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Archive for September, 2011

Deaf Awareness Week in Puerto Rico

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

Deaf Awareness Week Organizing CommitteeThe week of september 25th to october 1st is very special in Puerto Rico due to the celebration of the Deaf Awareness week. This event has been celebrated together with the Deaf March during the last 10 years. The Deaf march will take place on September 24, 2011 at 10:00 am. The March will depart from the Hiram Bithorn Stadium and will arrive at Colegio San Gabriel where a representative from the Governor will establish the week of September 25th to October 1st as the Deaf Awareness Week in Puerto Rico.

Gracias VRS, ASL Services and ASL Services Latino are proud of it’s deaf employees and recognizes their commitment and contribution towards the development of our corporations. We congratulate the Deaf Community and wish many more years of collaborative work towards the development of better services and communication accesibility both in Puerto Rico and the United States.

 

FCCDHH Quarterly Meeting

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

FCCDHH The Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (FCCDHH) is having its quarterly meeting next week.

You can download the PDF announcement here.Download Printable Meeting Announcement PDF

Information as follows:

Quarterly Meeting
Florida Coordinating Council For the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

September 15, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. EDT
September 16, 9:00 a.m.-12 noon EDT

PUBLIC COMMENT IS WELCOME

THURSDAY, September 15, 4:00-6:00 PM EDT

Where: HILTON FT. LAUDERDALE AIRPORT
1870 Griffin Road, Dania Beach, Florida 33004

General Subject Matter to be Discussed: General policy recommendations for accessibility, supports and services for persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened or deaf-blind in the State of Florida, election of officers and committee reports.

Computer assisted real time translation services will be provided remotely via: http://www.streamtext.netltext.aspx?event=FCCDHH

The meeting may be accessed via toll-free telephone at 1-888-808-6959
Event code: 5221678031 #

“We may not hear, but we must be heard”

To request ADA Accommodations, an Agenda or Public Comment

Contact Mary Grace
Phone: 850-245-4913fToll Free: 800-602-3275

NOTICE UNDER THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT: Sign language and oral interpreter services and communication-assisted real time
translation ICAR7) services will be provided at this meeting. Any person requiring additional accommodations lie: deaf/blind interpreting) should contact the FCCDHH at least 14 working days prior to meeting.

Spanish Translation made possible by GraciasVRS.com English, Spanish and ASL

 

William “Dummy” Ellsworth Hoy

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

Mr. Hoy’s was nicknamed “Dummy” in the late of 1800s. He was born on May 23, 1862 in the small town of Houcktown, Ohio.

Hoy became deaf after suffering from meningitis at age of three, and went on to graduate from the Ohio State School for the Deaf in Columbus as class valedictorian.

He opened a shoe repair store in his hometown and played baseball on weekends, earning a professional contract in 1886 with an Oshkosh, Wisconsin team which was managed by Frank Selee in 1887.

In 1888, with the Washington Nationals of the American Association, Hoy became the third deaf player in the major leagues, after pitcher Ed Dundon and pitcher Tom Lynch.

In Hoy’s time, the word “dumb” was used to describe someone who could not speak, rather than someone who was stupid; but since the ability to speak was often unfairly connected to one’s intelligence, the epithets “dumb” and “dummy” became interchangeable with stupidity. Hoy himself often corrected individuals who addressed him as William, and referred to himself as Dummy.

He was a very intelligent man. He taught the umpires to use sign language for the game, to say things like “Strike”, “Out” and “Safe”. He also taught them numbers and signs that would help the pitcher and catcher communicate during the game.

Definitely, he played a role in the use of signs during the games. There is a movement to support his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The umpires and baseball players who are using the baseball’s “sign” language nowadays should thank Hoy for establishing it.

In retirement, Hoy and his wife Anna Maria (who was also deaf) operated a dairy farm in Mount Healthy, Ohio, outside Cincinnati. Hoy had six children. One of them was Carson, an Ohio judge, and their grandson, Judson, who became a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. They also raised his nephew Paul Hoy Helms, the founder of the Helms Athletic Foundation in Los Angeles.

Hoy also worked as an executive with Goodyear after supervising hundreds of deaf workers during World War I.

In 1951, he was the first deaf athlete elected to membership in the American Athletic Association of the Deaf Hall of Fame. At the age of 99 and just two months before his death in Cincinnati following a stroke, the Reds brought him back to Crosley Field, built on the site of his former home field, to throw out the first ball before Game 3 of the 1961 World Series. He could see, if not hear, the standing ovation he received.

Upon his death that December, his remains were cremated according to family tradition and were scattered at Lytle Park in Cincinnati.

Until the 1980s, he was believed to have been the longest-lived former player ever. In 2001 the baseball field at Gallaudet University was named William “Dummy” Hoy Baseball Field. He was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2003.