There is a book that tells part of what my time at school was like, just discovered this today.
I thought of posting this as I returned from my 10th time at the Adult ASL Immersion Camp at the Ontario Camp of the Deaf.

El Deafo - a graphic novel -

THE STORY BEHIND EL DEAFO

Here is the author's video

Purina Walk for Dog Guides - Hearing Dog and hosting Orillia Walk

I was looking around on the internet for info on Dog Guides as I am thinking that Michelle and I will do the 2013 Walk for Dog Guides in Barrie.

I found this blog about a person/dog team from 2009
http://lifewithahearingdog.blogspot.ca/2009/03/update-on-dog-guide-walk.html

Here is the actual top page of her blog: http://lifewithahearingdog.blogspot.ca/

Some links found today

Some links:

Royal View Deaf Church (London, Ontario)

Fall Feasts of Israel - Sep 29 2012

Deaf Pentecostal Ministries

Deaf AMEN - Different ways of signing Amen from around the world

An insight to my experience at camp the first year I went (2005). I had about the same experience as the lady who wrote this. It is still an adjustment, but easier as I prepare myself mentally ahead of time and after. It is totally a different Culture.

"At one time, like so many other people who had not tried to learn American Sign Language, I thought it was used only by people too lazy or stupid to master signing in English word order. I had found ASL confining. Using PSE I could make the sign for beautiful, gorgeous, striking, or pretty while mouthing the word to make my choice clear. This appealed to my writer's heart, in love with the nuances of the English language.

I didn't realize that skilled ASL signers could show similar nuances with facial expression and body movement that changed the meaning as surely as an English word did. The more I devoted myself to studying ASL, the more I began to appreciate its richness. The arch of an eyebrow, the expansive­ness of a movement, or a slight change in posture all added interesting meanings to a sign. The masters of ASL wrote as skillfully with their bodies as any of the best authors I had read.

I had gone to the Gallaudet campus for a few brief visits since my Spring Week trip in college, but it had little to offer me when I wasn't a skilled signer. This time was different. I never knew that going to school could be such a pleasure. I had always gone to classes in places that were geared for hearing people. And I had always been an exception. At Gallaudet, be­ing deaf was ordinary and acceptable. I had never experienced such liberation.

When I went to the cafeteria, I could ask questions about the food and easily understand the answers. If I stopped at the student center to ask for information or grabbed someone on the recreation staff to ask the hours for the weight room, I had no worries. Everyone knew sign language or could easily follow my "deaf voice." If they didn't, it was judged to be some fault of theirs, not mine.

There were no raised eyebrows at my high-pitched voice and no fumbles for a pen or paper. I didn't have to contend with poor lighting or people who mumbled. Everything was designed to accommodate someone like me.

My teacher signed, and so did all the other students in my class. For the first time I participated in classroom discussions. I went to lectures. I went to cultural events. Everything was new and exciting and I just could not get enough of it.

At the end of my first week at Gallaudet, I drove back to Winchester for the weekend. I needed to stock up on groceries, so I stopped at a supermarket. I walked inside the store, as I had twice a week for the past year, and suddenly, for the first time, I felt frightened. The din was unbelievable. And every­where I looked I was surrounded by people saying things I couldn't understand. It was such a complete change from the past week that I could barely handle it. This was the world I'd grown up in, but suddenly I felt like a foreigner coming to it for the first time. I was so shocked by the depth of my feeling that I clung to my cart for several minutes before my hands stopped shaking. "

Heppner, Cheryl M. “Seeds of Disquiet” – 136 & 137, Gallaudet University Press 1992

Link to Lion's Foundation of Canada Dog Guides Website

http://www.dogguides.com/

Recommended book:

Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love (Hardcover)
by Myron Uhlberg (Author)

You can borrow this from the Link to Barrie Public Library

 

or you can purchase from Amazon or Chapters

 

 

"In his moving memoir, Hands of my Father, Myron Uhlberg captures the essence of one exceptional family’s life in Brooklyn in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Uhlberg is a compassionate writer of truths. His book is full of surprises, written with a generous, loving spirit. In vivid scenes–sometimes wrenching, sometimes mischievous and sometimes hilarious–he takes us inside the singular world of his childhood. And there the reader discovers the profound, everyday courage exemplified by each member of the Uhlberg family."—Lou Ann Walker, author of A Loss for Words

 

 

Unfair Hearing Test

 Link to youtube to watch

A presentation of the "Unfair Hearing Test" portion of the Canadian Hearing Society's "The Unfair Hearing Test: An Interactive Listening Experience" CD.
Presented, with permission, by the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association - Newfoundland and Labrador (CHHA-NL).