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This morning I had a funny reminder of just how much information we Deafies miss out on when we integrate with the hearing world. I received a text from my wife, who is also deaf, telling me that we had won the tennis grand final the previous Monday. It is now Sunday and we had been crowned tennis champions for a week and we were blissfully unaware. I had received a text from the organizer congratulating me on our win. I had found this odd, because we rarely lose. As it turns out she was congratulating me on our grand final win and I had no idea.

I am sure our hearing colleagues who make up our team were chatting about the fact that it was a grand final. Not being able to overhear them meant my wife and I had no idea. Most likely they had congratulated us at the net, but my wife and I didn’t hear this either. So we finished the game and headed home. Where we live its freaking cold at night so I wasn’t hanging about. This little story is stark reminder of just how much information deaf people miss out on when they interact in the hearing world.

Hearing and deaf interactions came very much to the forefront recently when a young deaf woman contacted me. Her name is Sian and she is an interior designer. She was seeking advice as to how she might advance further in her career. As it turned out Sian was born into a hearing family and had been the youngest person ever to receive an implant back in 1990. She was just two and a half years old at the time. Four months after her surgery the implantation of young babies was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. At 19 Sian had a second implant. Deaf babies now have bilateral implants, this was not an option back in 1990.

I will come back to Sian and her original reason for contacting me later. After I met Sian I asked if I could interview her for The Rebuttal. I sent her a list of written questions, which she answered for me. She also asked her mother for her views on some of the questions.

One of the questions that I asked was about the impact at the time she had her implant. Because she was a world first I wondered how people had reacted. Her mother had this to say,

 “Not long after Sian had the cochlear implant, we went to a camp for families with deaf children. Sian’s head was half shaved from the surgery with a massive scar, we wanted to connect with other deaf families but at this event we physically experienced the Deaf community turning their backs on us. This was one of our family’s first experience encountering the Deaf community. Sian was only 3 years old. We wanted to get an understanding of the Deaf community and what it would mean for her. Unfortunately this turned out to be a really negative experience. This was in the early 1990’s. This set the stage of our family not feeling welcomed by the community.”

I well recall this time. In the early days of the Implant some of the more militant factions of the Deaf community reacted savagely to any suggestion that deaf babies should be implanted. They called it child abuse. They screamed that parents were disfiguring babies. They screamed that parents were putting young deaf babies at risk. I vividly recall a prominent member of the Deaf community going on the Today Show to tell the world that cochlear implants had led to paralysis. (It as an over reaction to the fact that a few deaf people had suffered from facial paralysis as a result of the surgeon nicking a crucial nerve during surgery.)

It must have been a horrible time to be a hearing parent of a deaf child and trying to decide whether to implant your deaf child or not. Sadly, because Sian had been the first, her parents seem to have received the brunt of this negative reaction. As a member of the Deaf community I can only apologise profusely to Sian’s mother. I cannot imagine the pain it must have caused. Suffice to say that it was not until Sian was 14 and began to be involved with the Deaf community that the Deaf community began to accept her family.

When Sian contacted me she wanted advice as to how she could progress at work. She is very intelligent. Her spoken language is fantastic. Her written language is superb. She clearly has much to offer but for some reason she had not progressed as much as she wanted to at work. She had  basically been in the same role in all that time. She was not where she wanted to be in terms of her position and skills. She wanted to gain more in her position.  She recounted all of this to me, in tears and clearly very frustrated.

“One day I went into my manager’s office and sat down, I told him I was frustrated at where I was and that I was not where I wanted to be. I was in tears, to the point of crying uncontrollably. I told him I wanted more, I compared myself to people I went to university with that have flourished in the industry that are doing extremely well for themselves, in magazine spreads, owning their own business etc; that I was no where near that. I aspire to be like my colleagues, I want to develop my skills and knowledge further, I want more exposure in the industry. I laid all my emotions on the table and my manager took this on board. To his credit, he has been wonderful. Since then, I have been given more than I ever had in the last couple of years, I am being taken seriously and continuously supported to help me to get to where I strive to be.”

Despite her ability to hear well, speak well, write well and do her job competently she had many frustrations working in a hearing organisation. For example she works in an open office that is partitioned off. She hates this because she cannot see any one. She does not know what others are talking about. She does not have access to peer learning nor the ability to be involved n the discussions that her colleagues are having. This is something that many hearing people do not get, particularly in a workplace. One of the ways that people get ahead in their career is simply by listening to what others have to say. In this way they contribute their own ideas and become involved in the DNA of an organization. If they cannot, they are often seen as being the quiet person, content in what they are doing.

The sad thing is that because not much thought is given to how to properly include a deaf person in these “Office Discussions” employers miss-out on the true value of a deaf employee. And as we can see with Sian it can hold back the deaf employee to the point of frustration. Said Sian,

“Because I can speak and hear well, my colleagues tend to forget at times that I don’t always hear absolutely everything. The little subtle things can be a huge effort: phone calls; the intense concentration of listening/lip reading; the strain to hear talking across the office; I am proudly continually educating them about deafness and of my needs. Even having to make or receive phone calls have been a challenge, there are people that I can have a comfortable conversation with on the phone, but there are others that I cannot understand a word because of their gruffness in their voice or accents, or speaking too quickly or in particular background noise. I find knowing the context and knowing the voice helps to predict the conversation. I panic when the phone rings at work, I have all these thoughts running through my mind – who is it? What’s the context? What if I cant hear them how do I get out of it?”

 There is always the constant that the deaf employee must re-educate their colleagues as to their needs. Often hearing colleagues are very accommodating but when things get really busy they forget. We deafies constantly have to remind our hearing colleagues of our needs. It can be very tiresome and there are times we just do not have the energy to continuously remind people. Sian has these frustrations too,

“I also get extremely frustrated that I miss out on a lot of information that can float throughout the office, it could be a construction issue or issues with the builder, or any crucial information that would be valuable for my personal development as a designer. The only way I process information is by being told directly or visually.”

And we develop our own strategies too. Sian has some. We all know that the world is designed for hearing people. It often does not stop to consider the needs of Deafies (or any people with a disability) So what happens is we adjust. In Sian’s own words,

“But of late I have come up with a strategy – leave answering machine on so I can listen to the message to know who it is and what they want, I will then figure out if I am able to ring them back or simply email. This is something that I will be raising in my staff review soon. But if its colleagues interstate, I make the effort of telling them to communicate with me via Skype or email. I find this really useful.”

What Sian has described, I call Deaf Life Skills. We really need to teach them to our deaf kids.

In many ways Sian is fortunate because her employer is very responsive to her needs when she raises them. Sian explains,

“I made a point in a meeting that the office layout needed to be changed especially removing the partitions between desks so that I could have a clear view of people around the office so I could try and see conversations (where appropriate). My colleagues support this, it made complete sense to them and that they had not realised that this was a barrier for me. Despite my frustrations at work, any issue that I raise as a result of my deafness is taken seriously and acted upon. At present I am working on developing confidence around my self advocacy skills.”

 Even so, challenges remain for Sian despite the fact that she gets great benefit from her implants. I winced when she explained that she sits in meetings of up to twenty people. She copes by focusing on the people that talk the most but obviously misses out on much information. I was able to give Sian some advice on strategies to deal with such meetings that she is now following up. That is the value of having a good deaf professional network.

“I got some sound amplication devices that are supposed to be of help with certain situations at work but they were such a pain in the arse to get it working; I would have to stop, make all these switches to tune in – for an example if the phone rang, I would have to had to turn on my loop, press a button on my processor to tune into the phone – it was difficult to do this in a number of seconds the phone rings, it got stressful and frustrating. It also meant that it cut out background noise so I could only hear the person on the phone but I could not hear myself responding back, I would speak so loudly’ with colleagues around. There was another device that I got to help with meetings, it would pick up the person speaking and cut out background noise. But I found this not to be as good as it could have been. It would take ages for it to tune in and if I was to respond, I couldn’t hear myself or control my tone. It also didn’t necessarily pick up other people making comments in a meeting, I still missed out of information. These devices made it a hell lot more awkward for me. However I was luckily enough to get some other devices through a different brand which work a lot better, but the thing is I have to remember to make good use of them. Through out my hectic day, I have to remember that I have these devices that I can use that would help – but who thinks to drop everything in order to make things better for ourselves. It is an effort.”

I asked Sian about some of her experiences growing up. She was educated within a Deaf unit. During her primary and secondary education she generally received good support. She recalls her time at primary school as being very happy. She felt accepted by her friends and she felt just like any other student. Things changed when she attended secondary school. Secondary school brought with it a very different set of challenges. This is how Sian describes this time,

“Secondary school was more challenging. The hearing kids were older and came from different primary schools – mostly from schools that did not have a deaf campus so they would not have the understanding of deafness that the kids I went to school with had. I struggled with my identity, bullying and pressures to be ‘accepted’ “

Sian feels that she was lucky to be part of a Deaf Facility during this time. She saw the Deaf facility as her ‘safe haven’ . The deaf students of the deaf facility are friends right up to this day. But even so there were many things that frustrated her,

“Sitting in groups trying to follow the conversations; having to sit at the front of the class room to ensure that I don’t miss any information. I was encouraged to wear an ‘RF’ transmitter which I gave up in year 8 much to my teachers and parents annoyance (in hindsight would have made a difference). Being a teenager I didn’t want to be any more isolated than I already was, it was a struggle enough as it was.”

Sian has battled with depression throughout her teenage and adulthood life. Much of this related to the struggles and frustrations she faced being deaf. Some of her depression was related to personal issues that she doe not wish to raise here.

“Growing up I have always felt a bit isolated in the hearing world trying to fit in and with my on going frustrations, but then I discovered a whole other world – my identity went into overdrive. I am deaf but I am oral but was learning Auslan. Who am I? Which group do I belong to? The Hearing? The Deaf? The Oral? The Signing? In my twenties, I have come to realise that my world is a whole lot richer that I have access to all these groups. I don’t need to belong to just one group. I can move across these groups fluidly. Having said this, I embrace my deafness, this is who I am. Acceptance has been a long journey but I finally have arrived! My teenage years and early adulthood I suffered chronic severe depression, I was very unwell that I had to retreat to focus on getting myself well again.”

Sian’s experience of deafness and interacting with the hearing world is something many deaf people can relate to. It is not a world that is designed for deaf people, even with the most advanced technology. Sometimes I think we are often set up to fail. If we talk well, hear well and appear to be doing great at school, this is often seen as enough. The internal and external struggles that Sian describes are not something hearing people understand well. Her time at university will resonate with many deaf academics,

“I had thought that University would have been a phenomenal experience and I had also expected to make some good solid friendships through out my degree. But it was nowhere near that. My peers were from all walks of life with, I am assuming, not much understanding of deafness. It appeared that they seemed hesitant to approach me because I had a notetaker on my arse, the other students may have not have understood the dynamics between the notetaker and me. They may have also not have understood why I had a note taker if I could hear and speak so well. When it came presentation time, I was worried maybe I would be presenting something completely different to the rest of the class. If I can’t hear or the strain to hear is too much of an effort, I zone out. It is exhausting. I tried my best to be like my peers. To say it was a challenge is an understatement. I wish there was live captioning when I was at university, this would have made a world’s difference to me.”

I asked Sian whether having a cochlear implant meant that many people often had unrealistic expectations of what she could hear and do. Her answer was revealing,

“We need to continually educate the hearing world that just because we have cochlear implants it does not mean that we have 100% hearing, that we are still deaf and we still require support and assistance.”

And we need to educate the Deaf world too. I am still cringing at the backlash that Sian’s parents must have received when they made the very difficult decision to implant her. There are still these elements of the Deaf community that aggressively slam parents of deaf children and the hearing world for pushing cochlear implants. Don’t get me wrong; I also get frustrated with a system that constantly peddles biased information. Even so hearing parents of deaf children are often unfairly targeted and this causes them great pain. Not only does it cause them pain put it also leads to them withdrawing and even shunning the Deaf community. This means that their deaf kids miss out on so many wonderful social opportunities. As I bring this article to a close I ask all my deaf readers to carefully consider this last statement from Sian’s mother,

 “I wish now that Sian had contact with the deaf signing community earlier on and that Sian was accepted by them. Being marginalized by the signing community I think caused many problems. It created a situation of us and them. Unfortunately this meant that she was not able to experience being a member of the deaf community until she was about 14 when she became involved in the Deaf community and learned to sign. It was clear that it was what she needed because she flourished in this environment. I wished back then that the Deaf community embraced all people who were deaf or hard of hearing, those who spoke or signed. Considering what we know about the brain’s plasticity now, I may have looked at Sian’s communication needs differently. I may have considered using Australian sign language before Sian learned to speak. But I would definitely have continued with our oral crusade.”

 Food for thought?

Thank you Sian and her mum. It has been a privilege to write your story.

Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories. ~John Wilmot

I am a parent of three robust lads. They are great lads too. We are all best mates, most of the time anyway. I pity my poor wife sometimes because we lads are all sport nuts. The footies on we watch, the soccer is on we watch – particularly so if it’s the English Premier League (EPL). The lads and I sit awake into the wee hours of the morning watching EPL. Sometimes Fin is upstairs watching Manchester United on a crap and probably pirated media stream. Fin made the mistake of supporting them while I and the other two are rabid West Ham supporters. Three against one – There is only one team that we will watch on Fox. The mother? In bed long ago.

And the poor mother. Some sop romantic thing comes on and there are automatically groans of despair all round as she claims the TV to watch it. No matter, there is the Playstation. Of course the game of choice is FIFA 14. Sometimes we play alone and sometimes we play together. Usually it is alone so that we are all arguing about whose turn it is.

“But daaaaaad you’ve been on it for three hours!!!!!!” –

“But kiiiiiiiddds I only play Fifa from start to finish once a year.!!! –

“But daaaaaaaad it takes you 12 months to do that!!!”

Meanwhile on the TV, or in the bedroom and most often in the bath, the mother is watching PS I Love you for the 5 000^th time. Or it might be Phantom of the Opera or Les Misérables . No there isn’t a TV in the bathroom, she watches it on her laptop. It’s not all bad, the eldest and the youngest are great fans of Dr Who, as is the mother. It keeps them together.

Of course our kids are all CODA’s – Children of Deaf Adults. There are some advantages of being a Child of a Deaf Adult. All three abuse these advantages at will. I mean they will get up after they should be in bed to watch stuff on TV, late at night, knowing that we cannot hear them or the TV. Or the eldest will pretend to go to bed and sneak out and spend another four hours on the Playstation and go to bed around 4am in the morning. They will swear knowing we wont hear it and one will dob the other in. The dobbee will then claim that they didn’t and that the dobber was trying to get them in trouble . God knows what else they do. They naively think that we don’t know about their little secrets, but of course we do. The looks of profound innocence and the lame excuses they come up with when found out are things of great amusement. They are ratbags, the three of them.

It is interesting being a parent who is deaf. Particularly when the kids first start to realise what it means to be deaf. Most CODA’s will tell you stories of when they had to ‘rescue’ their deaf parents from sticky situations. It’s hard for the kids when they see their parents struggling in communication situations. Around the ages of 6 and 7 my kids seemed to have this great need to ‘save’ me or their mother.

Now I am a lazy communicator. I am one of those deafies that faced with a communication difficulty at a place like McDonalds or a shopping line will just nod in the vain hope that a nod is what is required. Of course this is fraught with danger. You may be asked if you want sugar in your coffee, which I hate, and you will end up with sugar in your coffee. Or more commonly you are asked if you have a Rewards Card, which I don’t, and the poor assistant waits with a bemused look for you to provide it when you have wrongly confirmed that you have a Rewards Card. Most deafies are guilty of this and I am sure a fair few reading this are cringing at the memory.

CODA’s observe this over a period of years. At some point in their development it twigs that mum or dad have not heard properly and they feel the need to hop in and save them. What will happen is that at a place like McDonalds they will answer the question before the parent has had a chance to. The conversation will go something like this:

“ Do you want sugar with that?”

“No, he doesn’t have sugar”

The parent, not having heard any of the exchange, invariably nods. The poor assistant then looks bemused. The CODA then rolls his eyes at the parent and signs or exegerrates their lip movements – “They asked if you want sugar and you don’t have sugar.” The CODA then looks to the assistant and then to the heavens as if to say – “Sorry my dad’s such an idiot.”

And of course, if your kids are ratbags like mine, they will find an opportunity to abuse these situations no end. Another conversation at McDonalds will go like this:

Assistant: “Do you want to upsize that?”

CODA: “Yes Please”

Of course in this particular situation the deaf parent has actually been able to lipread the question and answers just after the Coda has said “Yes please” with a “No thank you.” Naturally the McDonalds assistant is totally confused and they are usually left looking from child to parent in a desperate attempt to work out what is wanted. The deaf parent then looks to the child to work out what has happened and the child is usually beetroot red and staring down at their shoe laces. CODA’s can be cunning. Deaf parents are well advised to tell them early that the parent and only the parent answers the questions, rightly or wrongly.

“But you always answer wrong dad!!!!”

“Well that’s my problem isn’t it!!!”

The trick is to just keep reminding them that it isn’t their problem that mum and dad have problems communicating and that it is not the CODA’s responsibility to fix it. You have to be quite firm with this otherwise the CODA is forced to take on responsibilities that are way beyond their tender years and way too early. And of course the ratbags, like mine, will try to take advantage from time to time. That said, it cannot be easy for the CODA to watch their parents struggling sometimes. As deaf parents we need to understand that.

Being a parent is the best and most rewarding thing that a person can do. I firmly believe that. It can be tough to be firm but a child needs a firm hand, particularly in adolescence.

Adolescence is where your kids begin to find their way in the world. They begin to experiment. Relationships, sex, alcohol and pushing the boundaries as far as they can are the norm. But still you must be firm and love them just the same. Even when they burn a hole in your decking, or you find a beer in their bag or even when more recently a taxi driver ends up at your front door demanding payment cos your kid couldn’t get out of bed in the morning and was running late for an excursion that they didn’t want to miss. Yup, its exasperating, rewarding and quite often very funny all at the same time.

And it’s all worth it – I think! 😀

The trouble with learning to parent on the job is that your child is the teacher. ~Robert Brault,

 

 

Like a dog to a bone I can not leave this one alone.  A couple of deaf friends have contacted me asking for a transcript of the THAT AD – I have pasted a transcript below this paragraph. The first part is the Voice Over of the signing version provided by the young lad .. The second part is a transcript of what he speaks.

Female voice over: (Boy Signing) Not so long ago the only way a deaf person like myself could really communicate was to sign – like this. Now there is a better way, a way everyone can easily understand …

Boy: (Now speaking) We talk! Cora Barclay Centre taught me to listen and then to talk, just like they have with 100’s of other deaf people. Now mum says I talk too much,  isn’t that great.

End of voice – cut to Cora Barclay graphic.

Picture this in your mind. Nice friendly looking lad with a mop of curly hair. Starts signing and then speaks. He apparently does not have any trace of a deaf accent – His speech is good and normal. I am told he has an appealing little lisp. This, apparently, adds to the lads charm.

But here is the rub – the spoken translation of the signed version only has a passing resemblance to what the lad actually signs. So things have been reversed. If I can be so bold and perhaps a little cruel, the lad signs with a “hearing accent”  Given he speaks so well we should not expect perfection should we? After all sign language is a lesser and ineffectual means of communicating isn’t it?

To give the reader an understanding of what the boy actually signs I have typed a literal translation below:

Literal English translation of boys signing.

A long time ago/ Historically/  In the Past (Tick which you prefer) only way deaf person like me can communicate date sign language. Today/Now better way. Way/Give (sign not clear) we can cheek one more.

Roughly, without the choices, we can translate what the boy signs to:

Historically only way deaf person like me can communicate date sign language. Today better way, we can cheek one more.

Sadly I am not trying to be funny. This is what the lad signed to my eye. Auslan is my second language so I welcome other interpretations that contradict my own. Either way the signing is terrible and the person that trained the poor lad to sign it needs to go back and do an Auslan or even Signed English beginners class.

Apologies to the lad who unfortunately finds himself, through no fault of his own, the centre of all this. If there is one positive, it is that he is obviously intelligent, has excellent language development and is happy for it. We can not ask for more except that the Cora Barclay Centre not use children to mislead the public.

Auslan Translation – Click here

Recent Australian figures show that 25% of science teachers do not have a science qualification and about one quarter of maths teachers do not have a major in maths.   I am sure that the statistics of teachers of the deaf with no expertise in Sign Languages would be far higher. Not even a Certificate II in Auslan from TAFE is sufficient. I have been teaching this course for over 10 years and have encountered many teachers who fail to master the theoretical  or practical aspects of grammatical Auslan. There is a serious lack of accountability in the deaf teaching profession.

The practice of qualifying teachers to work in a class where proficient signing is essential, (and this includes teacher aides working as interpreters), and who are unable to communicate fluently in Auslan is unacceptable. Not only are deaf students limited by an inadequate linguistic method but they are being disempowered. The continual use of Manually Coded English, (whether it be Signed English or some visual form of English), has left me perplexed. Countless studies have shown the harder the subject material becomes, as it does in the high school years, the less effective MCE is. Many teachers do not have the linguistic ability to conceptualise English into a language medium that is accessible for the deaf. The lack of Auslan skills from these teachers leads to the “Dumbing Down” of deaf education.

In NSW the Department of Education realised sometime ago that “recruitment and retention” of Aboriginal teachers is crucial to the success of Aboriginal students. Is the recruitment and retention of teachers of the deaf who are Deaf equally crucial for the education of deaf students in Auslan? I think it is and we need to aggressively recruit suitable Deaf people as teachers of the deaf. Not only do deaf children need more deaf role-models but they need good linguistic models.

Hearing teachers of the deaf are often insecure with their signing. Unfortunately such teachers have a monopoly over deaf education. This is often reflected in the signing ability of the students that graduate from our schools. Many are in need of sign therapy! Is it benevolent paternalism or economic self interest that prevents deaf teachers from teaching deaf children? It is probably both.

I believe, as do many Deaf people, that bilingualism is the most effective method for developing good communication skills, acquisition of language and developing a healthy sense of identity. However, having worked in a number of educational settings I am more inclined to believe that all methodologies used to teach deaf children have limitations, even bilingualism! Even so, the arguments for bilingualism are compelling.

There are many different views of bilingualism but the one I like most is by Francois Grosjean, who states that “Every deaf child, whatever the level of his/her hearing loss, should have the right to grow up bilingual. By knowing and using both a sign language and an oral language (in its written and where possible its spoken modality) the child will attain his/her full cognitive and linguistic and social capabilities.” (1999).

Grosjean’s view means that both the sign language of the Deaf community and the written and oral language of the hearing majority are used equally for the deaf child’s education. As Deaf people we should not devalue the importance of spoken language in its oral form any more than the hearing majority devalues sign languages.

Naturally some children will be dominant in Auslan while others will be dominant in spoken English. Some will even be balanced in both languages. Whatever language and degree of hearing loss, bilingualism will enable deaf students to communicate more effectively in both the Deaf and hearing worlds. Aside from learning two languages there are many other benefits of bilingualism. Bilingualism increases mental flexibility and understanding of other cultures. Studies also reveal that bilinguals often outperform monolingual children academically and in problem solving.

Our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is bilingual having learned Mandarin during his diplomat posting in China. It is well accepted that ‘Cultural intelligence’ and knowledge of a second language will enhance future opportunities, both in education and employment. In an increasingly global world Kevin Rudd is an excellent example. Is this belief reflected in deaf education?

Increasing numbers of Deaf children, particularly those with cochlear implants, have been denied access to Auslan. Auslan can be used to improve language acquisition and can be used as a tool to enhance interaction and access to spoken English. Auslan and spoken English languages can exist in a mutual partnership within an educational program. Far too often this does not happen. Is it because hearing parents and professionals find it too difficult learn another language? Instead the easier answer is to make the child speak and conform into mainstream society – Never mind the impact of this attitude on language development!

Most parents want their deaf child to learn to speak, which is perfectly good and natural. But parents are being misled and deaf children denied access to the learning of Auslan under the misconception that it will impede speech development. Why is there still enormous aversion to the learning of sign languages in conjunction with spoken language? Research abounds that demonstrates the benefits. It makes no sense. Educational authorities need to forego the conclusion that sign languages are an inferior language. It has been shown through intensive research that sign languages assist, not impede, the development of spoken language. (Emmory, 2002).

Studies from the University Of Washington, USA (2002) have indicated that if sign language is not taught at an early age then that child will not acquire the fluency of a child who has been exposed to sign language in their early years. I am sure many non-native signers wish that they had been taught a sign language during their early school years. Surely it is better to provide deaf children with thorough language development through sign language knowing that the acquisition of spoken language is going to be an enormous challenge. The acceptable answer seems to be that semi-lingual and semi literate deaf children are ok if some recognisable speech is the outcome!

A recent Australian educational conference concluded that ‘the next divide in Australia will be between those students who have a global outlook and an international language and those who do not’. The same principal applies to deaf children. It is estimated that there are more bilinguals than monolinguals in the world today. Deaf children should have this opportunity too!

“The lesson of our age is that languages are not mutually exclusive, but that human beings and humanity itself, are enriched by communicating in more than one language.”

Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the United Nations