Welcoming deaf and hard of hearing patrons

~2008 NYSLAA Conference Report~

Welcoming Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Patrons
Presented by Christine Kovar, Whole Me, Inc.

Workshop attended and reported by:
Heidi Jensen, PLShq

This workshop was excellent! It was presented by Christine Kovar from Whole Me Inc.

I was surprised to hear the history of the Deaf community. Alexander Graham Bell was not a friend to the deaf community. His wife and mother were both deaf, however, he was against the deaf using their hands to sign. He advocated the ‘Oral Method’. His thought was that the deaf only had problems with their hearing – not their vocal chords. He wanted the deaf community to learn to talk and read lips. Deaf schools stopped teaching sign language and only tried to teach people to speak. This is a quick outline of the history of sign language. In 1880, there was a conference in Milan that outlawed Sign Language, In the 1900’s, all schools in the US taught only Oral language no signing. It took until 1960’s for someone to realize that this was not going to help the deaf community and by the 1970’s Sign language was allowed back in schools. Today, American Sign Language is considered a language. In some high schools, you can take ASL as a foreign language. Our presenter explained to us, as library staff, how to talk with the deaf properly so we don’t offend them in any way. She also gave us information about Caption phones. Caption phones cost $90 and the system service is free. She did recommend that libraries invest in a caption phone to help with the hard of hearing and deaf patrons. Another service offered is New York State Relay Service, again, she gave us information about this service as well. For copies of the handouts, please let me know and I’ll be happy to share them with you.

Some books and a video that were recommended by the speaker are:

• Everyone here spoke sign language: Hereditary deafness on Martha’s Vineyard. Written by –Nora Ellen Groce
• Growing up deaf: Issues of Communication in a hearing world. Written by: Rose Pizzo
• Through Deaf Eyes (Videorecording) by PBS.