Educational Challenges for the Deaf Community in 2000
The year 2000 was one of the pivotal years for the deaf community in regards to the education policies that affected them. That year Lawrence Siegel, Director of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), collaborated with the National Deaf Education Project to publish Needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children: A Statement of Principle Regarding Fundamental Systemic Educational Changes. The focus of the publication asserted that “all deaf and hard of hearing children are entitled to an educational system that formally recognizes that communication is at the heart of human and academic growth” (Siegel, 2000, p. 2). This publication generates the question, what was the education failure that prompted Siegel to write about the needs of deaf and …show more content…
Lang, and John A. Albertini, authors of Educating Deaf Students: From Research to Practice, state that “Myths that have grown from ignorance have dogged us in this field as far back as we can see, and faulty assumptions and overgeneralizations have been sustained through time” (Marschark, Lang, & Albertini, 2002, p. 15). Lou Larwood’s article, Distance Learning: Deaf Education Collaboration Model, provides an example of how education failed the deaf community. Larwood discusses a shortage in California of teachers that were credentialed to educate deaf children (Larwood, 2003, p. 6). Larwood cites the long distance for educators to the nearest University as one of the reasons that the shortage occurred (Larwood, 2003, p. 42). Marschark et al point out that Public Law 94-142 guaranteed an appropriate education for all children with disabilities and that they would be mainstreamed into non-disabled children as much as possible. The challenge was that teachers in the mainstreamed classroom did not treat the deaf children equally. Nor did these teachers provide equal opportunity for access to information (Marschark, Lang, & Albertini, 2002, Pp.
The year 2000 was one of the pivotal years for the deaf community in regards to the education policies that affected them. That year Lawrence Siegel, Director of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), collaborated with the National Deaf Education Project to publish Needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children: A Statement of Principle Regarding Fundamental Systemic Educational Changes. The focus of the publication asserted that “all deaf and hard of hearing children are entitled to an educational system that formally recognizes that communication is at the heart of human and academic growth” (Siegel, 2000, p. 2). This publication generates the question, what was the education failure that prompted Siegel to write about the needs of deaf and …show more content…
Lang, and John A. Albertini, authors of Educating Deaf Students: From Research to Practice, state that “Myths that have grown from ignorance have dogged us in this field as far back as we can see, and faulty assumptions and overgeneralizations have been sustained through time” (Marschark, Lang, & Albertini, 2002, p. 15). Lou Larwood’s article, Distance Learning: Deaf Education Collaboration Model, provides an example of how education failed the deaf community. Larwood discusses a shortage in California of teachers that were credentialed to educate deaf children (Larwood, 2003, p. 6). Larwood cites the long distance for educators to the nearest University as one of the reasons that the shortage occurred (Larwood, 2003, p. 42). Marschark et al point out that Public Law 94-142 guaranteed an appropriate education for all children with disabilities and that they would be mainstreamed into non-disabled children as much as possible. The challenge was that teachers in the mainstreamed classroom did not treat the deaf children equally. Nor did these teachers provide equal opportunity for access to information (Marschark, Lang, & Albertini, 2002, Pp.