Be there on Wednesday, July 25th at Gallaudet’s SAC near the Bookstore

I will be there around 8 am to 4 pm to discuss with anyone about the protest at the AGBell Conference on Auditory-Verbal Therapy and Deaf Bilingual Coalition’s mission.

And on Thursday, July 26th, we will have important discussion about the protest at the AGBell Conference on Auditory-Verbal Therapy and have T-shirts available.

Feel free to come and join in the discussion of why we need to make sure all Deaf babies have the opportunity to learn ASL in the age of 6 months likewise with many hearing babies all over the country.

You can contact me on this link, http://www.deafchildrenandsigning.com/contact-us.html
John F Egbert

First Historical AGBell Protest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Deaf Bilingual Coalition to Protest AG Bell’s Summer Conference

HAM LAKE, Minn., July 10, 2007 – Does the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) promote a damaging, outdated ideology? Yes, says the Deaf Bilingual Coalition–and it’s time for the organization to recognize American Sign Language(ASL) as the only genuine cognitive language for the deaf. To that end, the Coalition has organized a protest of AG Bell’s summer conference in Arlington, Va., July 27-28.

Founded in 1887, AG Bell has always promoted Dr. Bell’s belief that deaf children should not be taught the use of sign language. Today, according to AG Bell’s Web site, the 501(c)(3) organization is “a lifelong resource, support network and advocate for listening, learning, talking and living independently with hearing loss.”

That seems pretty positive, however, AG Bell’s refusal to introduce parents of deaf children to a visual language(ASL) has proven harmful.

“Alexander Graham Bell’s ideology was to have all deaf children learn oral communication methods and eliminate any form of visual language,” explained John F. Egbert, deaf author and founder of the Deaf Bilingual Coalition. “We are letting AG Bell know that philosophy must be revised. Thousands upon thousands of deaf people’s English language and education have gone downhill since 1880. That trend must be reversed.”

Egbert understands this firsthand. Born deaf to hearing parents in 1947, he was introduced to speech therapy early on. Egbert speaks as clearly as any hearing person, something less than 2% of the deaf population can do. And he is passionate about making sure today’s deaf children have the opportunity to learn a visual language–the opportunity he was denied.

The task before him is not easy. AG Bell receives significant financial support from the Volta Bureau. The Volta Bureau’s bylaws, written by Alexander Graham Bell himself, state that if AG Bell ever promotes the use of sign language, it will cease to receive funding from the Volta Bureau.

But Egbert is not about to give up. “This protest is the first step toward future prosperity for deaf children,” he stated. “Deaf children deserve a cognitive language and better education with bilingual programs. The deaf community will no longer accept AG Bell’s discrimination against sign language(ASL). Just as there is a place in our community for the oral method, so is there a place for cognitive visual language.”

The Deaf Bilingual Coalition will peacefully protest AG Bell’s “Talk for a Lifetime Summer Conference” at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington, Va., July 27 and 28, 2007. To learn more, contact Egbert at egbertpress@mac.com.

About John F. Egbert

John F. Egbert is the author of MindField (ISBN 978-0595421589, iUniverse, Inc., http://www.egbertpress.com), a fast-paced suspense novel in which a terrorist cell unleashes a virulent bacteria on the U.S., causing millions of Americans to become deaf almost overnight. The book is available at Amazon.com.

Contact:

John F. Egbert
Egbert Press
egbertpress@mac.com
http://www.egbertpress.com

More information about meetings in Washington DC coming.

New Deaf Bilingual Coalition Formed

Deaf Bilingual Coalition was just created by an oral deaf person. This oral person is a cream of the crop deaf person that can speak like a hearing person. This oralist’s hearing level is 90db. He grew up in the hearing world and never had any deaf friends till he was 18 years old. This guy had no concept of what sign language was and never had a thought that he would ever used or learned sign language because his speaking ability was superb. Despite of his good lipreading skills, he still missed out in a lot conversation with hearing people. As a teenager hanging around with other hearing friends at night, sitting in the car and not able to read lips behind or in front of them because he couldn’t see the lips, did not make him feel isolated because he accepted it as it was part of life of who he was.

This oral person is me. My daily life is 80% oral communication in the society because I worked in a sporting goods store as a cashier, trolling motor technician, boat rigger, salesperson. One thing that I didn’t do was answering the phones. Being an oralist has a lot of advantage for me in many ways in the society but in comparison to other oralist, I am like Michael Jordon or Larry Bird in the basketball world. There are few elite oralist and some good oralist. But I know that there are many, many oralist are not that good. Why? I really don’t know.

Now many asked me why am I protesting AGBell’s ideology of having speech only communication training at early age for a child that is deaf. Even with hearing devices, it is still not easy to learn to talk for most deaf children. The stories you hear about a deaf child speaking good was the cream of the crop like myself.

When I was young, the oral school took me to downtown New Orleans every Friday and I was a celebrity around hearing people just talking to them. They were awed. But when my mother took me to a public school in the third grade, I became a nobody instantly.

Later in life as a grown man after learning ASL, I asked my mother, Why wasn’t I taught sign language?. She said that the oral school (one of AGBell’s chapter) told her not to let me learn sign language at all and not to have any deaf friends. That hit me very hard thinking, Why did AGBell do that? Later, I learned that many parents were told the same thing.

Just two months ago, I went to Bernard Bragg show and he was telling us that he and other people was working on having a TV program and naturally they would use sign language so that deaf children would be watching Bernard Bragg’s show. But they almost could not do it because AGBell went to the court to stop it. WHAT?
The reason why AGBell did not want Bernard Bragg show on TV was that they did not want the oral deaf children across the country to see sign language on TV!!!!
I was shocked that AGBell would do just a thing. That is a genocide character of AGBell organization.

I am not against speech training but can you grasp the concept that you cannot train speech to a young deaf child without a language? Some say that it has been done but it takes a very long time. I was still learning and taking private speech classes until I was about 13 or 14 years old. I learned ASL in three months!

AGBell can teach the deaf kids speech all they want but don’t hide ASL from the kids. Why is AGBell afraid of American Sign Language?

Before 1880 Milan, many deaf people had very good English language and if you don’t believe me, go look up history archives at some Deaf School and read their class meeting reports. Many newspapers were using deaf people to proofread news.

Then after 1880, oral programs took over, many deaf teachers lost their jobs because they could not teach speech. The deaf children started to lose their English skills and it is still going on today. Most of the deaf children of deaf parents have better English language than the deaf children of hearing parents. Why? Go and research on deaf children at the age of six, you will see that ASL deaf children learn better than oral deaf children. Why?

It is the lack of having cognitive language skills which the child must have before the age of six.

But still, I am not against speech and I think that we should have all deaf children to start having bilingual method, education, language, ASL/English(writing and reading). What is wrong with that? I am not taking away speech from deaf children but AGBell is taking away sign language(ASL) from deaf children. Why?

Yes, many of you are telling me to forget it because AGBell is tooooo big and impossible to have them accept ASl. But every problem got a solution, I will not be a quitter like some of you. Those deaf children need a language and speech is not a language but an accessory part of education.

I am a Bilingual advocator, not an ASL advocator. The whole society is asking all of us to be diverse in life.

I admit that I am harsh at times but I will not be like AGBell by going to the court and stop speech or oral method.

Peaceful Protest still stands for July 27th and 28th unless AGBell announce that they will go for bilingual method.

John F. Egbert

IT IS TIME TO PROTEST AGBELL

True Business!

This is the beginning towards prosperity for all the deaf children’s future having a cognitive language, better education with bilingual programs.

I am coming to Washington DC on July 24th to have a peaceful protest on front of Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia on July 27th and 28th. If you wish to participate, making up signs, etc, email me EgbertPress@mac.com. More information coming later on this post.

But it is not going to be easy to convince the government, education field, parents, teachers, etc that AGBell needs to stop their self-centered ideology of banning the only cognitive visual language(ASL) to educate the deaf children their speech.

And we need to tell the society via media that the majority of the deaf children still unable to achieve a cognitive language of any kind by the age of six because speech is not a language. It takes years and years to learn English language through mimic type of learning speech.

We have had it enough with AGBell’s self-centered ideology for the last 128 years using eugenic language philosophy by forbidding visual language(ASL). It is time for the government to realize that Alexander Graham Bell was an eugenicist as Adolf Hilter was too. Just because Alexander “invented” the telephone doesn’t mean that his ideology of forbidding sign language should stand.

Here are some of the ideas for signs for the peaceful protest

John
EgbertPress@mac.com

*

*

AGBELL’S
IDEOLOGY
HINDERS
DEAF KIDS

*

AMERICAN SIGN
LANGUAGE
IS A COGNITIVE
LANGUAGE

*

LIPREADING
IS 30%
COMMUNICATION
*
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
IS 100%
COMMUNICATION

*

WHY
AGBELL FORBIDS
AMERICAN SIGN
LANGUAGE?

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DEAF CHILDREN
NEED AMERICAN
SIGN LANGUAGE

*

DEAF CHILDREN
NEEDS BILINGUAL
EDUCATION NOW

*

IT TAKES A
LANGUAGE TO
TEACH SPEECH

*

MAJORITY OF
DEAF CHILDREN
SWITCHED TO
AMERICAN SIGN
LANGUAGE

*

AGBELL IS A
BIASED
ORGANIZATION

*

MANY DEAF
CHILDREN WERE
DEPRIVED IN
EDUCATION BY
ORAL METHOD

*

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WHY
AGBELL FORBIDS
THE EXPOSURE OF
SIGN LANGUAGE
TO DEAF CHILDREN

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ORAL IS AN ACCESSORY,
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
IS A NECCESSITY FOR A
DEAF CHILD

*

ORAL METHOD IS
VERY STRESSFUL FOR
DEAF CHILDREN
AND THEIR PARENTS

*

AGBELL
NEEDS TO BE
DIVERSITY IN
DEAF LANGUAGE-
AMERICAN SIGN
LANGUAGE

*

DEAF COMMUNITY
SUFFERED
FOR 128 YEARS BY
AGBELL’S EUGENIC
IDEOLOGY

*

AGBELL WAS A
PROUD
EUGENICIST,
AND SO WAS
ADOLF HILTER

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MANY
HEARING PARENTS
REGRETTED USING
ORAL METHOD FOR
THEIR DEAF CHILD

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TELL ME YOUR IDEAS!