Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Society of Deaf Computing Engineers

I'm contemplating on establishing a computer society where it's members are Deaf or supporters of the society. Here are some visions I have that will benefit from the establishment of such society.

1. Job Announcements/Resume bank for employer to view/post.
2. Discounts on Hardware/Software/Books/etc.
3. Creation of code camps and displaying the work of contributors.
4. Workshops where members can provide educational presentations to benefit members or the public.
5. And more...

It would more likely start out as a group and eventually become a 501c3 organization. Here are a few suggestion of the organization name.

A. Society of Deaf Computing Engineers
B. Deaf Computer Society

I sort of like the first choice but if you have a suggestion then feel free to send them this way.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Deaf Education and Literacy

Deaf Education and Literacy

There has been some means of measuring the progress of Deaf education and literacy but only in the form of some sort of estimation in scholar journal. I did some google search on statistical record keeping of progress in Deaf Education and Literacy and you can guess that there is very little materials. With more kids being mainstreamed, we have little means to collecting such statistics.
Does the US Department of Education have some form of requirement that schools are to keep track of all kids and their hearing loss? What about the type of tests they take to measure progress? We have the SAT and a number of other tests. Including specialized tests for the Deaf.
Are some required and others not? What about the communication method used in conveying the materials to the students?
Deaf Education has been around for a long time, yet we are no where close to providing the means of what works and what doesn't work. Are we going to continue down the path of blindly educating our Deaf students without the tools that are effective?
I know there are a lot of questions here and I'm hoping people will either verify that no such means of measuring the progress of Deaf education or literacy exists or point me to where such statistical data reside for observation.