“…In May 2011, Governor Mitch Daniels appointed to the Board of Directors at the Indiana School for the Deaf individuals who had vested interest in the HEAR INDIANA organization. HEAR INDIANA is one of the biggest supporters of House Bill # 1367.  This organization, which professes to be all about “options, choices and unbiased information” is a chapter of the AG Bell Association.  The AG Bell Association promotes the Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) method which specifically excludes American Sign Language as well as other “visual language systems.” These organizations are behind the recent legislative actions in the states of Delaware and Utah as well as Indiana.  Their unwritten agenda is clear—-to influence states to close traditional schools for Deaf children in the United States and increase the number of so-called Option schools (which are exclusively oral/aural).  While these programs proclaim they are new and dealing with recent technological advancements that impact education, this oral/aural only methodology is actually antiquated, as well as exclusionary and oppressive.  These programs deny Deaf children access to a natural signed language which has been documented via decades of research to be acquired with the same ease and manner as individuals acquiring spoken language….”

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