Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Welcome!
The Gift of Signing Foundation will one day be a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation dedicated to increasing access to and awareness of American Sign Language for Parents, Late Deaf Adults and family and friends of the Deaf community. The Foundation will also keep abreast of and support areas of research as well as legislation that can impact both the cost and awareness factors.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Meet the Board Members
Eric Brody is the founder of the Gift of Signing Foundation. He graduated with an M.A. in Geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara and currently works at the International Sports Sciences Association. He teaches American Sign Language at the university, schools and religious organizations throughout the Santa Barbara are where he resides with his Paint Jamming wife Jana (http://www.paintjamusa.com/) and 3 kids.
Tina Gonzales Childress is a late-deafened adults with two cochlear implants and currenlty works for Advanced Bionics helping recipients. She graduated with an M.A. in Audiology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She currently resides in Champaign, Illinois with a husband and 2 kids.
Rick Rutherford was drafted to the board against his will. That photo is not him but of his beautiful girlfriend Nancy Hammond as we currently are unable to find his Facebook profile. His Bio will be forthcoming...
Monday, October 19, 2009
The Inspiration
At the AldaCon (www.alda.org) conference last week, my new and good friend Eileen Jones, the Chair and Founder of the The Gift of Hearing Foundation has inspired me to create this new foundation to help many enlightened the mass on the beauty and practicality of sign language.
This future Foundation will be committed to bringing sign language to everyone regardless of race, creed, gender and economic level.
Right now, the Foundation that I hope to establish composed of a Board of one individual - myself. But with lots of hard work, optimism, and dedication, I hope we'll be able to create a Foundation and a list of sponsors as impressive as the one Eileen built. I also hope to lure her over to be a member of the Board.
If you have any questions about where to obtain the Gift of Signing, being a part of creating the Foundation, or donating to help kick start the foundation (we need seed money of about $150 for the year for a full fledge web site and to register the domain name), please do not hesitate to contact me at ericalanbrody@yahoo.com.
Signingly yours,
Eric Brody
This future Foundation will be committed to bringing sign language to everyone regardless of race, creed, gender and economic level.
Right now, the Foundation that I hope to establish composed of a Board of one individual - myself. But with lots of hard work, optimism, and dedication, I hope we'll be able to create a Foundation and a list of sponsors as impressive as the one Eileen built. I also hope to lure her over to be a member of the Board.
If you have any questions about where to obtain the Gift of Signing, being a part of creating the Foundation, or donating to help kick start the foundation (we need seed money of about $150 for the year for a full fledge web site and to register the domain name), please do not hesitate to contact me at ericalanbrody@yahoo.com.
Signingly yours,
Eric Brody
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Message from the Founder
I want to clarify the foundation mission with regards to cochlear implants.
I personally believe cochlear implants in children too young to make decisions can be very detrimental to their physical and psychological well being (but wonderful for Adults). My fellow esteemed collegiate on the Board Tina Childress takes the opposite viewpoint and works for the cochlear implant industry.
But the cochlear issue is moot here. The key issue here is we all agree whether children get cochlear implants or not is all children and parents (hearing ones too) should learn sign language for their own psychological well being. Learning and using sign language helps to connect the communication gap and builds the inner confidence of many people. It is a language that truly has the potential to be a universal language (except for my blind friends unless they learn tactile fingerspelling and signing as our deaf-blind friends uses).
It is our sincerest hope that this Foundation accomplish this goal to give everyone the Gift of signing.
Warmest,
Eric Brody,
Founder
I personally believe cochlear implants in children too young to make decisions can be very detrimental to their physical and psychological well being (but wonderful for Adults). My fellow esteemed collegiate on the Board Tina Childress takes the opposite viewpoint and works for the cochlear implant industry.
But the cochlear issue is moot here. The key issue here is we all agree whether children get cochlear implants or not is all children and parents (hearing ones too) should learn sign language for their own psychological well being. Learning and using sign language helps to connect the communication gap and builds the inner confidence of many people. It is a language that truly has the potential to be a universal language (except for my blind friends unless they learn tactile fingerspelling and signing as our deaf-blind friends uses).
It is our sincerest hope that this Foundation accomplish this goal to give everyone the Gift of signing.
Warmest,
Eric Brody,
Founder
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