In 2019, a Deaf principal of Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind (HSDB), Angel Ramos, was transferred to another school and a hearing person became principal. Students and teachers were upset and protested for Ramos to return.

Three years later, Ramos is back at HSDB and said, “It’s the start of a new beginning and I am ready to rebuild the school again.”

Legoland in Windsor, England now provides British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters. Legoland is a family-friendly amusement park with rides, live shows, building workshops, and other exhibits. 

The park wanted to improve its accessibility, so they are providing BSL interpreters for selected rides and live performances. The shows will be available on selected dates from April to October this year, and an interpreter can be booked through their website.

A bakeshop, Overdoughs, in Manila, Philippines strongly supports diversity and inclusion. CEO, Francis Reyes, worked to ensure job opportunities were available to the Deaf and special needs community. Hearing employees must take Filipino Sign Language and Deaf awareness courses to be able to work there.

In March 2020, Overdoughs had to close 12 stores because of COVID-19. The store depended on social media and delivery companies to survive. When lockdown restrictions were loosened, many Deaf employees were excited to return to work since it was their main livelihood. 

On March 4th, 2022, the Deaf school in Kamenskoye, Ukraine was attacked twice. A Deaf student, Vladislav Bilokin, said they’ve been lying in the basement everyday. Defense Editor from “The Sun” tabloids drove to the school with an Ukrainian soldier to help save the five Deaf students who were trapped in the school. About 150-160 Deaf students already escaped. 

The World Federation of the Deaf Ry is accepting donations for the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf on their website.

In Wales, around 575,000 people are Deaf or have hearing loss. They struggle with mental health because they’re often not treated equally at school, work, and public places. 

The Welsh council decided to encourage hearing organizations to learn BSL and Deaf & DeafBlind Awareness training through Zoom or in-person. Participants are expected to be able to use BSL for simple everyday conversations. Goal is to provide a more equal access in Wales to improve mental health.

China state news named a 29 year old Chinese Deaf woman, Jiang Mengnan, as one of the 10 most inspiring persons. She is a PhD student at one of China’s top universities. She grew up mainstreamed and learned how to lipread.

Jiang dreamt of becoming a doctor but decided to study pharmacy because of her deafness. In a hearing school, she had to study alone after class to copy down everything on the blackboard. She ended up receiving an impressive score on her exam. Jiang expects to get her doctorate later this year. 

The “CODA” film won a top award at the Screen Actors Guilds (SAG) ceremony for “Best Cast.” This is a huge honor. Troy Kotsur, “CODA” actor, won an individual award for “Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role”. He’s the first Deaf person to win this award. Troy has an Oscars nomination for “Best Actor in a Supporting Role.” CODA is nominated for “Best Picture” and “Writing- adapted screenplay.”

“Audible,” a documentary produced by Nyle DiMarco about a Deaf athlete’s journey at a Deaf school, has also been nominated for the Oscars’ “Best documentary short film.” 

The United Nations (UN) estimates that more than half a million people have fled from Ukraine. The number includes Deaf people. We don’t know the exact number of Deaf people who escaped.

Many Deaf Ukrainians and Russians didn’t want to share their experiences and opinions with the public. They fear the Deaf community will judge and blame them. We will share a video that has already been posted online.

Two Deaf-owned theaters – 1S1 Theatre and Why Not Theatre, worked together to develop a character named Puff who is popular with Deaf and hearing children. Puff teaches children about Deafness, sign language, culture, and Deaf identity. ABCs and colors are also taught in ASL and spoken English.

Maya Berinzon, one of the supporters of Puff said, “Our family loves Puff and we look forward to more episodes. It’s so hard to find educational resources for kids who sign but can hear, like our daughter.” The Puff ASL storytelling app can also be downloaded from the Apple Store.

Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian athletes were removed from the Paralympic Games. This led to the European Deaf Sports Organization and the International Olympic Committee deciding to suspend Russia and Belarus from participating in the Deaflympics in Brazil and the European and World Championships.

Virgil Van Dijk, a famous football player from the English club Liverpool made a big donation for Deaf footballers to attend the Deaflympics. He helped fund a trip to Brazil. 

Zetteler, a London advertising firm, redesigned their headquarters to become Deaf-friendly. The founder of the firm, Sabine Zettleler, has severe hearing loss. Three rooms were redesigned – a main working area, a small cafe-style room, and a meeting room.

Sabine said she wanted the space to offer both her team and the wider creative community a flexible, beautiful, and functional place where they can come and get together to do their work.

There will be 150 hours of television coverage with a Canadian TV – CBC/Radio – for Canada’s Paralympic athletes in Beijing. The 10-day Paralympics event begins on March 4th and ends on March 13th. Opening and closing ceremonies will be presented with closed captioning, video description, and with ASL access.

Cosme Casas has a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts. When he was younger, he attended the industrial school. At the end of the painting course, his teacher invited him to take classes in the Sculpture Garden. With his art, Cosme aims to shine a light on justice and fighting for equal opportunities.

“Audible,” a short Deaf film and Troy Kotsur, a Deaf actor from the movie “CODA” were nominated for an Oscar award. CODA received a lot of positive feedback.

Audible is a documentary about a Deaf athlete, Amaree McKenstry-Hall; he struggles with the realities of navigating the hearing world. Nyle DiMarco is one of the executive producers. The Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 27th.

In 2021, there were more hungry people and less resources.The Deaf the community in South Sudan was hit hard. The Deaf Reaching Deaf for Christ organisation are helping to supply food to the Deaf community.

South Sudan is facing their hungriest year ever due to increased food prices, the economic downfall from COVID-19, and crops being destroyed from unexpected flooding.

In South Africa, a 36 year old Deaf woman, Tracy Duncan, decided to get a cochlear implant. It’s expensive in her country – she decided to raise money for Deaf children who want them. She will climb Mount Kilimanjaro with about 13 Deaf and hearing people.

In Mozambique, there are about 68,000 Deaf people. Their constitution states that all Deaf people must have access to information. In 2008, TV Surdo was established to provide information to the Deaf community.

On February 24, 2022, Russia decided to attack Ukraine. The Deaf community in Ukraine is tight; they exchange information on social media.

A crisis team was formed to support Deaf Ukrainians with accommodation, clothing, and transportation. The World Federation of the deaf set up a donation campaign to support Deaf Ukrainans and to countries where refugees are welcome. You can make a donation on the WFD website.

The upcoming 24th Summer Deaflympics is in Caxias do Sul, Brazil. They will host over 6000 athletes from 100 different countries.

The Organising Committee is open to volunteers to join them and make the Deaflympics successful. Requirements are: over 18 years old; availability to meet the schedule, and know sign language. If all are met, then you can apply via their website.

A Deaf Village will be built in Blackburn, United Kingdom. This is to reduce isolation among local Deaf residents, age 16 and up. Project funding is £700,000 GBP and is intended to encourage independence.

This 17th century “White House” will have many new updates and additions to adapt it into a smart home. There will also be a support worker and a night light nurse call support who knows BSL. They hope to open the Deaf Village this spring.

New TV series, “Madagascar: Little Wild” added a new character, a Deaf Chimp Dave and his CODA sister, Pickles.

Three Deaf people worked closely with the producers at Dreamworks to make sure the characters are as realistic as possible in Using ASL, facial expressions, and body language. It can be seen on Hulu and Peacock.

Vivo Malaysia, a technology company, created a 9-minute film about a Deaf female, Sil, who dreams of becoming a professional Karate athlete.

Sil trained, got a black belt and represented Malaysia in an international Karate tournament. The film, filmed with a smartphone, can be seen on YouTube.

In Northern Ireland, Deaf people are struggling to access Mental Health services. Louise McDonnell is only person to offers one-on-one counselling for Deaf people.

She said many Deaf people need more mental health support but struggle because of limited counsellors who can communicate with Deaf patients. Not all Deaf people feel comfortable with interpreters.

In London, Alison bought tickets to a performance, “Frozen: The Musical” for her Deaf daughter. They provide captioning glasses.

The daughter caught COVID-19 so they asked to reschedule their tickets and found out that future performances won’t have captions or interpreters. Accessibility was only for one show. “I guess they just decided Deaf people don’t matter,” Alison posted on her Instagram.

In Dadhkai, India, the Indian army is helping 100 Deaf people living in a village with clothes, food, and healthcare. The Army brought two teachers to teach sign language, life skills to survive, gain confidence and independence.

The army stepped in as the government had neglected the village.

Australian “Hear For You” charity offers mentoring programs and workshops for
Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people.

A Deaf woman, Olivia Andersen, created a social media campaign called #undeafeated to spread awareness how young Deaf people can get access to mental health services.

Gallaudet University opened the Center for Black Deaf Studies to connect with its Black Deaf students and address issues they may experience on campus. The leaders say they personally experienced discrimination based on their race and disability and want the Center to ensure that no Black Deaf student faces the same issues.

“We don’t see ourselves as disabled,” says one Black Deaf Studies professor at Gallaudet, Carolyn McCaskill, “We consider ourselves a linguistic minority. And like ASL, Black Sign Language is beautiful.”

Nadeem Islam, a Deaf actor with experience in television, comedy, presenting and theatre, joined the cast of an UK TV series, “The Bay”. Nadeem says at first he experienced “Deaf anxiety” as everyone was wearing masks but eventually everyone on the set received a BSL video to increase Deaf awareness.

Nadeem hopes his role will inspire hearing family members of Deaf people to learn sign language.

The Christian Deaf Center, is a restaurant in Kwale fully run by Deaf staff selling coffee and tea and popular Kenyan dishes. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges to getting ingredients, the restaurant continues to stay open providing Deaf people with jobs.

The manager says he is committed ot training Deaf employees and teaching them valuable skills.

As millions of viewers around the world tuned in to watch the 56th annual Super Bowl football game, the halftime show included Deaf performers Sean Forbes and WaWa. Deaf viewers were upset that Forbes and WaWa’s performances were cut off and not fully shown on TV and are demanding legal action to prevent this from happening again.

Msizi Dlomo, an engineering student lost his hearing due to blood cancer and had to change his career path to farming. He established a farming business, “Ihlongandlebe Farming” which grows spinach and cabbage.

He says “I wouldn’t be here if I was still hearing. When I accepted my loss, I gained a new talent”.

ARGENTINA: The Ministry of Human Development and Social Promotion in San Juan is establishing a WhatsApp phone number for Deaf and hard of hearing people to video call others using sign language interpreters on emergencies, family and financial issues, lack of housing and mental health issues.
PERU: Acceine and Collective Media are organizing a film festival for Deaf and disabled people.

Accessible movies with subtitles and audio descriptions from Chile, Argentina, Columbia, Uruguay, Cuba, Spain and Peru portraying stories related to human rights, childhood, and discrimination will be shown.

Rosie Cooper, British Member of Parliament has introduced a bill to make British Sign Language (BSL) an official language. Parliament has up to 6 months to discuss and finalize. So far the bill has passed its second reading and is now in committee awaiting third reading.

David Buxton, chair of British Deaf Association says “Deaf people in Britain never gave up hope that their language would one day be not only recognized in law but also protected and promoted.”

A TikTok video went viral showing a 17-year old Deaf boy being severely beaten by the police. He was playing in an elevator in a subway station when a policeman ordered him to stop.

This incident has angered many people and the local Deaf community protested in front of the Government of Georgia’s offices.

USA: The Deaf Artists Residency (DAR) at Anderson Center in Minnesota, USA gave five Deaf artists the opportunity to come together to live, work and share ideas with others thanks to funding from the National Endowment of the Arts.

MEXICO: GatoSordo is empowering Deaf people to get jobs by collaborating on training in Deaf awareness.

Victor Zurita, a 25 year old Deaf man was elected as the first Deaf politician in Mexico’s history. He scurrently serves on the Special Commission on Attention to Persons with Disabilities of the Congress in the State of Michacan. He says the Deaf community in Mexico has been “invisible” for decades. There are only one certified interpreter for every 127,000 people.

Zurita is working on multiple legislative proposals to improve the rights of people with disabilities and promote Mexican Sign Language (MSL).

Central Television (CCTV) is collaborating with Baidu Intelligent Cloud on the first Artificial Intelligence (AI) sign language anchor. It looks like a real person but using technology, learns and interprets into sign language. It will provide sign language interpretation of all its Olympics TV coverage 24 hours a day.

UNITED KINGDOM: Barclays has donated £100,000 to the North East Sensory Services (NESS) to help Blind and Deaf people keep in touch with friends and family and use the internet for banking and shopping.

FRANCE: A Deaf man, Patrick hosts a new health blog “Sante Signes” discussing different topics related to leading a healthy life. Recent topics: whether pre-packaged lettuce is healthier and chemicals may have been used to clean it.

Peloton, an American company that provides at-home exercise equipment, has announced live subtitles that are available during their cycling classes.

These classes, which became popular during COVID-19 lockdowns, allows people to participate in live cycling with instructors. Until now Deaf people could not follow these instructors. Now, thanks to a partnership with Microsoft Azure, speech-to-text translation now makes live cycling accessible!

After her father died, Chan Mei-wah a Deaf person in Hong Kong, was not allowed to enter her home.

She thought she co-owned the home but found out that a security guard, the executor of her father’s will, said her father gave the home to her. She has filed a complaint in High Court.

The two biggest issues affecting Deaf Education in Pakistan is lack of trained teachers, and lack of training resources in local sign language. With 1 million Deaf school age children in Pakistan only 5% have access to school.

Now The Deaf Reach is providing accessible and inclusive education to Deaf children for free, thanks to a collaboration with colleges and training centers to promote higher education among Deaf students.

In January Big Daddy Kane, an American singer was seen pushing an ASL interpreter away.

After the video clip went viral, Daddy Kane apologized on his Instagram page
saying he did apologize to the interpreter but it was not shown in the video, and never meant to disrespect anyone.

Many Deaf people work at toll booths but now that the Finance Minister of Ghana has closed down all toll booths on public roads and bridges due to traffic jams resulting in pollution, a representative of the Ghana National Associatoin of the Deaf (GNAD) appeared on TV to talk about the impact the closure has on Deaf people.

Deaf people had arrived at work one day only to find a notice informing them not to return to work again. GNAD says over 90% of employers avoid hiring Deaf people due to communication barriers, even though the country has outlawed employment discrimination.

AFRICA: Deaf football teams competed in Moi to qualify for the Deaflympics. The Kenya and Somalia are both strong teams but Kenya emerged victorious.

ZAMBIA: after 54 years of lobbying, the University of Lusaka has agreed to allow Deaf people to study law for the first time in history. The Deaf Assocaition in Zambia arranged for Deaf students tuition to be covered through scholarships.