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Commerce has moved online. Now, the disability lawsuits are following. Advocates for disabled Americans have declared that companies have a legal obligation to make their websites as accessible as their stores, and they've filed suits across the country to force them to install the digital version of wheelchair ramps and self-opening doors.

Parents of a deaf child named Hunter were told by his Nebraska public preschool that they must change his name because he was in violation of the school district’s weapons policy. To sign his name, the three-year-old crosses his index and middle fingers then wags his hands. This sign apparently appeared to school officials to represent a gun. Grand Island Public Schools’ policy section 8470 — Weapons in Schools states: “Students are forbidden to knowingly and voluntarily possess, handle, transmit or use any instrument in school, on school grounds or at school functions that is a firearm, weapon, or looks...

Two deaf twin brothers in Belgium were euthanized by their doctor after realizing they were going blind and would be unable to see each other ever again, their physician says. The 45-year-old men, whose names have not been made public, were legally put to death by lethal injection at the Brussels University Hospital in Jette, on Dec. 14. The men, who were born deaf, had a cup of coffee and said goodbye to other family members before walking into hospital room together to die, their doctor told Belgian television station RTL.

Hi Folks!  This is perhaps the most absurd story ever reported here — and that’s saying a lot! A reader named Rachel writes:A Deaf child named Hunter is not allowed to use his name sign because the sign for “Hunter” (a dictionary word) uses the thumb and first two fingers in a gun shape and suggests a shooting motion. Here’s the story.These school officials have lost their ability to reason if they believe stripping a child of his name is necessary for safety under a weapons policy. Educators who are unable to use logic and critical thinking have no business...

--IMAGE HERE-- When I wrote last week’s Anti-Gun Wacko of the Week column about University of Colorado Professor Jerry Peterson, I chose the name of the column on a bit of a whim. I didn’t really expect that I would find that level of outrageousness on a weekly basis. But by now, you would think I would know better than to underestimate the ability of bureaucrats to make blindly stupid decisions. And that brings us to today’s story about 3-year-old Hunter Spanjer. Hunter is, by all reports, a happy and well-loved child who attends preschool in Grand Island Nebraska. Hunter...

A deaf three-year-old has been asked not to sign his name at school because it resembles a deadly weapon, according to 1011Now.com. “”It’s his name. It’s not like he’s going to bring a gun to school when he’s three years old,” Dana Schwieger told 1011Now.com. “Meantime, Hunter’s parents say that by Monday, lawyers from the National Association of the Deaf are likely to weigh in for Hunter’s right to sign his own name.” See the broadcast here: http://www.1011now.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=7652612.

A deaf 3-year-old from Nebraska is being asked by the school district to change his name, his family alleges, because the way he refers to himself in sign language resembles “weapons.” Apparently the Grand Island school district has a policy that prevents students from bringing “any instrument…that looks like a weapon” to school, and now hands can be considered “instruments.” “Anybody that I have talked to thinks this is absolutely ridiculous. This is not threatening in any way,” Hunter Spanjer’s grandmother Janet Logue said. Brian Spanjer, the boy’s father, added: “It’s a symbol. It’s an actual sign, a registered sign,...

Vice President Biden in Danville, VA on 8/14: "I have more to say, but I am saying too much already because these guys get me going... and you're gonna have trouble translating all this! The poor lady, she's gonna have tendonitis by the time she finishes this."

KIRO TV’s investigative unit has discovered Tacoma police used force to arrest and handcuff an innocent deaf woman after she called 911 for their help. Instead of an apology, she ended up bloody and in jail for nearly three days without an interpreter before a prosecutor declined to press charges. After months of digging, investigative reporter Chris Halsne found significant discrepancies in the official police version of events leading up to Lashonn White’s arrest. Late in the evening on April 6, White said she called for police assistance after a guest reportedly attacked her in her own apartment. Deaf since...

I received this in an email this afternoon.......and it positively made my blood boil. "This one may turn your stomach........ Obama's Wife as Seen by Deaf People Obama and his wife were attending the 9/11 Memorial Ceremony and watched as the Color Guard folded the flag into a triangular shape, according to custom. A video camera caught the two from the sidelines. Obama's wife leaned over and said to him, " All this for a damn flag ?" Obama turned to her, smiled smugly and nodded his head in agreement.How do we know what was said? The video was presented...

Sloan Churman, 29, was born deaf and had never heard the sound of her own voice—until last week. Eight weeks ago, Churman underwent surgery for a hearing implant called The Esteem Implant by Envoy Medical. Though she'd been wearing hearing aids since the age of 2, she says they “only help so much.” She had her husband record the activation of the implant. We dare you not to break out into tears with her.

A miscommunication with a deaf person led police to erroneously believe a bomb threat was being made on a Metra train Monday night, leading to an emergency response, authorities said. Riverside police said this morning a Metra conductor flagged down a police officer at 8:12 p.m. and reported that a passenger had passed him a handwritten note saying there might have been a bomb on the train.

Two 21-year-old twins, who were the former lovers of Hugh Hefner have revealed that the 'Playboy' chief has gone partially deaf because he takes too much of Viagra. Karissa and Kristina Shannon said that 85-year-old womaniser would not stop taking the pill because he does not want to lose his sex drive. "He said he would rather have sex than have his hearing. He has hearing aids now and even then he can only hear out of one ear," the Sun quoted Karissa as saying. "You have to lean down and talk into his good ear for him to understand...

A group of deaf friends were stabbed at a bar in Florida after a woman mistook their sign language for gang signs. Alfred Stewart, 31, was partying at the Ocean's Eleven Lounge in Hallendale Beach, Fla., with some friends who were also deaf on Saturday night when the group's signing caught the eye of gang-banger Barbara Lee. The 45-year-old Lee though the group was throwing gang signs at her, and responded by flashing gang signs back at them, cops said.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 20, 2010) — Family members often turn out in large numbers for graduation ceremonies of trainees, but that’s difficult for family members who can’t hear what’s happening. According to Anne Marie Laredo, Fort Leonard Wood’s school liaison officer, a trainee recently graduated from basic training without his family being present because she couldn’t find a sign language interpreter to help. That shouldn’t have happened, Laredo said, and she’s asking for help so it won’t happen again. “I felt horrible about that,” Laredo said. “I had a unit that was having a graduation and a family...

http://www.mediaite.com/online/this-exists-video-of-deaf-baby-boy-hearing-for-the-first-time-goes-viral/

The two guys who are deaf were in the Clothing store XXI and apparently they were shopping, Staff must have seen them do something to suspect them of stealing, but that doesn't have any support or facts. Before I started filming. The Big Black dude in Jeans who mighta been a store detective jumps and tackles the large hispanic deaf guy. from there I remembered my new phone and turned on the camera, There was who looked to be the manager of XXI that said to turn off the camera because they didn't want to get exposed for harassing and...

Gurgling in a mix of wonder and joy, this is the incredible moment a child hears his mother's voice for the first time.Eight-month-old Jonathan was born deaf and had cochlear implants put into his ears so he could hear.His father filmed the tear-jerking moment they were turned on for the first time, capturing the amazement in the boy's face as he heard his mother's voice saying his name.Video at link Seconds before the implant is turned on, Jonathan rests peacefully in his mother's arms The implant is turned on - and Jonathan, hearing his mother's voice for the first time,...

WASHINGTON -- Facing criticism that President Barack Obama isn't connecting with the American people, the administration is infusing its communications strategy with some of the ironclad discipline and outside-the-box thinking that made the Obama presidential campaign so successful. Sensitive about talk that the president was sometimes overexposed during his first year in office, the White House now is more discriminating about how and when the president deals with media -- and about whom he talks to when he does. Aides say there's no formal reevaluation of the administration's communications strategy as the president embarks on his second year in office....

I have no idea the standing of the late Sir Adrian Boult (1889-1983, if memory serves me correctly) in the world of music, other than that he was a famous symphony conductor, quite possibly one of the best of the past century. But by the time I met him, in February 1978 in London, he was nearing 90 years old, and had long ago passed the baton on to others. His appearance was a shock to me, because I had not realized how ancient he was at the time; I was seeing a white-haired crooked little man who in no...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI lamented the serious lack of public programs and measures to address the needs of deaf people and a lack of even basic health care, which often can prevent hearing impairment. He spoke Nov. 20 to some 400 people attending a Vatican conference addressing the role of the deaf in the church. A handful of interpreters signed the pope's words to deaf participants during the audience in the Clementine Hall of the papal palace. The Nov. 19-21conference was organized by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry and was dedicated to "The Deaf Person...

Dr. Antonio De la Cruz, a renowned neurotologist at the House Ear Clinic in Los Angeles who performed cochlear implant surgery on conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, has died. He was 65. De la Cruz, who also was the director of education at the House Ear Institute, died July 31 of complications of lymphoma at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, an institute spokeswoman said. An associate of the House Ear Clinic since 1975, De la Cruz was in the news in 2001 when he successfully performed cochlear implant surgery on Limbaugh. A cochlear implant is an electronic...

LAWRENCEVILLE - Betty Macaluso doesn't need an alarm clock; she has cats. The Lawrenceville woman is awakened each morning by Tom 2, a wide-eyed orange and white cat, who gently paws at her arm about 6 a.m. wanting his breakfast. If Tom 2 happens to sleep through his job or gets distracted, Tiger, a heavier gray and black tabby, steps in. Since Macaluso can't hear the ringing of an alarm clock - she has been deaf all her life - her cats serve as her ears. She adopted Tom 2 and Tiger, both now about a year old, from PetSmart...

A couple weeks ago, I posted the item about Boston's new deaf priest. And recently the Religion News Service caught up with Fr. Shawn Carey to ask him a few questions about his singular vocation. They exchanged some Q&A emails with him. An excerpt: Q: What was it like growing up as a deaf Catholic? A: Back then, there were no (deaf) interpreters in the Catholic Church and in the Catholic schools. It was a frustrating journey, but I managed to overcome the obstacles. Today, more deaf Catholics can attend Masses and receive sacraments through deaf priests or hearing priests...

The city of Fort Worth has reached a $50,000 settlement with a deaf man who claims his nose was broken during a November 2007 traffic stop as he tried to explain to an officer he could not hear. Fort Worth police Sgt. Pedro Criado said settlement Wednesday did not include any admission of wrongdoing on the city's part. The city also released the police dash camera video of the traffic stop. On Nov. 30, Christopher Ferrell, 43, was pulled over for speeding, police said. Criado said Thursday he did not know where the traffic stop occurred. Ferrell’s attorney said his...

COB ADDER, Iraq – Soldiers from the 3rd Sustainment Command’s 7th and 287th Sustainment Brigades worked side by side as they hosted Operation Voice of Hope Dec. 11 on Contingency Operating Base Adder. Members of the Muthanna Provincial Reconstruction Team and the 7th Sust. Bde.’s Civil Military Operation’s group worked together to host Iraqi girls from the Al-Amal School for the Deaf and assist them by diagnosing hearing impairments. Lt. Col. Allan White, 287th Sust. Bde., medical operations officer and audiologist conducted the tests using a standard audiometer.My goal today is to see what these children’s needs are,” said White....

England is currently deciding whether or not to legalize the use of embryo selection to produce deaf babies to accommodate deaf couples who want their children to share their soundless world. When Thomas Lifson reported this in AT, he expressed shock that such things could be permitted. I was shocked too---until I realized that this, and much worse, is the logical consequence of our legalization of abortion. Rightly or wrongly, our legal system regards death as the greatest possible injury that one person can inflict on another. Any injury that is not likely to cause death, however degrading or disfiguring to the...

The New York Archdiocesan Deaf Choir "signed" a song for Pope Benedict XVI Saturday at a seminary outside New York, where the pontiff blessed some 50 children with disabilities and visited students. The 81-year-old pontiff rose and applauded the choir of 15, accompanied vocally by the Cathedral of Saint Patrick Young Singers, after they had finished their song, "Take Lord, Receive." "God has blessed you with life and with differing talents and gifts," Benedict said in a short speech to the crowd of around 50 families of children with disabilities. "Sometimes it is challenging to find a reason for what...

2/15/2008 - MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFPN) -- Airmen from the U.S. Central Command Air Forces Band "Live Round" found themselves in front of an unlikely audience Feb. 13, when they visited Bishkek's Boarding School for the Deaf. The visit was part of the band's outreach efforts during their eight-day trip to Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan. Band members delivered toys and candy as well as a musical performance for the students. Although music doesn't seem like it would be logical fit at the school, it is actually an important part of the curriculum for the more than 360 students there....

An 11-year-old boy from Britain, who was deaf for nearly 10 years, was suddenly cured when a thick piece of cotton popped out of his ear, according to a report in the Daily Mail. Jerome Bartens was diagnosed as deaf in his right ear when he was just two-years-old. Click here to read the full story and see pictures Over the next nine years, he struggled to live a normal life as a young boy — but everything changed when he felt a sudden pop in his right ear while playing a game of pool with friends. He put his...

Freakonomics One year from today, a new president moves into the White House. This president will be eager to carry out any number of plans — including, surely, plans to help the segments of society that most need help. Extending a helping hand, after all, is one of the great privileges and responsibilities of the presidency. But before charging ahead with such plans, the new president might do well to first ask him- or herself the following question: What do a deaf woman in Los Angeles, a first-century Jewish sandal maker and a red-cockaded woodpecker have in common? A few...

Some hard-of-hearing patients in England are having to wait more than two years for an NHS hearing aid. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) used the Freedom of Information Act to discover just how long the waits were. It found that ten trusts were not treating patients within a year, in spite of the Government’s target being 18 weeks. The worst offender was Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, where patients had to wait 125 weeks for an aid after first seeing their GP. The average wait was 22 weeks in the 99 primary care trusts (PCTs) across the...

A federal appeals court ordered a San Francisco judge on Friday to reconsider his ruling requiring United Parcel Service to give its deaf employees a chance to compete for jobs as drivers of small delivery trucks. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 13-2 that U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson had used the wrong standard in his 2004 decision that UPS was discriminating against deaf people with safe driving records by refusing to consider them for commercial driving jobs. Henderson allowed the plaintiffs to show that they were qualified for the jobs based on their driving records, and failed...

DEAF parents should be allowed to screen their embryos so they can pick a deaf child over one that has all its senses intact, according to the chief executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (RNID). Jackie Ballard, a former Liberal Democrat MP, says that although the vast majority of deaf parents would want a child who has normal hearing, a small minority of couples would prefer to create a child who is effectively disabled, to fit in better with the family lifestyle. Ballard’s stance is likely to be welcomed by other deaf organisations,...

Donnell Williams had just gotten out of the bath tub, wearing only a towel around his waist, when he turned the corner to see guns pointing right at him. "I ain't never been so scared," says Williams. Police forced entry into Williams home while responding to a shooting, but it turned out to be a false call. They had no idea at the time the call wasn't real and that Williams is hearing impaired. Without his hearing aid he is basically deaf. "I kept going to my ear yelling that I was scared. I can't hear! I can't hear!" Officers...

FORT WORTH -- A store cashier struck a deaf customer in the head with a crowbar after he mistook the man's silence for rudeness and disrespect, police said. The cashier, Ricky Benard Young, 20, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The customer, Cody Goodnight, 31, suffered "a large knot" on his head during the incident, which occurred Saturday at the Family Dollar Store at 4117 E. Lancaster Ave. "I can't believe someone would hit him for not speaking," said Goodnight's mother, Kay Goodnight. "When you're deaf, you don't make a point of starting conversations with people." Young's...

Pfc. Patti Angel, a food service specialist from Grand Junction, Colo., from Company F, 203rd Brigade Support Battalion, serves Soldiers their meals from a mobile kitchen trailer at Combat Outpost Cleary. Photo by Sgt. Natalie Rostek, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs. COMBAT OUTPOST CLEARY — Pfc. Patti Angel faces communication barriers no amount of waiting in line or talking into a phone can help. Her parents are deaf. Keeping in touch back home is already tough for deployed Soldiers with friends and family members who can hear. Not being able to use the conventional means of...

After laying siege to a house for five hours, police gave a final warning before storming the house where a gunman had been reported inside. A police dog rushed upstairs and, finding a woman in bed, proceeded to sink its teeth into her arms. But as armed officers surrounded a terrified Sonia Pellow, they realised two things. First, she wasn't a gunman. Second, she was deaf and had been sleeping throughout the entire stand-off. Yesterday Miss Pellow, 36, was still too afraid to return to her home in Hayle, Cornwall, after the ordeal, which followed a hoax call to police...

For a number of years now, a great deal of discussion has taken place among scientists and in the popular media about the genetic engineering of children. Will it soon be possible, for prices widely affordable at least to the upper-middle class, to guarantee that children have a high IQ, or excellent athletic ability, or be over 6 feet tall, or have blond hair and blue eyes? Is it right to commodify children in this way, and have parents choosing options as they do with cars? And wouldn’t it be boring to live in a world someday where almost everyone...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's only liberal arts university for the deaf could lose its accreditation unless it addresses concerns about weak academic standards, ineffective governance and a lack of tolerance for diverse views, an education oversight group warned. Gallaudet University was rocked by student demonstrations last fall that shut down the university for several days and forced the board to revoke the appointment of a new president. Afterward, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education said it was delaying a decision on whether to renew the school's accreditation because of concerns raised during the protests and because of a...

CBS/AP) EAST MEADOW, N.Y. It has taken a week, but the East Meadow School District is now telling its side of the controversy involving a deaf boy who wants to bring a service dog to class. East Meadow has prevented 14-year-old John Cave from bringing his dog Simba to the W. Tresper Clarke High School. The family has the state's Human Rights Commission looking into the case. East Meadow Superintendent Robert Dillon says the boy's parents have "repeatedly rejected" efforts to discuss the boy's wish to bring his service dog to school. In a statement released late Tuesday, Dillon says...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Gallaudet University has turned to former student with national credentials to lead the school until a permanent president can be selected. The school's board of trustees has announced that Robert Davila will serve as interim president beginning Jan. 2, when Irving King Jordan steps down after 19 years. Davila, who graduated from Gallaudet in 1953, says he worried about getting into Gallaudet while attending the California School for the Deaf as a 12-year-old boy. He taught at Galluadet for 17 years beginning in 1972. He also served as vice president of the National Technical Institute for the...

At least 16 Ramsey County deputies and correctional officers are being investigated for allegedly keeping a jailed deaf man incommunicado by denying him an interpreter or communication device, Sheriff Bob Fletcher said Friday. The 16 are still on duty, but Fletcher said he is looking into how they dealt with Douglas Bahl, an internationally known deaf advocate who was arrested Nov. 17 in St. Paul for running a red light. "We are taking this very seriously," said Fletcher. "Mr. Bahl seems very credible. If one or more of our employees have failed to act in the appropriate way, we will...

One of my dance students sent me this last week and I was in tears watching it. It's beautiful on its own, but what makes it so heart wrenching is all the dancers are deaf-mutes. And no, there are no special effects, those are real arms.

PHOENIX -- The state Attorney General's Office is suing Pima Community College, charging it didn't provide the help a hearing impaired student said she needed. Legal papers filed in Maricopa County Superior Court say that the college did provide sign language interpreters so that Stacey Duvall could understand what her instructors in the pharmacy technology program were saying. But Assistant Attorney General Sandra Kane said that in at least two of the cases, Duvall could not understand the interpreters. Kane said, though, that the college insisted the two were qualified and refused to replace them. At one point there was...

Well. It's confirmed. Senator McCain resigned his honorary position from the Board of Trustees at Gallaudet University. Like one commenter said, "McCain can take a LOT of flak- Gee, Deafies ran off the guy who stood up to the North VN Communists! ACK!" Indeed. McCain was a POW in North Vietnam. He's now an ex-honorary member of Gallaudet's Board of Trustees....

WASHINGTON — The board of trustees of the nation's premier school for the deaf voted Sunday to terminate the appointment of the incoming president, who had been the subject of protests, the board announced. The vote at Gallaudet University came after a daylong closed-door meeting that followed a month of protests by students and faculty members. Jane Fernandes, the school's former provost, had been selected in May to take office in January.

Breaking News Gallaudet Board Votes Out Jane Fernandes Washington Post sources confirm that controversial president-elect's appointment has been rescinded.

And then you have a recent assault against Dr. Jane K. Fernades (first deaf woman to become the 9th president of Gallaudet University) where some idiot threatened her with a gun. She explained to reporters when they asked her whether she has been threatened with assault. She said, "Yes, with a gun." Check out NBC4 video during her press conference when she said that at 23 seconds left into the video. The incoming president said that in the midst of the the conflict she has recieved death threats and other personal attacks.....