Meet the winners of 2013 Spelling Bee fro the Hearing Imparied
After preparing for months, sixteen students competed in the 2013 Spelling Bee for the Hearing Impaired. The competition was divided in two categories for juniors and seniors and was held at the Belize Elementary School Gymnasium in Belize City. And after several rounds of spelling, two students from the Deaf/Mute Institute in Cayo emerged as the best spellers using sign language.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Nine year old Jacob Chun and thirteen year old Crystal Lopez of the Cayo Deaf/Mute Institute in the West won both junior and senior category of the 2013 Spelling Bee for the Hearing Impaired, respectively. It took almost a year to prepare for the competition.
Isaac Penner, Rep., Cayo Deaf/Mute Institute
Isaac Penner
“It’s not we who did it. It just happened; god did it. The children are learning and we believe they are doing good.”
Reporter
“Tell us about the work they put in to make sure that they came out on top?”
Isaac Penner
“It took forty-five weeks of practice, one hour to two hours a day and the extra practice after school. Studying—we went out to certain place for people, other friends to watch them—so they were getting use to spelling and they enjoyed it.”
It is the eighteenth annual event of its kind which is sponsored by Crystal of Bowen and Bowen.
Jayson Solis
Jayson Solis, Crystal Brand Coordinator, Bowen & Bowen
“The prizes this year as you know we try to do it better and better very year, this year we got a kindle fire HD for the first place winners and then we got a kindle paper for the second place winners and then for third place we got gifts that are related to people with hearing impaired disability so it like vibrating alarm clocks and stuff like that, we put thought into the prizes because we wanted it to be relevant.”
The competition is done in collaboration with the National Resource Center for Inclusive Education (NARCIE).
Earlette Thomas, Itinerant Resource Officer, NARCIE
Earlette Thomas
“It is extremely important for us to have our students who are hearing impaired to come in with us. One it is a way of getting them together to social since they are separated. Some of them are in different districts and they don’t get a chance to meet with eat other, to talk with each other and to be able to express themselves. People who are hearing impaired; they have their own culture, their own language and it is good for them to come together.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
Please be advised that the term, “hearing impaired” is unacceptable. Here is the explanation:
The term “Hearing Impaired” is a technically accurate term much preferred by hearing people, largely because they view it as politically correct. In the mainstream society, to boldly state one’s disability (e.g., deaf, blind, etc.) is somewhat rude and impolite. To their way of thinking, it is far better to soften the harsh reality by using the word “impaired” along with “visual”, “hearing”, and so on. “Hearing-impaired” is a well-meaning word that is much-resented by deaf and hard of hearing people. This term was popular in the 70s and 80s, however, now is used mostly by doctors, audiologists and other people who are mainly interested in our ears “not working.”
While it’s true that their hearing is not perfect, that doesn’t make them impaired as people. Most would prefer to be called Deaf, Hard of Hearing or deaf when the need arises to refer to their hearing status, but not as a primary way to identify them as people (where their hearing status is not significant).
We are deaf, and not people with impairments (obstacles) in life!
Hope that you and your people respect by refusing to use the outdated and offensive term. Hearing loss is more acceptable for everyone who is not just deaf.
http://www.eastersealscrossroads.org/blog/2011/september/deaf-vs-hearing-impaired
http://www.deafau.org.au/info/terminology.php
http://nad.org/issues/american-sign-language/community-and-culture-faq
http://www.ifhoh.org/papers/agreement-terminology/