This morning HB-1244, the Support Services Provider Act of 2017 (also being called the Jeri Cooper Act) passed in the House Public Health Committee on a 6-0 vote. Members who voted for the bill were Representatives Bush, Derby, Lawson, McEntire , Ritze and Sean Roberts. The committee substitute bill that passed is attached. Lepak’s bill directs DRS to establish a grant program to expand availability of Support Service Providers for Oklahomans who are deaf-blind. The program would only be implemented if and when funds are available. An annual funding cap of $300,000 is set in the bill – but no specific funding sources are designated. The measure is essentially enabling legislation that would make action possible at such time funds are made available. Next stop for the bill is the House floor. To thank Rep. Lepak and Public Health Committee members for their support of this legislation to assist deaf-blind Oklahomans, go towww.okhouse.gov. Then select the Representatives menu item, and scroll to the name of the appropriate Representative. On this main list of Representatives, beside each name you will find an “Email” box to click on for sending email. However, this feature may not work on your system – it does not work on mine. Instead, you should be able to send an email by clicking on the Representative name, which will take you to the Member’s bio page where you will again find an “Email Me” box. Click on this one, and a web form will come up.
To read the full copy of the Jeri Cooper Act please click here.
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Drawing: April 13, 2018
Enter to win an iPad 9.7in
- Wi-Fi 32GB – Space Gray
- 8-megapixel camera
- 1080p HD video recording
iPad donated by NanoPac, Inc.
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!!!
1 Ticket for $5 ~OR 5 Tickets for $20
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE PRESENT TO WIN! Drawing will be held on FaceBook live on the morning of April 13th at Nanopac’s office.
You can purchase tickets by contacting Jeri Cooper.
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OKLAHOMA CITY - Proposed rule changes potentially affecting several programs for Oklahomans with disabilities will be the focus of a public hearing held by the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services and the Oklahoma Rehabilitation Council.
The public is encouraged to attend the meetings in Oklahoma City on Feb. 5, Tulsa on Feb. 6 and Lawton on Feb. 7.
Programs affected by the proposed new rules are administered by DRS and include vocational rehabilitation and employment services for Oklahomans with all types of disabilities.
DRS provides a variety of services that help individuals with disabilities achieve employment, personal independence and self-sufficiency. The Oklahoma Rehabilitation Council advises DRS on development of policies and plans for rehabilitation services.
Proposed policy changes effect the following chapters: Chapter 1 - Administrative Operations, Chapter 3 - Management Services Division and Chapter 10 - Vocational Rehabilitation and Visual Services.
The changes include housekeeping items such as removing the references to the Independent Living Program, which is no longer operated by the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, or adding language to clarify the Division of Visual Services may serve individuals with sight threatening progressive conditions or functional limitations due to sight loss. As well as an updating agency and program names to remove obsolete references.
Other changes include definition updates, removal of extended evaluation language and removal of homemaker employment outcome language to reflect recent federal law changes.
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The Arizona Capitol Times reports that more than 200 teachers currently serve approximately 2,000 children in two schools for the deaf, one school for the blind and at statewide cooperative programs in local public schools.
The Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind has 13 teacher vacancies and will need 21 more teachers if a proposal from Gov. Doug Ducey to provide $1.6 million in additional money to the schools' early childhood program is approved by lawmakers, agency spokesman Ryan Ducharme said.
About half of the agency's teachers will be eligible for early or full retirement within the next five years, Ducharme said.
The schools have used relocation stipends and sign-on bonuses to sweeten the deal for teachers who may want to work for them.
The agency spent $33,500 — more than any other agency — this year on relocation expenses aimed at enticing teachers to come work in Arizona, according to figures from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
This year, 26 agency teachers got a $1,500 stipend to relocate from out-of-state, Ducharme said. New teachers to the agency also get a $1,500 sign-on bonus.
The agency's average teacher pay — $47,636 — is slightly higher than the state's average for teachers overall, $47,218. The majority of the schools' teachers, nearly 83 percent, have master's degrees because of the specialty training required to work with students who are deaf or blind, Ducharme said.
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“For most of these families, their children’s birth is the first time they’ve met anybody deaf. So they go to the early intervention system, which focuses on what they call ‘communication’ — meaning, being able to speak,” Wyatte Hall, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, said through an interpreter. “But ‘communication’ is usually secondary to having language, and language is what is necessary for true cognitive development.”
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Surely you know of the popular toy, the Rubik’s cube? Well, it just got a redesign for blind and DeafBlind people.
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Going through high school, James Meadours was kept separate in special education classes from his Broken Arrow classmates, never really getting to know them.
After graduating in 1986, he was put in a 10-bedroom group home and felt isolated from the world, being at the mercy of other adults.
Joining a singles group at Christ the King Church changed that.
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On Tuesdays and Fridays in Collings Hall 223, an entire class period goes by without a single word spoken.
The classroom is completely quiet — at no point do the students speak out loud to professor Gary Davis, and he doesn’t speak out loud to them.
That’s because Davis is deaf and is teaching his students sign language.
The silence is only ever broken by students’ laughter — usually when Davis pokes fun at a student’s sloppy use of a sign and shows the student the correct sign, much like a Spanish professor correcting the pronunciation of a word.
Davis, an adjunct professor, is teaching one of the first American Sign Language courses offered at OU — a program administrators have pursued for many years that finally came to fruition fall 2017.
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The former superintendent of West Virginia's state schools for blind and deaf students has filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse his firing.
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Deaf-Blind in the workplace is on the increase globally and should be seen as any other employment. Deaf blindness might imply a complete vacancy of hearing and sight, but this isn’t the case. Many who are deaf-blind have some hearing or vision or both. People who are deaf-blind can learn skills to work around hurdles. With assisting and usable technology, people who are deaf-blind can be employed in any type industry and work.
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