Believe It or Not: Sexism still exists in classrooms today, and we wonder – is anyone paying attention? Consider these scenarios that we recently witnessed: 1. A girl comes home from school, crushed after learning that the role of Peter Pan in her class play can only be played by a boy. Girls must take on “girl” parts; boys must …
Read MoreBack to School: With September underway, Deaf students are once again heading back to schools and universities and once again, on the front burner, are concerns about Deaf education, student achievement scores, reading levels, and other related topics. It’s inevitable that comparisons will be made between Deaf students’ performances and those of their hearing peers. Apples and Oranges: When an …
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Tiptoeing Around the Topic: Without a doubt, one of the most sensitive issues in the Deaf community today is the role of hearing professionals who work closely with Deaf people. Bringing up this topic is a little bit like walking on eggshells. No matter your intentions – to open a dialogue, to encourage introspection, to understand motivation behind behaviors – …
Read MoreCollecting Demographic Information: If you have ever tried to collect demographic information about the membership of an organization, program, or university, you (a) may have been lucky enough to get a straightforward, no-questions-asked breakdown of the membership by gender, race, age, and so on, or (b) you may have found your request for information met with hesitation, suspicion, or outright …
Read MoreNo Boarding Pass for You: If you’re a Deaf traveler flying on your own in Thailand anytime soon, Thai AirAsia will not let you aboard. Just this week, the airline announced that anyone who is Deaf, blind, or has a disability cannot fly unaccompanied on any of its planes within the country. Officials explained that because they are a budget …
Read MoreSharon’s Frustrating Week Defining the ADA: What an experience I had at my doctoral program’s summer session last week. I am currently enrolled in Fielding Graduate University, the only APA-accredited distance learning program for clinical psychology in the USA. This means that instead of sitting in a classroom with professors and students, most of my classes are online seminars or …
Read MoreWomen in Science Face Biases: Yesterday’s Washington Post features a story about a neurobiologist who had a sex-change operation, switching from a female to a male (FTM = female to male). According to the story, after the scientist had his operation, he returned to work as a man and gave a talk. Another scientist, who did not know that his …
Read MoreWould They Ask This About an All-Male Anchor Team?: ABC’s Good Morning America announced yesterday that Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts will co-anchor the morning news, making them either the first or one of the very first all-female anchor teams. This announcement was followed by a news story questioning whether television viewers would be willing to watch two women give …
Read MoreIdentity and Privilege: Understanding White Privilege is a book that has made us think a lot about our own privileges and power as white people. Like the author says, white people don’t often realize how much we take for granted, how easy it is to overlook what it means to be white. We basically assume, for example, that the people …
Read MoreWhat Does “Qualified” Mean Anyway?: Yesterday’s post brings us to another gripe with insurance companies and their in-network lists. When therapists decide to join a company’s in-network list, they fill out a stack of papers, listing their background, specialties, qualifications, etc. There is usually a list of languages that you can check off, to indicate your “fluency” in any number …
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