The Waubonsee Hearing Impaired Program (WHIP), offering courses for disadvantaged adults in English and reading as well as a special program for hearing impaired students, is described. English Review is a course which aids students whose deficiencies in English preclude their taking the regular freshman English courses. Instruction is…

This manual offers states a tool to assist in the development or enhancement of guidelines for access assistants. Whether a state already has guidelines or is just in the process of establishing them, this manual will provide structure to the process and many examples of criteria already included by states. This manual was developed to accompany…

This textbook provides support for learners of British Sign Language (BSL) and others interested in the structure and use of BSL, and assumes no previous knowledge of linguistics or sign language; technical terms and linguistic jargon are kept to a minimum. The text contains many examples from English, BSL, and other spoken and signed languages,…

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing (n=231) used the Language Background Questionnaire (LBQ) to self assess their sign language and spoken communication skills. Formal independent estimates of these skills were also conducted. Comparison of results indicates a high degree of congruence between the self and formal assessments, which…

In this article, two teachers of students with hearing impairments present their understanding of semantics and how they use this understanding to informally assess students' signed, oral, and written-language samples. Describes different classroom strategies for encouraging students with hearing impairments to use rich language. (Author/CR)

This article lists community college, college, and university programs for training sign language interpreters. Alphabetized by state, contact information is provided for each program, along with the head of the department and the degrees offered. (CR)

Presented is a case study of a boy who could not process language auditorily even though he had normal hearing. The boy, who was hyperactive and had a monosyllabic vocabulary at the age of four, received training on speech patterns through sign language and repetition and became a high-achieving student. (JDD)

Analysis of the Zobrest versus Catalina Foothills School District (1993) case (in which the Supreme Court ruled that using state monies to pay for sign language interpreting services in a parochial school does not violate the Establishment Clause) suggests that, had the Court understood the interpreter's participatory role, it might well have…

Twelve deaf children (ages 6 to 16) in Italy utilized a computer-assisted interactive multimedia program designed to facilitate their access to new information via both Italian Sign Language and Italian written text. All the children used and profited from the application. Findings are discussed in terms of bilingual methods of education for deaf…

Four adults with moderate/severe disabilities were taught to request objects by using the manual signs "want" or "please" plus an object label sign, within the context of familiar activities in which needed objects were missing. All participants acquired a generic requesting response, and three acquired an explicit requesting…

Examines the possibilities and advantages of computers in teaching hearing-impaired children. A method of using computers to improve the spoken and written communication skills of the hearing impaired is presented. Suggests that Hypertext and multimedia technologies can be successfully applied to speech therapy teaching, lip-reading teaching,…

This paper proposes new policies which stress making explicit the roles of sign communication and speech in total communication programs for students with hearing impairments. A review of the literature supports the need to redefine total communication, provide improved preservice and in-service training of teachers in effective communication…

The use of Makaton signs was investigated with 49 British children (ages 4-13) with severe learning difficulties. Teacher-directed settings were associated with more use of signs but limited pragmatic functions. Free play settings were associated with less sign use but more varied functions. In both settings, most spoken and signed language was…

Discusses partial-insertion cochlear implants and examines the aural rehabilitation of a 13-year-old girl who was postlingually deafened in 1991 and subsequently fitted with a Nucleus 22-Channel cochlear implant. The case study traces her progress and the decision making process in changing from aural communication to sign language communication.…

This article investigates the way in which deaf tertiary students' identity is constructed within the university--an overwhelmingly "hearing" institution. It is a descriptive and analytical account of the experiences of two deaf teacher education students as they reflect on their progress and experiences in higher education. Data have…