Indiana Association of the Deaf » IAD

URGENT REGARDING HB 1367

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:25:07 +0000

WE NEED YOUR HELP…

It is extremely important you continue to write, email, call and meet with your district Senator to Oppose HB 1367. It has been assigned to the Appropriations Committee. If you or your family lives in their district, it is even more important that you get in touch with them to Oppose HB1367. They will listen to you and will record your opposition. Tell your friends and family to do this now.

Please register my opposition to HB 1367. I am all in favor of quality Outreach services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children. But it should not happen through rushed legislation that is based on no official report to show justification to dismantle an entire system of service and support to parents and educators in Indiana.

Rather than revamp, let’s enhance and keep Deaf Education Outreach in the hands of those who know it best and are the experts in this field…the Indiana School for the Deaf. One-stop shopping Outreach can happen for all families with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children through cost-efficient means and through an already well-established state agency.

ISD’s Outreach is top in the nation for delivering unbiased resources to parents so they can make educational decisions on the “choices/opportunities” available in the state of Indiana for their Deaf and Hard of Hearing children. Let’s make it happen through a transparent process based on factual information and real costs to taxpayers outside the control of the Office of Management and Budget who are not the experts in Deaf Education.

Deaf children deserve the best services through Outreach. Deaf children deserve to be valued. They grow up to be Deaf people, Deaf professionals, and stakeholders. They want a voice in the process before legislation that affects them comes to the table. This bill lacks transparency on all levels and that is why I oppose this bill.

Senate Appropriations Committee:

Majority Chair:
Senator Luke Kenley (R) District 20
County: Hamilton
Hometown: Noblesville
317-232-9453
s20@in.gov

Minority Chair:
Senator John Broden (D) District 10
County: St. Joseph
Hometown: South Bend
317-232-9849
s10@in.gov

Senator Phil Boots (R) District 23
County: Parke
Hometown: Crawfordsville
317-234-9054
s23@in.gov

Senator Edward Charbonneau (R) District 5
County: Porter
Hometown: Valparaiso
317-232-9494
s5@in.gov
edcharbonneau@comcast.net

Senator Brandt Hershman (R) District 7
County: Tippecanoe
Hometown: Buck Creek
317-232-9840
s7@in.gov

Senator Lindel Hume (D) District 48
County: Pike
Hometown: Princeton
317-232-9523
s48@in.gov
lhume@insightbb.com

Senator Connie Lawson (R) District 24 (Bill Author)
County: Hendricks
Hometown: Danville
317-232-9414
s24@in.gov

Senator Patricia Miller (R) District 32
County: Marion
Hometown: Indianapolis
317-232-9489
s32@in.gov

Senator Ryan Mishler (R) District 9
County: Portions of Elkhart, Kosciusko, Marshall and St. Joseph
Hometown: Bremen
s9@in.gov
Senator.Mishler@iga.in.gov

Senator Earline Rogers (D) District 3
County: Lake
Hometown: Gary
317-232-9491
s3@in.gov

Senator Karen Tallian (D) District 11
County: Porter
Hometown: Portage
317-232-9847
s11@in.gov

Senator Brent Waltz (R) District 36
Hometown: Indianapolis
County: Marion
317-232-9426
s36@in.gov

Senator Thomas Wyss (R) District 15
County: Allen
Hometown: Fort Wayne
317-232-9807
s15@in.gov

Contact your Senator!!

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:28:41 +0000

OPPOSE HB1367
NOW IN THE SENATE

HB 1367 passed the House and is now moving to the Senate. We thank each of you for putting so much time and effort into opposing this bill. We are entering the second half so please continue the momentum and contact your Senator. They need to hear from you, your family, and your friends. The links to find your Senator are listed above under the HB1367 tab.

Find Your Senator and District Map: http://district.iga.in.gov/DistrictLookup

Indiana Senator Listing and Districts:
http://www.in.gov/cgi-bin/legislative/listing/listing-2.pl?data=district&chamber=Senate

URGENT – URGENT – URGENT OPPOSE HB 1367 TODAY!!

admin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:04:59 +0000

URGENT – URGENT – URGENT OPPOSE HB 1367 TODAY!!
CALL AND EMAIL

Below is a script to use when emailing and calling your legislators. Do this today, tomorrow and Monday. Add your personal stories as well. Send this to your family and friends to do the same.

The emails of all the representatives are listed below. Be sure to call and send you district representatives a personal email. You can find your district representative on IAD’s website, www.iadhoosiers.org.

Your Name, Address, and Phone Number

Script:
Please register my opposition to HB 1367 and Vote NO to this bill. Rather than revamp…enhance already existing services at ISD’s Outreach.

This bill is NOT about parent Choice of options and services when it comes to Outreach services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children. It is about gutting one state agency that is an expert in Deaf Education and Early Intervention, the Indiana School for the Deaf Outreach, to replace it with an unknown, unplanned, and unfunded agency under the SOLE direction of the Office of Management and Budget with no accountability to anyone.

This bill was based upon NO official OMB report on ISD’s Outreach and NO accurate fiscal analysis. This bill aims to gut ISD’s Outreach by reinventing the wheel with NO Plan instead of simply enhancing services that are already provided through ISD’s Outreach. This bill is not a Study Group…this bill creates a team SOLELY administered and overseen by OMB who has full authority to hire who they want and place this center wherever they like. This bill seriously leaves out Deaf/ASL Professionals. Deaf children WILL fall through the cracks without Deaf professionals.

* ASL means American Sign Language. A full language comparable to any spoken language.

FACTS:

ISD’s Outreach Holds NO Bias and DOES meet the resource needs of ALL Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in Indiana. Deaf professionals work along hearing professionals to provide Best Practices in Early Intervention and Education.
ISD’s Outreach already works with DOE, DOH, FSSA, Early Steps, and even a private religious oral school called St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf.
ISD’s Outreach is separate from ISD “the school”. Don’t let them throw you off: ISD’s test scores are low because many students who are in mainstream who are failing get enrolled at ISD at a late ages…8, 12, 15 etc., many times middle school. By this time, they are so far behind in language and academics that it is almost impossible to catch them up. ISD tries its best BUT this still pulls ISD’s state test scores down. Those students that start at ISD at an early age, on the average, do VERY well on their state testing. So don’t be fooled. ISD is one of the top schools for the Deaf in the nation.
90% of Deaf children come from hearing families. 80% are mainstreamed. There is N0 data on how many use ASL or spoken language or both.
Cochlear implants are not a cure. Many children with cochlear implants will not benefit from them or will later stop using them. The cochlear implant removes all hearing and when the cochlear implant breaks down or batteries fail, the child is left without any residual hearing.
St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf who provide services for ages 0 to 8 and Hear Indiana organization are advocate for oral only education and Outreach. This small private school does not provide for any ASL and in fact prohibits its use. ISD’s Outreach is inclusive of all approaches, languages, and opportunities for all ages of Deaf and Hard of Hearing from ages 0 to 21.

Please vote responsibly…..Vote NO.

Thank You,
Your Name

Cut and paste…Put your name in the To: and then put these addresses (below) in the Bcc:. Include your name, address, and phone number.

h1@in.gov; h2@in.gov; h3@in.gov; h4@in.gov; h5@in.gov; h6@in.gov; h7@in.gov; h8@in.gov; h9@in.gov; h10@in.gov; h11@in.gov; h12@in.gov; h13@in.gov; h14@in.gov; h15@in.gov; h16@in.gov; h17@in.gov; h18@in.gov; h19@in.gov; h20@in.gov; h21@in.gov; h22@in.gov; h23@in.gov; h24@in.gov; h25@in.gov; h26@in.gov; h27@in.gov; h28@in.gov; h29@in.gov; h30@in.gov; h31@in.gov; h32@in.gov; h33@in.gov; h34@in.gov; h35@in.gov; h36@in.gov; h37@in.gov; h38@in.gov; h39@in.gov; h40@in.gov; h41@in.gov; h42@in.gov; h43@in.gov; h44@in.gov; h45@in.gov; h46@in.gov; h47@in.gov; h48@in.gov; h49@in.gov; h50@in.gov; h51@in.gov; h52@in.gov; h53@in.gov; h54@in.gov; h55@in.gov; h56@in.gov; h57@in.gov; h58@in.gov; h59@in.gov; h60@in.gov; h61@in.gov; h62@in.gov; h63@in.gov; h64@in.gov; h65@in.gov; h66@in.gov; h67@in.gov; h68@in.gov; h69@in.gov; h70@in.gov; h71@in.gov; h72@in.gov; h73@in.gov; h74@in.gov; h75@in.gov; h76@in.gov; h77@in.gov; h78@in.gov; h79@in.gov; h80@in.gov; h81@in.gov; h82@in.gov; h83@in.gov; h84@in.gov; h85@in.gov; h86@in.gov; h87@in.gov; h88@in.gov; h89@in.gov; h90@in.gov; h91@in.gov; h92@in.gov; h93@in.gov; h94@in.gov; h95@in.gov; h96@in.gov; h97@in.gov; h98@in.gov; h99@in.gov; h100@in.gov

Pictures from Call Center

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:54:15 +0000

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:02:59 +0000

OPPOSE HB 1367!

Sign the Petition!

Announcing 2011-2013 Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador Jenna Misko-Smith

president — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:41:01 +0000

Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador Jenna Misko-Smith with her family, from left to right: DJ, Dan, Joan and Danni.

Joanna Witulski, Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador Program coordinator welcomes Jenna Misko-Smith as our fifteenth Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador. Jenna Misko-Smith is a senior at Indiana School for the Deaf and will be competing for the national crown at the Miss Deaf America Ambassador Competition during the National Association of the Deaf Biennial Conference, held during the first week of July in 2012. The conference and competition will be held at Louisville, Kentucky. Jenna will receive an IPad2 from Purple Communications, the competition’s sponsor. After graduating from Indiana School for the Deaf, Jenna will attend Gallaudet University with a goal of becoming an elementary teacher and an actress.

Jenna Misko-Smith presented about empowerment in the Deaf community and shared her artistic expression about ‘Friends Forever’, which is an American Sign Language poem. She was a past Mr. and Miss Deaf Teen America, which is a program under Junior National Association of the Deaf. Jenna performed with Vibrations, a musical variety show based out of Indiana School for the Deaf. She works with kindergarten students at Indiana School for the Deaf as a part of her community services and takes an advanced class at a local college.

Jenna competed along with Brittany Nelson from Kouts, IN. Both ladies did a wonderful job presenting their platforms, which is presenting about a topic, which is their passion and their artistic expression, which showcases their talents in the arts.

In the last decade, people who have been a major part of their state and national Miss Deaf America had recognized a change in how our women participated at the state and national level and only recently removed ‘pageant’ which is beauty-based to ‘ambassador’ which reflects the leadership role, in which the women perform through networking, education and arts; which is their beauty, from within.

Indiana Association of the Deaf is excited to welcome Jenna and Brittany into their fold and congratulates Jenna on her being crowned Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador and looks forward to her representing Indiana in our sister state of Kentucky. Jenna will be available to present and/or perform at various locations after the start of the new year (January 2012). For more information, questions and/or to book her for any events, please contact Joanna Witulski at mdia@iadhoosier.org. Check us out on Facebook: Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador Program.

IAD 2011 Conference Summary

president — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:44:36 +0000

From left to right: Patrick Flores (Treasurer), Jennifer Dans-Willey (Board), Aileen Vasquez (President), Janis Tester (Secretary), Charleen Sculley (Vice President), Jaye Johnston (Board), Andy Leffler (Board), Dave Tester (Board), and Daniel Pfaff (Board).

Written by Aileen Vasquez,
Editor of Indy Deaf News and President

Indiana Association of the Deaf held its 47th Biennial conference on November 4 and 5, 2011. This also was an extra special celebration to recognize our 125th anniversary.

On Friday we had a regular board meeting in the morning with two workshops in the afternoons. Kim Bianco Majeri presented on the Deaf community and awareness of our rights as advocates for having qualified certified interpreters. Jodee Crace and Meg Warnock presented on the importance of having the Deaf community being involved with the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) program and being mentors to new families with deaf babies.

In the evening, we had a public forum at Greater Indianapolis Deaf Club with Ella Mae Lentz and Marvin Miller leading a discussion on the future of Indiana and the Deaf community. InTRAC provided munchies for the community.

On Saturday morning, Ella Mae Lentz gave a presentation, “At A Crossroads”. It covered the qualities of a successful organizer as well as the need of preserving Deaf culture and language. For those who would love to have the powerpoint presentation file, IADConfKeynote Nov2011.

We had a business meeting with the conclusion of voting for IAD board members in the afternoon. Then we had a banquet with a program to recognize the past living presidents of IAD which included Beatrice Pfaff, Donald Tinsley, James Games, Sharon Wesley-Dunn and Gale Walker, presentations of awards, and the oath of elected officers.

The Richard Kennedy Award was presented to Donald Tinsley for his hard work, out of box thinking and leadership at IAD, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services (DHHS) and his contributions to the Black Deaf community over 10 years.

The IAD Hall of Fame Award was presented to Sharon Wesley-Dunn for her long time contributions and service to the Deaf community including IAD, Archibald Memorial Home, Greater Indianapolis Deaf Club and many other work.

IAD Meritorious Award: Kim Bianco Majeri for her work on ISD School Board rally and behind the scenes political work.

IAD’s President Awards: Aileen Vasquez and Ronda Bilz for their dedicated work on Indy Deaf News.

In the evening, there was a Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador competition with two ladies: Brittany Nelson from Kouts, IN and Jenna Misko-Smith from Indianapolis, IN. Miss Jenna Misko-Smith was awarded the tiara and title of Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador for 2011 to 2013. She received a iPAD2 from Purple Communications and will be attending National Association of the Deaf conference in Louisville, KY next July. There was a reception with people attending the new Indiana Deaf History Museum afterwards.

The elected officers of Indiana Association of the Deaf for 2011 to 2013 are Aileen R. Vasquez, president; Charleen Sculley, vice-president; Janis Tester, secretary; Patrick Flores, treasurer; five board members at large: Jaye Johnston, Andy Leffler, Daniel Pfaff, Dave Tester, and Jennifer Dans-Willey.

We would like to thank our sponsors: Purple, Sorenson, InTRAC, and Aspire. We also want to thank Indiana School for the Deaf and Vincennes University ASL program for letting us use their facilities. Many thanks goes to Indiana KODA and Jr. NAD for providing childcare for our families that were able to attend the conference.

We had 77 people register for the conference and 105 in attendance for the Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador program.

IAD Conference Coming This November 4th and 5th!

president — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:08:30 +0000

Why Sign? A web site for parents

president — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:15:24 +0000

My name is Megan Matovich. I received my Deaf Studies masters from Gallaudet University. My thesis focused on the numerous benefits of sign language in different aspects of life.

The first part is a collaborative project between my mother and myself on our experience with sign language and the Deaf community. The second part is a qualitative case study project involving different deaf students and their academic and language development in sign language, written English, and spoken language. A website was created to share my thesis, www.whysign.com.

June 9th Update: Day after the Rally

admin — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:22:23 +0000

Day After Pro-ASL Deaf on Board Rally: June 8, 2011
Ryan Commerson, Community Organizer & Marvin Miller, IAD President

Marvin Miller (MM): Hello! Now, I want to update you all! Yesterday, we were amazed with everyone who came down for the rally [at the Indiana State House]; it was a huge success with plenty of support from everyone who wanted “Equal Representation” on our [ISD] School Board! We couldn’t believe that we had over 300 people who came down for the rally. There were awesome guest speakers, performances by the children and students- from the little cute children to teenagers to adults. It was unbelievable hot outside during the rally, but it didn’t stop us from getting our message across, working together as a huge team! WOW! I was so impressed with everything that happened yesterday! We had guests joining us: Howard Rosenblum (our NAD President), Ryan Commerson (Community Organizer), and David Reynolds who flew in from California for the rally! David used to live in Indiana and was very involved with the Bi-Bi Education Program at ISD! It was all a huge success. We were even surprised that we were able to meet with our Governor’s Chief of Staff! The meeting was a tough one. The Chief of Staff was defiant at everything we had to say by repeating phrases such as: “You have to be patient,” … “You have to give them a chance,” … “You have to accept your new school board members,” … “You have to work with them.” We kept on telling him that we won’t let this happen by responding NO each time. We knew that there’s a clear agenda for what’s happening now! I even asked him if he would give us four new board members who are Deaf. He replied hesitantly by saying, “I will consider [think about] this.” We told him that we don’t accept this answer for thinking about it. He also repeated by saying to give them [new School Board members] chance which we repeatedly told him that it won’t happen. Today, we saw in the Hear Indiana’s newsletter where they announced something like… (looking at Ryan)

Ryan Commerson (RC): It’s time for Deaf Education Now!

MM: When I saw this, I was flabbergasted on this quote! WHAT!! Does that mean they are trying to tell me that ISD Deaf Education was born yesterday?? Didn’t we have Deaf Education for the last few years?? Are they trying to say that ISD is so lousy so there has been NO Deaf Education there?? What are they thinking of?? I’m disgusted with this announcement! So, back to the point… Today, we had a smaller group getting together to go to ISD to meet and ask some questions to our new board member, Scott Rigney before their board retreat today. We want to ask him, in a friendly approach, why he has been refusing to meet with us! You won’t believe this! I’m showing you…

Videoclip of Scott Rigney covering his face upon his entrance at ISD.

MM: Wow, isn’t this unbelievable? So, I would like to grab this opportunity to ask Ryan on his thought on everything that has happened with us up to this point.

RC: First of all, I would like to thank the community for bringing me here. I’m very humbled and honored! Thanks! I was thrilled to see this [the rally]. It is important that for any kind of activitism, we should have goals and expectations set up. This is the most important key for any kind of activitism, is refrain from setting up goals and expectations that is too HIGH to reach. It will then be too hard to reach them; we would likely encounter failures. So, it’s important to set “achievable” goals and expectations so it would be easier to arrive at these goals. Then after arriving at these goals, new goals could be made once again with slighter higher expectations to maintain our motivation to continue achieving them ongoing. Yesterday, our goals include getting the media to come to our rally; they include from newspapers, radio stations, TV news, and others. We had expected to see two to three of them at the rally. NO! It wasn’t what we had expected as it was way over about 8-9 of them! They swarmed all over us during the whole rally! It was indescribable; it was way beyond our expectations! So, our goals were shot up way beyond our expectations!! CHAMP! Even we were surprised that some newspaper decided to reprint their articles in other states newspapers all over the world! This is interesting as we discussed in our framing that we need to target on Governor Daniels who supports eugenics, to the point where some articles focused on making the connection of the rally and Governor Daniels [as proponent of eugenics]! Daniels is a big name in the Republican Party national-wide, so it was just perfect to see this happening! I was thrilled about this! Second thing: I was thrilled when Marvin [along with Kim and Howard] had meeting with Chief of Staff. I know that we had expected this kind of reaction from Chief of Staff where he would be defensive. But it was great to see this reaction in front of our own eyes where he used classic lines such as “Trust Us.” This is a dangerous classic line that should never be used; you shouldn’t trust anyone who says this! Other classic lines were, “Give them a chance,” and “Give them time,” that many previous activists have heard from others in the past! So this is a typical pattern that other activists have heard in the past from the defenders [e.g.: politicians], who tends to have those same classic lines. I interpret this if you see these classic lines, that means that we are on the right track- this is awesome! Yesterday, it was an explosion, exciting, and a great kickoff to this cause! Champs! Today, I knew it would get trickier: because 300 of us were at the rally yesterday, we are now exhausted. Would we expect to have other 300 people again today? No! I know this is not realistic, but that’s fine and understandable. So, we are trying to figure out how to maximize our advantage with a smaller group of people today while trying to make it all equally impacting? We decided to keep it simple: we wanted to focus on getting his [Scott Rigney] reaction as the representative of Hear Indiana, a chapter of the AGB [Alexandar Graham Bell] Association. We decided to pick Scott Rigney as our target for today to get his reaction….

Videoclip of Scott Rigney walking at the front parking lot of Indiana School for the Deaf covering his face.

RC: Wow! So you can see his reaction; that was what we wanted! It gave us a clear message of where he is at in this all. I think that it amounts to 2 for 2 from yesterday and today’s event. These were our main goals that we were able to achieve! It was important to set up this tone that was clear that we gave our message that we are not going anywhere! Does that mean we are done? NO! We just got started! We still have more to go! We need to develop more plans for the next day, week, or months discussing how we will continue to attack our targets until we get what we want! We will continue to discuss plans and will update you from time to time so you will be aware of what’s happening!

MM: Yes! We are getting so much support from all over the country and I want to thank you all for this! Indiana [ISD] community do feel inspired from your ongoing support and it’s a great feeling. But, we do KNOW that it will be a LONG fight but we’re not going to give up! I don’t want you all to feel that it’s end of the world, because we will continue to work together! We will also have FUN; it’s FUN to get together to discuss on ideas! We will continue to get together for meetings where we CAN continue to make this FUN! At the same time, we will make sure that everyone [Board/Governor’s Office] understands us and we will get our message out clearly where they are WRONG and this all must change NOW!

RC: We are already having FUN now! We will not have fun as we are already having FUN now! I really enjoyed myself yesterday all day with lots of inspiring message especially all of those beautiful signing [in ASL, of course] especially from the young 3-4-5 years old kids as it was very touching!

Videoclips and pictures of the rally at the Indiana State House.

RC: This shows everything that we knew all the time; BI-BI [bilingual/bicultural] is the right way. And the principle of activitism is to have a FUN time! We must make it to be FUN! If not, people then would likely lose the motivation to continue on. We need to keep creative at how to make things FUN. Yesterday was FUN, and again this morning, it was lots of FUN! Especially discussing at how we should approach [Scott Rigney]… So…

MM: We will keep going on!… Cheers!… Thank you!

This ASL to English transcript was typed to the best ability by a volunteer. For any clarifications or comments, please contact Kim Bianco Majeri or Marvin Miller.