Audism Free America Update:
1. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SIGN LANGUAGES
mark your calendar – international day of sign languages (IDSL) Sept 25 weekend – let us know if you have anything planned in your area that we can help promote
Suggestions:
Fri Black shirts in memory of past suffering / blue ribbon ceremony
Sat Celebration of ASL
Links of interest:
Jon's interview with Bruno of France re: IDSL
International Vlog announcing IDSL 2007
Ella's vlog encouraging IDSL activities 2007
WFD blue ribbon ceremony at Joey Baer's site
DBC Blue ribbon ceremony at the Deaf Bilingual Coalition site
2. AG BELL ASSOCIATION WILL NOT MEET ANY OF AFA'S DEMANDS
AFA received a letter from AG Bell board saying that it rejects all of our demands
Demands: stop excluding ASL from Deaf children's education and lives, stop misrepresenting ASL and Deaf people in the media, stop promoting cochlear implant industry and join us in calling for an impartial and independent investigation of CI
3. CI ARE NOT CONSISTENTLY EFFECTIVE
The keynote presenter, Dr. David Pisoni, at AG Bell conference in St. Louis expressed the need for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to look into the effectiveness of Cochlear Implants.
In his address he explained: Efficacy means “Does the CI work” (run or operate) Answer is yes. Effectiveness means “Does the CI effectively work for everyone” Answer is NO.
FDA needs to measure effectiveness not just efficacy
SIMULATED SOUNDS VIA CI
Link to sampling of simulated sound input via cochlear implants. (sorry this is not accessible to Deaf folks but you can play it for a Hearing friend or family member and see their reaction)
House Ear Institute http://www.hei.org/research/aip/increase_channels.mp3 samples increase from 4 to 8 to32 channels ending with the original sentence being played (what hearing folks hear)
4. AFA PETITION TO THE FDA FOR AN IMPARTIAL AND INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION OF CI
AFA petition for the FDA - if you have already signed BIG thanks – pls send to others. If you have not yet, pls do so if you too want all the answers. We owe it to the infants, children, parents and adults who have gotten or are considering CI to have all the information possible.
700+ signatures so far – big thanks ALL
To promote and protect the civil liberties of Deaf people and their linguistic birthrights.
About Me
- AudismFreeAmerica
- 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
