Identifying the Need
Important facts about young people who are deaf or hard of hearing:
Shown below is an amazing video that can help people who are hearing understand what it means to be "Alone in a Hearing World".
- Nationally, "about 2 to 4 out of every 1,000 people...are functionally deaf," but "fewer than 1 out 1,000 people in the United States became deaf before 18 years of age," (Mitchell, 2005).
- Nationally, 95% of children who are deaf are born to hearing parents which means, unless their parents learn sign language (most don't), communication, in a language children who are deaf can understand, is slim to none at home as well as school (Convertino, Marschark,Saepere, Sarchet & Zupan, 2009).
- As of 2003, there were 468,000 deaf students in college in America (Schroedel, Watson & Ashmore, 2003).
- As of 2010, Gallaudet reported 37,828 individuals who are deaf under the age of eighteen (GRI,2010).
Shown below is an amazing video that can help people who are hearing understand what it means to be "Alone in a Hearing World".
This video was made by Laura Leckowicz, the creator and director of the College and Career Readiness Retreat. Laura works for STARS: Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing and runs a career class once a week at Bridges: Non-profit for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Hearing. The after school program that Laura is associated with is the only program like it in the state. No other program offers resources specifically for students who are deaf who attend public mainstream schools. In the state of Tennessee this program is the only one to provide a career preparation class or any kind of post-secondary preparation class for that matter. Laura works hard to provide the students she serves with the resources they need to succeed in school(from primary to secondary), but after they graduate there is no programming available. Interview with Laura?