Turning the Tide: Making Life Better for Deaf and Hard of Hearing School Children

8: Scholars, Parents, Advocates,and Allies: Working for Change

176 8 Scholars, Parents, Advocates, and Allies: Working for Change “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” (attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt) All the members of our focus groups were passionate in their wishes to share their stories so that current and future deaf and hard of hearing children will have significantly better K–12 experiences. More than half of them are pursuing degrees or working in areas where they can have influence on current and future children. Today there are numerous educators, sociologists , psychologists, linguists, neuroscientists, and so forth, who were once children subject to the system—“experiments,” if you will. We ourselves were once those kids. We and our participants therefore have unique insight, and we can possibly spare parents, teachers, and others invested in deaf and hard of hearing children some heartache. In Chapter 7 we spoke of the advocacy work of deaf and hard of hearing adults, including scholars, parents, advocates, or some combination thereof. In this chapter we share a multitude of unique and valuable contributions to research, advocacy , and program development being made as we type these words, by deaf and hard of hearing professionals, parents, and advocates (and our hearing allies) not only in the United Scholars, Parents, Advocates, and Allies 177 States but around the world. In so doing, we hope to make a thoroughly convincing argument for strategic, formalized, and ongoing involvement of deaf and hard of hearing professionals in EHDI, NCIEC, ClassroomInterpreting.org, state education agencies, and, above all, in the federal government agencies that fund those entities. In Chapter 5 we expressed the hope we see in the annual EHDI conference . This conference, along with its organizer the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM) illustrates a very important recognition by those in power that deaf and hard of hearing children and their families have unique needs and thus require unique resources. Remember, however, that there currently is no system or conference that brings together teachers of the deaf and K–12 interpreters from the various regions and states. We see this as a serious problem, as it reduces their power and ability to influence change and represents a situation of very limited support for development within their professions. These teachers and interpreters are as isolated as the students they work with, and this is an issue of concern. The changes needed to the current system of educating deaf and hard of hearing children must be guided by the advice, research, and advocacy of d/Deaf and hard of hearing adults who themselves experienced general education classrooms during their formative years. Here we recommend action of different types and provide examples of endeavors that have and will make important contributions toward turning the tide for the current and next generations of deaf and hard of hearing children. Publish in Medical Journals The first work we showcase involves nine scholars, all Deaf except one, all associated with esteemed universities, working together to impact the people who parents first hear from regarding their child’s hearing loss: medical professionals. The scholars are affiliated with the universities of California, Washington, Utah, Rochester, and Hamburg; Swarthmore College; Rochester Institute of Technology; and Gallaudet University, and they represent a variety of fields including pediatric medicine, linguistics, cross-cultural 178 Turning the Tide studies, and psychology. Their work hones in on the concerns felt and relayed by the Deaf scholars and parents who have been attending EHDI regarding early language deprivation and its long-term impact. These scholars have published articles aimed at reaching medical and related professionals. Their work has appeared in the Journal of Clinical Ethics, the Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology, the Harm Reduction Journal, and in an edited collection, Cochlear Implant Research Updates (Umat & Tange, 2012). In the articles, the authors echo what the Deaf professionals involved in EHDI have been saying, making their points with strong justification and appropriate authority from their broad base of disciplines and knowledge. Publishing articles in these journals is a professional milestone for the authors and represents an even bigger milestone for the Deaf community. The articles are a shining example of Deaf scholars doing whatever they can to impact the lives of the current and future generations of deaf and hard of hearing children. We summarize the main contributions of this recent work below. The Harm Reduction Journal is “written for and by physicians, nurses, attorneys...