Short film project: Meet the Deaf woman who had to learn how to live again after going blind.
MELBOURNE, Australia -- Heather Lawson is Deaf and Blind. She's been through periods of extreme loneliness and isolation, but by becoming independent through orientation and mobility training has helped her to be heard in a world she once felt she wasn’t part of. Here's the video with closed captions.
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Heather Lawson was born Deaf. She grew up in Melbourne with the impairment and coped well with the reality of relying on her sight to be able to socialise and communicate.
"I am Deaf-Blind. But I was born Deaf. Then I grew up deaf. I coped with that well. I had vision. Later on when I was a teenager around 13-14, I slowly lost my sight and I had tunnel vision," she said.
"When I was deaf, I had vision, so I could socialise. I was a really happy girl, involved in activities. I could see other people's signing.
"As I lost my sight it impacted on my life. I was frightened. I felt alone. Because at that time, I didn't have any skills. I had to learn everything again."
But then she also lost her sight, to the point of having tunnel vision, leaving her "frightened" and "alone".
Heather told Channel 10's The Project the loss of another crucial sense meant she had lost the skills she relied on to live and was forced to learn how to function again.
She now relies on a language known as Tactile Auslan -- a system of communication where a Deaf-Blind individual places their hands over the hands of an interpreter as they use sign language, in order to be able to feel the movements and read what they're saying.
She told The Project this unique form of communication has become the way she now lives her life and manages to maintain a 30-year friendship with another Deaf-Blind person, Michelle Stephens.
Unlike Heather, Michelle grew up with minimal sight due to a premature birth and lost her hearing during her 30s as a result of childhood ear infections.
She was an early recipient of a cochlear implant and when her remaining hearing faded, she too had to learn the skills of life once again -- including her pet hobby in playing the piano.
"At first it was really devastating. I naturally thought that I would never, ever be able to play the piano again," she said.
Michelle also said her friendship with Heather grew around their training to re-learn communication techniques. Now they support each other through the good and bad days they experience using new technologies such as Braille display text and email.
"We became friends and we used to catch up and do training together and I used to go to her house a few times. We do have good and bad days but we support each other," she said.
"Heather and I work very closely together. For instance, we're always texting each other about something."
Both Heather and Michelle were also the creators of an immersive performance that was featured in the Sydney Festival in January called Imagined Touch. The event required attendees to wear goggles and headphones that restricted light and sound in order to experience life as a Deaf-Blind individual.
Ellen interview with a Deaf and Blind teen who's defying the odds on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
LOS ANGELES, California -- In a clip from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Marvin Pearson is an incredible young man and varsity football player who hasn't let anything stand in the way of doing what he loves. Marvin Pearson is one special guy, and he came on the show to tell Ellen about his story.
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Marvin is a high school senior who is both Deaf and Blind. He has a cochlear implant in one ear to help him hear. Marvin doesn't let his Disabilities stop him from doing anything, in fact, he uses them as motivation when playing football, track and wrestling.
Marvin goes above and beyond in everything that he does, and Ellen's friends at Shutterfly loved his story and surprised him with $10,000! The show was taped in Studio 11 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. Find out more about Shutterfly and see more memorable moments here, http://www.ellentv.com/shutterfly.
The incredible moment a Deaf-Blind woman learns to surfing at the beach in California, 'I'm not afraid to get in the water, try something new'
SAN DIEGO, CA -- A 27-year-old Deaf-Blind woman decided to challenge herself this weekend when she learned to surf in San Diego, California.
Haben Girma, who was born Blind and Deaf and is now a disability rights attorney, took to the waves on Saturday at Swami's Beach with help from a surf instructor.
'One of the biggest barriers facing people with disabilities are negative attitudes, people assuming that someone who's blind can't do something, or assuming that someone that uses a wheelchair can't do something, but anything's possible,' Girma, from Berkeley, told CBS 8.
So Girma, the first Blind and Deaf Harvard Law School graduate, has decided to keep challenging herself.
'I've decided to explore the question, 'Can I learn to surf?',' Girma said.
Her surf instructor, coach Matt Allen of the Maui Surf Academy, was worried about communication, but they persevered and used physical queues to get their timing in sync.
'It's obviously going to be tough to communicate as well as we normally can,' he told CBS 8. 'There's nothing i'd rather do than help someone's dreams come true.'
The disturbing true story of the real Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Interested in an article from AncientOrigins com: "When, lo! as they reached the mountain-side, A wondrous portal opened wide, As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed; And the Piper advanced and the children followed, And when all were in to the very last, The door in the mountain-side shut fast." Robert Browning, The Pied Piper of Hamelin: A Child’s Story.
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Many are familiar with the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Few realise however, that the story is based on real events, which evolved over the years into a fairy tale made to scare children. For those unfamiliar with the tale, it is set in 1284 in the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany. This town was facing a rat infestation, and a piper, dressed in a coat of many coloured, bright cloth, appeared. This piper promised to get rid of the rats in return for a payment, to which the townspeople agreed too. Although the piper got rid of the rats by leading them away with his music, the people of Hamelin reneged on their promise. The furious piper left, vowing revenge.
On the 26th of July of that same year, the piper returned and led the children away, never to be seen again, just as he did the rats. Nevertheless, one or three children were left behind, depending on which version is being told. One of these children was lame, and could not keep up, another was Deaf and could not hear the music, while the third one was Blind and could not see where he was going. Historians agree that an event did occur in Hamelin, Germany around 1284 that resulted in the total disappearance of children from the town.
What they cannot agree on is, What caused such a mass disappearance to occur? The earliest known record of this story does come from the town of Hamelin itself and was even depicted in a stained glass window created for the church of Hamelin in the memory of the children, which dates to around 1300 AD. Although it was destroyed in 1660, several written accounts have survived. The oldest comes from the Lueneburg, manuscript (c 1440 - 50), which stated: "In the year of 1284, on the day of Saints John and Paul on June 26, by a piper, clothed in many kinds of colours (that's what 'Pied' means), 130 children born in Hamelin were seduced, and lost at the place of execution near the Koppelberg Hill."
The pied piper story was passed on by word of mouth for centuries, and references to the account are mentioned occasionally in other works.
Walt Disney Silly Symphonies - The Pied Piper (1933) - The people of Hamelin, overrun with rats, offer a bag of gold to anyone who can rid them of their plague. A mysterious piper comes to town, and proceeds to rid them of their rat infestation with his music. When the townsfolk refuse to pay the piper his fee, because "all you did was pipe a tune", he lures all the town's children away to a magical land in the same manner.
However, the tale did not become popular until the Brothers Grimm (Jakob and Wilhelm) included it in their anthology of fairy tales. The disappearance of the children is held to be fact for a variety of reasons. The town's oldest record, dated 1384, states It's 100 years since our children have gone. There is also a long standing law dating back to medieval times that no music is allowed to be played and dancing is prohibited on the street in memory of those children that were.
At first, many historians focused on the rats. Believing the story described Hamelin's battle with the Black Death, also known the bubonic plague. The bubonic plague was one of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history, striking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It was spread by rats, which carried fleas and which, in turn, carried the bubonic bacterium. When the rats died, the fleas turned to human hosts and infecting them as well.
Nevertheless, most researchers disregard this theory. This is due to the fact that the element of the rats was not added to the story until the 1500s. Furthermore, the plague did not reach Europe until the mid-1300s.The street where the children were last seen is today called Bungelosenstrasse (the street without drums), as no one is allowed to play music or dance there. The rats added to the story around the middle of the 16th century.
Moreover, the stained glass window and other primary written sources do not speak of any rats. If the children's disappearance was not an act of revenge, then what was its cause? There have been numerous theories trying to explain what happened to the children of Hamelin. For instance, one theory suggests that the Pied Piper was the personification of Death and the children were led out of town and drowned to prevent the adults from catching a plague prior to the Black Death or that the children ran away on their own to start their own colony or village.
The Pied Piper Tale is just a fantastical way of telling a gruesome true story about what was actually a maniacal paedophile who creeped into town at night and lured the children away from safety. This sounds like the most plausible version because if there really were no rats, what reason would some weird guy dancing around playing the flute have to lure kids away from town only for the kids to never be seen again.
But like Helen Keller - the American author, activist and lecturer who was the first Deaf and Blind person to graduate from college - they are pushing the envelope of their disabilities.
Mateusz Kotnowski of Poland's Deaf and Blind Aid Society explained: “Of 19 participants, 12 had never driven a car before, while seven used to drive before they became disabled.
“Some are completely Deaf and Blind. Those who can still see or hear a little wear masks and helmets to ensure an equal playing field for all,” he said.
Each participant had to complete two timed laps of the circuit while under the watchful eye of a co-driver. First, though, they had two days of training to get a feel for the steering wheel.
Three driving schools volunteered a parking lot, five cars and a handful of instructors - who first had to work out a language based on touch to communicate with the drivers... Read The Full Story.
A pair of thugs who pushed a blind and Deaf man and his brother on to train tracks in a 'horrifying assault' at a busy station have both been jailed.
Daniel Webster, 23, and Niall Martin, 24 pushed a 31-year-old, off the platform at Chelmsford station in Essex, then threw his brother Joseph down after him as he tried to intervene.
Martin admitted ABH on the brother and was given a nine-month sentence but he has been freed already after he spent five months in custody, making him eligible for parole. Webster was jailed for 22 months after pleading guilty to GBH and ABH against both brothers.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard that the victim was attacked by Webster and Martin late at night on February 20 this year after the pair came over to ask him about train times.
A row broke out, and Webster launched his attack on the victim, who was described in court as 'profoundly Deaf' and is registered blind.
CCTV footage from the station shows a second man trying to come to the aid of his vulnerable brother, only for both of them to be thrown on to the tracks. As the pair scramble back to the platform edge and attempt to climb back to safety, Martin and Webster punch them both in the head, leaving them stranded. Network rail staff were forced to put a block on all trains coming through the station over fears that the pair could have been killed.
Jailing the pair yesterday Judge David Turner QC said it had been a 'disgraceful episode' and labelled their actions 'manifestly dangerous'. He said: 'This is exactly the sort of thing that terrifies members of the travelling public late at night.'
Speaking afterwards, Detective Constable Alan Reed of British Transport Police said: 'This is one of the most appalling incidents I have investigated. 'Webster and Martin showed a savage disregard for their victims, and one of the brothers is still suffering from the injuries sustained to his foot.
'It is no exaggeration to say the brothers could have been killed after being thrown onto the tracks. 'I would like to pay tribute to the victims, who have shown great dignity following what was a terrifying ordeal for them 'I hope the sentence will provide them with some sense of closure, although in truth, the impact this has had on both of them is likely to remain with them for the rest of their lives.'
The court heard that the victim spent six weeks on crutches and was off work for six months. He now walks with a limp and has been told the foot injury may take two years to heal and may need further surgery.
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