The Six Best Pages for Deaf Content on Reddit
Few sites offer their users a wider selection of topics to discuss than Reddit. There’s a page, or ‘subreddit’, for almost everything. Whether you want to discuss pizza or are in desperate need of a forum dedicated to the letter ‘G’, there’s a subreddit for any niche you could want. As far as deaf subreddits are concerned, there are...
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Alex Jones on the Australian Deaf Games 2016
Alex Jones is an actor and advocate for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. He is also Co-Founder of Ai-Media. Alex attended the Australian Deaf Games 2016 as a supporter and judge of the event. Today, he sits down and generously shares his invaluable experience and thoughts about the Australian Deaf Games 2016. He also talks about...
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Sign Language vs Captioning
Approximately 20,000 Deaf people in Australia prefer Auslan (Australian Sign Language) as their first language. Auslan has it’s own syntax, grammar and lexicon just like any other language. Facial expression plays an important role in communicating in Auslan as it conveys the tone of the message. The morphology of Auslan is defined by five parameters: hand, shape, orientation, location,...
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Stepping into the world of Auslan at the Australian Deaf Games
This year I was presented with the unique and wonderful opportunity of attending the XVII Australian Deaf Games hosted in Adelaide. The Games are arguably the biggest event on the social calendar of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community in Australia, taking place every two years. Athletes compete in a variety of sports over the seven days of the Games and...
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Bilingual school for deaf children focuses on Auslan and mother tongue
A community-based school in Blackburn teaches deaf children both sign language and their mother tongue. In the world of the deaf, the language of silence is as important as that of the spoken word, experts argue. Bilingualism – where children learn to sign as well as speak their mother tongue – is a hot potato globally, but at Aurora...
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The History of Auslan.
Thomas Pattison (pictured left), a deaf migrant to Australia from Scotland, established the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in 1860. History Below you will finds some brief and basic facts about the history of Auslan. Interested readers will find much more information in Johnston, T., & Schembri, A. (2007). Australian Sign Language: An introduction to sign language...
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Athlete Jamie Howell prepares for Australian Deaf Games.
A young track and field athlete who is hearing impaired is skipping schoolies celebrations to focus on training for the Australian Deaf Games early next year. While many of her friends have taken a break after completing Year 12, 17-year-old Jamie Howell dreams of representing Australia at the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. “My life pretty much revolves around athletics, training...
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Maitland schoolgirl Jorja met her idol Taylor Swift before losing hearing.
Jorja Hope’s wildest dreams came true on Saturday night when she met her idol Taylor Swift. The Maitland schoolgirl was lined up backstage at the Taylor Swift concert moments away from coming face-to-face with her idol when the tears began. “I quickly saw her behind a curtain and I was speechless,” Jorja said. “I didn’t think it was real, it was...
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Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Try New Sports
Close to 250 deaf, hard of hearing and hearing children from the Shepparton area ( VIC ) took to the oval at Guthrie Street Primary School last week, to try their hand at cricket, soccer and AFL. The day was organised as part of the Active Deaf Kids (ADK) program, an initiative of Deaf Sports Australia, and was designed to...
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Signing Messiah with Alex Jones
Since its first performance in Dublin in 1742 Handel’s Messiah has become a sacred music classic. Handel’s greatest and most loved choral masterpiece sung by more than 400 voices at the Sydney Opera House. Brett Weymark conducts the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs for three concert events to mark the start of the festive season. But what if you had to...
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