طلب مساعده عاجلة ممن يعرف انجليزي

[تربية]

الأخوة والأخوات من يستطيع مساعدتي في الحصول على دراسات وابحاث ومراجع باللغة الانجليزية في موضوع بحثي حيث ان لغتي لا تساعدني على معرفة اللغة الانجليزية والمصطلحات
ولمن لديه الرغبة سوف ارسل له الموضوع ومواقع البحث التي بيبحث فيها 0

ولامانع من اعطاء مبلغ مالي مقابل الاتعاب اذا كان البحث مباشر ويستاهل ولمزيد من التفاصيل يمكن مراسلتي على :
mhajer28@hotmail.com (للمراسلةmhajer28@hotmail.com)

[نادر الوُجود]

انا اساعدكـ بهدف اني قاعد احضر ماجستير ومعي بكالوريوس لغه وبلا مقابل لوجه الله ..

[نادر الوُجود]

اخوي اضفتك على الأيميل

[baadysaad]

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

اخي الكريم: قسمنا ملئ بما تبحث عنه فقط ابحث في القسم و ستجد المواضيع التي تخص بحثك
و ضع لنا ماتريد حتى يتسنى لنا خدمتك بدون مقابل.

الأخ نادر الوجود

شـكــ وبارك الله فيك ـــرا لك ... لك مني أجمل تحية .

[تربية]

اخي نادر الوجود فعلاً انت اسم على مسمى بارك الله فيك وكثر من أمثالك0
اخي baadysaad شكراً لمرورك وعرضك الطيب ولكن الابحاث او المراجع العلمية التي ابحث عنها لاتكون في المنتدى بل في قواعد البحث العالمية مثل ارك وبروكويست 000 وغيرها

[baadysaad]

http://www.qassimy.com/vb/showthread.php?t=106780



اخي تربيه تفضل هذا الرابط مو جود بالقسم و سيفي بالغرض انشاء الله

مع انك لا تزال لم تحدد او تضع ما تريد حتى نتعاون على مساعدتك

شكرآ

[تربية]

اخ
ي baadysaad اشكرك على اهتمامك وتعاونك كتب الله لك الأجر ووفقك 0
اما عن موضوعي فهو : مشكلات مناهج الصم ويمكن البحث في مشكلات مناهج الصم - صعوبات منهج الصم - اسس بناء منهج للصم - تصميم مناهج الصم -عناصر المنهج الخاصة بالصم : الأهداف المحتوى الأنشطة والوسائل والمعلم والتقويم 0 هل تختلف مناهج الصم عن مناهج السامعين 0 ماهي اهم التعديلات التي تجرى على المنهج العادي ليناسب الصم ؟ من يصمم مناهج الصم ؟ هل الكتب الدراسية للسامعين تصلح للصم ؟ ماهي التعديلات التي يجب ان تجرى عليها ؟
منهج الصم في المرحلة الابتدائية في امريكا والدول الاسكندنافيه 0
* المراجع تكون ابحاث علمية محكمة او رسائل ماجستير او دكتوراه
شكراً لتعاونكم سلفاً .

[تربية]

اكثر من سبعين مشاهد للموضوع ومافيه أحد تكرم بمساعدتي ولو بموضوع واحد 000 وين أهل اللغه الانجليزية ؟
اشكر اخواني الذين ابدوا الموافقه على المساعده 0ولكن لم نر الى الآن شيء 0

[baadysaad]

اسف على التأخير

تعريف صعوبات منهج الصم

What is deafness?

Deafness can be mild, moderate, severe or profound. People with mild deafness have some difficulty following speech, mainly in noisy situations. Those with moderate deafness have difficulty following speech without a hearing aid.
People who are severely deaf rely a lot on lip-reading, even with a hearing aid. British Sign Language (BSL) may be their first or preferred language. Profoundly deaf people understand speech by lip-reading. BSL may be their first or preferred language.
Deafness can cause difficulty communicating and people who are deaf may be at risk of physical and social isolation. They are also at greater risk of accidents because they may not hear warning alarms and sirens.
In the UK, there are an estimated 9 million deaf and partially hearing people. About 688,000 of these are severely or profoundly deaf.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/furniture/corner_tl_a.gif
Test your hearing


The RNID has a confidential, five-minute phone test.
Call 0845 600 5555 (local rates apply)
www.breakingthesoundbarrier.org.uk (http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/health/conditions/deafness1.shtml/ext/_auto/-/http://www.breakingthesoundbarrier.org.uk/)


http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/furniture/corner_bl_a.gif


Babies' hearing is tested as part of routine screening. About 840 babies are born with significant deafness each year in the UK. About one in 1,000 children is deaf at three years old and about 20,000 children aged up to 15 are moderately to profoundly deaf.
But the commonest cause of hearing loss is ageing, and three-quarters of people who are deaf are aged over 60.
From 40 years old, more men than women become hard of hearing. Among people over the age of 80, more women than men are deaf or hard of hearing, not because women are more likely to become deaf but because women live longer.
How does the ear work?

The external parts of our ear act like trumpets to collect sound. An organ known as the cochlea, deep within the inner ear in the skull, is responsible for converting the mechanical vibration of sound into electrical signals. These can then be detected by the brain.
What causes hearing loss?

It can result from damage or disruption to any part of the hearing system. Causes can range from wax blocking the ear canal and age-related changes to the sensory cells of the cochlea to brain damage.
Common causes of deafness in adults include presbyacusis (age-related hearing loss), side-effects of medication, acoustic neuroma and Meniere's disease.
Common causes of deafness in children include inherited conditions, infection during pregnancy, meningitis, head injury and glue ear.
Common temporary causes include earwax, infection, glue ear and foreign body obstruction.
Noise and hearing loss

Excessive exposure to noise is an important cause of a particular pattern of hearing loss, contributing to problems for up to 50 per cent of deaf people. Often people fail to realise the damage they're doing to their ears until it's too late.
Although loud music is often blamed (and MP3 players are said to be storing up an epidemic of deafness in years to come) research has also blamed tractors (for deafness in children of farmers), aircraft noise, sports shooting and even cordless telephones.
Vaccination against infections and avoiding excessive noise exposure reduces the risk of deafness. Removing wax and foreign bodies, and treating infections and glue ear helps improve hearing. Hearing aids, and for some people cochlear implants, enable hearing.
Aids to communication

The ability to communicate is an essential part of living in human society. Advances in technology have led to an explosion of devices, gadgets and other methods to help people with hearing loss listen to and talk to others.
Older people are often reticent about using a hearing aid, perhaps reluctant to accept the physical effects of ageing, or concerned about the stigma of deafness or the rough deal that deaf people often get from society.
Modern hearing aids are a great improvement on those that were available just a couple of decades ago, but they rarely restore hearing to normal and don't suit or help everyone. Many people with hearing loss find it useful to develop other means of communication.
Even those with a mild 25 to 40 decibel loss find lip-reading useful, while people with severe hearing loss (70 to 95 decibels) often struggle to follow speech even with a hearing aid and may use other communication methods, such as lip-reading, sign language, sign-supported English, cued speech, speech-to-text, text phones and text messaging.

[baadysaad]

اسس بناء منهج للصم

Building a foundation for the Deaf


Bob Rumball Gala, The First 50 Years

TORONTO, Oct. 2 /CNW/ - On November 21st, The Bob Rumball Foundation forthe Deaf will be honouring Reverend Bob Rumball with a special Gala evening atthe Toronto Centre For The Arts. The Bob Rumball Gala, The First 50 Years will celebrate ReverendRumball's tireless efforts and dedication to the health and welfare of theDeaf. None of the Foundation's achievements would have been possible withouthis selfless leadership, guidance and passion over the past 50 years. Fundsraised will also build the foundation for the future work for the Bob RumballFoundation for the Deaf. The Gala will also pay tribute to Reverend Rumball's many years aschaplain for the Metropolitan Toronto Police Association, court intervener forthe Deaf, and spokesman for the Deaf in their striving for recognition bysociety. Versatile Canadian guitarist and vocalist Rik Emmett, who originallygained fame with the rock trio Triumph, will entertain the gala guests. Theevening includes cocktail and dessert reception. Reverend Rumball, former Argonaut half-back and ordained minister,inspired his friends and supporters to help him create the Ontario Camp forthe Deaf south of Parry Sound in 1960, build the Bob Rumball Centre for theDeaf on Bayview Avenue in 1979, the Bob Rumball Associations for the DeafCentre in Milton, and this year, to open the Bob Rumball Long-Term Care Homefor the Deaf in Barrie. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Order of Canada, Orderof Ontario, King Clancy Award, Centennial Award from the Ontario MedicalAssociation, and the third Canadian Helen Keller Centre award honouringpioneers from the fields of deaf-blindness, deafness, visual impairment andhearing impairment. He is the only Canadian to have received the HumanitarianAward of the Lions Club International. Tickets to the "Bob Rumball Gala, The First 50 Years" are available bycalling 416-447-3182 or visiting http://www.rumballsfirst50.org/ (http://www.rumballsfirst50.org/).

[baadysaad]

تصميم مناهج الصم
Designing curricula deaf

Purpose: This paper examines the integration of instruction about quality health resources on the Internet into the health curriculum of a specialized high school for students with hearing disabilities. Setting/Participants/Resources: The Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) at the University of Pittsburgh has formed a partnership with the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf (WPSD).
Brief Description: This project was partially funded through a subcontract with the National Library of Medicine. As one component of its Health Information for the Public project, HSLS formed a partnership with the WPSD. This partnership allowed for a librarian to provide instruction to health education and learning center teachers and students at WPSD about health resources on the Internet. This paper describes the planning process, curriculum development, and challenges encountered. These challenges include student knowledge of English as a second language, the need for a sign language interpreter, students' third-to-fourth-grade reading levels, and the need for appropriate visual presentations to accompany the audio counterpart.
Results/Outcome: The partnership formed between HSLS and WPSD improved deaf high school students' ability to locate quality health information on the Internet.
Evaluation Method: A pre-class survey and post-class survey were used to determine the impact of the instruction.

Top (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#top)
Abstract (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2722846)
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/corehtml/pmc/pmcgifs/square.gifINTRODUCTION (javascript:return(false);)
BACKGROUND (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2722939)
METHODOLOGY (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2689787)
CLASS RESULTS (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684388)
CONCLUSION (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684438)
REFERENCES (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684459)

INTRODUCTION
According to the literature, “hearing impaired students are often at a disadvantage in finding reliable sources of information that deal with personal and practical living skills” [1 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b1)]. To address this need, the Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) at the University of Pittsburgh created a partnership with the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf (WPSD), through a project that was partially funded by the National Library of Medicine under a contract with the New York Academy of Medicine. The goal of this project was to teach deaf high school students Internet-searching skills, allowing them to locate reliable and authoritative health information. This audience was chosen, because the deaf population often has difficulty communicating verbally with people such as librarians, health care providers, and social agencies. By searching the Internet, they could obtain information without having to correspond through a telephone relay service, written notes, or interpreters. A review of the literature located no pertinent articles that addressed deaf students learning about Internet health resources from librarian instructors.

Top (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#top)
Abstract (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2722846)
INTRODUCTION (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2722897)
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/corehtml/pmc/pmcgifs/square.gifBACKGROUND (javascript:return(false);)
METHODOLOGY (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2689787)
CLASS RESULTS (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684388)
CONCLUSION (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684438)
REFERENCES (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684459)

BACKGROUND
The HSLS consists of four libraries: Falk Library of the Health Sciences, Western Psychiatric Institute Clinic Library, James Frazer Hillman Health Sciences Library, and Hopwood Library: A Health Resource for Patients and Families at UPMC Shadyside. Together, they serve the six schools of the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the hospitals and facilities of the UPMC Health System.
The Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf (WPSD), opened in September 1869, serves children with hearing disabilities from across the state of Pennsylvania. Some of the students must travel substantial distances to attend WPSD, which is located in Pittsburgh. Due to these distances, WPSD supports a residential and a day program for the students. Students who live more than fifty miles away are commonly in the residential program. Students who live within fifty miles of the school are in the day program and are transported to WPSD by their home school districts. The students who attend range in age from two to twenty-one. Two hundred and twenty three students were in attendance during the 2000/01 school year. The average class size ranges from six to eight students.
WPSD uses a wide variety of child-centered communication methods [2 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b2)], which may include:


American Sign Language (ASL), which is a visual-gestural language complete with its own rules for syntax and grammar [3 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b3)]
Oral Approach, which supports using the residual hearing of a person through the development of spoken language [4 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b4)]
Speechreading, which is accomplished by watching the speaker's mouth, tongue movement, and facial expressions [5 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b5)]
Cued Speech, which uses hand-based gestures to help distinguish various phonemes of speech that look similar on the lips [6 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b6)]
Signing Exact English (SEE), which is a way to represent the English language on the hands [7 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b7)]
Total Communication, which uses all possible modes of communication (ASL, English, facial expressions, gestures, mime, etc.) to facilitate language development [8 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b8)]

Top (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#top)
Abstract (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2722846)
INTRODUCTION (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2722897)
BACKGROUND (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2722939)
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/corehtml/pmc/pmcgifs/square.gifMETHODOLOGY (javascript:return(false);)
CLASS RESULTS (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684388)
CONCLUSION (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684438)
REFERENCES (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684459)

METHODOLOGY

Preface
A curriculum on Internet health resources for deaf high school students was designed using a team approach. The team consisted of a reference librarian from HSLS, the learning center director, learning center teacher, and three health education teachers from WPSD. The learning center is an interactive library that houses print and electronic resources as well as a theater area for storytelling [9 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b9)]. The curriculum team designed pre-class and post-class surveys and developed two classes as part of the health education component for tenth grade students. This curriculum was then integrated into the students' health education class. At WPSD, the age range is in three-year increments for a single grade. Thus, the average age for a tenth grade student is sixteen, but students may range in age from fifteen to seventeen.

Challenges
Several challenges were encountered in developing and teaching the class curriculum, including:

Need for cultural sensitivity: Many in the Deaf culture (using the upper case “D”) see their deafness not as a medical disability but rather as the defining characteristic of a subculture living in the United States. Because this group shares a cultural outlook as well as a medical condition, instructors must be sensitive to this orientation [10 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b10)].
Differences between ASL and English Language: ASL is the third-most common language in the United States and approximately 100,000 to 500,000 people use this language to communicate [11 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b11)]. ASL can be defined as a visual-gestural language that is used as a primary means of communication. ASL has a different syntax, grammar, and idiom vocabulary than the English language [12 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b12)]. An example is the English sentence “My name is Mary.” In ASL, the sentence would read, “name mine Mary.” This short sentence demonstrates differences in grammar between the two languages.
Disconnected patterns of interpersonal communication: Broken eye contact often occurs between the hearing and the Deaf, when interpreters are used. Deaf people must look at interpreters to understand what hearing people say to them. During this process, facial expressions and eye contact are often lost between hearing instructors and deaf students [13 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b13)]. Similarly, when the deaf students worked independently on the computer, the librarian instructor often had difficulty getting their attention. Techniques that visually helped to gain the students' attention included tapping the students on the shoulder or stomping on the floor. These techniques may seem rude to hearing people but are acceptable ways of gaining deaf people's attention [14 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b14)].
Difficulty with medical terminology: The deaf population often has more difficulty understanding ambiguous medical terminology. Interpreting medical test results may be especially difficult. The word “positive” is usually related to “good,” but a positive result on a medical test may not be good news. For instance, a deaf person has a biopsy performed, and the results indicate “positive for cancer.” When receiving the “positive” biopsy result, the deaf person may believe this is good when actually it is unfavorable. It is often complicated for health care professionals to explain to deaf people that positive means they have a disease, while negative means they do not [15 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b15)].
The librarian instructor overcame these challenges by acquiring knowledge of how to teach deaf high school students. The instructor gained this knowledge by previous college coursework in sign language, watching WPSD instructors teach classes, and asking detailed questions of the WPSD instructors about effective techniques in teaching this special population.


Pre-class survey
The pre-class survey consisted of eight questions and was distributed to the students before class one. The survey was used as a guide to help the librarian instructor determine the student's level of Internet skills. The original survey had to be rewritten for a lower readability level, because students in deaf high schools typically read on a fourth-grade level [16 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b16)]. Once rewritten for readability, the pre-class survey used yes/no questions instead of a Likert scale. This change was made at the suggestion of the WPSD learning center teacher. The teacher felt the students would be able to answer yes/no questions more effectively than rating their answers on a scale.

Class one
The librarian instructor taught class one in lecture format to twenty-two students in the reading room at WPSD. The class session was ninety minutes in length. To begin the class, a consumer health information Web page† (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#n102) created by HSLS librarians was shown to the students. This Web page provided a direct access point on the Internet for the students to begin searching for health information. After a review of the Web page, three main class topics were introduced to the students:

using search engines to locate health information
evaluating Websites
navigating through the MEDLINEplus Website
A tool that helped in teaching this population was a SMARTboard. The SMARTboard is an interactive whiteboard connected to a computer and a projector. This technology allowed for more eye contact between the instructor and the students. Instruction could still be given in sign language, while the instructor navigated the Internet on the SMARTboard screen with one hand.


Class two
Held two days after class one, this class was conducted in a hands-on format at the school's computer lab. Due to a class scheduling conflict, only ten of the original twenty-two students were able to participate in class two. At the beginning of class, material from class one was reviewed. The students were then given an independent learning activity (Appendix A (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#sa1)) with two descriptive medical scenarios and three questions to complete. This activity was created to help the students navigate through the MEDLINEplus Website, one of the Websites introduced to the students during class one. All of the students answered questions one and two with 100% accuracy. The students responded with 80% accuracy to question three. The activity also included a scenario, where the students had to answer three questions about using a search engine. They answered all three questions appropriately. During the second part of class two, the students had to use their new skills to evaluate preselected Websites for reliable information. To view the preselected Websites, mounted printouts of the Websites were attached to a poster board, so the students could compare two or more Websites at once. This activity resulted in a lively nonverbal discussion about the Websites they were viewing. This discussion occurred as the students signed among themselves. The interpreter chose a student and voiced to the librarian instructor what the student said. Then, the interpreter signed the librarian's answer back to the student. Meanwhile, the students kept signing to each other. Questions raised in the discussion included:


“Is the information current?”
“Does it need to be current?”
“What is the purpose of the Website?”
“How is reliable is the information?”
“Are sources cited?”
Students identified answers to these questions using the handout introduced in class one titled “Evaluating Internet Resources: Factors to Consider” by Gale Dutcher of the National Library of Medicine [17 (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#i0025-7338-090-04-0431-b17)]. After class two, the WPSD teachers commented favorably on the students' high level of interest and involvement.


Post-class survey
The post-class survey was identical to the pre-class survey. The post-class survey was disseminated only to students who completed both classes. This measurement tool was used to assist the curriculum team in determining the student's newly acquired Internet search skills after three hours of Internet resource instruction.

Top (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#top)
Abstract (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2722846)
INTRODUCTION (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2722897)
BACKGROUND (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2722939)
METHODOLOGY (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2689787)
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/corehtml/pmc/pmcgifs/square.gifCLASS RESULTS (javascript:return(false);)
CONCLUSION (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684438)
REFERENCES (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#id2684459)

CLASS RESULTS
Twenty-two students completed the pre-class survey (Appendix B (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#sa2)) and ten students completed the post-class survey (Appendix C (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#sa3)). Both of the surveys were completed anonymously. Due to a scheduling conflict, twelve students did not complete the post-class survey, because they were not able to participate in class two. The school calendar did not allow for make-up classes. The pre- and post-class survey results showed that over 80% of the students used the Internet to access health information before and after the class. Another finding was that after viewing the Websites demonstrated in class, the students found health information easier to comprehend. The post-class survey results showed a significant increase in the use of the MEDLINEplus Website. However, as a result of the scheduling conflict and the anonymously answered surveys, a direct comparison of the results was not possible.

Top (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=128959#top)

CONCLUSION
The integration of health sciences information instruction into the curriculum of a high school for the Deaf was an innovative approach to teaching this population. Through this teaching approach, the librarian instructor was able to help deaf high school students to access reliable and authoritative health information on the Internet. Positive feedback demonstrated that completing the independent learning activities and lively discussion on Website evaluation helped deaf students gain valuable knowledge from these classes.

APPENDIX A


Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf: independent learning activity during the 2000/01 school year
Problem: Your younger brother accidentally drinks blue window cleaner instead of the blue Kool-Aid in the refrigerator. You don't know if you should make him throw up (vomit) or not. What should you do? How to get the answer: To locate the answer, go to http://medlineplus.gov (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/redirect3.cgi?&&auth=0I4eECAHXc8ECi9q1zAJVPLEefzqf15tKLZkUtkP6&reftype=extlink&artid=128959&iid=3683&jid=93&FROM=Article%7CBody&TO=External%7CLink%7CURI&article-id=128959&journal-id=93&rendering-type=normal&&http://medlineplus.gov). Next, from the Health Topics page, click on Medical Encyclopedia. Under the Poison section, choose Window Cleaner.
Answer: Should you make him throw up (vomit)?
Problem: You look in the medicine cabinet and notice a bottle of pills marked acetaminophen. You now wonder what is the common or brand name for these pills and will they get rid of your fever.
How to get the answer: To locate the answer, go to http://medlineplus.gov (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/redirect3.cgi?&&auth=0HLyXq1y8MklKLOhnUnWRTMFuneoicws9CmyKck00&reftype=extlink&artid=128959&iid=3683&jid=93&FROM=Article%7CBody&TO=External%7CLink%7CURI&article-id=128959&journal-id=93&rendering-type=normal&&http://medlineplus.gov). Next, from the Drug Information page, click on A-Am, then choose the word Acetaminophen. List one brand or common name used for acetaminophen.
Answer: Should taking acetaminophen get rid of your fever?
Problem: You want to use a search engine to find general health information on teens and alcohol.
How to get the answer: To locate the information, go to http://www.google.com (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/redirect3.cgi?&&auth=0kS9ZBr53so0EeZFW-WzHPkSrj5WkX98HKxsNNAj1&reftype=extlink&artid=128959&iid=3683&jid=93&FROM=Article%7CBody&TO=External%7CLink%7CURI&article-id=128959&journal-id=93&rendering-type=normal&&http://www.google.com). Type in the information you want to find, and click on Google Search.
Answer: What did you type in the Google Search box? List one of the addresses on the page that you looked at? Did you find the information you were looking for on the topic of teens and alcohol?



APPENDIX B

[baadysaad]

عناصر المنهج الخاصة بالصم

Elements of the curriculum for the deaf


DRAMA AND RHYTHMICS SUBJECT CURRICULUM FOR THE DEAF AND SEVERELY HARD-OF-HEARING
The objectives of the subject
All individuals have creative powers and a natural need to express themselves. In the school subject drama and rhythmics pupils shall use their creativity in play, movement, dance, drama, linguistic interaction and musical activities. The subject drama and rhythmics is based on gaining experiences through the visual, tactile, kinaesthetic and auditory senses, and shall help develop thought, emotional awareness and knowledge about all aspects of the human condition. Drama and rhythmics shall thereby be a source of self-awareness and interpersonal understanding across cultures.
As an art subject intended for all-round personal development, drama and rhythmics shall give experiences that form the basis for reflection, understanding and participation in aesthetic expression. As a creative subject, drama and rhythmics shall serve as the foundation for developing creativity, enabling pupils to create aesthetic expressions based on their aptitudes and skills.
The aesthetic experience of this subject is unpredictable but not without conditions. Drama and rhythmics is acknowledged as not exclusively intuitive, but that familiarity with and knowledge of the subject, development of dramatic and rhythmic skills and reflection together underpin the experience, which is both an aesthetic and existential experience. When working with drama and rhythmics human interaction is important. A sense of mastery shall accompany social interaction in such a manner that pupils of all ages attain quality in their achievements at their own level.
The drama and rhythmics subject plays a key role in adapted instruction for the deaf and severely hard-of-hearing in an inclusive school. Through its content and activities it seeks to satisfy pupils' needs to express themselves and to facilitate aesthetic experiences. The subject can promote perception, empathy, activity and participation. Dance and movement are central elements in drama and rhythmics, and provide diversity in forms of expression. The subject also provides opportunities to experience musical diversity and a broad scope of genres, and cultural expressions created by the deaf and severely hard-of-hearing. The subject includes also expressions of Norwegian culture, Sami culture and others, as well as theatre, film, dance, the creative use of sign language, Folk Music, music by known composers and various forms of improvised and rhythmic music.
In a multicultural society, drama and rhythmics aims to promote the development of positive self-identity by fostering a sense of belonging in one's own culture and cultural heritage, and tolerance and respect for the culture of others. The subject emphasises the understanding of theatre, dance and music as "culture bearers" and "value creators", locally, nationally and internationally. Drama and rhythmics brings aesthetics and technology together, and it can be included naturally in other subjects that work with technology and design.
Cooperation with professional actors, musicians and other artists, between primary and lower secondary schools and art and culture schools, may give encounters with creative expression of high quality, and may allow the pupils to be co-creators in the rehearsal and presentation process. The pupils' own experiences, as well as music and dance competence acquired outside school, must be exploited in the subject when suitable. An overall competence in drama and rhythmics shall help satisfy the school's aims of developing creative, interacting and integrated individuals who are able to realise themselves in ways that benefit the individual and society.
Main subject areas
The subject has been structured into three main subject areas with competence aims. These main subject areas supplement each other and must be seen as a whole. Achieving the aims in one area may also develop competence in the others.
The drama and rhythmics subject has competence aims after the second, fourth, seventh and tenth years in primary to lower secondary school
Overview of main subject areas:

Year
Main subject areas
Years 1– 10
Drama
Rhythmics
Reflection

Drama
The main subject area of drama involves creative work with drama in various forms, focusing on aesthetic and existential experiences. This main subject area involves exploring and experimenting with basic elements in drama, creating one's own style of dramatic expression, creating dramatic series of events using sound and movement and exploring different stage techniques. This means working with drama in various ways, such as training confidence and motor function memory, developing the imagination and training in communication, interaction and presentation. Drama also involves familiarisation with various types of dramatic expression, while creating opportunities to experience drama and reflect upon it.
Rhythmics
The main subject area rhythmics also focuses on aesthetic and existential experiences, and involves practical work with the creative use of sign language, singing and playing various instruments and dance. This involves working with basic elements such as pulse, rhythm, tempo, dynamics and form, and if applicable, also sound, harmony, and melody. This main subject area also includes practical training of the motor function, rhythm memory and the imagination. Rhythmics also includes practical creative work, rhythmic communication, playing instruments together, interaction and presentation.
Reflection
The main subject area reflection focuses on experiences and understanding. Reflection in the drama and rhythmics school subject is connected to visual, tactile, kinaesthetic and auditory perception and experience and is fundamental for one's own performances, alone and in interaction with others. A society with an abundance of visual and auditory impressions requires dramatic and rhythmic judgement and assessment abilities. This main subject area includes working with visual sign language culture and music and encompasses dramatic and rhythmic diversity and a wide scope of genres. The main subject area reflection includes topics that are theoretical and sociological connected to the use and function of drama and rhythmics in different societies in the past and present. In this way, the main subject area reflection shall lend depth and perspective to the subject.
Teaching hours
Teaching hours are given in 60-minute units:
Primary school
Years 1 to 7: 285 teaching hours
Lower secondary school
Years 8 to 10: 85 teaching hours

Basic skills
Basic skills are integrated in the competence aims where they contribute to the development of competence in the subject, while also being part of this competence. In the subject of drama and rhythmics for the deaf and severely hard-of-hearing, the basic skills are understood as follows:
Being able to express oneself orally in drama and rhythmics for the deaf and severely hard-of-hearing means developing awareness of the body as a tool for communication and being able to express oneself in both Norwegian Sign Language and speech. In drama and rhythmics the pupils express themselves orally using different languages, communicative strategies and media, through movement, play, dance, instrument playing, music and song. It also means being able to express one's own thoughts, reflections and experiences with the subject. Stage performance and character acting require the ability to communicate and interact with others, reach an understanding and give constructive criticism.
Being able to write in drama and rhythmics for the deaf and severely hard-of-hearing involves using various forms of notation i.e. writing, written music and various symbols used to record movement. Preparing a manuscript involves a written and visual explanation of a performance. Written presentations may also be used to experiment with the rhymes and rhythms of language.
Being able to read in drama and rhythmics for the deaf and severely hard-of-hearing involves acquiring knowledge of the main historical development of the theatre, dance and music. Interpreting and analysing texts and pictures are important elements in a theoretical understanding of aesthetic forms of expression. Being able to read also means being able to decode written music, signs and symbols and being able to reflect upon rhythmical and musical form. The understanding of different symbols is developed through combining the reading of text, rhythmic scores, music scores and choreography.
Having skills in mathematics in drama and rhythmics for the deaf and severely hard-of-hearing involves being able to distinguish between different patterns and variations of expression, movement, rhythm and sound in time and space, and how different patterns characterise forms of artistic expression.
Being able to use digital tools in drama and rhythmics for the deaf and severely hard-of-hearing provides access to tools which can be useful in analysis and assessment. They can also be used for teaching and recording work processes and performances. Different digital tools are used in creating drama and rhythmical work and for the recording and processing of pictures, light and sound. In this context it is also important to be familiar with and critical of sources and have knowledge of copyright rules.
Competence aims in the subjects
Competence aims after Year 2
Drama
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· combine the basic elements of drama: movement, acting, dynamics and timing into short dramatic plays
· explore different dramatic expression through play and play-acting
Rhythmics
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· explore and play with body language, gestures and handshapes as well as different rhythms
· participate in performances with dance, playing instruments together and visualised singing
· participate in games which include a varied repertoire of songs, poems, nursery rhymes, sign language and singing games
· use his or her voice in a varied manner and play with different voice levels and pitches
· imitate rhythms in different tempos
· recognise and name some musical instruments
Reflection
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· converse about the creative use of Norwegian Sign Language and which associations this may give
· express his or her own experiences using language, dramatisation, dance and movement
· participate in conversations about his or her own use of music and own musical taste and that of others
· recognise and describe sounds from everyday life
Competence aims after Year 4
Drama
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· experiment with gestures and discuss the difference between mime and sign language
· dramatise simple plots alone or together with others
· improvise dance and movement and talk about how this can illustrate a musical progression
· create dramatisations with pictorial and audio illustrations based on his or her own texts
Rhythmics
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· experiment with the creative use of Norwegian Sign Language, sign language poetry, visualised singing and playing rhythm instruments together in simple arrangements
· participate in performances with sign language poetry, visualised singing, playing instruments together, dance and drama
· perform a selection of Norwegian and international folk dances
· maintain an even pulse at different tempos
· imitate and improvise on the basis of simple rhythms and sounds
· recognise and name typical wind, string and percussion instruments
Reflection
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· converse about different forms of sign language poetry
· participate in conversations about the similarities and differences between body language, mime and sign language
· recognise and describe the basic elements of drama: movement, acting, dynamics and the use of time and space
· explain about his or her own experiences with theatre, dance and music
· participate in conversations about forms of expression such as theatre, dance and folk music in Norwegian, Sami and other cultures
· participate in conversations about the characteristics of some musical genres
Competence aims after Year 7
Drama
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· improvise using the body, creative sign language, voice and props
· perceive and use time, space and form in dramatisations
· use role play in groups and cooperate in finding creative solutions
· give performances based on written manuscripts
· use digital tools when working with his or her own performances and those of others
· use digital tools to create his or her own expression and make recordings
Rhythmics
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· translate song lyrics into a visual mode of expression such as sign language, dance and drama
· participate in drama and rhythmic performances where some of his or her own compositions are used
· master some Norwegian dances and dances from other countries
· express his or her own ideas, thoughts and emotions through movement and dance
· recognise different rhythms in music
· be familiar with old and contemporary songs and how songs are used in different cultures
· create his or her own movement patterns based on simple forms and motifs and use graphic notation to record the movements
Reflection
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· discuss the special characteristics of theatre for the deaf and creative sign language and compare them with artistic expressions for the hearing
· participate in conversations about how theatre, films and music are both artistic expressions and commercial goods
· participate in conversations about how the uses and functions of theatre have changed over time
· discuss some key composers
Competence aims after Year 10
Drama
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· use basic elements from drama and develop his or her own plays, and write the manuscript including dialogue and stage instructions
· make deliberate choices when it comes to the expression and presentation of his or her own dramatisations
· improvise and create his or her own expressions based on texts, visual and musical material
· use digital recording equipment and lighting and audio equipment in his or her own productions· explain the copyright regulations connected to the use of theatre and films
Rhythmics
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· create sign language poetry and explain genres and choice of techniques
· use relevant terms in the presentation of an optional work in drama and rhythmics
· create his or her own dance based on visual and auditory impressions
· practise and perform a varied repertoire of dances from different genres with the emphasis on rhythmic music
· recognise and name different musical instruments and ensembles within different genres
Reflection
The aims for the education are that the pupil shall be able to
· reflect upon the use of different genres and give grounds for the choice of techniques in his or her own work
· recognise and describe style features from deaf theatre and sign language poetry
· express and present his or her own reflections about theatre, films and music as art and cultural expressions and as entertainment and consumer goods
· elaborate on how theatre, films and music reflect characteristics of social development and youth culture and how this may be expressed in different forms of cultural expressions presented by deaf and hearing individuals
· discuss special characteristics of rhythmic music, music by known composers and the Folk Music of Norway, the Sami and other cultures

[baadysaad]

هل تختلف مناهج الصم عن مناهج السامعين

Do different approaches on deaf curricula listeners

Sue Lewis
Ewing Foundation, University of Manchester
Introduction: Why does reading matter - what does it offer; how does it empower?
Traditionally reading and the written word have been seen as a key - if not the key - component in the deaf child/adult's life. Indeed whereas for the hearing child reading might be seen as the "window into knowledge" (Webster 1986), the written word has been seen as the window into linguistic knowledge for many hearing impaired children.
"Reading cannot be considered in isolation from the child's wider discovery of language. Spoken language arises in a communication context which surrounds the child. The child learns to speak because of its functional importance. There is an urgent momentum to piece together the rules of the system, to test out rules and try out language forms. The adult's role in this is as facilitator not teacher. Parents provide the stimulus and opportunity for interaction, through which the child organises and makes sense of the language experience. Such learning is active, has purpose and is rich in meaning".
Alec Webster, Deafness, Development and Literacy, Methuen 1986
Such a view sees the written word as a more permanent, static visual presentation of language, than that provided through the fleeting transient nature of speech. It offers a more concrete means of representing language and thus helping hearing-impaired children to acquire their mother tongue (Haycock 1933). This primarily historical view was promoted initially by many of the pioneers of deaf education at a time when there were few aids to hearing and to all intent and purposes access to auditory language was minimal for many severely or profoundly hearing impaired children.
"Cardana in the sixteenth century (in Pritchard, 1970) believed that through reading they (the deaf) could hear, through writing speak...and thereby... written characters and ideas could be connected together without intervention of sounds"
Pritchard, (1970), p.4
Alexander Graham Bell considered that he
"would have a deaf child learn books in order to learn the language, instead of learning the language in order to read books"
Bell (1929), p I94
Notions as to the purpose of reading and the relationship between language and reading are often considered from a very different vantage point by teachers dealing with hearing impaired children than that of their mainstream colleagues. The "normal" parasitic relationship of reading to language is violated. Such violations will have implications both as to the models of the reading process espoused and the approach to the teaching of reading itself.
"We normally learn to read a language which we can already speak and it is our familiarity with the syntactical patterns of spoken language which helps us anticipate and predict sequences of written language". p 37
Reading is not primarily a visual process but one which integrates visual and auditory sequences
Beginner readers - ability to use context support, linked to experience as beginner talkers (anticipate and predict messages in text)
Draw heavily on top down strategies
(Stanovic and West, 1979)
For the hearing child, therefore, reading is seen as having a parasitic function - one founded primarily on an auditory-based language. Not all teachers and parents recognise this and it is, of course, very easy for teachers to focus too heavily on the visual aspects of reading. In fact reading is not primarily a visual process, but one which integrates visual and auditory sequences.
For many educators, the role which reading is seen to have in the educational and linguistic management of hearing impaired children is a very different one to that assumed for hearing children - such children are often still learning to read when expected to read to learn.
For hearing impaired children reading is seen to have dual or even triple purpose
(i) access to knowledge
(ii) language development
(iii) language extension
Although the role of the written word in (i) and (iii) is a well-trodden route, that in (ii) is less well understood and documented - and yet (i) and (iii) are dependent upon the prior achievement of (ii). Certainly much concern is voiced in the literature as to the appropriateness or not of such a goal
Traditionally hearing impaired children have been taught to read early by word recognition or even phonic based methods eg the experiment with the ITA in the late 60s and 70s, and with great conviction but what evidence supports this?
Standards of literacy for deaf people
eg: The presence in a child of a severe sensori-neural hearing loss has been described by some as a "promissory" for reading failure (Brooks 1978).
Wrightstone, Aranow and Muskowitz (1963)
CA 15.5; RA- 16.5 yrs; 9.6 mean
Di Francesco (1972; 9 yrs "Slow growth of reading level" - plateauing
Furth (1966) 9 mnths reading progress over 5 yrs
Jensema (1975) 15 - 16 yrs; 9 yrs
Conrad (1979) 15 - 16.5 yrs; 9 yrs
50% of profoundly deaf could not start the test ie reading at levels less than 7 yrs
The picture painted of the reading achievements of deaf school leavers has changed little over 70 years. In 1916, Pinter and Paterson reported that the majority of deaf children aged between 14 and 16 years had measured reading ages of 7 years or below. Conrad (1979), in a comprehensive survey of school leavers from special schools and partially hearing units, reported similar data for profoundly hearing impaired school leavers in Britain
Varied research evidence, regardless of methodological issues, and disputes as to the appropriateness of some testing materials (Webster, 1986; Wood et al 1986) confirms what for many teachers of hearing impaired children is the reality of the classroom the large numbers of hearing impaired children have left, and are leaving, school with reading skills grossly underdeveloped and, in many cases, are not achieving functional literacy. More recent research offers more clues as to ways forward in terms of supporting deaf children's literacy development.
More recent research
Cummings, Grove and Rodda 1985 (40 severely and profoundly deaf students) Deaf students score better when passages or short stories used; they make considerable use of contextual support in reading
Webster 1986 (80 severely and profoundly deaf pupils) deaf children understood sentences with most information content more easily than the sentences with only limited elements of meaning.
Banks, Gray and Fyfe 1990 Focus of teaching of reading to deaf children may lie in providing them with strategies for comprehension rather than in teaching vocabulary and grammar.
Walker et al, 1992 Reading comprehension levels of profoundly pre-lingually deaf students in Victoria. 195 students aged 9 to 19 ( Grades 3/4 to 13). Reading comprehension within the average range or above for 42.6% of students
Webster (1988) considers that
"the expectation that reading can give deaf children the very first linguistic insights: that objects and actions have symbolic representations negotiated and understood by others, may be ill-founded. My own view is that children need to discover the power and function of language in interpersonal contexts before, or perhaps in parallel with their discovery of print." p.94
Wood, Wood, Griffiths and Howarth (1986) consider that hearing impaired children usually do possess and use some knowledge of the structure of language and can read some sentences, ie they can read that for which they have the requisite linguistic knowledge.
Hearing impaired children generally have fewer linguistic skills to fall back on when confronted with text and often, for a range of reasons, have had more limited life experiences too (Fraser, 1991). The child's problem is often not to do with word recognition (ie the bottom-up skills) but with an adequate knowledge of both form and function in language and, indeed, of life!
Auditory oral evidence: Has the position changed?
Research from Central Institute for the Deaf (Geers and Moog), Australia and my own research provides evidence as to current levels within strong auditory oral approaches
Average deaf reader 2.79 years behind (girls) 3.73 years behind (boys)
Deaf school leavers: Average reading at Grade 6 (11-12 years) Range: (7 to 18+ years)
Oral approaches: grade 7.8 (c 13 years)
TC approaches: grade 5.2 (c 10 years 3 mths)
Cued Speech: grade 4.3 (c 9 years 4 mths)
Walker et al 1992
100 students from auditory oral programmes
15 years 10 mths to 18 years 2 mths
85db +
NV IQ greater than 85 ( mean 111)
Mean Reading Grade: 8th Grade ( approximately 14 years)
33% have reading levels at --chronological age or better
Geers and Moog 1989
TABLE 2
Reading levels: sample (n = 82)
Reading Age Chronological Age
(in months) (in months)
Mean 154.10 188.9
Median 160.00 189
Hearing loss and reading levels
Lewis, 1996. School Leavers educated within a natural aural approach
A breakdown of reading age according to hearing loss band revealed for following data.
TABLE 3
Reading age Hearing loss
Average Median Reading Mean Reading
Hearing Loss Age (in months) Age (in months)
Band

up to 65 188 (n=1) n/a
66-85 156 156.0
86-95 163 158.0
96-105 154 149.7
106+ 164 153.3Statistical analysis reveals no relationship between degree of hearing loss and reading level
Overall characteristics of the total Group

39 have reading levels within 2 years of Age (47%)
27 have reading levels within 1 year of Age (32.9%)
20 have reading levels within I or 2 months of Age (24.4%)
17.07% (n = 14) of the sample were reading at levels above their chronological ageThere were "age-appropriate" achievers within all hearing loss bands and "above age" achievers in band 2, 4 and 5. Profound hearing loss did not exclude such achievement.
24% of children with hearing losses of 106dB(HL) or more were reading at levels above their chronological age
Similarly GCSE examination results for pupils educated within a natural aural approach, where reported, are encouraging
Attainments: One English county - pupils with severe and profound hearing losses attending schools/units
GCSE Results
No 5+ A-C 5+A-G 1+A-G
1996 9 66 78 100
This was higher than the average for mainstream pupils in this LEA area
What is Natural Auralism
Natural auralism evolved from patterns and practices in oral education in a small number of schools and services (Clark, 1978, 1981).
Natural Auralism: On entering school deaf children are assumed to have the same potential for achievement as other groups. They also have the same rights and entitlements the right to support towards those entitlements
Support includes: Support for

language acquisition and literacy
listening development
learning strategies
inclusion into family and community life
accessing the curriculumIn the 1970s, improved technological aids and the audiological revolution potentially allowed for an accent on listening to replace an emphasis on watching as to the primary vehicle for language acquisition in hearing impaired children (Lewis 1991).
Natural auralism is an approach that draws heavily on Brunerian principles as to learning, and on the descriptions of language acquisition and interactions of the 1970s and 1980s, to support the case for hearing impaired children being exposed to features of linguistic inputs and environments deemed facilitative for any child acquiring a first language.
RECASTS

follow the child's utterance
maintain the semantic topic
expand the utterance whilst using some of the child's own words
reformulate by adding to or correcting a particular noun or verb phrase(Pine 1994, Farrar 1990)
Deaf children will go through the same stages in all aspects of their language acquisition as hearing children providing that they are allowed to do so,

ie that they are aided appropriately
the input is appropriate - cognitively and linguistically
that expectations and feedback are appropriate
that progress is monitored effectivelyThe relationship between language and literacy is the same for deaf children as for hearing children, ie deaf children will learn to read and write language and meanings that they already know. They will use strategies that they already use as beginner talkers.
Once they have begun to read and write reading may extend their linguistic understandings - it is not the vehicle through which they will acquire their language.
The essence of Natural Auralism is enshrined in belief in three basic concepts

maximal use of residual hearing
the need for meaningful input
view of child as a learnerNatural Auralists stress that the sequence of language development for hearing impaired children albeit slower,
"should be the same as that of the normal child, providing he receives the same kind of language experiences from which to learn...Natural Oralism would not set out to teach incorrectly learnt syntax for it is firmly based in the belief that language and its rules have to be learnt by the child out of experience"
Harrison (1980) p.10
Similarly Natural Auralists see the relationship between the written word and spoken language for hearing impaired children as identical to that for hearing children
"the written word is not seen as a medium through which language is learnt. As with all children, establishment of a hearing impaired child's spoken language should precede the use of its written form"
Harrison (1980) p11
For reading development to proceed, spoken language development and its conversational context must be maximised. Best of practice with hearing children must be maintained.
A number of models for supporting reading skills exist. The natural aural approach involves an interactive model in which both 'bottom up' and 'top down' skills are supported but meaning extraction is paramount.
Reading is a receptive process - concerned first and foremost with meaning - does practice reflect this? Early reading materials must be within child's grasp whether discussing top or bottom skills; testing comprehension is not the same as supporting it; children must discover this first of all; not about word recognition and reading out loud nor is it simply re reading in books.
Deaf Children
Early reading materials must not contain language and vocabulary too far in advance of their own.
The emphasis must be on reading for meaning, not on individual words.
Children must have some basic understandings about language and reading before they start to "read" in a formal sense.
Will need support for reading beyond the primary school to ensure higher order reading skills do develop.
Deaf children beginning reading have much smaller vocabularies on which to draw, rarely make inferences and have restricted world knowledge and experiences. La Sasso and Swaiko (1978) take a similar view, ie that it is limited language and experience rather than poor decoding skills per se that are the major factors contributing to the reading difficulties of hearing impaired children, supporting reading is best effected by supporting these.
Ewoldt (1981) discusses:
Influence of teaching method

Reading for meaning in early stages foster a great depth of understanding at syntactic and semantic levels
Whole story versus sentence method more productive
Reading is dependent on, and reflects child's current linguistic abilities
Meaning also depends to some extent on these and the child's cognitive/experimental level"Providing deaf readers with more context than an isolated sentence or paragraph gives the opportunity to construct meaning regardless of difficult syntax or unfamiliar words"
Ewoldt (1981)
Such a view certainly is in harmony with current trends and attitudes to reading and reading development in hearing children (Webster, 1986).
Two clear messages emerge; that children draw on their competence as speakers when they are learning to read (Weber 1970) and that reading is an active process, one which involves trying to identify the author's intended meaning but from a starting point of one's own experiences, knowledge and, probably, values.
Practical implications of this for a natural aural approach leads to the following strategies of Supporting Reading:
Laying the foundations

sharing books/role-play
story retell
auditory memory
verbal recall
predicting
reflecting
processingTeaching for independence

process - strategies are supported
reinforcement of pupil's own attempts to apply strategies
self-evaluationImportance of supporting meaning extraction (not testing comprehension)
Initially this may involve
Sharing books; Support for narrative skills; a late start to formal reading with basal readers Conversation around books to support their meaningfulness
Use of Child's own language as the basis for reading
Home made materials will be extensive - relevance of reading schemes must be considered
Adaptation of existing materials, eg provide more evidence for working out meaning not less; bridge into books
Of particular importance is support for the child's understanding of narrative: story telling and story re-tell programmes will aid the child's ability to sequence related ideas, reflect experiences, predict outcomes.
Some Ways to Develop Narrative and Predictive Skills
Narrative skill: the ability to re-tell a chronological account accurately, without omitting critical parts and taking account of what your listener does not know.

story re-tell without prompts
recreate the storyline of a commercial book before it is read
script and film a video
write stories for younger children
double the number of pictures
cardboard TV with rolling pictures
find the relevant page/game/object, etc
lots of others...Natural aural programme will deliberately talk about the non-present, introduce figurative, non-literal language, plan for exposure to range of language uses and types and put an emphasis on talking out time; they continue to support literacy and language levels throughout secondary to accommodate language/ experiential deficit, even when literacy levels appear close to chronological age
They recognise that it is the child who acquires the skills. The implications for teachers are that they should

support not test comprehension
support access for learning: processes DARTS
support processing DARTS
model behaviour
sequencing/ organisational skills
higher order top down skillsImportance of familiarity of text content
Unfamiliarity with information, either in terms of context or ideas, might result in a depressing of the hearing impaired child's reading score at semantic, syntactic or more general levels, whilst familiar information is more readily processed and may result in a higher score.
Pre-tutoring is therefore often more successful than post-tutoring for materials that are
stretching the child linguistically and dealing with unfamiliar topics
There are many more practical suggestions that could be shared. Suffice it to say that current auditory oral methods assume a careful analysis of deaf children's literacy and language levels as a basis for then responding to their reading and language need. Deaf children can and do attain high levels within these approaches, where reading is seen as a receptive process concerned with understanding meanings rather than as a means for teaching deaf pupils basic linguistic understandings.
Deaf education (http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/resources/deaf/defed.html)
SSC resources
Deaf education (http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/resources/deaf/defed.html)
Scottish Sensory Centre, Moray House School of Education,
University of Edinburgh, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AQ

[baadysaad]

ماهي اهم التعديلات التي تجرى على المنهج العادي ليناسب الصم ؟

What is most important modifications to the regular curriculum to suit the deaf?


Partnership with Disabled people, Parents and the community:

Lessons from Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) in Southern Africa


By Susie Miles
Abstract
This paper draws upon examples of where parents, disabled people, CBR workers and pre-school teachers are taking the lead in developing innovative approaches to the education of disabled children. This has led to a better use of scarce resources and the development of a more relevant, inclusive and practical curriculum for disabled children. Community participation is considered to be essential for this kind of sustainable and appropriate change to take place. Respect for indigenous beliefs and practices ensures that the best aspects of customary and formal education are drawn upon so that disabled children have access to a more appropriate education.
CBR workers are promoting the casual integration of disabled children into their local schools with the full involvement of parents and disabled adults. The sustainability of the Integrated Education (IE) approach is considered in the light of scarce resources, the low priority accorded to disability by most governments and the poverty in which many families with disabled children are living. The 'deaf' dilemma is highlighted as an example of the inadequacy of the CBR and IE approach, thus far, in developing a sustainable approach to education for deaf children. The development of a more appropriate alternative is advocated which serves to strengthen the arguments for a CBR approach.
1. The history and nature of CBR
CBR has been practised in communities for thousands of years. Families and communities have always worked out their own ways of responding to the needs of their disabled members and they continue to do so where there are no services catering specifically for disabled people.
In 1976 the World Health Organisation (WHO) formalised CBR into a strategy for developing countries by recommending the provision of essential services and training for disabled people through CBR as part of the 'Health for all' campaign. The original principles and reasoning behind CBR were thus very similar to Primay Health Care (PHC) and the relationship between the two is an important factor in the implementation of CBR (Finkenflugel 1993).
Definitions of CBR have developed and changed in response to field experience and there is an, arguably, healthy lack of consensus on this issue. The latest UN definition provides a useful summary of some of the main themes.
"CBR is a strategy within community development for the rehabilitation, equalisation of opportunities and social integration of all people with disabilities.
CBR is implemented through the combined efforts of disabled people themselves, their families and communities and the appropriate health, education, vocational and social services."
(UN Joint Statement 1994)
Whatever the limitations of CBR, both in its definition and its practice, it has provided a useful focus for fieldworkers who were disillusioned with Institution Based Rehabilitation (IBR) and who needed guidance in developing an alternative approa ch, appropriate to their context.
The first principle of CBR should be to 'unlock' and place value upon the indigenous knowledge of community members and to make full use of local professional and vocational skills. CBR workers should respect disabled people's and families' experience of disability as a valuable contribution to their programme and, where possible, empower them to develop and manage their own programmes.
CBR can be seen as a 'vehicle' for the exchange of information between communities and governments, between disabled community members and national Disabled People's Organisations (DPOs). CBR has the advantage of being able to provide access to higher level skills without compromising the customary knowledge about disability. CBR is also playing a valuable role in demystifying special education by bridging the gap between formal and customary education.
2. The role of CBR in Integrated Education
Children with mild and less visible impairments have always been 'casually integrated' into their local schools and in some countries this has been documented (Miles, Mariga & Phachaka). The support of children 'casually' integrated into schools has become an integral part of CBR in southern Africa. CBR workers are not always in a position to influence Ministry of Education policy towards integration, but they are able to work closely with disabled people, parents and teachers at community level to ensure that disabled children already in school receive the support they need and to prepare the way for the integration of children with more severe disabilities, where appropriate.
In South Africa, where it is estimated that up to 50% of Black school children suffer from system-created delays, underdevelopment and underachievement, the term integration takes on a completely different meaning. Furthermore, special provision, in the western sense, is unaffordable (Kriegler & Farman 1994).
By building upon the basic principles of customary, or indigenous, education, as elaborated upon in Joseph Kisanji's paper, CBR workers can help prevent the 'dis-integration' of disabled children from their communities. Customary education is inclusive, relevant, practical and locally available and can be seen as the foundation upon which CBR workers should build. Placement in school should not necessarily be the recommended route for those children who may benefit more from a home-based approach which draws upon the principles of customary education.
Where Integrated Education (IE) is considered to be appropriate, the role of the CBR worker could be to:-

place value on, and 'unlock', indigenous knowledge and the practice of customary education;
raise awareness of the need to integrate disabled children into schools in their communities;
identify, assess and refer disabled children, where appropriate;
prepare disabled children for school;
introduce the Child-to-Child approach as a way of preparing schools for disabled children;
collect and disseminate information about IE;
mobilise communities to campaign for access to education;
work with disabled people in the campaign for integrated education.
challenge negative or demeaning attitudes;In a country such as Mozambique where there is, as yet, no clear policy on the education of disabled children, CBR workers are leading the way in showing that IE is possible. CBR workers are adapting their knowledge of disability and rehabilitation and applying it to the classroom to provide the necessary support to teachers (Zinkin 1995?). In Morocco Save the Children Fund (SCF)-supported CBR initiative aims to provide a model of good practice in its support of disabled children in mainstream schools and to lobby the Ministry of Education to develop appropriate policies. (Carey 1995)
In Lesotho, 'planned' integration has been introduced by the Ministry of Education, whilst Non Government Organisations (NGO)-run CBR programmes are promoting IE at grass-roots level. Enormous gaps still exist, but it is an interesting example of CBR and IE developing simultaneously, through mutual support and a sharing of expertise. They are operating in different areas of the country, but consistency of approach is essential. This will be expanded upon in the following paper by Sue Stubbs.
The following aspects of the role of CBR in IE will be highlighted as follows: community responses to special educational needs, disabled people as advocates for IE; the importance of role models in education; and the Child-to-Child approach. Examples from SCF's work in southern Africa are quoted to demonstrate the importance of working in partnership with disabled people and parents and the communities in which they are living.
a. Community responses to the educational needs of disabled children
Communities that have no access to special education facilities either educate their own children according to the principles of customary education or send them to their local school. It should be the task of CBR workers to help communities adapt their customary education to the needs of disabled children and, where necessary, to develop appropriate alternatives within the community.
Disability was raised by the community as an issue that needed the attention of Scott Hospital's PHC programme in Lesotho. Community leaders felt that they lacked the necessary skills to help their disabled community members, for whom they felt a great responsibility. The Primary Health Care (PHC) team facilitated a series of community meetings to identify an appropriate strategy. The main concern of parents of disabled children was that their children should have access to the local schools and that the discrimination experienced by those children already in school should be challenged. Thus, access to education became a major focus of the CBR programme.
Opportunities for education were cited as the greatest perceived need of disabled children by community focus groups interviewed as part of an action research project in South Africa (Philpott 1995). Needs were ranked in order of most to least frequently cited: education came first and assistive devices last in a list of seven.
The involvement of the Ministry of Health's CBR team in promoting IE in Swaziland has brought benefits to the school communities and beyond. Prior to the implementation of CBR, children with mild impairments were 'casually' integrated into schools. The CBR team worked closely with teachers to prepare schools for the integration of more severely disabled children whom they identified in the surrounding areas. They have placed a strong emphasis on the preparation of the physical environment for IE with the building of simple concrete ramps and accessible playgrounds. Community 'workcamps' are organised to help with the building of playgrounds which serve to raise awareness of disability. Teachers talk of their 'repentance' from negative attitudes. They are no longer 'frightened' of teaching disabled children and they feel well-supported by the CBR team.
b. Disabled people as advocates for IE
Disabled people have articulated their support for IE through their organisations in southern Africa which together form a federation known as the Southern Africa Federation of Organisations of Disabled people (SAFOD). Speaking as former pupils in residential special schools, they argue strongly against a segregated approach to the education of disabled children. They see access to education as a basic right for all disabled children which should be realised through the equalisation of opportunities strategy.
The Lesotho National Federation of Organisations of Disabled people (LNFOD), which is affiliated to SAFOD, has played a key role in challenging the inappropriateness of residential institutions for disabled children in Lesotho and has put pressure on the government to develop a policy on IE. The integrated versus segregated education debate is discussed at length in LNFOD's "development activists" training workshops for rural disabled people based on the SAFOD model (Mbewe and Lee 1991).
The trainee development activists are encouraged to take responsibility for the new generation of disabled children growing up in their home communities. With the insight gained on the training course, they are in a good position to advise disabled children and their families about the education options available (du Toit 1995?).
c. The importance of role models
The importance of the presence of disabled adults as role models in schools was highlighted by disabled people at a recent conference (ISEC 1995). A 'survivor' of IE in the UK explained that she expected to die before she became an adult because she didn't know of the existence of disabled adults.
The Scott Hospital CBR programme has recognised the importance of involving disabled adults in the preparation of schools for IE. LNFOD is called upon to participate in awareness raising meetings in the community and to address teachers and schoolchildren on the issue of IE. It is difficult to measure the impact of the personal story of a blind young woman and of why it was so important that she attended her local school. What is clear, though, is that, for the listeners, it transformed IE from being a theoretical ideal to a personalised reality.
The CBR programmes in Swaziland and Mozambique which aim to have national coverage and which are run by the government ministries of Health and Social Welfare respectively, have prioritised the employment of disabled people as an awareness raising strategy. Daily contact with disabled colleagues has effectively challenged the attitudes of the staff. This also provides positive role models for the disabled children with whom the Ministry of Health work closely on the Child-to-Child programmes in both countries.
d. The Child-to-Child approach
There is little documentation of the use of the Child-to-Child approach in CBR programmes, although it is an important part of all the CBR programmes supported by SCF in southern Africa. Child-to-Child has great potential for raising awareness of disability issues, challenging peer attitudes and preparing the ground for the integration of disabled children in schools (Zinkin & Saunders 1990).
Schoolchildren in Lesotho were asked by the Scott Hospital PHC team to conduct a small survey of the number of children who had been burned during the winter season and who had had bouts of diarrhoea in the rainy season. The main purpose of the survey exercise was to raise the children's awareness of preventable impairments and, in the long-term, to mobilise them as support groups for CBR.
This survey had some interesting results. Issues such as safety in the home, clean water supply, hygiene, immunisation and nutrition became very real issues for the children, as they saw living examples of what happe ns when too little care is taken over children's health. Their research brought them into contact with disabled children who had previously been kept away from other children. When they realised that disability was not infectious, they decided to disobey their parents' instructions not to play with disabled children, by arranging secret meetings.
This has had an immediate impact on the lives of the children involved in the survey, but there is likely to be a far greater and more long-lasting impact on the future of the community. The challenging and changing of community attitudes by children is likely to result in a more tolerant future generation.
3. Sustainability Issues
It is important to remember that the context in which we are working is one of varying degrees of poverty. The challenge facing the implementers of CBR and IE programmes is to develop sustainable and appropriate services for disabled children. Western models are notoriously expensive, unsustainable and 'resource driven'. It is not surprising that governments shy away from developing 'special education' services, as 'special' tends to imply expensive.
a. The poverty-disability cycle
The links between poverty, impairment and disability are substantial and complex (Coleridge, Philpott, Miles & Medi). Deprivation of basic needs can cause developmental delay and physical, psychological or intellectual impairment. Furthermore having a disabled child often leads to further impoverishment as expensive 'cures' are sought and extra time is needed to look after the child (Arnold 1995).
The birth of a disabled child is often a precipitating factor in the break up of marriages as children are seen as the family's future economic security. A child with an impairment is considered unlikely to become a future provider and fathers, fearing the birth of more disabled children, often simply look for another wife in the hopes of having 'healthy' children (Kisanji 1995).
It is therefore very common for women to be the sole providers for their disabled children. Not only do they have to manage without the financial support of their child's father, but they are unlikely to be able to seek paid employment if their child requires full time care. In this situation, women are often unable or unwilling to afford the school fees to send their disabled child to school and home-based educational programmes through CBR may be the only form of affordable education.
Many CBR programmes are assisting with the payment of school fees for disabled children whom they have integrated into local schools. This usually happens because disabled children come from the poorest families, but also because parents are often reluctant to spend their money on school fees for a child who is unlikely to become a provider in the future. In most cases this involves relatively small amounts of money for primary school fees. However this creates a precedent which may be difficult to follow when the donor funding ceases. It should be seen as a short term measure to ensure that the principle of IE is accepted, while recognising the lack of sustainability in the long-term.
In Lesotho income generating schemes have been set up as part of the Scott Hospital CBR programme to ensure that costs such as school fees, medical expenses and the purchase of assistive devices can be met by families with support from their community.
b. Training
The lack of locally available training courses and the high cost of specialised training overseas are two major obstacles to the development of a sustainable approach to the education of disabled children. Special schools staffed with relatively highly trained teachers co-exist with community-run integrated creches whose teachers have only a basic level of training. There is a need for less specialisation and more good quality generic in-service training.
In Durban, a pre-school teacher training agency, TREE (Training and Resouces in Early childhood Education), was challenged by the donors in 1992 to address the needs of disabled children and to introduce IE into the pre-schools. The budget for the project was small and the teachers resisted the idea of integration. 'It is illegal' and 'we are not specialists' were some of the responses elicited during the first disability awareness day for pre-school teacher trainers.
Following a period of research in the community, which involved extensive consultation with parents through community meetings and with the local branch of the national DPO, the pre-school teachers' curriculum has been modified to include special educational needs. Special needs in this context includes the needs of children who are survivors of violence. This has been done with a minimum of resources and in a way which is meaningful to the teachers. Parents and disabled people are seen as a valuable resource in the designing and teaching of the new curriculum.
4. The 'deaf' dilemma
Special schools and CBR programmes, as they are currently run, are failing deaf children. Deaf children who attend special schools are isolated from their families and communities and receive an education that is largely inappropriate to their needs.
Despite the fact that most children who attend special schools have to live away from their families, organisations of deaf people argue for separate educational provision. Even some CBR documents concede that children with severe hearing impairments may need more specialised services than those offered by the CBR approach (O'Toole 1991 & Salamanca 1994).
There is an urgent need to demystify deaf education in order to encourage the involvement of communities, parents and deaf people themselves. The challenge is to develop an appropriate and sustainable approach to the education of deaf children. The author contends that this is not possible without the development of sign languages.
Where deaf people have formed their own organisations they have prioritised the development of sign language and an improvement in the standard of education for deaf children. Deaf adults tend to show more interest in the education of deaf children than any other group of disabled people. They recognise that without language and education there is no culture and that it is essential to start developing Deaf culture now by investing in the younger generation. If education is to improve, fundamental changes need to be made in schools for deaf children and in the training of teachers (Miles 1995).
In Mozambique deaf adults play a major role in the Ministry of Social Action's national Community Based Support (CBS) programme. Two deaf adults are employed by the ministry to support groups of deaf people and to develop sign language. In an urban informal settlement on the outskirts of the capital, Maputo, they teach small classes of deaf children as part of the CBS programme.
CBR workers are in a key position to link deaf children and their families with organisations of deaf adults. They can help raise the profile of deafness and dispel some of the misunderstandings surrounding it. Together they could lobby for change in the education of deaf children and the development of sign language and interpreting services.
Conclusion
Partnership is the key to progress. Communities, parents and disabled pe ople are potential resources to be drawn upon through a process of community consultation. CBR workers are in a key position to liaise between the key players, but they should be encouraged to share this responsibility with teachers.
The educational needs of deaf children can be addressed more appropriately by applying the principles of customary education with the support of CBR programmes. This will inevitably involve challenging current practice which invests in an unsustainable way in a minority and excludes the majority. However, without sign language, inclusion and access to mainstream services are arguably inappropriate strategies for deaf children. Communities need to be helped to regain confidence in their own ability to educate their deaf children, whilst drawing upon the expertise of deaf people and sign language experts from the wider national and international community. CBR workers can provide the necessary support to the setting up of community alternatives to institutional provision for deaf children.
References
Arnold, C. 1995 Evaluation of the Scott CBR project, SCF
Carey, J. 1995 Partners in Change in Disability work in Morocco?
Coleridge, P., 1993, Disability, Liberation and development, Oxfam
Finkenflugel, H.(ed), 1993, The Handicapped Community, VU University Press, Amsterdam.
Kisanji, J., 1995, The relevance of indigenous customary education principles in the formulation of special needs education policy, paper presented at International Congress on Special education, Birmingham, UK, April 10-13.
Kisanji, J., 1995, 'Growing Up' in Zinkin, P. & McConachie (eds) Disabled children in developing countries - in press
Kriegler, S. & Farman, 1994, 'Redistribution of special education resources in South AFrica: beyond mainstreaming towards effective schools' in International Journal of special education Vol 9, No 1.
Lee, P. & Mbewe, M., 1991? SAFOD Development Activists' Handbook, SAFOD, Bulawayo.
Mace, S., of Integration Alliance, personal story presented to International Congress on Special Education.
Miles,S. & Medi,E., 1994, 'Disabled children in post-ear Mozambique: developing community based support' in Disasters Vol 18, No 3.
Miles, S., 1995, 'The 'deaf' dilemma' in CBR News No 20.
O'Toole, B., 1991, Guide to Community Based Rehabilitation services, Guides for special education No 8, UNESCO.
Philpott, S., 1995, Amawoti: responding to the needs and rights of people with disabilities, Centre for social and devlopment studies, University of Natal.
Saunders, C. & Zinkin, P. 1990 An evaluation of the Kibwezi CBR programme run jointly by Action Aid Kenya, AMREF and the Government of Kenya. SCF.
Stubbs, S., 1995, Lessons from the south: pioneers of the future, paper presented to International Congress on Special Education, Birmingham, UK, April 10-13.
UN, 1994, Joint Statement on CBR.

[baadysaad]

من يصمم مناهج الصم ؟

Curriculum designed by the deaf?



This highly practical text for both pre-service and in-service teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing covers methods of teaching and other issues related to the teaching of deaf students.
Teaching Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students takes a practical look at the challenges of teaching subject matter to deaf children. The text gives suggestions about what teachers can do in the classroom that will make a positive difference in how their deaf students learn. It emphasizes providing teachers with a framework to design instructions that meet the educational needs of their deaf students.
The principles upon which instructional planning proceeds are applicable to deaf students at all grade levels; thus, the book is suitable for teachers at the elementary through high school levels. These principles are diverse but revolve around four central themes: 1) Creating authentic experiences; 2) Integrating vocabulary development; 3) Creating opportunities for self-expression; and 4) Providing deaf role models. When applicable, distinctions are made between the various instructional roles of teachers in self-contained classrooms, resource room teachers, and itinerant teachers, as well as general education teachers who have deaf students in their classrooms.
In addition to subject matter teaching, issues relating to diversity, discipline, and disabilities are reviewed from a pragmatic perspective. Ideas are then presented about how teachers can address these issues through instruction. Finally, strategies are provided for involving the family in the education of their deaf children, including exercises for increasing family awareness of the learning challenges their deaf children face. Practical ideas about how teachers can empower parents in the learning process are featured.

[baadysaad]

هل الكتب الدراسية للسامعين تصلح للصم ؟

Do textbooks for certain unfit for the Deaf?


What is a "Normal" Phenotype?

A paper written as background to discussion

Mike Cho, Mike Cohen, and Seeta Sistla

Edited by S. F. Gilbert and E. Zackin

What does it mean to be "normal"? The concept of normalcy based on phenotype is one that is widespread both in medicine and in everyday thought. However, what in turn defines a phenotype? The second question can be answered more readily than the first. A phenotype, according to prominent evolutionary biologist Dobzhansky, is "the total of everything that can be observed or inferred about an individual." This includes both external appearance and internal anatomy and physiology, as well as a person's thinking processes and their interaction with society. The phenotype will change over time, and depends largely on the environments that a person has encountered (Dobzhansky 1962, p. 41-42).
The term "normal" is much more difficult to define. Edmond A Murphy (1972, 1973, 1979) lists seven distinct uses of the word "normal" in medical literature. In one sense, it is used statistically (as in a normal distribution), as in "American men are normally between 5' and 7' in height." Murphy suggests using the word "Gaussian" rather than "normal in this context." Normal can also mean "most representative of its class" in which the terms "average," "median," or "modal," might be more accurate. Normal can also mean "that which is most commonly encountered" (such as "Humans normally have two eyes.") in which the term "habitual" might be used. In genetics, normal is often used to indicate "wild-type" and "that most suited to survival and reproduction." Here the term "fittest" might be used. Clinical medicine often defines normal as "carrying no penalty" which might be translated as "innocuous" or "harmless." This usually refers to function. In sociology and politics, "normal" is often used instead of "conventional," and in aesthetics, "normal can also mean "the most perfect of its class" or "ideal." Moreover, Murphy contends that in medicine, our understanding of "normal" is determined in part by economics. "The normal is pretty much what society can afford."
We will attempt to address the concept of normalcy in a philosophical context. One section will address historical and current conceptions of one condition commonly termed abnormal: disability. Another section will specifically address the questions of normalcy that rise from deafness and hermaphroditism as theoretically 'normal' phenotypes which some argue are merely socially constructed as otherwise.
The theoretical question of how to define a "normal phenotype" has been asked primarily in two contexts. In the first context, phenotypic "normalcy" is used to represent the achievement of either an adequate or an ideal level of performance. Here, the "normal" is seen as healthy and as intrinsically better than the "abnormal," although these concepts can still be defined in a multitude of ways. This may include statistics, where the statistical average or the most common trait can be justified theoretically as the ideal. It can also include some ideal standard of physiological functionality, or it can be some standard that meets the needs of the individual. The second commonly utilized concept of the "normal phenotype" is found in attempts to define normalcy in a more statistical sense. Here, the statistical average or most common trait is used as a way to define normality descriptively, without using value judgments. This is the way that many modern attempts to define normality, including attempts to define what is normal in medicine, approach the subject. The distinction between these two concepts is often blurry, and even attempts at finding what is normal in a purely descriptive sense often indirectly imply that one form is better than another (Nordenfelt 1995, p. 16).
Historical Conceptions of Normals Based on Absolute Characteristics

The concept of the statistical norm originated with the work of the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet. Quetelet, considered the founder of statistical methods in social sciences, suggested his notion of the "Average Man" in an 1835 work called A Treatise on Man (Vacha 1978, Cooper and Murphy 2000). To find this average man, whom he believed would "represent all which is grand, beautiful, and excellent," (Quetelet 1842/1969, p. 99), Quetelet analyzed data on all different types of human traits. These included physical characteristics like height and chest size as well as some data that he believed could quantitatively measure intelligence and morals (Hankins 1925). He found that the traits could be distributed in a normal (Gaussian) distribution curve, so the mean values would give the most common value, and therefore the true "normal." Then, the composite average of all traits is Quetelet's "average man."
Ideally, Quetelet would have liked to be able to consider any trait that differs from these averages to be abnormal. However, he realized that it was impossible for a person to follow the average, and therefore be completely normal, in all areas (Quetelet 1842/1969, p. 99). In fact, a relatively recent study showed that only about 6 out of 1000 people would have even near mean values for all important traits (Vacha 1978, p. 830). Because of this, Quetelet allows anybody who falls within a certain statistical range to be acceptable while still considering his composite "average man" the ideal.
Another important milestone of statistical normality is found in the work of Hermann Rautmann. Rautmann was a German doctor and philosopher from the 1920's who believed that "normal" by nature included the most typical, common traits. He then believed that all traits that go beyond certain limits were abnormal (Vacha 1985). This is relatively similar to Quetelet's conception of normality, but it was focused more from the perspective of health and less on a general idealistic notion. In addition, Rautmann includes a broader range that is considered fully normal, while Quetelet is focused primarily on the average. From there, Rautmann then saw a direct correlation between frequency of a trait and degree of health, where beyond a certain point of abnormality, a trait is almost always pathological. In the end, according to Vacha, Rautmann defines health primarily based on how often a characteristic is found, despite the fact that "he knows that [health is] not objectively definable in theory" (Vacha 1985, p. 345).
Other theorists on normality in Rautmann's time were less certain about precisely how normality was related to health. For example, Hans Günther suggested that while having an abnormal trait is not a disease itself, it may lead to disease (Vacha 1985, p. 348). So, there is a connection between being normal and being healthy, but only in some cases. The normality of certain traits, like eye color, for example, does not affect health status, while normality in a trait like the inability of the pancreas to make insulin in Type 1 diabetes is crucial for health.
Bauer, another German constitutional theorist, contributed the idea that because of natural selection, the most common trait must be the one that is best suited for the environment. This is based on the idea that the characteristics of a certain race are based on adaptations to the environment. Then, this typical "race type" can be seen as the biological optimum, with any deviation from that optimum being biologically inferior. (Vacha 1985, P. 348). A similar notion is central to Quetelet's idea that the most common traits are by nature superior, although Quetelet was writing before Darwin, and therefore saw the average traits as being the best suited for their environment without actually recognizing them as direct adaptations to the environment (Hankins 1908). In evolutionary biology, a concept similar to this interesting idea is supported by Alfred Wallace and some other evolutionary biologists, but was strongly opposed by Darwin. That idea, which has been called adaptationism, suggests that the systems that result from evolution are the best of all possible systems. It assumes that the power of natural selection is unrestrained, suggesting that natural selection is the major force driving all evolution (see Gould and Lewontin 1994). From this, we can reach Bauer's conclusion that if the most common traits are seen as the ones that evolution has selected most often, then at least in their native environment, those traits must be inherently better.
However, according to one good argument against this idea of adaptationism, there is no way to know whether a trait that is common in nature is really best evolutionarily or whether it just happens to be common based on more random factors (Vacha 1978). For example, genetic drift plays an in important role in determining the character of many traits in a population. In addition, especially in human communities, where there is much less selective pressure than in natural communities, it seems unlikely that the most common traits really are best suited to the environment. In fact, there are often traits that are not environmentally beneficial that are still common for other reasons. For example, we still have the vestigial instinct to eat rich foods even though we no longer have to do so to stay healthy like our hunter-gatherer ancestors did. While in the past, then, there would have been selective pressure favoring that trait, the healthier individuals today are those that have the opposite tendency. Still, at least so far, selection has not made a love of broccoli and an aversion to cheeseburgers instinctive in people. This is both because our environments are changing much faster than selection can operate and because the environment that we live in is not harsh enough to force fast adaptation to new situations in order to survive. Still, this lack of adaptation can have serious consequences, like those observed in the Pima tribe of Native Americans, who have had a significant increase in their rate of obesity and diabetes as they have shifted to a more modern diet (Marx 2002).
Norms Determined by Functional Ability

The primary focus in defining what is normal changes somewhat with modern conceptions of normal. In most of the attempts described previously, the search for normality is an endeavor that examines the precise character of traits. However, today, we usually focus more on function and less on that precise character. This idea originated with Plato and the Greek philosophers, who suggest that anything that realizes the body's natural potential is the ideal (Moravcsik 1976). As we have seen, people like Quetelet moved away from this concept later, but it is now an important part of health theory once again. The strict functionalist idea of normality is clearly asserted by C. D. King, who writes that normal must be defined as "that which functions in accordance with its design." He goes on to say that using normal to mean the most common is a misuse of the term, and that merely knowing whatever is most common really tells us nothing about the ideal functionality that normality should represent (King 1945).
So, Quetelet's "Average Man" is discarded. In its place, according to King and the view often advanced in medicine today, is the idea that a part of the body that functions according to some defined ideal physiological standard is "normal." A standard pathology textbook asserts that there is one normal standard for function, and anything that differs from that standard is abnormal (Hopps 1964, quoted in Nordenfelt 1995, P. 178). In one sense, this makes the concept of disease much more objective, since we can objectively define the biological function of a part of an organism much more easily than we can define, for example, whether a person is able to reach a desired quality of life (Reznek 1987).
According to some, this often still involves some value judgments. For example, the ideal function of a physiological process depends on whether individual survival, species survival, some other end, or a simultaneous mixture of goals, is the ultimate objective of an individual in nature that biological processes are aiming to reach. The choices here often create very different physiological goals. For example, in environments susceptible to malarial outbreaks, the heterozygous genotype for sickle-cell anemia is beneficial to the population, as it prevents malaria while causing no physiological symptoms when a person is heterozygous for it. But, on an individual level, the homozygous sickle-cell genotype can lead to a debilitating condition, and those individuals would be better off if they did not have this trait. (Engelhardt 1976, quoted in Boorse 1997, p. 24).
According to philosopher Christopher Boorse, a trait such as this one, which is good for the species as a whole but is bad for the individual, is still a disease. This is because if disease is based on whatever the functional goal of a system is, and evolution only happens on an individual level, the functional goal of a system will necessarily be one that is in the best interests of the individual, not one that is in the best interests of the species (Boorse 1997). Still, the true ultimate functional goal of biological systems is an open philosophical question, and the standard used to determine functional normality in those systems will necessarily depend on what is seen as that ultimate goal (Brown 1985). Therefore, since no single interpretation of the functional ideal is conclusive, it is questionable whether "normal function" can be defined objectively, as Boorse is attempting to do.
The theory of health proposed by Boorse, known as the biostatistical theory (BST), combines functional normality with the strict statistical norms of the past. Boorse's theory judges health as normal function when compared statistically to other members of a reference group. Normal functioning, according to the BST, is when an individual performs "each internal part of all its statistically typical functions with at least statistically typical efficiency," with statistically typical efficiency defined as "levels within or above...[a] central region of the population distribution" for the individual's reference class. (Boorse 1977, p. 558-559)
This theory of health and the other statistical conceptions of normality are designed so that, by using statistics, value judgments can be eliminated and the normal that results will be completely objective. However, other philosophers remind us that it is difficult to define what is normal purely using objective scientific or mathematical methods. First, even when we have a distribution curve, how do we decide where on that curve "normal" ends and "abnormal" begins? This was a key question for many of the Germans who considered the problem of normality in the 1920's. The debate on this issue included question as to whether it was necessary to include a transitional area between the normal and the abnormal as well as questions about precisely where the boundary between normal and abnormal traits should lie (Vacha 1985). Another important issue, raised by philosopher Jiri Vacha, questions which values are included on the statistical curve; it seems ridiculous to include data from people who are already identified as diseased when determining what is normal, so in most cases, only healthy people are used for finding statistical norms. However, what definition is being used to identify who is healthy? That is what these methods are attempting to define to begin with. So, any preliminary classification by health status must be based on mostly subjective evaluation, and the results of the statistical analysis could potentially be skewed by whatever method is used (Vacha 1978).
Questioning the Concept of a Single, Universally Applicable Norm

All of the conceptions of "normal" described previously attempt to define a single, universal standard of normality that applies to everybody, at least within a specific group. However, in some recent articles, there is some question as to whether a true "normal" state that can be universally applied really exists at all. This is based on the idea, supported by Theodosius Dobzhansky and by some other recent evolutionary biologists, that there is so much diversity in individuals that no one state can be considered best. In fact, as with the example of sickle cell anemia in malaria-prone environments, the optimal condition for the population is often a balance between traits, here leading to the heterozygote that is immune to malaria but that also has none of the ill effects that those with the disease have (Vacha 1978). Because of this necessary balance, neither version of this trait can really be considered ideal by itself. There are many environments. What is "normal"—in the statistical, ideal, or representative sense—may differ between them.
In responding to this idea, Boorse says that although there is variation within species, there is also a significant amount of similarity within a species. This is supported by Ernst Mayr, who defined the concept of a biological species that we use today, and suggests that there really can be standard functional organization within species (Boorse 1997). Still, philosopher Ronald Amundson points out that there are examples showing the success of abnormal forms, making even this idea questionable. The most striking example is of a British student who had hydrocephaly, a condition where the ventricles of the brain are filled with excess cerebrospinal fluid, often greatly reducing brain volume. While this condition often does create serious functional problems, in this person's case, it had virtually no impact on his life. He had a 126 IQ and normal social life, but on examination, was found to have "virtually no brain," about 10% of normal brain tissue. (Amundson 2000, p. 40-41). In fact it is not uncommon for people with greatly reduced brain mass to still perform normally (Amundson 2000, p. 40-41). Then, are these people functionally normal? With such a small amount of functioning brain tissue, their brains clearly don't function the same way that the brains of most people do, but they are still able to get similar results. This and the other examples that Amundson gives suggest that there are multiple and very different ways for natural systems to function successfully.
Whether variation truly makes a single conception of normal impossible or not, the idea does lead to some interesting conceptions of normality. These views all abandon the concept of a species norm as central and turn to an individual norm. For example, the view proposed by Jiri Vacha suggests that comparing to the species norm is only of "rough orientational value," and then only to see whether the functional relationship between an individual's traits can be considered "normal." For the primary determination of normality, an individual norm should be used, which compares the current state of an individual to that individual's variation range throughout their lifetime. As long as certain essential relationships between traits are observed in their overall function, a wide range of individual variation can still be completely normal (Vacha 1978).
Taking this idea even farther is the idea, suggested by Lennart Nordenfelt and supported by the work of Ron Amundson, that any characteristic is normal and healthy as long as a person is physiologically able to reach their "vital goals" in life (Nordenfelt 1985). These vital goals are then defined as the "states of affairs [which] are necessary...for minimal long term happiness." So, while all people have certain vital goals, and there are likely to be similarities in the goals of different people, the specific goals depend on a person's situation. Then, because of the immense variability between different people, the level of function that one individual expects can be very different from what another person expects and requires. So, there can be no universal standard for what is "normal" and what is "abnormal." Thus, Amundson defines disability as the "lack of species typical functioning at the basic personal level."
Mental Illness

One area where concepts of normality similar to these have been applied is in defining mental illness. While there have been attempts to define mental illness on a biological, functional basis (see Boorse 1976 for one), it often is more difficult than that. Thomas Szasz, who has written many influential accounts questioning our ability to define mental illness, has suggested that while disease is "conventionally defined" as a deviation from biological norms, mental illness is defined based on social norms (Szasz 2000). For example, one account of psychological normality suggests that the normal person is comfortable around other people, has set ambitions in life, and is able to conform to social expectations while still showing individuality (Tallent 1967). Determining whether a person meets criteria like these obviously must be based on much more than physiological abilities. The full debate on this subject will not be addressed here, but the articles referenced here and those papers cited in the referenced articles give a good introduction to this debate.
Disability...an Abnormal Characteristic?

What does it mean to be disabled? To be considered "disabled" is in a logistical sense an absolute term—one cannot be slightly or mostly disabled, you either are or you are not (Davis 1995). According to the American Disability Act of 1974, disability was defined to encompass limitations with daily life activities, including: speech and hearing, motion, learning, sight, and breathing, as well as less clearly observable traits, such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and certain mental illnesses. Although by the definition provided, the range of who is considered disabled is quite broad, the majority of "normally able" people consider another to be disabled when their phenotype is such that it prevents standard physical activity due to a "nonstandard or nonfunctioning body or body part." (Davis, 1, 1995). By current standards, to have a normal body is equated to a type of functionality that is not dependent on an outside agent (such as a hearing aide or wheelchair).
Does this modern perception mean that being physically "normal" equates to a type of functional determinism? It has been contended by certain modern disability advocates that ideological associations of biological normalcy as a necessary standard for a "good" quality of life inadvertently undermine those considered to be disabled. What is biologically normal is considered to be functionally beneficial, while biological differences are seen as functionally disadvantageous or "bad." (Amundson, in press.). As was described in the earlier section, this idea that what is normal is inherently better has been fundamental to many theoretical conceptions of normality in the past, most notably those of Quetelet and Bauer.
These value judgments are often intoned into both a biomedical and social scheme. In the biomedical model, an individual's disadvantages are viewed as an inevitable outcome of biological fact(or)s. Societal discrimination of the disabled is described such that the "normal" population are offered advantages that are, for a variety of reasons, withheld from certain disabled people due to their "abnormal" conditions (Amundson, in press). Is functional uniformity the norm for humans (and other species)? What level of divergence from these "norms" are acceptable deviations to still be considered socially and biomedically normal? Does abnormality equate with a lower quality of life than would be expected from a normal person, and if so, should preventative genetic methods be utilized to avoid having abnormal people born? Philosophical issues concerning normalcy, especially with the increased knowledge of genetics and bio-technological gains during the past century, have become an increasingly discussed issue. Within this section of our analysis of "what is normal?" the questions posed above will be addressed through a combination of scientific, philosophic, and social perspectives on the nature of human disability. If a person in a wheelchair or needing a seeing-eye dog has a good job, friends, and a loving family, that person may have a disability when it comes to driving or ****ing; but it does not necessarily mean that they have a poor quality of life.
There is likely never to be an absolute definition of what constitutes a "good quality life." However, phenotypes typically characteristic of disability are often categorized as less than "good," which will have a "very strong negative impacts on the life of individuals that have" disabilities (Amundson, n. d., 2). Surveys suggest that this is a commonly held view, both by the general population and within academia and medicine. Amundson argues that the term "disability" is often inexorably linked with the notion that it must entail a limit on the opportunities faced by the person having such a characteristic—such physical "abnormality" in turn leads to a lower quality of life. It is often presupposed in western culture that this is a biological fact, rather than a subjective interpretation of a specific state of being. Philosopher Dan Brock attempted to present empirical evidence for this assumed substandard life quality for the disabled based on the theoretical concept of health proposed by Boorse. As is described in more detail in a previous section of this paper, Boorse argues that "species typical function" is founded on an empirically defined, biomedical concept of "normal and abnormal function." Boorse then proposes that because these characterizations have been empirically assessed, they are scientifically natural distinctions that are unprejudiced by subjective biases (Amundson, in press).
Based on this analysis, Brock contends that it is the purpose of health care to maintain normal (non-impaired) functionality, which he asserts means protecting or restoring normal opportunity as "a necessary condition for a high quality of life" (Amundson, in press). Brock concluded that one's "quality of life must always be measured against normal, primary functional capacities for humans" (Francis et al., 105, 2000 ). Surveys have shown that many people who are considered biologically abnormal report, on average, a high quality of life; with people considered to be severely disabled considering their lives to be of only slightly lower quality than reported from physically normal individuals. Brock argues that this subjective value of the quality of one's own life is distinct from the objective value (Francis et al., 105, 2000). Based on this argument, a person with abnormal traits can consider their own life to be of high quality, while it is objectively low due to the objective limitations of their "abnormal" biological disposition. While this definition of quality of life sounds incongruous, it is broadly accepted in scientific and popular culture.
A Brief History of Disability

Where do these societal conceptions of physical disability as disadvantageous to quality of life that are so omnipresent in modern culture stem from? The conception of disability discussed here often relies on a bio-medical model, where disabled people are dependent on others for help with basic needs, and are often perceived as making heroic strides when performing a task which may be considered mundane for a normal person, such as in athletics, the arts, or careers. This current standard contrasts to a historically applicable conception of physical differences, where the definition and treatment of disability was made on the basis of one's socially prescribed role, rather than on a clear distinction between what constitutes normal and abnormal biological traits (Edwards 2000). Ancient Greeks appear to have had no term for "disabled" that would have had similar social and political connotations to that of modern America. Several terms in ancient Greek do seem to refer to in some way a person who would currently be classified as disabled: unable (adunatos), maimed (peros), and formlessness (amorphia). A key difference between their conception of disability and ours that this helps to demonstrate is that, while in modern times, the body is often perceived as machinelike—the sum of its parts—Greeks viewed the body in totality, as a whole, distinct entity. (Perhaps it is our technology that has created a disabled category distinct from the unabled. In cultures without wheelchairs, hearing aids, prostheses, and trained animal companions, people having defective functions might be more "unabled" than "disabled.") The Greek words for physical differences were not set medical classifications (like Down Syndrome or multiple sclerosis) but ways of identifying a set of conditions within a certain context, with no term in specific reference to physical impairment. (Edwards 2000)
Does this mean that in classical times there were no people who would now be considered disabled? In fact, it was the opposite set of conditions that most likely was the rationale for there being no set of specific labels for physical differences. People who would currently be seen as disabled were perceived as "integral to the society" rather than as a distinct social minority that carries the social stigmas inherent in such a classification (Edwards 2000). Although the Greeks' artistic representation of the human body was mathematically perfect, it is a certainty that the results of disease, physical injuries, congenital defects, etcetera were common in this culture. However, physical impairment alone did not automatically classify a person as unable. There is documentation of the practice of a yearly assessment of those wishing to be classified as "unable" to determine whether they should receive a small pension for food. This classification was based on two criteria: poverty and a physical condition rendering them otherwise unable to work. This process is recorded in the case ("On the Refusal of a Pension," Lysias 24, Edwards 2000) of a man who was formerly classified as unable. However, because he had been recently seen as able-bodied—riding a horse, trading, and associating with the wealthy, the pensioner was accused of being ineligible for further subsidy. Although the pensioner clearly had some sort of impairment, as it was mentioned in the text that he walks on "two sticks," this alone was not merit for the pension.
To be "disabled" in ancient Greece was not a distinction of the body alone; instead, it was based on how the physical state of the body affected a person's ability to function appropriately in a particular situation (with a specific focus on the ability to earn an income) (Edwards 2000). It was not an uncommon for people with physical impairments to be employed in various tasks, and physical abnormalities were seen more as a characteristic of a particular person than as a certain imposition on their overall life quality (Edwards 2000). This is somewhat similar to Boorse's conception of functional normality; however, while Boorse examines the inherent functionality of a trait, the ancient Greeks were concerned with a person's functional ability in a specific context. The Greek concept of normal is also evident in the modern conception of health advanced by Nordenfelt, as both are based on specific functionality as a necessary factor in defining what is physiologically acceptable, although they apply their conceptions in somewhat different ways.
The majority of evidence suggests that the disabled were not subjected to any distinct classification simply because of their physical differences, and likewise, there was no assumed prohibition from a task because of it. People with impairments were recorded in social classes ranging from artisans, to soldiers, to Alexander's father, who was recorded as severely mutilated by war (Edwards 2000). Did those who were physically disabled in ancient Greece utilize implements to help alleviate their impairments? There is historical evidence of tools to assist with walking, such as canes, crutches, staffs, and even corrective boots and shoes for "lame feet." (Edwards 2000). Prosthetic limbs have been found in the archeological record as well as being recorded in ancient texts, and were likely individually fashioned items. For people with disabilities that prevented them from walking even with the assistance of an implement, there is no evidence for any sort of wheelchair or pushcart—most likely the ancient equivalent was the donkey (Edwards 2000).
Although it can be seen in the period's documentation that physical impairments and their consequences did have an effect on the person bearing them—generally as aesthetically displeasing in relation to the context of the individual—physical impairment was not perceived as the "institutionalized horror" portrayed in modern media. The disabled of the ancient world were not the disabled of today, although they may have been characterized by the same physical differences. Their bodies were an acceptable variation on the whole rather than a tragedy of biology (Edwards 2000). The stigmatization of the disabled, and what constitutes in disability cannot be clearly traced into the ancient world. There is likely no clear historical turning point from the classical conception of physical impairment to the modern social stigmatization.
From Victorian sentimentality into twentieth century conceptions of Darwinism and the biological nature of inheritance, physical "abnormality" has slowly changed from an acceptable state of being, to a stigma to be gawked or laughed at, into a break with the acceptable, normal design and function of the human machine that is both repulsive and pitiable. With a developing conception of genetic inheritability in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it was believed by many that "less than desirable" physical characteristics could be erased from the population through applied eugenics. Why should eugenics concern a discussion on the concept of normality as relating to physical disability? Eugenics of the first half of the twentieth century is a little remembered segment of American history (Pernick 2000). However, the influence of its theories on popular culture, and in turn the equally strong reception of and influence on the eugenics movement by the public is a striking example of the power of social value judgments in defining what is considered normal and the dynamic quality of this opinion over time. To understand current perceptions and practices regarding the disabled, the clock should be turned back less than one hundred years prior—to the age where Eugenics therapy was considered a popular, objectively valid science in America that would provide an improvement in social quality (Pernick 2000).
Eugenics was a scientific attempt to improve the population—in intelligence, fitness, and beauty. It is amazing in retrospect to see the enormous influence aesthetic values contributed to a scientifically approved construct of what constituted good versus defective, and a justification for selection against these less than adequate traits (Pernick 2000). The eugenics movement was neither an extremist movement nor a particularly conservative view towards social improvement. Its effects ranged from forced sterilization of the mentally "unfit" and criminals, to "better baby contests," a fairgrounds competition for the most "fit" child based on a livestock shows model, to restrictions on immigration. Perhaps the most extreme examples of the eugenics movement can be seen in the public debate over the moral legitimacy of the Chicago surgeon Harry Haiselden, who from 1915 to 1918 allowed the deaths of at least six infants he declared as "unfit," going so far as to exhibit the dying infants to the media and writing about his exploits for Hearst newspapers (Pernick 2000).
While this may seem morally reprehensible to modern standards, a (now startling) majority of the many who publicly responded to Haiselden's action condoned his decision to allow the "defectives" to perish. The supporters of this social cleansing of the physically "unfit" include such socially liberal notable names as the civil rights lawyer Clarence Darrow, and the blind and deaf education reformer Helen Keller, a woman who was by the standards of eugenics, herself unfit due to her acquired disabilities (Pernick 2000). To many of the time, it was cruel to retain a child considered unfit to live, where they would surely lead a less than desirable life. The issue was a raging media topic during the teens; even a film of the events was produced. Called aptly enough The Black Stork, the movie documented Haiselden's eugenics crusade (and starred the doctor himself). The Black Stork exemplified the eugenic linkage of beauty with health, fitness, and morality (Pernick, 2000). In the film, Haiselden begs a fictional young man with a non-specified genetic disease to refrain from marrying, but his advice is ignored, and a "defective" child is produced. The defective requires immediate surgery to save its life, but Haiselden refuses treatment based on the child's future of crime and misery, compliments of a vision provided by God to the characters and movie audience. The defective body's soul then enters the arms of Jesus, following the mother's agreement to withhold medical treatment for a baby undoubtedly doomed morally as well as physically (Pernick 2000).
The link between health, aesthetic beauty, and morality is seen in other films of the time period, such as the high school biology film reel known as The Science of Life, which pledged, "An attractive appearance goes hand in hand with health." (Pernick 2000) The educational film stressed classical Victorian notions of feminine beauty and hygiene, while highlighting the mechanical, streamlined body as an ideal when in motion—Pernick argues that preferred physiological beauty became linked with an active form, in part because of the motion pictures which could highlight it. A body that cannot freely move, bend, see, etcetera, is less than ideal, less beautiful and less fit (in a genetic sense). It is probable that the rapidly changing media of the twentieth century played a crucial role in establishing the disabled of western society as not only bodily defective, but incapable of living a good life (Pernick 2000). What a person will be capable of is predetermined under the eugenics schema; undesirable physical difference is a defectiveness, a factory failure.
It is clear that the American eugenics project had a broad influence and strong social support in its heyday. Individual's lives were clearly affected against their own will (and bodies), for the good of a society captivated with the notion of Darwinism and the potential hereditability of traits (Pernick 2000). The term "heredity" did not have the connotation that it would have today in any introductory biology textbook. Heredity was, to the layperson (as well as certain scientific literature) of the period, what you received from your parents; the genes as well as environment in which you were raised. A respected British statistical geneticist of the time argued that "in the practical sense [through familial environment].... We are anxious to make a more perfect mankind and we are interested in the practical side." (Pernick 2000) Such logic was similarly applied to "mental defectives" and their families, leading to the much publicized forced sterilization of Carrie Buck (See http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/ (http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/)).
To a eugenics supporter in early twentieth century America, the goal was to maximize what was considered to be attractive while minimizing and ultimately depleting the population of what was not. These standards were based on a specific segment of the American population, generally of the middle class (Pernick 2000). Eugenicists, rather than denying their selected traits were primarily aesthetic, celebrated this as a scientifically supported, objective method of discrimination. This does not seem so far away from Brock's empirical dissemination of "the good life,' published decades following the end of the eugenics movement in America, and the eugenics extremes of Nazi Germany during the 1940's. The ability of the power of societal expectations of what is normal and good, when combined with the "objective" nature of scientific support, is clearly evidenced by the widespread effects of the alluring and troubling promises made by supporters of the eugenics movement in America, and its later manifestation during World War II Germany.
When faced with the choice of letting the unfit die, the social opinion remained in favor of a medical decision throughout the mid-twentieth century, while finding it morally abrasive to publicly discuss such issues due to the implicit moral qualms of such choices (Pernick 2000). The influence of aesthetical considerations in the classification of disease remains a question of biomedicine. Are people with disabilities treated or thought of in certain negative connotations simply because of cultural values and subjective definitions of what is functional and normal, just as hindsight shows us to be true of the "scientifically objective" eugenics movement? As technological and scientific advances allow increasing control over and knowledge of the inherited physical traits of humans, it seems possible that disability will become a rarity—screened for and selected against in the prenatal stages of development.
A Modern Approach to Disability

Within the past two decades, scientific advances have allowed us to leap beyond the pedigree analysis techniques of the eugenics age and mid twentieth century, to a more precise genetic screening for a number of heritable diseases. The Human Genome Project has created the potential for eventually understanding each gene's product and its role in the functioning of "normal" people (Wertz, n.d.). Currently, a biomedical approach for heritable conditions often relies on prenatal genetic screening for a select number of traits and diseases. For people who are born with or acquire a disabling condition, drug therapies, and/or physical implementations, such as wheelchairs or hearing aids, are often the prescribed courses of action to assist them in attaining "normality." Philosophers Ron Amundson and Anita Silvers have shown that the use of these implements are often stigmatized on the basis of their mode of function (unnatural) rather than the level of function achieved (Amundson, in press) For example, although the world record for a marathon is 45 minutes faster for a wheelchair user than the fastest runner, wheelchairs are often shunned socially as a less efficient, cumbersome means of movement that should be avoided if possible. An alternate case of preference of form over functionality is the past practice of attempting to teach oralism (lip reading and speech) while suppressing the more efficient and intuitive use of sign language in deaf-schools (Amundson, in press). It is acknowledged in many physical rehabilitation programs that cosmetic normalcy is a standard that should be sought, even at the sacrifice of greater functionality. Thus, we see clear examples of a negative social judgment on the importance of phenotypic "normality," even when functionality can be achieved that is at least equivalent to what is perceived as "normal."
So how does this question of form versus function relate to the advent of genetic knowledge and technology? As it becomes increasingly possible to assess a person's genotype, there is an parallel increase in the ability to assess their genetic "health"—the individual's potential to develop certain conditions or pass such traits onto their offspring. What such analyses may reveal range from a single base-pair difference in a particular gene that codes for a partially mis-folded protein causing cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, or any number of other conditions, to broader genetic variations, each with their own distinct physiological effects (Wertz, n.d.). It is not a new issue for potential parents to consider the possibility of the inheritance of certain traits when choosing to whether to have a child. But as the technological potential for accurate prediction of potential traits or differences becomes increasingly accessible to the population, how does one define which traits are acceptable to carry to term and which are not? Will disability become a class-based phenomenon, where the wealthy and middle-class subsections of the population will be able to afford screening, while the lower class will not?
Currently, there is little consensus among geneticists worldwide as to the ethics of prenatal selection, as surveyed by Dorothy Wertz and Jon Fletcher of The Shriver Center (Wertz 2002). This applies to a broad range of phenotypes, including, (but not limited to) sex preference, mental and physical disabilities such as cystic fibrosis or mental retardation, and deafness. As we have seen, social support of eugenics in America during the first half of the twentieth century was influential on the "science" that supported it, and was further supported by the stamp of scientific objectivity. The eugenics approach to social "improvement" is neither forgotten nor erased from modern social and scientific causes. China's stated goal of human genetics program is the "improvement of the population quality and decrease of population quantity." (Wertz 2002) In Western Europe and Latin America, The Shriver Center research documented that surveyed geneticists separated the term "eugenics" from their own work. While eugenics was considered to be a "state-sponsored, coercive social program" (Wertz 2002), geneticists perceived their own work's preeminent goal as "prevention," determined by the individual or family concerned (Wertz 2002). Such convictions leads to the question: How individual can such a decision be?
It is evident that social pressures to conform to what is deemed phenotypically normal have been present throughout history. In the twentieth century alone, we have seen cases of societal discrimination against physical difference stemming from the eugenics movement, to a more subtle social scorn of disability today expressed in such cultural icons as the Muscular Dystrophy telethon (see Longmore 2000). Secondly, the condition of services for those with disabilities, and the extent of reproductive choices available to parents vary greatly throughout the world and within individual countries, including America. As such, the stigma associated with certain conditions is also conditional upon the socioeconomic conditions of an individual faced with such "preventative choices" or lack thereof (Wertz 2002.).
In recent years, opposition from disability activists has been voiced concerning the intrinsic devaluing of the lives of those with disabilities by selective abortion after prenatal testing. They purport that by supporting the abortion of infants with certain heritable conditions, a socially approved stance that their lives are not worth living because of their abnormal, or less than desirable, conditions is being created (Wertz 2002). When asked what advice the geneticists would provide to potential parents faced with the potential of a child with a genetically predisposed undesirable trait, there was no standard response given to any of 24 hypothetical fetal conditions presented. In general, however, there was a trend within the U.S. for geneticists to wish to be "as unbiased as possible," aside from sex selection and two conditions leading to certain infantile death (Wertz in press.). This is in contrast with a general trend outside of the U.S. for geneticists to support giving advice that would, for the majority of the hypothetical cases, be slanted pessimistically towards encouraging the termination of the pregnancy (Wertz 2002).
Within the U.S., The Shriver Center research found that 85% of geneticists would support abortion for fetuses with Down Syndrome, 92% for severe, open spina bifida, and 56% for achondroplasia, an example of the variation in "preventive" measures deemed ethically acceptable based on the perception of what is an acceptable condition for a life worth living (Wertz 2002). The theoretically informed views of geneticists, which themselves varied, also varied against a survey of the U.S. public. In this case, there was only one condition for selection against a trait by abortion that was favored by the majority (56%)—a severely retarded child who could not comprehend (or therefore produce) spoken language. Thus the variance in what constitutes an acceptable life (one that should not be aborted based on genetic test information) varies greatly from specific populations down to an individual level (Wertz 2002).
Should genetic prenatal testing be limited to only what is (potentially) deemed to be "serious" cases of disease and/or disability? An intriguing hypothetical situation was posed by Wertz that will be left to the reader to consider: If it is ethical for the "normal" parents of a fetus diagnosed with a disability to abort it, is it also ethical for disabled parents to abort a non-disabled fetus? The Shriver research proposed this question to geneticists in the following way: Is it ethical to allow hearing parents to abort a deaf child? Likewise, is it ethical for deaf parents to abort a hearing child? While a "large majority" of geneticists supported the first case, they rejected the second as an exploitation of the power of genetic diagnosis to knowingly bring a disabled child into the world (at the theoretical expense of a "normal" one). Wertz asks if such a sentiment is a fair judgment, or a slightly obscured form of eugenics?
Deafness

One of the major conflicts over normality concerns congenital deafness. During the past three centuries, deafness has been categorized as many different things, such as a disability, an illness, and even a race, culture, and ethnic group. However, how does deafness relate to the category "normal?" Throughout history, the hearing world has looked upon the deaf as a disability and an abnormality in society. However, how do the deaf define normal? We will look at the past and present issues of deafness that shaped the word normal in society.
The start of eighteenth century marked the beginning of a gradual change in the lives of deaf people. In the beginning of the century, deaf people were typically born into a hearing family and were quite isolated from other deaf persons. There was no category to put deaf people in, and there the term "disabilities" was not used. They were basically "isolated deviations from a norm, as we now might consider, for example, people who are missing an arm." (Davis 1995, 52) The deaf had no separate society and were not a subculture as they are today.
People in the eighteenth century focused not on the fact that some were deaf, but more on how the deaf communicated with the hearing world. The language of the deaf started out with reading and writing. While literacy rates increased in the world, people observed that the deaf could indeed process thought through reading and writing. In 1771, in Paris, the Abbé de l'Epée started to hold public displays of the abilities of deaf students (Davis 1995). It was known that crowds of people came to see these public performances. The deaf students were asked thought provoking questions and they replied in written English, French, Latin, German, Italian, and Spanish. Through these displays, the hearing world acknowledged that the deaf could process their language visually, but not audibly.
Sign language grew out of written language around this time. It started out with the deaf using a finger as a pen to write the words or ideas that they were trying to convey. Davis says, "Writing is in effect sign language, a language of mute signs." This in fact is true, which would explain why the deaf can understand written language (Davis 1995). Eventually as sign language grew into a universal language, groups of deaf people started to form a society. However, the deaf were both looked upon with wonder and pity, and would not be part of the "able bodied" society.


The nineteenth century would bring about a social change in the deaf society. It was in this century that society looked upon the deaf as its own ethnicity or race. It is a strange occurrence especially when looking at other disabled persons.But unlike the other people with disabilities, also ostracized if not ghettoized, the Deaf have a community, a history, a culture; moreover the Deaf tend to intermarry, thus perpetuating that culture. (Davis 1995, 78)Being born deaf was looked upon almost similarly to being born Jewish, Irish, or into any other ethnic group. Socially, unless born into a particularly wealthy family, the deaf were lower class citizens.
The eugenics movement started in this century and with it a sense of anti-disability, as was described earlier. Interestingly, the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, was a passionate eugenicist. He feared that the deaf would bring about a certain doom for humanity. He thought that the deaf would lead to "the production of a defective race of human beings [which] would be a great calamity in the world" (Bell 1869). Bell believed that sign language should be forbidden, education through sign language should be abolished, and that deaf people should not be allowed to teach other deaf students.
Despite all this, deaf schools started to spring up into Europe. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, "there were none... and close to sixty [schools] in the end" (Davis 1995 82). Education of the deaf continued into the nineteenth century and through this, the deaf created their own community. The numbers of deaf peoples joining into these communities increased spectacularly.
Today, deafness is looked upon as a disability and as a way of life. This is an ongoing conflict, and conflict informs the play (and movie) Children of a Lesser God. If looked upon as a way of life, then there definitely is a society and a culture behind deafness. There are national societies such as the National Association of the Deaf (or NAD) to support deafness and its culture. In this aspect, the NAD is in support of "promotion, protection, and preservation of the rights and quality of life of deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States of America" (Finn 1998, 6). The advent of modern technology indeed led to improvements in the quality of life of deaf and hard of hearing persons (i.e., the use of closed captioning, hearing aids, two-way radios, and the Internet).
However, not many see deafness as a culture and a way of life. Some view deafness as a disease and a disability that needs a "cure." The notion of the normal as being the average, the biologically functional, and the ideal is expressed in this view. The ideal person would be able to hear and take part in the hearing world. All of the senses of the ideal person would be functional and complete. The statistical normal also could be applied to the fact that the majority of the world is hearing. To remedy a deaf person and raise them up to the ideal or statistical normal, cochlear implants have been developed. The use of cochlear implants has evolved to be a major issue in treating deaf children before they have the command of language. The cochlea is a spiral shaped organ in the ear that recognizes sound waves. When high-pitched tones are produced, one end of the cochlea is stimulated by the tones, and when a low pitched tone is produced, the opposite end of the cochlea is also stimulated. These tones are standing waves that displace the stereocilia on the tips of the hair cells. The cells are then depolarized by the wave and consequently, vesicles inside the cell release neurotransmitters that are then accepted by the auditory nerve that transmits the signal to the brain. When the hair cells are damaged this is called sensorineural hearing loss. This is where cochlear implants can replace the hair cells on the auditory nerve (Finn 1998, 7).
Cochlear implants convert speech into electrical pulses that the auditory nerve can process. To do this, a microphone that is fit outside a person's ear receives speech sounds and the microphone amplifies the sound into a speech processor linked by a cable. The speech processor then converts the sound into electrical signals that are sent to a transmitter that is fastened to the head. The transmitter then sends the coded electrical pulses to a receiver-stimulator that are connected to the cochlea through a bundle of wires that stimulate the cochlea to send signals to the auditory nerve and the brain (Finn 1998, 5).
There is significant discord in the deaf community because of these implants. Many in the deaf community feel that these implants would decrease the population of their community and destroy the deaf culture. The NAD asserts that cochlear implants do not significantly help deaf students learn English more easily or achieve greater educational success (Finn, 1998 6). However, the National Institutes of Health found that the value of giving implants to children under the age of two is much higher than implanting after that time. After the age of two, children have passed the critical period for audible input for language acquisition. The benefits of having implants include speech recognition, bilingualism, and being able to exist in both the deaf and hearing communities of the world.
The issue is based more on personal preference and views on deafness than the medical benefits or cons of having the cochlear implants. Deaf people who receive these implants often are ostracized by their deaf friends and community. Moreover, the NAD urges parents to know more about the issues surrounding cochlear implants. Many deaf people believe that these implants will cause cultural genocide in their communities, but some do believe that these implants could relieve them of their burden. Whichever is the case, an informative decision is encouraged to be made by those on both sides of the issue.
The differences in views and issues in the hearing and deaf worlds are great. In the past, the split between deaf and hearing caused many people to categorize the deaf as either a disability or even an ethnic group. Most would think that the normal exists in the full body politic. Fully functional and able human bodies are mostly looked upon as normal because of their idealism and because of their frequency. However, when looking at a separate deaf community, who is normal? A deaf person might look upon another deaf person and say that he/she is normal, but how does a hearing person look upon a deaf person? The answer lies in human perspective. Through the eyes of a hearing person, the deaf could be placed into many categories (including normal) and vice versa.
Hermaphrodites

Hermaphroditism has also been looked upon as a disability and an abnormality. Having a child born with ambiguous genitalia can lead to surgery and forced gender roles on an unknowing child. Do the parents have consent to change the sex of their own child or does the child have to grow up and then decide? Society has a concrete idea of male and female, but hermaphrodites either choose to remain the way they are or change their sex to fit the models written by society. The majority of the world is male or female, which leaves hermaphrodites in a statistical minority. This leads many to believe that hermaphrodites are abnormal because they do not fit the model sex. Functionally, hermaphrodites are not normal, since they lack their reproductive ability. However, in every other way they can function as "normally" as any other human beings (including those individuals who lack children by choice or chance). The ambiguity of their sex and in their gender roles has brought up the question of normalcy in these people (Fausto-Sterling 2000).


The birth of a child of who has an ambiguous sex has often been the cause of distress in a family. Questions arise such as: should we raise our child as a male or female? What should we name our child? However, the most controversial question of all is: should we have surgery done for our child? This question arises from the assumption that the child is not "normal" and modifications must be made to make this child more "normal." For more information, see the websites of the Intersex Society of North America (http://www.isna.org/ (http://www.isna.org/)) and the United Kingdom Intersex Society (http://www.ukia.co.uk/ (http://www.ukia.co.uk/)).In retrospect, it seems clear that the surgical refashioning of infants' genitalia must be assessed during the adulthoods of those patients, after the sexual organs take on their distinctive importance in intimate and procreative relationships. To judge success by genital appearance and psychosexual development prior to puberty is to fall victim to narrowed vision (UKIA, 2002).The United Kingdom Intersex Association compilation of statements from various medical literature shows that there are some that find that the "refashioning" of genitalia is a decision that parents must not make. If a child is born with two X chromosomes, however features male genitalia, how do the parents react? In most cases the child is raised as male, and when an adult, he is sterile. However, the biological example of female can be made as having two X chromosomes. How does one determine sex in these cases?


The written testimony of Mairi MacDonald, attests to the physical and emotional pain of being intersexed. Mairi's parents chose his sex to be male despite being sexually ambiguous at birth. Mairi was not satisfied with being male, being forced to be a man and inherit the gender roles associated with maleness. "However, given the choice of 'male,' 'female,' 'intersex,' I would unhesitatingly select 'intersex'—but society does not give me that option so I select 'female.' I do so with deep reservations, gritting my teeth at a society which will not accept my right to simply be who I am" (MacDonald, 2000). Society is structured in a way that there is nothing other than male or female. The minority that fits in between male and female are often looked at as the disfigured and abnormal. Many intersexed children have an excruciatingly difficult time relating to other children who are deemed "normal."My years in school were a minefield of emotions and secrecy, even as a junior it must have been explained to the teachers by my parents that I could not stand to urinate, and that I was very different to other boys, as I suffered the humiliation of only being allowed to go to the lavatory when every other child in the class had been. I didn't understand what all the fuss was about as I didn't feel different to anyone else but was certainly made to feel that way. Why did they have to treat me like such a freak? (Anonymous, 2000, in UKIA website)Obviously these experiences are only due to the lack of acceptance of people of intersexed backgrounds and the inner conflict that society creates for people born with ambiguous genitalia. Many have gone through surgery when reaching adulthood because of this ignorance. The experiences that these people go through are not just individual, but shared among many people of the intersexual background. Normalcy in this case seems to be shaped by society and not by individuals. Society has a definition of normal that describes the ideal, fully functional person. Statistically, since the majority of people are from totally male or female sexes, the minority becomes the abnormal.
Coda

Ever-changing societal perception will always influence the definition of "normal" and "normalcy." Regardless of the phenotype, members of a given minority could view themselves as normal while society can define these members as abnormal. The people in the "normal" majority will likely share common (if naïve) views on the definition of a normal phenotype, a definition that will be applied to all members of society. It is interesting, although perhaps not surprising, to note that a large majority of the texts written on what is "normal" are by those who by their own admission are themselves considered abnormal by society. Thus, it can be seen that those in the minority are often the first to question the conceptions held without question by those in the majority. However, these philosophical and practical questions of the nature of normalcy are left to the inherently dynamic nature of "normal" society to reconcile.
Works Cited

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ماهي التعديلات التي يجب ان تجرى عليها ؟

What adjustments must be conducted on the books deaf?


Inquiry into employment: increasing participation in paid work
The Australian Federation of Deaf Societies (AFDS) wishes to make the following
submission for the consideration of the inquiry into increasing participation in paid work.
It is the view of AFDS that Deaf people continue to experience barriers to full economic
participation, as a result of:
• gaps in access to education and training
• limited awareness by employers of deafness and reasonable adjustment options
» inadequate funding for Australian Sign Language (Auslan) interpreting for employment
related activities
• employment agencies not providing Auslan interpreters for Deaf clients
Case studies based on actual experience have been used throughout this submission to
highlight these issues.
The Committee may also be aware that in recognition of such concerns, the Prime Minister
requested that an independent consultant be commissioned by the Department of Family
and Community Services to undertake a study to examine the supply, demand and funding
of Auslan interpreting services. This three-month research project was conducted in 2003
and included issues relating to paid work. We understand that a report has now been
finalised for ministerial consideration.
Although AFDS has only had access to the preliminary data circulated to the reference group
for the study, we feel that the study confirms the concerns raised in this submission and
would therefore be of tremendous assistance to the Committee in considering our
submission and the following recommendations.
AFDS recommends that there be:
« a more stringent obligation on educational institutions to provide disability access
services such as notetaking and Auslan interpreting
« adequate budget allocations to educational institutions specifically for the purposes of
disability access services
« funding for Deafness awareness and Auslan in the workplace focusing in particular on
smaller, private sector employers
• funding for employment related interpreting situations, especially for smaller, private
sector employers
• review of the FAGS Workplace Modification Scheme to include financial assistance for
costs associated with Auslan interpreting
« review of the employment assistance classifications used for case based and block
funding agreements in relation to Deaf clients
• enhanced funding and clearer obligations for funded employment services to provide
Auslan interpreters for Deaf clients
These recommendations apply equally to the open employment market and the income
support aspect of the Terms of Reference for the inquiry.
We would of course be pleased to provide the Committee with any further information or to
expand on our submission in due course.
Yours sincerely
Joe Sabolcec

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منهج الصم في المرحلة الابتدائية في امريكا والدول الاسكندنافيه


Curriculum at primary level deaf in America and Scandinavia


Historically, ensuring the due process rights of deaf defendants
has been a problematic issue in the criminal
justice system (McAlister, 1994; Smith, 1994; Vernon
& Coley, 1978; Vernon & Greenburg, 1996; Vernon
& Miller, in press; Vernon & Raifman, 1997;
Whalen, 1981; Wood, 1984). Inadequate communication
can radically affect a deaf defendant’s interactions
in the courtroom. Pursuant to the concepts of fairness
enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and the specific
statutory language contained in federal and state laws,
the courts must provide equal access for deaf defendants
(Berko, 1992; Gallie & Smith, 2000; McCoy,
1992; Simon, 1994; Vernon & Raifman, 1997). It is the
responsibility of the court to ensure that the appropriate
accommodation is provided in the language most
readily understood by the defendant.
When adjudicating a deaf criminal defendant,
courts must make certain that the defendant has equal
access to various due process activities, such as assisting
counsel in the development of a defense, deciding
whether to testify, deciding which plea to enter, understanding
the charges, understanding one’s position
as defendant, and comprehending the role of the defense
and prosecuting attorneys, and judge (Berko,
1994; King, 1990; Simon, 1994; Smith, 1994; Vernon &
Coley, 1978; Vernon & Miller, in press; Vernon, Raifman,
& Greenberg, 1996).
However, complex linguistic issues that impinge on
adjudicative competence are present in some deaf
defendants (Vernon & Miller, in press; Vernon & Raifman,
1997). Adjudicative competence refers to an individual’s
ability to adequately comprehend and participate
in legal proceedings and due process activities.
When diverse language use is an issue, a deaf defendant’s
ability to participate in proceedings can be established
by the court using the modern test of adjudicative
competence (Dusky v. U.S., 1960). This test
examines a defendant’s state of mind at the time of trial
rather than at the time of the offense in terms of these
factors: a defendant’s capacity to participate, reasonable
understanding of the proceedings, and level of
cognitive functioning, irrespective of any mental disorder.
This article will outline linguistic barriers to due
process for deaf defendants.
A Speedy Trial as a Function of Due Process
Recurrent themes appearing in court cases involving
deaf defendants are linguistic diversity and adjudicative
competence. Neither of these issues is mutually exclusive.
However, they are frequently mislabeled, misunderstood,
and improperly handled by the court
system. Failure to ensure due process rights for deaf
defendants, specifically the right to a speedy trial, can
result in tragic and irreversible consequences.
Junius Wilson, a deaf African American, was im-
Correspondence should be sent to Katrina R. Miller, Lamar University,
Box 10076, Beaumont, TX 77710 (e-mail: TMiller593@aol.com).



2001 Oxford University Press
Endnote
Linguistic Diversity in Deaf Defendants and Due
Process Rights
Katrina R. Miller
Lamar University
McCay Vernon
Western Maryland College
Linguistic Diversity as a Function of Culture
Linguistic diversity in deaf defendants is frequently an
interaction of culture and educational background.
The Wilson and Hindsley cases exemplify aspects of
culturally based linguistic diversity in the deaf community.
Both defendants were members of American cultural
groups, some of whose members use indigenous
sign languages not readily recognized by most sign language
interpreters, who have traditionally been white
women (“Landmark court case,” 2000). The sign language
continuum used to educate most ASL students
and interpreters today illustrates three major modes:
ASL, English, and a contact language (formerly referred
to as Pidgin Sign English or PSE), which mixes
elements of ASL and English (Woodward & Markowicz,
as cited by Baker & Cokely, 1980). This continuum
admirably illustrates the contact language resulting
when ASL and English interact. However, indigenous
sign languages such as NAISL and cultural-regional
influences are not readily evident in the continuum because
there are no common labels for these modes, often
difficult to identify because they may be unique to
a minute population or, in some cases, an individual.
For the purposes of this discussion, a grid will be substituted
for the continuum. The grid is intended to illustrate
some of the indigenous and foreign contact
languages that may be used by deaf defendants and to
encourage professionals to think beyond the ASLEnglish
continuum during the process of language assessment
of a deaf defendant (Table 1).
Conventional histories of sign language do not address
indigenous sign languages any more than does
the continuum currently used for instructing interpreters.
Modern ASL is thought to be an evolution of
two languages: Old American Sign Language, as first
recorded in the Martha’s Vineyard area in 1694, and
the French-based methodical sign system introduced
to America by Laurent Clerc in 1817 (Stedt & Moores,
1990). However, evidence in the journals of Coronado,
Cabesa de Vaca, and other early invaders shows that a
well-developed sign language, capable of communicating
beyond the scope of gestures, was in use among the
Indian nations in North America prior to European
contact (McKay-Cody, 1997; Wurtzburg & Campbell,
Endnote 227
prisoned on an unsubstantiated charge of rape in 1925
(“Landmark court case,” 2000; Wilson by Branch v.
North Carolina, 1996; “Wrongly Accused Man,” 1997).
A jury found Wilson mentally incompetent to stand
trial due to mental retardation. However, the charges
against him were not dropped until almost five decades
later in the 1970s. It was eventually discovered that
Wilson was not mentally retarded but instead used an
obscure North Carolina sign language known as the
Raleigh Dialect. Unfortunately, Wilson had been castrated
and imprisoned in a state hospital for 69 years
before the error was finally acknowledged by the state
with a settlement that included a sum of $226,000, a
private and permanent residence on state hospital
grounds, and the services of a full-time health care assistant.
The failure of the courts to provide Wilson
with a speedy trial is not an isolated incident in the history
of deaf defendants’ interactions with the criminal
justice system.
Seventy-five years after the Wilson case, George
Hindsley, a deaf American Indian, was able to successfully
move for the suppression of statements he made
to the police following the smothering death of his 2-
year-old son (Ross, 2000; Wisconsin v. Hindsley, 2000).
Unlike Wilson, who almost certainly did not receive
any interpreting services, the police provided Hindsley
with a certified sign language interpreter. However, the
interpreter was not able to effectively interpret from
the specialized legal vocabulary required for the administration
of the Miranda warnings into the target
language most readily understood by Hindsley. Hindsley
communicated using an unusual mixture of two
signed languages, which is commonly referred to as
contact language by linguists. Hindsley’s language incorporated
features of American Sign Language (ASL)
and North American Indian Sign Language (NAISL).
Despite the court-ordered suppression of his statements,
Hindsley was incarcerated in a county jail for 3
years without a trial throughout the process of determining
his language and how to communicate with
him (“Landmark court case,” 2000; Ross, 2000). Neither
Wilson nor Hindsley received a speedy trial. Despite
a 75-year lapse between these cases, linguistic diversity
in deaf defendants consistently confounds the
courts even today



.

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اخي الكريم baadysaad كل كلمات الشكر والعرفان لا تفي وتعجز في التعبيرعن شكرك ولكن اخي الكريم بارك الله فيك ورزقك من حيث لاتحتسب وجعل ذلك في ميزان حسناتك فقد بذلت جهداً واضحاً نسأل الله ان يوفقك لكل خير 0 تقبل تحياتي وتقديري ودعائي وامنياتي لك بالتوفيق 0

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العفو اخي تربيه

و لا شكر على واجب

و الله يوفق الجميع لما فيه الخير و الصالح

و اعتذر عن اي تقصير

تمنياتي لك بالنجاح الدائم


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