Jamael
For an assignment for my class on Education for Children with Special Needs, I will be creating a resource guide on information for parents and teachers on numerous disabilities. So far this class has been quite insightful, and I think this resource guide will be one of the most resourceful (couldn't help being redundant) and useful assignments I could ever get. I will be linking useful articles with general information, accommodations/adaptations, and tips for parents for EIGHT different disabilities. The point of the assignment was so that when I am a teacher, and a child has been diagnosed with a disability, I can direct them to my Resource Guide! page and they can find whatever they want to know about this new diagnosis for their child right there. Most people in my class are making binders, but I believe in saving the planet and making use of this website I have. By the way, thanks to all the strangers that check this thing. I was totally expecting like 20 visitors in the past 6 months when I checked the stats and I had over 2,000!!! I wondered if there was a glitch in their calculations, but if not, I would love to know you guys are out there!
Jamael
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I was doing some research on assistive technology for the handicapped, and I was especially interested in the technology available for the Deaf. I took a year of American Sign Language and actually experienced quite a bit of immersion in the Deaf culture, so I became fairly fluent in a short amount of time. I have a particular appreciation for the Deaf and I tend to consider their perspective in a number of situations. I think one of the greatest and most widely used technologies among the Deaf community is the video phone. Actually, it is exactly what was depicted in Back the Future, except it is mobile (a lot like Skype). This technology hasn't really taken off among the hearing community, because we communicate through sound. We don't have to see somebody's face to talk to them. The Deaf really appreciate face-to-face time because it is really the only way to communicate with each other. I found this great YouTube video that gives you a glimpse of what this is like. In this video, they are using a video relay service (VRS) in which the hearing person speaks and the Deaf person signs, but a translator relays the information. I think this video is actually an advertisement, which is why it does such a great job of showing how the technology works. There is only one thing wrong with this video. Notice the daughter and the mom are Deaf, but the dad is hearing. In this case, the dad would definitely know American Sign Language, otherwise he and his wife would have a really hard time communicating (reading lips is NOT a preferred way of communication, and most deaf people actually can't do this). So, the dad would probably just be signing right to the daughter. He wouldn't be speaking with his Deaf wife present, unless to another hearing person. But, you get the jist of how the technology works. Pretty cool, huh? Wait a minute. I just found a follow up of this video where she talks directly to another Deaf person. Now you can see how it works when they get real face-to-face time! This is the preferred way of communication! The deaf also use a texting service (also through an operator) called TeleTYpewriters (TTY) that translates spoken word into text. This was used a lot more often before texting became popular among the hearing. Now, most deaf just remind you to only text them, don't call! I thought it was kind of funny that the Deaf were texting before it was cool! Since we are talking about technologies for the deaf, I guess I can't really get away with not mentioning cochlear implants. These are cutting edge technology, though highly controversial among the Deaf. I think the deaf accept cochlear implants as a useful emerging technology, but I know the Deaf hate them. Did that make your head spin? Deaf with a capital "D" indicates a person that communicates through American Sign Language (ASL - a language with its own sentence structure and grammar independent of English) and is a member of the Deaf community, meaning they have friends that are also Deaf and they have been given a sign name (a sign that represents you and your personality) by other members of the Deaf community. A deaf person with a lower case "d" is simply a person that cannot hear and communicates in other ways other than ASL. They might use Sign English which is a direct sign representation of the English language, or they might read lips, but they usually associate themselves with the hearing.
Cochlear implants are surgically implanted behind the ear to repair neural-sensory hearing. They can literally make a deaf person hear again, or even for the first time in their lives! However, a person involved in the Deaf community is perceived to have abandoned their community/roots when they undergo this procedure. The Deaf community is a very tight-knit community that takes pride in their differences and their unique perspective of the world. To want to change the way you were born and to abandon the rest of your friends is like a stab in the back. Although, as I mentioned before, a deaf person is more likely to want to experience the world with hearing and they are usually supported by hearing friends. Cochlear implants are more popular among these people and have since kept the technology alive. What other technologies are available for people with other disabilities? Jamael |