A Deaf man was recently attacked while sleeping on a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Washington DC, United States. The incident happened when the perpetrator, Everett Chad Nelson, returned from the bathroom and suddenly assaulted the sleeping Deaf man without provocation. Witnesses described hearing "blood-curdling screams" as the assault happened. When they finally realized the man was Deaf, flight crew and passengers tried to communicate through texting, with the man, who repeatedly expressed his fear. United Airlines has since issued a statement praising the quick response of crew and passengers, noting that Nelson was restrained, and the flight landed safely, where paramedics and law enforcement awaited.

A Malaysian police officer, Lance Corporal Muhammad Taufik Ismail, was fined RM1,000 ($228 USD) after pleading guilty in the Magistrate’s Court for assaulting a Deaf ride-sharing driver, Ong Ing Keong. The incident happened on May 28 when Keong was waiting in his car for a passenger. Ismail, who was assigned as a police escort for a VIP, motioned for Ong to move his vehicle. When Ong didn’t respond due to his Deafness, Taufik reportedly became agitated and punched him in the face. Ong later filed a police report, citing pain and swelling on his right cheek as a result of the assault, which was captured on video and circulated widely on social media.

Deaf Welsh actor and theater maker, Stephanie Bailey-Scott, has made history as the first Deaf recipient of the prestigious J. M. Barrie Education Award. This was in honor of her dedication to children’s arts education and mentorship. As the lead of Taking Flight Youth Theatre, Wales’ only youth theater for Deaf and hard of hearing children, Stephanie says she is passionate about empowering Deaf youth, helping them build confidence, connecting with others, and exploring opportunities in theater and beyond. Her role as Participation, Access, and Inclusion Officer at Taking Flight Theatre Company in Cardiff reflects her duty for creating accessible, inclusive spaces where Deaf and disabled young people can find mentorship and community.

A leader with the Illinois Latino Association for the Deaf is working to shed light on the need for trilingual American Sign Language interpreters to help facilitate communication within families. "Without trilingual interpreters, communication would not be possible," IDLA President Karen Macías told NBC Chicago. There are differences between different sign languages, region of the speaker. Macías first noticed the differences when he moved from Mexico City to Chicago five years ago. "Then you encounter an interpreter who is not trilingual, their primary mode is American Sign Language in English. So there are some words and concepts in ASL that you understand in essence, but not in my native language," Macias said. The need can be filled by people like Esteban Amaro Jr., who is the city's first nationally certified trilingual Mexican interpreter. He is fluent in Spanish, English, and ASL and provides a necessary resource for Deaf Spanish speakers in Chicago. At the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, she interprets at the Career Center, helping connect Deaf job seekers with job opportunities. He is one of four full-time interpreters in the city and the only trilingual. "In Mexico, for example, notaries do have some type of legal capacity, while here a notary is not the same as a lawyer," he said. Without an interpreter who knows these differences, people may be forced to sign legal documents that they may not fully understand. "We have so many people from Latin America moving here, that's why we need to have more trilingual interpreters," Macías said.

there is work in the prevention of nerve damage caused by chemotherapy. More specifically, the use of artificial intelligence to help Deaf people communicate with machines using sign language and accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles in urban communities. TransCrypts has also seen success in the Univ of Toronto's entrepreneurship pitch competitions, taking home second place in the UTE Startup during Entrepreneurship Week 2022. Co-founded by Ali Zaheer and Zain Zaidi, the company aims to improve digital privacy and security. The pair participated in the Y-Combinator accelerator in Silicon Valley and raised more than $3 million in funding from investors including Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and a “Shark” on Shark Tank. These are some of the innovations being driven by members of the University of Toronto's thriving business community. Here are 10 interesting U of T-affiliated startups to watch in 2024: Deaf AI is using AI to train machines in sign language to improve human-machine communication for Deaf and hard of hearing people. The company made a big impression at the Desjardins Startup Prize Pitch Competition at Entrepreneurship Week 2023, winning first place in the late-stage category, as well as the Dongjun Wang Family True Blue Prize (People's Choice Award). It was co-founded by Azadeh Bojmehrani, who earned a master's degree in health sciences in the Temerty College of Medicine's translational research program.