Leaning on the Fence

Some Thoughts on Workplace Discrimination
Leaning on the Fence The deaf community is at a transitional stage in the struggle to convince the world that, yes, deaf people are more than capable of handling the same levels of responsibility that their hearing colleagues do. I’ve read many articles and participated in many conversations where the need to make the language of the Americans with Disabilities Act more explicit was ...
Audism Legal Culture Wed, Jul 23 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post

Deaf Power is Becoming a Myth
Leaning on the Fence I took some time off from blogging to do a little something I like to call Having a Life. After a while, my good buddy told me that there were all sorts of interesting things (to say the least) happening over at DeafRead and urged me to catch up. So I did . . . and now I'm debating whether to thank my aforementioned good buddy for alerting me to the n...
Culture Thu, Jul 17 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post

Quit Trying to Make Our Deaf Youth into Sissies!
Leaning on the Fence There's a vlog on DeafRead that talks about how a No Cut policy is a good thing. If you haven't seen it yet, go. Here's the link: [link] There's also some links to some written material as well. Basically, they're saying that competition is bad, bad, bad and we need to protect the fragile minds of our deaf youth.Our deaf youth already have en...
Education Culture Tue, Jun 17 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post

Ohmmmmmm . . .
Leaning on the Fence Years ago, when I was a young'un (I'd say I was about 13 or 14), I received two behind-the-ear aids. Now, back then, BTE models weren't the small, discreet ones you can get nowadays. They were huge and made you look like one of those aliens in the cantina scene in the first Star Wars movie. Forget about trying to "fit in" or remain inconspiciou...
Art and Storytelling Tech Mon, Jun 16 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post

Paging Dr. Idiot . . .
Leaning on the Fence On the evening of June 14, 2005, I received a rude lesson in basic physics. That lesson is as follows: when a person steps on a child’s toy that just happens to have wheels on it, pain will be involved. The human knee is probably the worst-designed part of the human anatomy. It’s basically a bunch of bones sitting on top of each other connect...
Audism Legal Mon, Jun 02 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post

The Kid Will Decide for Herself, So Back Off
Leaning on the Fence Last year at Thanksgiving, myself, my wife, and daughter were at my mother's house. The food was good and everyone was making an effort to get along. Of course, my wife and I ended up talking to each other, as no other members of my family can sign. This means mucho boredom on our part, but our daughter loves visiting her grandma, so we just gr...
Art and Storytelling Culture Mon, Jun 02 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post

The Best Advice I Ever Got
Leaning on the Fence I just got done reading thumpaflash latest blog entry (dated June 1st). If you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and go read it RIGHT NOW. There's a story in my book, Tarnished Halos and Crooked Fences, about one time when I was feeling particularly sorry for myself because of my deafness and as a result, my attitude at school sucked. ...
Audism Art and Storytelling Sun, Jun 01 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post

Watch Out - Scary Deaf Man Gonna Get Ya!
Leaning on the Fence Last night, I went to my local movie theater to see Iron Man with captions. Good movie and Robert Downey Jr. was perfect for the role.I get to the theater, buy my ticket, and head to my seat. One thing I love about the open-captioned movies in my area is that the theater is usually not crowded. On this particular evening, there was only one other cou...
Art and Storytelling Tech Sat, May 31 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post

Feeling Rah-Rah Today
Leaning on the Fence No one can deny that opportunities for the deaf and hard of hearing are more abundant today than at any point in the past. The number of deaf college students is measured in tens of thousands, which is a far cry from just 50 years ago, when the number of deaf individuals attending college was measured in mere hundreds. The reasons for this remarkable escalat...
Higher Education Sat, May 31 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post

Spread the Message,Spread the Love
Leaning on the Fence Over 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents. This is one of the most quoted statistics in the literature regarding deaf children today.Another oft-quoted fact is that, for the majority of hearing parents, their child’s deafness is the first experience they have had with the issue of hearing loss. Understandably, this creates a sense of anxiety for the ...
Sat, May 31 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post

Think of the Impact of Your Words
Leaning on the Fence The importance of a secure sense of self-esteem cannot be overestimated. A healthy self-esteem has been associated with everything from an increased sense of personal happiness to career satisfaction. With this in mind, it almost becomes a matter of common sense that we should do everything in our power to develop and promote self-esteem in our deaf an...
Education Sat, May 31 2008 hide this blog flag post bookmark post