Will Fertman

A Deaf guy I know takes a very hard line about boundaries with his CODA kid. If he ever starts trying to interpret for his father, dad interrupts: "Excuse me, are you an interpreter? Can I see your certification?"

He knows how corrosive it can be to take on that role.

That's appalling. That's two lives made harder, to what end?

My grandmother was a CODA, interpreting for her two Deaf parents in 1920's New York where there were no other options. It was only really years after her death that I understood the toll it took on her and her childhood.

Love @buttondown.com — very straightforward.

This is why family sign language interpreting is DANGEROUS.

And even if family is qualified, it's an emotional nightmare for them. Not appropriate at all.

Some hot tips here for parents of college bound #deafkids

Don't listen to him! I'm here to sell books! BUY MY BOOK! BUY MY BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!

(preorders are not yet available.)

Swee' Pea first appeared in the Thimble Theatre comic strip on July 28, 1933

Monster Hands Check out Monster Hands - <b>A Schneider Family Book Award Honor<br><br>Two best friends use rhyming ASL to help vanquish their fear of the monster under the bed in this fun, interactive bedtime reada...

Spotted the Disability Pride Month display at my local library. Had a couple pallid “my friend is Deaf” explainers in there, but nothing fun. I told them that they should have Monster Hands up there and the librarian was like, “Of course!” and slipped it right in. Thanks, @berkeleypubliclibrary.org!

Now that the post below it has been deleted I look like some kind of psychopath. So let me be clear: I was proposing a citywide zipline that could transport babies between two divorced parents.

Notes from the Deaf Baby Instruction Manual Being a parent is a lot. Parenting a deaf baby is a lot more.

Had to hold the newsletter for a day... will be out tomorrow morning! buttondown.com/will_fertman

Yeah, both of mine had Sledgehammer phases. They were big into human reproduction at the time, too, so the sperm and egg section was a source of fascination.

Notes from the Deaf Baby Instruction Manual Being a parent is a lot. Parenting a deaf baby is a lot more.

New newsletter out on Wednesday, where I hang out my shingle as a public speaker. Want me to rave to you in person about children's books for #deafkids? Subscribe for details!

#kidlit ♿

It's always a gamble. Godspeed my friend.

Brave to have coffee at 9. What are your prospects of an early AM wakeup?

We have the best epitaphs. This banger comes from a family graveyard in the NH woods:

Death is a debt
To nature due,
That I have paid,
And so must you.

Imagine if doctors could write "learn ASL" on a script pad and insurance companies would pay for it... #deafkids

two doors, one titled "terapy" with an empty entryway, and the other door labeled "Steven UNiverse" with a group of people trying to enter.

Good morning! #StevenUniverse #StevenUniverseFuture

The final pro-wrasslin' themed fight between Blade and the villain was incredible.

YouTube video by SuzanneVegaVEVO Suzanne Vega - Book Of Dreams

I love how all her music videos of this era look like they were filmed on a high school drama set (which is probably not all that far off-base.) youtu.be/uAWGw8meEDE?...

Pregnancy is a minefield when you're disabled Few OB-GYNs get disability training—and their disabled patients are far likelier to die.

Disabled people are 11 times more likely to die during labor/in the postpartum period than non-disabled people. Better education and smashing ableism is how we get out of this horrible stat.

For the past year, I’ve been looking into the topic of disability and pregnancy for @motherjones.com 🧵

Attorney General Bonta: ICE and CBP Must End Unlawful Practices in Los Angeles Immediately "We won’t be silent. We won’t back down. We will continue to hold the federal government accountable when it violates the Constitution and federal law.”

The actions of ICE and CBP during the raids in Los Angeles are not about safety or justice—they’re about meeting enforcement quotas and striking fear in communities.

We’ve filed a brief supporting a challenge to ICE and CBP’s unlawful practices.

We won’t back down and we won’t be silent.

If "work will set you free" is part of your political logic, you are a Nazi.

Ridiculously awesome dog.

But given the dismal state of HR in the sciences, will anyone actually implement them? Even under these dire circumstances—especially under these dire circumstances—institutions need to step up and support the next generation of researchers.

The lessons about supporting Deaf scientists and scholars are important. The context is enraging. This administration is throwing away our #deafkids future.

Importantly, the cert is not limited to only SLPs: practitioners like AuDs or even ToDs can get it, and the board composition is at least 1/2 Deaf professionals at all times.

Image: smiling young woman with a tumbling salt-and-pepper fauxhawk. Text: The American Board of DHH Specialists. Introducing... Our first ciertified DHHS Practitioner, or DHHS-P! Congratulations, Caitlin Steuve, MA, CCC-SLP, DHHS-P (note: the name is a misspelling of Stueve)

Image: A lightly styled block of text with a yellow "smiley face" in the bottom-left corner. Text: The American Board of DHH Specialists. Who is Caitlin? Caitlin Steuve is a speech-language pathologist in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the owner of The Signing SLP, a private practice specializing in language support services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children, including those with additional support needs. She focuses on ASL-English bilingualism, multimodal communication, and building strong partnerships with families to support accessible, affirming language development.

Image: a lightly styled block of text with a yellow "smiley face" in the bottom-right corner. Text: The American Board of DHH Specialists. Continued... As someone who has worked for years at the intersection of speech-language pathology and Deaf education, Caitlin persued the DHHS-P certification as a way to formally demonstrate her expertise supporting DHH children and her ongoing commitment to best practices in the field. She values this certification as a way to help families more easily identify providers who are truly prepared to meet the unique language and communication needs of their child.

Image: lightly styled block of text. A small Instagram logo of a square camera appears next to the words "or Instagram" Text: The American Board of DHH Specialists. Interested in certification? Find out more at: dhhspecialists.org Or email: info@dhhspecialists.org Or Instagram: @americanboard.dhh.specialists

This is the start of something very important. Parents of #deafkids quickly learn that qualified professionals—even in areas like speech-language pathology or deaf education, are thin on the ground and hard to find.

Ryan Coogler keeps the hits coming. #BASL

Authors and Illustrators of Books in Mahmoud v. Taylor Case Respond to Supreme Court Ruling - PEN America As the authors and illustrators of the books named in Mahmoud v. Taylor, we believe the Supreme Court’s ruling today threatens students’ access to diverse books and undermines teachers’ efforts to cre...

Authors and Illustrators of Books in Mahmoud v. Taylor Case Respond to Supreme Court Ruling pen.org/press-releas...