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Letter to the Editor Hiding Information on "Voice Technology"? Dr. Moores: My research indicates massive illiteracy among the American deaf, as little as 81.5% nationally but as much as 91%, which I attribute to deaf education failing to teach deaf children how to read and write. A high ranking administrator with the USDE told me that this failure has been going on for "200 years," his words. To my knowledge, no researcher has studied or pinpointed the reason for this failure which I identify as the use of failed methods of English instruction in the classroom- they don't work. This applies to computer-assisted instruction, such as Trent Batson's programs, which after all these years do not fare any better than traditional methods. Question: Has your publication done any studies on why teachers are unable to change their ways, why they persist in doing things the same old ways in full knowledge that they don't work, and why their superiors refuse to encourage teachers to experiment with new, sensibly derived methods and technologies such as those represented by the "Voice" method of reading-writing instruction , which, as yet, has not been tried experimentally or otherwise? Why hasn't your publication exposed the hopelessness and impotence which grips educators of the deaf? Why hasn't your publication exposed the refusal or inability of deaf leadership to scream bloody murder at educators for the uninterrupted year-in year-out academic murder happening upon the lives of deaf children? We're moving into the 21st Century. Is your publication presenting or reviewing ideas necessary to lead the deaf community into the 21st Century as individuals in charge of their future? The worst problem of the deaf is being unable to independently communicate face-to-face with hearing people in society's language. "Voice" technology solves this problem head on for the great majority of deaf people with English skills. Yet not one stitch of this equipment can be found in use anywhere by anyone for any purpose on the Gallaudet University campus. Is it true that a protocol exists on campus preventing anyone from even mentioning the words, "Voice" equipment . Is it true that not one deaf person, student or otherwise , on campus with limited or insufficient oral skills has ever had a face-to-face discussion in English with a hearing person - without using sign language or interpreter assistance? And is it true that your publication does not consider these facts worthy of publication, exposure and study? Morton Warnow Volume 144, No. 5, 1999 American Annals of the Deaf ...

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