Deaf Women More Likely to be a Victim of Abuse

Deaf individuals are more likely to experience domestic violence than hearing individuals in the United States.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Newsnet5: Deaf individuals are one and a half times more likely to be victims of relationship violence than hearing individuals, according to research out of the Rochester Institute of Technology.

"He would grab me, push me down, kept pushing me down, hitting me," said Dawn Marie Fucile, a Cleveland resident who is Deaf. She spoke through an interpreter.

Fucile recalls her three-year abusive relationship which she says happened in Parma two decades ago.

"He got a hold of me and threw me physically, coffee table," she said of her ex-boyfriend who is also Deaf. "I missed it by just an inch."

Fucile, who is 48 years old, said she finally mustered up the strength to call the police. Twice, officers came to her house. Twice, they left without arresting the man.

"Both of the officers that were there, I could understand them, but they were being like 'oh poor you. You can't communicate," she added.

Fucile said the lack of communication services and education among police at that time contributed to a lack of help.

"We know that there are more victims that are Deaf and Hard of Hearing that don't have access to information or services, and that's a big problem," said Linda Johanek, CEO of the Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center in Cleveland.

Johanek, with help from the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center and Cleveland Police, are trying to reverse the problem, which Johanek and Fucile said is only exacerbated by the fact that the Deaf community is tight-knit. For a member, it is difficult to break away, no matter the circumstance.

Through a federal grant, the domestic violence center, its shelter and all five police districts have iPads equipped with video remote interpreters. Officers can take the iPads with them on calls.

Fucile said the technology is a big step in the right direction.

"Do not be afraid to ask for help," she added. "I got help because I decided to move on."

Parma police said they now use a text messaging service to communicate with Deaf Individuals. For in-depth interviews, Parma and Cleveland police said they bring in live interpreters.

Fucile said her ex-boyfriend was eventually charged and convicted of domestic violence.

SOURCE - NewsNet

Related Posts: #DomesticViolence

Hearing People Go Deaf When They Are Reading

WATCH [CC] - Hearing people can't focus on more than one thing at a time.

Why focusing on a visual task will make us Deaf to our surroundings. "Examination of hearing people's ability to detect sounds during the visual demanding task also showed a higher rate of failures to detect sounds, even though the sounds were clearly audible and hearing people did detect them when the visual task was easy."

To activate this feature, press the "CC" button.

Concentrating attention on a visual task can render you momentarily 'Deaf' to sounds at normal levels, reports a new UCL study funded by the Wellcome Trust... Read The Full Story.

Visual perceptual load induces inattentional deafness. "A wealth of research has suggested that the extent to which focused attention on a task results in reduced perception of irrelevant information depends on the level of perceptual load in the task." Read The Full Story.

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Study on Sarcasm and American Sign Language

Deaf News: University of Manitoba researchers study how people who are Deaf understand sarcasm.

WINNIPEG -- Researcher Nicole Hiebert studying how sarcasm is conveyed and understood among Deaf, Hard of Hearing. Researchers at the University of Manitoba are looking for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Manitobans to participate in a new study covering uncharted territory discovering how people who use American Sign Language convey sarcasm.

It's the first time researchers have looked at how adults who use sign language communicate and understand sarcasm. For those in the community, it's no secret.

Watch on CBC News with Subtitles

"There isn't a lot of research. We certainly know [sarcasm is] prevalent in sign language usage, but there is not that research that actually provides evidence how sarcasm is relayed," said Rick Zimmer, who co-ordinates the ASL interpretation program at Winnipeg's Red River College.

Zimmer is Deaf, as is his wife, Kyra and son Cody. Kyra and Zimmer are both instructors at RRC, and Zimmer said sarcasm is a part of his instruction teaching hearing interpreters how to understand and convey sarcasm between people who use ASL and the Hearing community.

"I do it by demonstrating sarcasm and in that way they see it and learn it," he said. "Whether or not interpreters are actually capable of using it and conveying sarcasm themselves is another question."

That's where the U of M's Nicole Hiebert comes in.

"I've just been really fascinated and passionate about signing for my entire life pretty much," she said. "I've had a deaf friend since I was really young."

Now, she's melding her experiences in the Deaf Studies program with the research of Melanie Glenwright, an associate professor who specializes in sarcasm and sarcasm comprehension for the U of M's psychology department.

The study is going to look at the cues within the Deaf community for understanding and comprehending sarcasm... Read The Full Story.

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