Three companies are working together in July to offer training for Deaf Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) actors, filmmakers and screenwriters in Atlanta, Georgia. Jane Bryan, a Deaf BIPOC filmmaker and her Deaf Talent Media and Entertainment Consulting firm is leading the project in collaboration with Amazon and AMC Network to host two residential programs.

Students in the United States won an American Sign Language (ASL) competition. Three students at the Bloomfield Hills Schools Program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Oakland County are national winners in a competition championing the use of ASL. Three students, eighth graders at East Hills High School submitted videos performing an original piece in ASL for the Marie Jean Philip Competition.

The Pope hired Indigenous Sign Language interpreters to interpret his message. Three indigenous women interpreted the Mass of Pope Francis in ASL at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium. Christopher Wells, a reporter from Vatican Radio, explained the importance of communication and how language is key to understanding. The interpreters also explained their personal experiences as indigenous women, and one of these 3 women recalled the abuse she suffered growing up in a residential school. The three women appear in the following order (from left to right): Marsha Ireland, Crystal Wolfe, and Rae-Marie Richardson.

The principal of Kahilipara Deaf School and two others in the northeastern India state of Assam were arrested along with nineteen students in seven cities as the police investigated a leak of a state exam answers paper. The investigation began after a handwritten version of a general science exam answers paper began circulating on WhatsApp. Although the exam was for Class 10, most students sharing it were in Class 11 and 12.

One hundred and forty three years ago today, Helen Keller was born in Alabama. She is known worldwide as a DeafBlind celebrity. Her fame was fed by international speaking tours, a Broadway play and later a film called “The Miracle Worker”. She gained many famous friends, including Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill and several presidents. In 1999, Keller was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.