thegreatlinguini's Xanga

Back in school

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:07:14 GMT

Just a quick update to say yes, I'm still alive. Haven't posted here in a long time... In 2007-08 I was a teaching assistant at Texas School for the Deaf, working with deaf students who have multiple disabilities. That kept me plenty busy and I sort of lost interest in posting blogs for a while.

Now I'm back in school - in the Deaf Studies/Deaf Education graduate program at Lamar University. Really enjoying it so far, and have made lots of new friends.

Also I have another blog called [Deaf + Gifted] Education where I post about deaf ed, gifted ed, and how we can identify and serve deaf students who are gifted. It's a new work in progress, but feel free to visit me there and check out some of the links I've posted there.

Deaf text pager from the year 1865

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:08:01 GMT

Hansen Writing Ball Typewriter 142 years ago = Using your Sidekick to order in a restaurant today.

Your Sidekick (or Blackberry or Treo) is so useful for jotting notes quickly, and sharing fast text communication with others. Let's go back to 1865 and see how some deaf people may have done it long ago.

The first manual typewriter in the world came about because of Deaf students at a residential school in Copenhagen in the late 1800s. According to Neatorama,

"Rev. Rasmus Hansen (1835 - 1890) created this "writing ball", the world’s first commercially produced typewriter, so his deaf students can "speak with their fingers."

The most striking feature of the writing ball is the semi-sphere on top of the machine, with 52 keys sticking out like a giant pin cushion. At the lower end of each stem is a character, cast in exactly the right angle to create a perfectly even print on the central printing point under the ball. The escapement mechanism moved the paper frame that held the paper one space until the end of the line was reached. By pushing the button on the left in front of the ball all the way down, the carriage was turned concentrically back to the beginning of the line and moved one line to the left.

Read all about the Hansen Writing Ball and other amazing typewriters at the Virtual Typewriter Museum."

Manual typewriter.... Looks like a manual pager to me!

How did people type on it?

Here's how a guy from the Virtual Typewriter Museum did it:

Hansen claimed that you could type 12 letters a second on his machine, compared to only 4 letters per second in normal handwriting. How fast can you type on your pager??

Hansen's Role in Deaf Education

Rasmus Hans Malling Johan Hansen (1835-1890) worked as a teacher and as director of Det Kongelige Døvstummeinstitut i København (The Royal Institute for Deaf-Mutes in Copenhagen, Denmark). From what I have read, it seems that the school was a signing-based school, but a generation before the Milan Conference of 1880, Hansen was influenced by German educators to start adding oral methods. He also was among the first to group students according to their cognitive levels (i.e., average vs. developmentally delayed) and whether they were deaf, late deafened, or hard of hearing. This was a new idea, and up to that point all students were taught in one classroom with one methodology.

(Note that the International Rasmus Malling-Hansen Society web site says students were grouped by their "hearing and spiritual abilities," this is probably a mistranslation of Danish or German where the word for spirit is also used to refer to cognition. In German, Geisteswissenschaft looks like it means ghost/spirit science, but it really means cognitive science.) Hansen was also one of the first educators to recognize stages of development in children.

More about Hansen:

Rasmus Malling-Hansen
International Rasmus Malling-Hansen Society
Hvem var [Who was] Rasmus Malling-Hansen? - in Danish, but with lots and lots of good pictures.

How to make giant posters on your printer

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:23:26 GMT

How to make GIANT posters on your printer

Found this on Neatorama.

Free online software that lets you print large posters out of many regular-sized pieces of paper. Looks like fun, and would be useful in a classroom/school, as long as kids don't get to see the name of the program. Would get lots of parent calls on that one.... Rasterbator.

They could have called it Pixelgiant or something. Tho that somehow makes me think of a cute elephant. Anyway, what giant poster/printed mural would you make?? There, Muralmaker could have been its name...

I wonder if you can use coloring book pages or paint by number images... And then make biiigggg ones? Heh. You can use any image at all... (though it would be wise to use non-copyrighted images).

Could could be useful for low vision people, or people who want to be able to see their wall art first thing in the morning before putting their glasses on.

Check out the gallery of cool home-made giant posters. Enjoy!

What are the best Deaf schools? - A look at BiBi programs for teachers and students

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:19:13 GMT

What are the best Deaf schools?
A look at BiBi programs for teachers and students

Hello everyone out there. I'd like your opinions. What are the best schools (or programs) for deaf students in America? And, what criteria do you use to make your choices?

I went looking online for others' opinions on this matter. Ridor said he planned to post a "best deaf schools" list, but seems to have never gotten around to it. There's a forum topic on alldeaf.com on the topic, in which several people say that the BiBi schools are the best.

Along those lines, here's the info I found online about BiBi programs -- which schools for the deaf are BiBi focused, and which teacher training programs prepare teachers for BiBi schools.

Deaf Ed Teacher Prep programs that list their philosophy as bilingual/bicultural on deafed.net

(note: some programs -- which may be bibi programs -- did not specify their philosophy for this list)

University of California, San Diego
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
McDaniel College
Boston University
Western Oregon University
Utah State University, Logan

CAEBER Preservice Training: Star Online Project

According to CAEBER's web site, "Seven universities currently use the curriculum from online courses:

Gallaudet University
Lamar University
McDaniel College
Western Oregon University
University of Tulsa
California State University, Northridge
University of Hawaii

Two universities, Gallaudet University and Lamar University, utilize the full online components while the other universities use parts of the online components and online curriculum as meets their needs."

Note: This info is from the previous CAEBER site at NMSD. CAEBER is now part of the of the VL2 project at Gallaudet.

CAEBER Inservice Training: 2-Year Professional Development Inservice

Which schools send their staff to be trained by CAEBER?

Schools for the Deaf involved with CAEBER's ASL English Bilingual Professional Development (AEBPD) Model in Deaf Education (as listed at http://ksdeaf.org/starschools.shtml)

New Mexico School for the Deaf
Illinois School for the Deaf
Texas School for the Deaf
Alabama School for the Deaf
Kendall Demonstration Elementary School
Kentucky School for the Deaf
California School for the Deaf, Riverside
Wisconsin School for the Deaf
Minnesota Academy for the Deaf
Jean Massieu Academy
American School for the Deaf
Metro Deaf School
Kansas School for the Deaf

Comments?

What programs are missing from these lists? What programs should be removed from this list? Why?

Looking forward to reading your answers.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 00:39:10 GMT

Deaf Space -- and Deafblind Space at Gally

EDIT: To the Deafread.com readers... This was the first time I submitted a blog post to Deafread, and I didn't do it exactly right... The title of the post should be "Deaf Space -- and Deafblind Space at Gally" instead of the name of my blog site. And I did check "hearing" but the box came up orange anyway. So now you know, I'm a hearing ally in the Deaf and Deafblind communities, and a recent Gally graduate. :) Nice to meet ya!

--------------

Ryan Commerson and other folks in the Deaf Studies department and beyond are working on what it means to have "Deaf Space" in architecture - the way buildings, stores, and landscapes can be designed to incorporate and harmonize with Deaf ways of being. This is great! (See Ryan's vlog about a survey project that's happening this week on campus - that well-made vlog inspired this blog post.)

Vision-centric, 3-D ways of designing spaces would make it easier for people to take in the scene visually and communicate visually with fewer obstacles. But I'm concerned that some of the innovative, visually nifty ways of designing spaces may conflict with one type of Deaf way of being: the Deafblind/Usher way of being.

So, to the Deaf Space researchers, designers, and architects:

I don't know the exact details on what features are being planned for SLCC (or other "Deaf space" buildings). I hope you all take into consideration the fact that Gallaudet is also Deafblind space. Please pay attention to issues of glare, dim lighting, oddly shaped travelling spaces such as walls, halls, or walking paths inside rooms. Bright light is painful for many people with vision loss. Dim lighting makes it hard or impossible for people with Usher Syndrome (probably the most common cause of deafblindness in the Gallaudet community) or poor night vision to see enough to navigate or communicate visually.

Strangely shaped physical landscapes can make it hard for somone to use their tunnel vision and/or a white cane to safely navigate to where they want to walk. For example, some clueless sighted architect designed the main inner wall in one of the main buildings at the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind as a visually-pleasing, innovative - yet totally blind-UNfriendly extremely wavy carpeted surface. This makes is useless for trailing the wall with one's hand or cane to cross that room - the normal way one would use a wall to navigate. So all the students have to walk through empty space to get where they're going, without the aid of physical landmarks to guide their path. This is just a reminder that something that "looks" innovative and pretty may, in fact, be the least accessible way you could have designed it, for an important segment of our community.

Now is the time to make Gallaudet and the surrounding area much more in tune with Deafblind Space, too. Thanks.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 21:36:56 GMT

We are the Web...

...We are the children... We are the ones who make the Internet, so let's keep typing...

... and with that early-80s flashback, here's a neat video about how humans interact with, and create, the online universe.

It's all in text - the sound track is just music.

Via: VideoSift

Do Deaf People - or Only Hearies - Experience this Disability?

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 03:40:15 GMT

a disability only for hearies?

Ouch weblog: "Dilbert's one of us"
Posted by Crippled Monkey

[...] Scott Adams, the man behind Dilbert, has been writing in one of the most recent entries on his blog about spasmodic dysphonia, the voice condition he has: "I couldn't speak for about 18 months unless I was on stage doing my public speaking, or alone, or singing. The rest of the time my vocal cords would clench and I could barely get out a word ... We can also often speak perfectly in funny British accents but not in our own voices. We can speak after we have laughed or yawned. Sometimes it helps to pinch our noses or cover our ears. I found I can talk okay if I stretch my head back and look at the ceiling or close my eyes. And we can all sing and hum just fine." [...]

my commentary:

so this is only a disability that affects hearing people, then? in his blog, scott adams says that background noise interferes with his brain's speech centers and makes it much harder for him to talk. and that it helps if he covers his ears.

power to the deafies! not only do most of them have other/visual ways of communicating -- sign language, cued speech, written conversations, lipreading and silent speech with other lipreaders, skilled gestures as needed -- the auditory feedback bit isn't a problem. yay!

makes you wonder how many deaf people get spasmodic dysphonia and never know (or care!).

~~~

and p.s., the BBC's Ouch web site is a fabulous and entertaining look at disability culture in the UK and beyond. be sure to check out the "play" section and the Ouch podcast too - available in audio or transcript formats. oh, and the "tv/radio" section for info on several programs, including britain's deaf news show, see hear (like deaf mosaic, but in BSL, and still on the air!) and BSL soap opera, switch!

tired of pastels

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 05:25:23 GMT

tired of pastels... but i'm having trouble making alll the text white-on-dark. somehow when i use html formatting (for bulleted lists, etc.), that text doesn't get recognized as the text i want to make white. will keep futzing with it.

see... on my mac, in firefox, i can't even see the title of this post unless i highlight it.

huh?

fun with braille

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 23:12:39 GMT

EDIT: Coco cross-posted this entry on the TactileTheWorld blog! Thanks, Coco!

insomnia or unemployment lead me to seek ways to entertain my brain.

one way was to look at the photos tagged "braille" on flickr and post transcriptions of the ones i could read. the ones in english were fairly straightforward, as long as enough characters were in clear view. i also got to try my hand at entries in dutch, german, french, and japanese beer cans (!). wheee!

I've learned that
a) artists who use giant braille in public art often seem to have no reason for picking the braille words they use,
b) people on flickr feel the love when you tell them what the braille sign on a diaper changing table says, and
c) some people have small or large braille tattoos.

have you always wondered what all those dots in the elevator *really* say? well, so do some blind people, cuz man, those sign companies have no clue what they're doing a lot of the time. i once visited my high school a few years after my graduation, and saw the sign on the teacher's lounge door. in print it said "teacher's lounge" but in braille it said "cafeteria." umm, yeah. kinda makes you wonder what the "cafeteria" and "men's room" signs say in braille, now doesn't it?

Wanna learn more??

If you're interested in learning braille as used in English, see AFB's Braille Bug for fun instruction on the alphabet and numbers; AFB's Braille Trail curriculum is also excellent.
See Braille thru Remote Learning if you want to learn how normal (contracted) English-language braille works, with all the special characters, standardized abbreviations and their usage rules.
If you're American, you can take a free correspondance course from the Library of Congress on how to read, transcribe, and proofread braille.
If you want to learn braille as it is used in other countries, use the free online pdf copy of World Braille Usage, a book compiled by Unesco. There are listings by country along with contact information for each country's braille authority/organizations -- most of which probably have their own web sites by now. They can probably direct you toward braille learning resources in their country. A great resource.
Braille fonts so you can play with "ink braille for sighted people" on your computer. Check out this ASCII braille cheat sheet to see how to use your keyboard to type special braille characters in those fonts.
Braille and Braille/Fingerspelling blocks from Uncle Goose
More toys and braille practice materials from The Braille Superstore.

Did you know that, though braille is the current worldwide standard, there were many other tactile writing systems? Braille was developed by a blind teenager, Louis Braille, because he was so frustrated with the unwieldy systems preferred by sighted teachers.

also, while you're on flickr, have some laughs at the "stick figures in peril" group.

Cute Endorphins.

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 04:56:01 GMT

Here's how I get my kicks while sedentary. It's good to take breaks.

CuteOverload.com (thanks, QueenAlpo, for the tip)

Kawaii Not: the web comic for cute gone bad! (thanks, Neatorama for the tip)

Neatorama!

And, more for news and vlogs than cuteness: DeafRead.com

Now, back to sorting and packing. If I can stop reading these sites for a bit...