I’ve received a few questions over the last couple of weeks, and I’ve posted the questions and answers at the bottom of my FAQs page.
One site that I mentioned my answers is the The National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers.
Blog
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Hearing World Still Sides with Fernandes
Thanks to my friend and colleague who tipped me off to this poll and its accompanying article: Gallaudet Dumps Incoming President – AOL News
After my friend voted today shortly after noon, he wrote:
What do you think of the school’s decision to fire its incoming president?
It seems unfair 46%
It seems fair 30%
Not sure 24%
Total Votes: 13,115OK, so again, not a scientific poll and most of these people responding are, of course, hearing and have little to no knowledge of Deaf culture. Just thought I’d share the thoughts of a few (thousand) others.
I was one of the 30% who said is seems fair, though I wish they had a column that said, “Just but long overdue.”
I just voted now after 6 PM MST (“It seems fair,” of course) and sadly, the results were still exactly the same: (more…)
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Open Letter to NPR Re: "Blogs Capture, Amplify Gallaudet Protest"
I have been an ASL interpreter since 1990 and have trusted NPR as my primary news source for more than a decade. Sadly, you shook my faith in your reporting last night when you made ostensibly “factual” statements about Jane K. Fernandes that sounded like they came right out of her administration’s Public Relations Office.
Dr. Fernandes couldn’t have described herself better than you did when you said, “She’s deaf, but some protesters don’t like that she grew up speaking and reading lips, before she learned sign language.”
Contrary to what Dr. Fernandes would like the world to believe, her late ASL acquisition is not what the protesters don’t like about her. Shame on you for being a mouthpiece for Fernandes! You should have done your homework and read that blog you reported about: ridorlive.com. Or, for primary source material, you could have read the many statements and open letters at gufssa.org. Read those, along with the blog entries syndicated at deafread.com, and then you will be qualified to report on what Gallaudet University faculty, staff, students, and alumni don’t like about Fernandes.
The statement, “Others resent the tough decisions she’s made as a long-time administrator,” sounds just like Fernandes, too. (more…)
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Was Canonized Saint at Milan Conference?
When I heard last week on NPR that an Italian priest who “helped the deaf” in the late 1800s had been canonized as a saint, I couldn’t help wondering: was he at the Milan Conference of 1880, a conference of “educators of deaf-mutes” who moved to forbid sign language and mandate oralism.
Filippo Smaldone lived from 1848 to 1923 in Italy, and the infamous Milan Conference was held in 1880. According to one source, he founded “institutes for deaf-mutes” (not necessarily a disparaging term back then) in 1885 and 1887, but he had already worked with “deaf-mutes” as far back as the 1870s. He might truly be worthy of sainthood if he had rebuked the Milan Conference and promoted deaf people’s preferred mode of communication, but somehow I doubt that happened, because that would have gone totally against the grain.
Just think what an irony it would be if our dear Father Smaldone had been one of the killers of sign language and “got away with murder” by being canonized as a saint!
Daniel Greene 