Halloween!

There has been a month of build up to Halloween but it is finally here! Halloween is an important celebration on campus and I think I have seen everything now. Ghosts, unicorns, and a nun riding a scooter past my office window.

Halloween decorations and treats

Carved pumpkins appeared everywhere around campus

Inara (aka Dawn), Kaylee (aka Kate), and Wash (aka Ethan) at a Halloween Party

Halloween work day

ASL Lecture Series: Robert Sirvage

The RIT ASL and Deaf Studies Community Center (RADSCC) organizes community, national, and international leaders in ASL and Deaf culture and heritage to present free lectures at RIT for the benefit of students, staff, faculty and the community. 

Today's lecture was presented by Robert Sirvage and titled From stimulus to shared representation: Non-representational convergence as a foundation. The abstract for his presentation was "How and when are linguistic and other kinds of shared-representations formed? How does individual sensory stimulus lead to a shared-conceptualised world? This presentation will discuss these questions with a blend of insight gained from DeafSpace research and dialogue with DeafBlind communities about pro-tactile philosophy". Robert presented fascinating insights into the different ways that hearing, Deaf and DeafBlind people navigate space and how the requirements of representations of space (for example on a map) differs for sighted and blind people. You can see more about Robert's work in his TEDx Gallaudet talk An Insight from DeafSpace.

As a side note - it was amazing to see so many types of DeafBlind communication at the event. These included ASL, hand over hand communication, close proximity interpreting, and Pro Tactile ASL which is a new and emerging language within the North American DeafBlind community.

Diwali with DISA

The Deaf International Student Association (DISA) at RIT celebrated Diwali tonight with presentations about the meaning of the festival, dance performances, and Indian food. DISA events are a great way of fostering international collaboration among the culturally and linguistic diverse students at RIT.

Dance Performance

DISA President Hamid Yussif encouraging students to learn about each others' cultures

Sharing Australian Cuisine

Today I shared the secret recipe for 'Fairy Bread' with the team at the Center for Education Research Partnerships. 

Incredible Journey of a World Adventurist

I was privileged to be able to attend the Rochester School for the Deaf for the 24th annual presentation in the 'Adventures in Education' series. The Adventures in Education program  is an opportunity for students at Rochester School for the Deaf to meet with and learn from inspirational Deaf and hard of hearing adults. The annual, public presentation is an opportunity for members of the Rochester community glimpse the experience and knowledge of remarkable individuals.

CJ Jones is the invited guest for the program in 2016. CJ was one of seven hearing children born to Deaf parents in Missouri, however he later lost his hearing due to spinal meningitis. He graduated from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and toured with the National Theatre of the Deaf. CJ has worked extensively in the entertainment industry as well as founding Sign World TV. 

CJ provided a hilarious recount of his experiences as a 'world adventurist' in ASL, voice, mime, and rap (yes - bimodal rap). Full communication access of the fast-paced performance was provided by a team of interpreters and a real-time captioner.

CJ Jones and Rochester School for the Deaf Superintendent Antony A. L. McLetchie 

Deaf Education in Zimbabwe

Barbra Nyangairi was at NTID today giving a talk titled "The Zimbabwe Context: Sign Language and Education for Deaf Children".

Barbra is a human rights activist, mother of a deaf child, and co-founded the Deaf Zimbabwe Trust (DZT) that aims to advance the rights of deaf people in Zimbabwe. Barbra described the cultural stigmas, lack of resources, and lack of awareness that mean Zimbabwean deaf people are marginalised and unable to access to education services and vocational opportunities. She also spoke of the moves that are being made to increase awareness of the potential of deaf people in Zimbabwe and described the inclusion of Zimbabwe Sign Language (ZSL) as an official language of Zimbabwe in its constitution.

A Taste of Ethiopia

We attended an educational and fundraising event to benefit the Deaf community in Ethiopia tonight. The event was hosted by Nazareth College and we heard about the involvement of the Speech-Language Pathology faculty and students in outreach work in schools for the deaf in Ethiopia. There were many speeches, including one by our friend Solomon Yigzaw who dressed in traditional garb for the occasion. There was much great Ethiopian food and good company.

Kate, Solomon, and Afomia

I met some lovely young Deaf and hearing children from Ethiopia who was fascinated by how different American and Australian sign languages were and we spent a lot of time swapping signs and helping them to master the Australian two-handed fingerspelling.

Solomon had a great time being able to speak with people in his first language, Amharic, and be understood. We had an amazing time communicating where Solomon would speak in Amharic, Afomia (hearing, non-signer) would explain what was said in English and give her reply, and Dawn or I would sign her responses in ASL so that Solomon and our other Deaf friends could understand. It was an amazing experience in multilingualism.