Sunday, October 22, 2006

Gallaudet Protest

Anyone who has been reading the papers closely should know that there is currently a protest happening at Gallaudet University about the appointment of Dr. Jane Fernandez as the new university president. Gallaudet is the only Deaf liberal arts college in the country. I am studying ASL in school so I find the controversy very interesting. I believe that Deaf people should be proud of their Deafness and the that the hearing community needs to make efforts to cooperate with the Deaf community. I am not a fan of the new choice for President, who does not sign well. She has been doing interviews on the radio (through an interpreter) without providing transcripts for the students at her school. Here are some links for those of you her want to learn more.
In other news in the Deaf community, a couple on Martha's Vineyard is doing one of the first ever plays to be signed and spoken simultaneously by the same actors. It is about the Deaf community living on Martha's Vineyard in the 1890's and is called "This Island Alone." The Vineyard Gazette did a very interesting article about the production which goes up this weekend. I am hoping that they will make a VHS/DVD of the show for the public to order. NPR also did a segment on the production, which is available to listen to on their web site. Unfortunately they do not seem to have posted a transcript as well, but there are some accompanying articles on issues in the Deaf community that could be interesting.

No comments: