AFA video explaining mission of rallies at LSL Symposium in LA

Rallies in LA July 18-20, 2013
follow AFA on twitter at @endaudism and
via https://www.facebook.com/events/498019840271640/?fref=ts

AFA letter of support for the Deaf Studies Programme at Bristol

5 July 2013

 Greetings,

 This letter serves to communicate our support for the Deaf Studies Programme at the University of Bristol. The reputation of this programme is both respected and valued in international Deaf communities. The development of this bilingual (BSL/English) university-level program, which has disseminated quality scholarship and nurtured Deaf leaders and educators, is without peer. The programme has also worked with the British Deaf community promoting activism and creative works. We believe this programme has made a significant impact on the way that Deaf people, educators and laypeople view Deaf people worldwide. Do not consign the programme to the annals of history prematurely. There is still much, much work to do and we need this programme to continue as a guiding force.

 As an organization committed to social justice, it is our hope that your institution is also committed to the human, linguistic, economic and civil rights of all peoples. One way you can ACT upon this commitment is to continue to support the value of Deaf Cultural Studies at the University of Bristol.

 Let Freedom Roll!

 Patti Durr, Ruthie Jordan and Karen Christie for Audism Free America

 Audism Free America is a grassroots Deaf activist network in the US, which advocates for Deaf American rights, cultural resurgence, and seeks primarily to challenge the ideological foundations of audism in America. For more information see: audismfreeamerica.blogspot.com or contact us via AudismFreeAmerica@gmail.com

 Letter sent to: Professor Eric Thomas, Vice Chancellor Univeristy of Bristol Senate House Tyndall Avenue Bristol England BS8 1TH UK via Jami.west@bristol.ac.uk Mr. denis Burn,Chair of Council Denis.burn@bristol.ac.uk Hugh.martin@bristol.ac.uk savebristolcds@gmail.com

Open Letter to Deaf Education Programs

In response to several concerns Audism Free America (AFA) has received from Deaf and Hearing students in Deaf Education teacher training programs about the pathological nature of the curriculum, AFA has created this open letter.

To Whom it May Concern:

It has come to our attention that many of the teacher training programs in the field of Deaf education continue to approach the Deaf child as if s/he is abnormal and inadequate. Many of these programs are designed with a heavy emphasis on the spoken language acquisition and English language development of hearing children and how Deaf children are delayed and/or deficient in comparison. There is also an abundance of course work addressing speech pathology and audiology when the stated goal of the programs and of the students in these programs is to become certified to teach elementary school level or a specific subject matter. The course of studies in these programs have a bias towards clinical services in the speech and hearing over methods of teaching, curriculum development, and the discipline areas these teachers will need to teach.

 Furthermore, while many teacher training programs aim to prepare their graduates for working with ‘diverse’ communication preferences and approaches, coursework and teacher expectations clearly value and reward speaking and listening approaches. A whole child approach as well as bilingual/multilingual educational strategies is absent from most of these programs. Students in these programs may bring in information from researchers such as Petitto, Emmory, Mayberry, Nover and Padden on the value and importance of bilingualism for the Deaf child’s linguistic and cognitive development as well as their feelings of contentment and self worth. Routinely, their professors undermine these studies as limiting and guide them back to utilizing research focusing on to speech, audition, cued speech and/or simultaneous communication.

Given that four international documents (see excerpts below) have declared the importance and justness of ensuring that Deaf children have access to a fully natural signed language in their educational environments and in light of the article by Humphries et al. concerning the harms of Cochlear Implants especially in terms of language deprivation
( http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/9/1/16), we call upon Deaf education teacher programs to give proper, correct, and accurate information in bilingual-bicultural (ASL & English) teaching methodology, research, curriculum, and materials.

Additionally, Deaf students in Deaf education teacher training programs, having experienced Deaf educational systems first hand, have much to teach us. Would that we would listen.

 Students training to become educators of Deaf learners today should not have to face systematic barriers to access to information about ASL, Bilingualism, and quality educational methodology rather than clinical services. We thank you in advance for re-examining your Deaf education program and routing out any bias or injustice that may exist.

 Let Freedom Roll,

Audism Free America

See four international documents asserting the rights of the Deaf child to have a fully natural accessible language and the right to Deaf people to have a say in the way they are educated. http://audismfreeamerica.blogspot.com/2011/10/international-documents-asserting.html

AFA Letter to ABC News: Media Misrepresentation AGAIN

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31 March 2013

Dear ABC News Executive Producer Michael Corn, Diane Sawyer, and Dan Harris,

Your reporting over the past few years has demonstrated a serious engagement in misrepresentation of Deaf people.  A recent example has been the March 26^th, 2013 broadcast story, “Child who needs corrective surgery gets wish” which once again perpetuates a mythical “miraculous” and one-sided view of cochlear implants. While this particular story focused on insurance coverage of such surgeries, there were many statements and assumptions made rooted in audism—a discriminatory attitude toward Deaf people and those who use sign language (see below). Deaf people and children do not have damaged intellectual capabilities, are not disengaged from the world, and navigate the world safely.  

At the end of the story’s broadcast, the newscaster mentioned your plan to follow up with filming the moment when Carson’s cochlear implant is activated.  These type of scenes are becoming an incessant bit of medical propaganda where the media is complicit in promoting cochlear implants as a “cure.” Where is your follow up years later? Where are the cases of disappointed individuals and families that have suffered educationally, emotionally and economically due to the fact this ‘miracle’ did not happen in the long run?  Where is your examination of the children who have had complications from this surgery?  Where is your examination of the cruelty done on animals in the name of cochlear implant progress?

We encourage you, as journalists, to offer more balanced reporting by showing families who choose to sign with children like Carson as well as looking at cochlear implant recalls and children who experience multiple cochlear implant surgeries.  We believe in the power of media to promote truth and justice

Thus, we appeal to your journalistic integrity to provide viewers with a more complete and less prejudicial portrayal of signing Deaf people.  We believe in the power of media---and in the intention of ABC news-- to promote truth and justice.

Let Freedom Roll,

Patti Durr, Ruthie Jordan and Karen Christie for Audism Free 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.

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 NOTE:  FOR INFORMATION ON THIS NEWS STORY SEE: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/03/26/child-who-needs-corrective-hearing-surgery-gets-wish/

AFA's letter to Senator Richter demanding apology

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Letter Audism Free America sent to Florida Senator Richter and CCed Chairman Arron Bean demanding an apology for offensive, false, and unjust remarks he shared during the open Health Policy Committee meeting.  The letter was also sent to the Democrat minority leader, Senator Sach, and the Tallahassee newspaper.

March 30, 2013

Dear Senator Richter

The remarks you read and made in your closing statement to the Health Policy Committee on May March 20, 2013 in favor of SB 1240 are offensive, highly prejudicial and unjust.  [See below]  We call upon you to issue a public apology.  You clearly judge people based on their ability to hear and speak and not on the content of their character.  Your reading of an unjust and inaccurate email and your added commentary portraying Deaf people who do not speak as limited, helpless, isolated and impotent is wrong and has no place on the Senate floor or records.  This blatant mischaracterization of Deaf ASL people is not acceptable, especially by an elected official.

Deaf ASL people are not LIMITED, sir.  In fact it is you who exhibits a significant limitation in your thinking and awareness.  Deaf ASL people are multilingual and multicultural - they can and do save people from drowning, tell their parents "I love you," ask for directions and GIVE directions, and not only order and deliver pizza but they actually own restaurants and MAKE dough.

So if you are truly worried about the ability for Deaf people to function in a Hearing world - you will work to remove bias, ignorance, and prejudice such as the type you just submitted for legislative consideration.

Speech and audition are already a part of services offered to Deaf infants and children.  Oral / Aural programs deny Deaf children the right to a fully natural and accessible language.  Systematic Oralism has been condemned by the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED) 2010 New Era agreement and accord for the future as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of Person's with Disabilities, the World Federation of the Deaf Education Rights for Deaf Children, the World Report on Disability by the World Bank & the World Health Organization, the Babbidge congressional report, the Commission on the Education of the Deaf (COED) congressional report and a recent GAO report on Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children.

We request that you issue a public apology for your disrespectful, unjust, and inaccurate statements immediately.  We also invite you to read and endorse this letter at the next Senate hearing on this subject.

Let Freedom Roll,

Ruthie Jordan, Patti Durr, and Karen Christie on behalf of Audism Free America

cc: Arron Bean, Chairman
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Senator Richter’s closing statement to the Health Policy Committee on May 20^, 2013:

Time 102:30 http://www.flsenate.gov/media/videoplayer.cfm?EventID=2443575804_2013031241

“Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. You notice

when people waived and support, they said, ‘We need this information.’

Members, that’s purely what this bill does. It gets information to them. It doesn’t

direct, it doesn’t force, it puts the information in the parent’s hands.

And, relative, I think there is a challenge in front of the bill, with the funding.

And, I’m open, will be very open to understanding that because I want to see that

these parents get it.

Today, the parents have to “opt in” to get that information, otherwise they don’t get

it.

And in my quick close, I’m just going to read an email that came in, its brief and it got my attention. 

Richter reading from email:

‘Parents always tell me that they wanted their child to hear or say, I love you,

benefit from the wisdom and love of grandparents, ask for directions if lost or in

need of a restroom, order a pizza and be able to simply shout out for help when

needed. Imagine how hard it would be to find someone who understood sign

language when you were frantic because a sibling is drowning. When someone can

only communicate with less than 1 in 5000 people.’

Richter adding commentary “like those that are talented, like these wonderful people here. They’re fluent in sign.”

Richter returns to reading the email ‘The world becomes a much smaller place.  It’s understandably hard to find a job, so you might end up lonely and marginalized.

Bucking a trend,

Richter’s commentary “as Senator Joiner pointed out,”

Richter returns to reading the email ‘is difficult under any circumstance,

and in this instance, it is terribly hard.

If a deaf person never had a choice, his or her best chance for happiness might

be…restricted to the signing deaf culture. But a choice is possible today, and over

time, it will be less expensive.’

Richter’s commentary “And I ask for your support of this bill that we’ll keep

moving through and working on.”