he raped a deaf victim. The offender signed ” I wanted to fuck her….” a court interpreter voiced ” I wanted to make love with her….”. The judge dismissed the case! He was free. Who is at fault? Of course, it is an interpreter’s. Later I was told that she didn’t feel comfortable to use the word ” fuck” because of her religion. I think she should not be an interpreter in the first place. If I were a victim in that case, I would sue the interpreter.

I sometimes feel insecure to have an interpreter around me. The hospital has their own interpreters, of course they are certified interpreters but still. Let’s pause right there and think for a while. I feel uncomfortable to have a female interpreter when I see my doctor. I did requesting to have a male interpreter but they did not provide one. Also, when I feel sick or want to see a doctor, I have to follow the interpreter’s day which is on every Tuesdays and Fridays while the hearing patients choose what day they want to pick the day. If the interpreter does not show up, I have to reschedule the appointment. It is not fair to the deaf people to suffer more while the others have an “easy life”. Also, if I go and see my doctor often, the interpreters already know more about my privacy. They have no business to make a rumor about the clients or being nosy in my life. How do I know? Don’t forget the world is so small, you can find a leak even though they don’t often use your name. They would say… ” that client ….” The clue becomes an easy target so others would know who the client is.

About relay service, it is nice to talk with them through either online or video phone. But one problem is (God forbids) they could steal your identification and we could be victims of fraud, will it happen? I hope not. My good friend had a bad experience with Sorenson Relay Service Interpreter. One day my friend didn’t feel comfortable to talk with that interpreter because he didn’t have a receptive skill so he told the interpreter that he preferred other interpreter. An interpreter was unhappy to hear about it. My friend hung up. A minute later, the relay interpreter called and asked ” Got problem with me?” My friend hung up on him again. A same person called and got angry with my friend. He hung up on the relay service interpreter. But the interpreter refused to give up so he called back, the phone rang many time. My friend never answered.

Another example of unprofessional interpreter you will see on the video I posted a link in here. The interpreter who couldn’t read a deaf French lady’s sign language, she ruined the deaf French girl’s dream. This young beautiful lady was the first deaf person to compete in the Miss France competition. Sadly the interpreter tried to translate it, then gave up and just stood there in silence while the Miss freaked out. Check this link, you will know what I am saying. http://sourds.ouest.free.fr/D142.htm

I am not saying that all interpreters are bad. Lot of them are good but some of them are worst. Many of them do not wish us to know their voice while we sign, have you notice that? They sometime hope we wont find their errors I have seen a lot of people working with the deaf children at school, they act like interpreters but they are not. They can hurt the deaf children’s future.

Being an interpreter requires continuous learning, inquiry, self-analysis and a commitment to becoming a true partner in the “duo” on a daily basis.

Deaf Mafia Collector story about the interpreter lying to the mafia is funny but not real. Check this out… Enjoy reading: http://fookembug.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/the-deaf-mafia-collector/#respond

Defying The Odds: Being Deaf And An Olympic Gold Medalist

Justin Davidson

Issue date: 2/26/07 Section: Sports 

Media Credit: Courtesy of Doug Hyde Doug Hyde poses in front of the rink where he and Team USA won a Gold Medal at the 2007 Deaflympic Games on Feb. 10. The 16th Winter Games represented over 600 athletes from 23 countries around the world.

Media Credit: Courtesy of Doug Hyde Sophomore Doug Hyde defends a German opponent at the 2007 Deaflympics in Salt Lake City, Utah on Feb. 9, 2007.

Being deaf isn’t easy. Neither is winning a gold medal for Team USA Hockey in the 2007 Winter Deaflympics, the international Olympic Games for the deaf and hearing-impaired.

Doug Hyde knows all about both.

The current Wash. U. sophomore was selected to represent the United States in this year’s 16th Games, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, and came away with a gold medal victory.

The 19-year-old computer science major from Alexandria, Va. appears to be like any normal college sophomore. But Hyde is legally deaf and must overcome daily struggles that many students never experience.

Growing up with Hearing Loss
“My parents discovered my hearing loss before my third birthday,” Hyde explained. “My hearing loss grew slowly throughout my childhood, but when I was 16, I quickly lost the remaining hearing in my right ear.”

Thereafter, Hyde decided to get a cochlear implant, a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing. Hyde, who considers the decision to be perhaps the best he’s ever made, continues to wear a hearing aid on his left ear. The combination of the cochlear implant and hearing aid has enabled him to have near-normal hearing and has allowed him the ability to communicate without the use of sign language.

Although his hearing has not hindered his ability to make friends and actively take part in activities such as the club ice and roller hockey teams, he has had to work extra hard in order to lead a normal life. With years of practice, though, he has perfected his form.

“The only real difference is I have to listen and focus on the speaker much more to hear everything they say. It’s like the difference between glancing and squinting, but it works for me,” said Hyde.

“I also read lips and subconsciously fill in the blanks for words and syllables I miss. In ideal situations, most people don’t notice my hearing loss, but in large groups and noisy environments, I sometimes struggle.”

Additionally, Hyde has had a lifetime to deal with the misconceptions that people attribute to the hearing-impaired.

“People often err towards the extremes of assuming either that my hearing aids make my hearing perfect, or that they need to talk really slow and loud,” he said. “If people know that I can read lips, they may exaggerate the mouth expressions, which makes it harder to read because it is awkward and unnatural.”

Nevertheless, because of all of this, Hyde has learned to relish the relationships he has gained with his parents, friends and peers.

“I don’t think my hearing loss affects my relationships with friends and classmates, but occasionally people are too lazy to repeat things when I don’t hear something, but they’re not worth my time either.”

The people that matter to Hyde the most are the people who see past his hearing impairment and accept him for who he is: a fun-loving kid who enjoys hockey, snowboarding, mountain biking and backpacking.

From the Peewee Leagues to the Olympics
Hyde’s illustrious hockey career began when he was just 6-years-old. A self-described “physical but usually clean defensemen,” he has been playing with travel teams for the last decade, the pinnacle of which was realized upon his selection to the 2007 Winter Deaflympics United States hockey team.

“I saw pictures of the 1995 gold-medal-winning [United States] hockey team and was in awe, and it’s been something I’ve wanted to do since then,” he said.

Upon arrival in Colorado Springs, Colo., in mid-January to train at the United States Olympic Training facility, he quickly learned the dynamics of what Deaflympic hockey is all about.

“About half the team has a hearing loss similar to mine, where they can hear well enough to communicate with speech, while the other half is deaf and signs,” he explained. “In the beginning, the team was a little divided, but with some effort we can express what we’re trying to say because almost everyone can read lips very well.”

But the fast pace of the sport often precludes the need for verbal communication, even among hearing players. In practices, however, there are interpreters on hand, so that the players who are accustomed to using sign language are able to understand the coaches. Games are a different story. “In games we rely on our vision and understanding of the game to anticipate and find teammates,” said Hyde.

Coming to Salt Lake for the Games from Feb. 1-10, which featured over 600 athletes representing 23 countries from around the world, Hyde and Team USA were determined to win the gold. The team had taken the silver medal in 1999 and the bronze in 2005. In 2007, the squad was intent on capturing gold.

“We had the most talented team the United States has ever had and the coaches gave us the most extensive training camp and conditioning program we’ve ever had. We were there to win,” said Hyde. Initially, though, things didn’t go according to plan. The stars and stripes were defeated by Russia in their first game, 9-6.

Nevertheless, Team USA did not waver, rebounding from the disappointment to go on and win every game they played during the rest of the tournament, including a stellar comeback win against the defending gold medalists from Canada.

Down 3-0 halfway through its game with the Canadians, the team realized that their medal hopes were on the line. Losing would give them two losses, which would not be able to match up against the rest of the competition from Russia, Germany, Finland and Sweden.

“We took our game to the next level and played from the heart. We took brutal hits for the team, delivered rib-cracking checks, blocked slap shots with unpadded and exposed skin to get the job done,” Hyde recalled.

The team scored two unanswered goals in the second half of the second period to pull within one and take the momentum into the third period. After quickly tying the game early in the third, both teams fought for their Olympic lives until the red, white, and blue came out on top 4-3 after an exciting game-winning goal with five minutes remaining.

“It was definitely the highlight of my experience, and it was one of the five or so most fun games I’ve ever played in my life,” Hyde said. Following the upset of Canada, the team defeated both Finland and Germany, all but ensuring the gold.

Hyde left Salt Lake with a gold medal, memories, and an experience he’ll never forget. The Deaflympics now behind him, Hyde plans to take the memories gained from his experience with him to Australia, where he is currently studying abroad, and back to St. Louis when he returns in the fall.

http://media.www.studlife.com/media/storage/paper337/news/2007/02/26/Sports/Defying.The.Odds.Being.Deaf.And.An.Olympic.Gold.Medalist-2741938.shtml

Deaf-Blind Americans League National Convention

Trip To Florida Turns Into Nightmare For Deaf Passenger Who Can’t Speak

Web-posted Feb 25, 2007

By JERRY WOLFFE
Of The Oakland Press

John Karolski can’t hear or speak. He relied on a customer service representative from Spirit Airlines to make sure he got on the right flight at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. But Karolski wound up 225 miles from his destination. It cost him hundreds of dollars in cab fees to get to Orlando, Fla., his original destination, from where he landed in Fort Lauderdale.

Spirit eventually reimbursed him for the $634.70 in cab fare and tolls from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando, and refunded his $181.10 round-trip air fare, but John and his wife, Kathy, were upset his pleas for help fell on deaf ears.The Livonia man was supposed to have been on Spirit flight NK801 scheduled to arrive at 10:40 a.m. in Orlando – where his brother Richard, 58, was waiting. He instead wound up on a flight to Fort Lauderdale.

Karolski arrived at the Orlando airport around 7 p.m. and eventually met his brother after a Yellow Cab driver called and told Richard of his brother’s ordeal.

Kathy Karolski said she took her husband to the airport around 5:45 a.m. Dec. 23 for the 8 a.m. departure to Orlando.

“There was no information on the monitors as to what gate was the one John was to go to for his flight,” she said.

“I asked a supervisor at Spirit’s ticket counter, ‘How do we know where to go because the monitors are not showing gate departures?’ ” said Karolski.

“The supervisor wrote C8 on the upper right-hand corner of our boarding pass,” she said.

“I asked if I could escort my husband to the gate because I used to work at British Airlines at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, but they said no,” Karolski said.

She said she told a Spirit supervisor her husband was deaf and nonverbal, but was again told, “You can’t go.”

“So, I kissed him goodbye and off he went, looking for Gate C8″.

When her husband got to the gate, said Karolski, the same supervisor was working the counter.

There were two Spirit flights at the gate – one going to Orlando with an 8 a.m. departure and the other to Fort Lauderdale with a 7 a.m. departure, Karolski said.

He showed the boarding pass again to the supervisor, and she told him to “follow me” and “he was the first person on the aircraft,” she said.

While the first part of the flight went well, John Karolski knew something was wrong when he looked out the window and saw a big bay of water, Kathy said.

“In Orlando, you’re not landing near any water,” she said.

John got off the aircraft, knowing something was wrong, she said.

He wrote on a piece of paper, “I am deaf. Please call my brother,” and showed it to a Spirit Airline service representative, Kathy said her husband told her.

The Spirit representative refused and pointed to a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD).

But that wouldn’t have allowed John to call his brother because a caller must have a TDD machine to receive a call from someone using the device.

“He needed a Spirit representative to talk to his brother, who already was at the other airport,” Kathy said.

Three other agents refused to make the call for John, Kathy said.

“He asked for help from four Spirit agents and received none,” she said. “He stood in the middle of the airport for a half-hour and no one offered to help, despite his efforts to communicate his plight.

“He finally gave up and went and got a cab.”

Spirit Airlines apologized to the Karolskis in a Jan. 23 letter.

“I want to begin by assuring you that we are committed to assisting our traveling public who require special help,” said Karianne Silva of Spirit Airlines’ Corporate Consumer Affairs.

John was given a first-class seat on his Dec. 28 return flight to Detroit, in addition to Spirit reimbursing him for his cab fare and original ticket.

“I apologize that your husband did not receive this assistance,” added Silva.

“In addition, our customer service agents at the counter did not see him,” Silva added. “I apologize that we were unable to locate your husband and put him on the next flight to Orlando.”

Natasha Babulal, senior manager of marketing at Spirit, said: “Spirit Airlines is committed to providing assistance to our customers who require special help.”

Spirit told the Karolskis that if they felt the situation was not resolved satisfactorily, they could call the federal Department of Transportation and file a complaint.

“I mean we have been reimbursed for the cab fare and airline ticket, but we have not been reimbursed for the emotional distress that my husband was put through,” said Kathy Karolski.

John can’t get any punitive damages, said attorney Richard Bernstein of Farmington Hills.

“The only type of damages he can get would be compensatory damages.

“We simply want Detroit Metropolitan Airport to adhere to an Oct. 9, 2006 agreement in which the airport authority vowed to help special needs passengers, including the disabled, children and seniors, so they make it to their destinations in a safe and appropriate manner,” Bernstein said.