This video was created by Deaffinity. Deaffinity is an organization for the deaf in the UK. Deaffinity’s mission is to "help break barriers and improve the quality of life for the BME (black and minority ethnic) deaf community.

The Deaf Awareness campaign video, "Deaf Not Dumb", encourages people to learn sign language. This video recently won an award at the Adobe Youth Voices film screening, a competition sponsored by the British Film Institute.

The three young women in the video are using British Sign Language. Their names are: Samira Mohammed, Maab Adam, and Khayrun Nessa.

This is an interview of Joel Garcia, a deaf man who works for the television network, CNN. The lady who is asking the questions is Leah Katz-Hernandez.

Joel Garcia works at CNN and his job is Runner. He goes between the different CNN positions when they are working at large events. During this interview, he is talking about working at a large event in the USA, the Democratic National Convention, in 2008. This was the large meeting where members of the Democratic party met to pick their candidate to run in the national election.

Leah asks Joel about the communication while he’s working at CNN. Joel explains that sometimes there is an American Sign Language interpreter. Other times, he and his co-workers write back and forth with pen and paper.

Leah’s final question is about the hearing people Joel works with. She wants to know if they have a more positive opinion of deaf people now that they have met him. He feels that they do. He said that he always works hard and is friendly. He feels it is important for deaf people to be outgoing and show their employers and co-workers that they are interested.

Joel tells Leah that he met one of the famous CNN reporters. His name is Anderson Cooper. He introduced himself to Mr. Cooper, and then they shook hands. He hopes to have his picture taken with Mr. Cooper.

Leah tells Joel that everyone is proud of him!

This video is from Japan. The title is "Blue Gush". It was made in Japan by a man from Australia named Robert Hoskin. The movie is about 2 deaf people who make a mistake about one of their neighbors. There is no speech in the movie. All communication is with Japanese Sign Language. The movie was filed in part of the major city, Tokyo. The video is interesting for a few reasons. For one reason, the movie uses deaf actors using sign language. There is no talking or captions. Another thing that makes the video interesting is that it shows a typical Japanese neighborhood.

Coco Roschaert is a young deaf-blind woman who has Usher Syndrome. She travels around the world and makes videos of her experiences.

In this video, she is visiting the Isle of Skye in Scotland with a group of people who are backpacking. The rest of the group went to hike up another mountain, so she decided to climb this hill all by herself. She is very happy when she reaches the top of the steep hill without help!

If you would like to learn more about the Isle of Skye, you can visit this web site: http://www.skye.co.uk/

If you would like to learn more about Coco’s travels, please visit her web site: http://tactiletheworld.wordpress.com/

One of their most famous dances is "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva". In the religion of Buddhism, the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva has a thousand hands and is a symbol of compassion and helping other people.

Oksana, Yulia, and Sasha explain that it's easier to order food at this restaurant. At other restaurants, they must write on their orders on paper. One of the men, Aleksander, also says that he enjoys Sesto Senso, but he would also like movie theaters that have captions (subtitles).

The reporter enjoyed his visit to the cafe. He says it is a good place to celebrate and understand each other's differences.

Francisco Goulão has been a teacher of Visual Education in the António Cândido Center, Porto, for more than 14 years. However, he has dedicated himself to this profession for 32 years, after graduating in Painting by the Fine Arts School of the Lisbon University. He’s Deaf “of soul and heart” and 58 years old. We’re talking about the Deaf teacher Francisco Goulão.

He has been an indispensable reference for many Deaf people who in their majority have been his own students, and also for many members of the Deaf Community – at least from those generations from a time when Internet and many other current technologies, such as cell phones, were still not a reality.

At that time, there were only newspapers, accessible only to those who could understand written Portuguese reasonably well. The traditional and eternal TV News keeps on banning the Deaf from the precious access to information, leaving only the complementary elucidative images.

Professor Francisco Goulão was one of the rare Deaf persons who had domain of written Portuguese and could read the papers whenever he wanted. And he was also concerned about informing the Deaf and keeping them updated about what was going on in the world, both nationally and internationally. In other words, he used to save them from the almost total ignorance they were sentenced to due to the absence of resources. For those Deaf, Prof. Goulão was a kind of “living” newspaper, through whom they could have access to general information.

The intention of the documentary is to showcase by interviews some situations where through his contact with Prof. Goulão, a Deaf person from a previous generation who can read newspapers, an illiterate Deaf man can maximize opportunities and develop his won intrinsic consciousness and his own personal and general perspective of reality. The central element of the ‘information bridge’ was the use of gestural language. It’s one of those cases where gestures not only sign but also inform… And what is more, through information one can teach and learn in many ways, exploring countless subjects and matters by talking.

Vitor was one of Prof. Goulão’s students. He used to share his everyday routine with the teacher inside and outside school, which brought him benefits and influenced the way that he leads his life today. One important example was when Vitor, already an adult, received a letter from the Social Security authorities. Because of the guidance he had received from Prof. Goulão, he was able to understand clearly what the content of that letter was. A seemingly trivial situation to other people, to him this was a significant milestone that shows the importance of a Deaf model to the Deaf students in order for them to build their personal identity and develop their cognitive skills, among other benefits.

Translated into English by Patricia and Walter Castro

Khmer Sign Language Online Dictionary
Krousar Thmey
CAMBODIA

Krousar Thmey was the first Cambodian foundation to assisting disabled children. They provide disabled Cambodian children with educational materials that are in harmony with their beliefs.  The materials are respectful of the Cambodian traditions and beliefs. Their purpose is to help children develop and blossom into responsible adults. Krousar Thmey takes great care that its aid neither creates disharmony between a child and his relatives and friends, nor creates privileged or dependent children.

Krousar Thmey was the first NGO to propose education for deaf children. They had to develop the tools necessary for good communication, so teams worked on adapting American Sign Language for use in the Khmer language.