AFA AWARD - AFA has been on the look out for unsung heroes who stand against audism.
AFA honors & praises Brian Bauer for his courage stand against Hear Indiana. He shows great spirit to stand for our cultural & linguistic rights! Hands-Wave and great praise to Brian Bauer!
If you would like to nominate someone for an AFA Stand award - email us at audismfreeamerica (at) gmail.com - provide the person's name, contact information, and why s/he should get an AFA STAND award.
This letter serves to express Audism Free America’s staunch opposition to Indiana House Bill #1367. House Bill #1367 is dressed-up as a bill which will ensure Deaf and Hard of Hearing children achievement of “optimal communication and academic abilities” after being placed in the hands of “an appropriate agency” (determined by the Office of Management and Budget) at a cost which is undeterminable. It fails to explain how the Outreach Services at the Indiana School for the Deaf (staffed by professionals in the field) will be improved upon by these vague actions. It is completely incomprehensible except when considering the big picture.
In May 2011, Governor Mitch Daniels appointed to the Board of Directors at the Indiana School for the Deaf individuals who had vested interest in the HEAR INDIANA organization. HEAR INDIANA is one of the biggest supporters of House Bill # 1367. This organization, which professes to be all about “options, choices and unbiased information” is a chapter of the AG Bell Association. The AG Bell Association promotes the Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) method which specifically excludes American Sign Language as well as other “visual language systems.” These organizations are behind the recent legislative actions in the states of Delaware and Utah as well as Indiana. Their unwritten agenda is clear---to influence states to close traditional schools for Deaf children in the United States and increase the number of so-called Option schools (which are exclusively oral/aural). While these programs proclaim they are new and dealing with recent technological advancements that impact education, this oral/aural only methodology is actually antiquated, as well as exclusionary and oppressive. These programs deny Deaf children access to a natural signed language which has been documented via decades of research to be acquired with the same ease and manner as individuals acquiring spoken language.
It is clear that the recent House Bill 1367 is part of an overt and systematic effort to ensure the education of Deaf children in your state is moving toward forced assimilation promoted by oral-aural only approaches such as LSL/Option Schools. Such an effort results in denying Deaf and Hard of Hearing children a fully accessible, natural language, cultural identity and education of the whole child for a world in which the languages and cultures of both Deaf and Hearing people are respected.
As a national grassroots network, Audism Free America is committed to combating audism. Audism is attitudes and practices based on the assumption that behaving in the ways of those who speak and hear is desired and best. It produces a system of privilege, thus resulting in stigma, bias, discrimination, and prejudice—in overt or covert ways—against Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and Deaf people of all walks of life. For bilingual/bicultural Deaf Americans, clearly, House Bill #1367 is threatening their way of life and that of future generations.
We strongly urge you to do the just and right thing by voting against the House Bill #1367 and encouraging your fellow legislators to do so as well.
In May 2011, Audism Free America (AFA)* wrote to you to express our grave concerns related to the individuals you appointed to the Board of Directors at the Indiana School for the Deaf which lacked transparency and ignored the interests of stakeholders in the Indiana School for the Deaf school and community.
We stated in our letter of May 2011:”Your appointments reek of a new strategy aimed at closing Deaf schools which are motivated primarily by budgetary concerns and secondarily by language oppression.”
It is clear that the recent House Bill 1367 that this is a further step in such a strategy and is an overt and systematic effort to ensure the education of Deaf children in your state is moving toward forced assimilation promoted by oral-aural only approaches.This results in denial of a fully accessible, natural language, cultural identity and education of the whole child for a world in which the languages and cultures of both Deaf and Hearing people are respected.
It is not by chance that recent appointees to the ISD Board and those supporting the House Bill 1367 are both from HEAR INDIANA organization. This organization proudly endorses an exclusionary, oppressive and antiquated method of education for Deaf children dressed up as technologically advanced.The methodology promoted by HEAR INDIANA/AG BELL Association deny Deaf children access to a natural signed language which has been documented via decades of research to be acquired with the same ease and manner as individuals acquiring spoken language.
“Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.”
---Paulo Freire
We join with those who oppose House Bill#1367 and see it as assurance that“optimal communication and academic abilities” will be denied to Deaf and Hard of Hearing children in Indiana as the office of management and budget becomes enriched. Outreach services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and their families needs to be left in the hands of professionals such as those at the Indiana School for the Deaf.We remain gravely concerned that the Governor of Indiana is one of those leaders who work with select groups to impose unjust actions, and thus will remain vigilant in our efforts that justice be served for Deaf children and their families.
AFA Denounces FDAs Approval of Newborn Stem Cell Experimentation
Audism Free America (AFA), a grassroots Deaf activist network, condemns the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its approval of a study which will use cord blood stem cells on infants as young as six weeks old in an effort to eradicate the Deaf population of the United States.
AFA further denounces the FDA, Cord Blood Registry ®, LSL/AVT specialists,*Children’s Memorial Hospital (Houston), and the principal investigators of this study for undermining the human rights of their patients and promoting eugenic outcomes.
The newswire released on January 12, 2012 from Cord Blood Registry® and Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital states that parents of newborns and infants between six weeks to 18 months will be recruited. The infants will undergo MRIs (which frequently include sedation), blood tests, and be given their own stored stem cord blood via IV infusions. Possible health risks to the infant were not mentioned. (see http://www.multivu.com/mnr/53686-cord-blood-childrens-memorial-hermann-fda-approved-stem-cells-hearing-loss)
The newswire contained alarmist views of how being Deaf impacts language abilities and social development without describing research concerning the negative impact of withholding American Sign Language and access to cultural identification with other Deaf people.
When contacted, Dr. Harlan Lane, Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University and recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award stated: “Children who are born Deaf or early become so have a dual heritage – they have their parents’ ethnicity and also that of the sign language minority; their natural language is American Sign Language. Exclusively pathological views of Deaf children have been out of date for decades. Deaf babies are healthy babies and live fulfilling and contributing lives.”
AFA advocates for the rights of Deaf Americans, cultural resurgence, and seeks primarily to challenge the ideological foundations of audism in America. Audism is attitudes and practices based on the assumption that behaving in the ways of those who speak and hear is desired and best. It produces a system of privilege, thus resulting in stigma, bias, discrimination, and prejudice—in overt or covert ways—against Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and Deaf people of all walks of life.
AFA calls upon governmental agencies to ensure their commitment to protecting all citizens, including Deaf newborns and infants. The actions by the FDA serve to highlight the medical community’s systematic effort to threaten the culture, language, and right to life of Deaf people—and therefore, endangering linguistic and cultural diversity in the United States.
*LSL/AVT specialists (Listening and Spoken Language/Auditory Verbal Therapists) are those certified by the Alexander Graham Bell Academy and promote oral/aural only approaches to language development excluding all forms of signing.
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Questions/Comments-
Email to AudismFreeAmerica@gmail.com
Audism Free America (AFA) is a grassroots Deaf activist organization in the US, which advocates for Deaf American rights, cultural resurgence, and seeks primarily to challenge the ideological foundations of audism in America.
Audism is attitudes and practices based on the assumption that behaving in the ways of those who speak and hear is desired and best. It produces a system of privilege, thus resulting in stigma, bias, discrimination, and prejudice—in overt or covert ways—against Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and Deaf people of all walks of life.
AFA is committed to:
1. human and linguistic rights of Deaf people
2. unmasking audism and media misrepresentation
3. advocating for future generations
