This is a new image from #JWST. The bright points with spikes are stars in the Milky Way. Everything else is a galaxy. Everything. Else. Is. A. Galaxy.
Leala Holcomb
@lealaholcomb.bsky.social
Multigenerational deaf. Research assistant professor. Deaf education. Translanguaging and multimodal multilingual literacies. Teacher trainer.
Our paper won a Best Paper Award at #chi2025 ! It challenges the idea that Deaf tech should only be assistive. It presents alternative narratives that center deaf lives and show why we need Deaf-centred design in tech. @robinxtech.bsky.social @katta.bsky.social programs.sigchi.org/chi/2025/pro...
Conference Programs
programs.sigchi.org
Although cochlear implants can give deaf children access to sound, it doesn’t always mean they have unrestricted or consistent access to language. This Science paper and podcast episode discuss how sign language can provide this access: pca.st/episode/5e7f... www.science.org/content/arti...
Implants can help deaf kids hear—but many still struggle with spoken language
Some researchers worry about risks of devaluing sign language, overreliance on imperfect devices
science.org
Did you know there are over 20 Black deaf scholars with PhDs in the U.S.? Want to know who they are? Check them out at blackdeafphd.com!
Home | Black Deaf Ph.D. Project
blackdeafphd.com
This dynamic exists in deaf communities too. Sign language interpreters can feel free to give or withhold their services based on how much they like a deaf person. You always have to be super likable to avoid that dynamic emerging.
a man in a red hoodie is making a funny face while standing next to another man .
ALT: a man in a red hoodie is making a funny face while standing next to another man .
media.tenor.com
A lot of Disabled people don't have the privilege of not caring if others like them It can be vital to your survival that you are seen as likeable I've had ppl I depend on threaten to pull services when I didn't respond to deeply invasive questions abt my life in a happy way
I have been intentional abt reading from different sources. I find myself respecting conservatives who challenge Republicans’ narratives & liberals who challenge Democrats’ narratives. I am increasingly not a fan of the religious-like, all-or-nothing outlook on complicated topics. 1/3
Gonna read more on this, but calling all #deafsky. This bill definitely needs to be defeated. Anyone know if folks at ISD are aware?
Part 1: Indiana Republicans want to take back in time when our language and culture were suppressed. Summary of Indiana Senate Bill 0473’s Impact on DHH Education (can be found in sections 26-28, pages 19-21):
Part 1: Indiana Republicans want to take back in time when our language and culture were suppressed. Summary of Indiana Senate Bill 0473’s Impact on DHH Education (can be found in sections 26-28, pages 19-21):
Thread im thread fuer den alt-text aller Screenshots im zitierten thread: A screenshot of a document listing words flagged in a search of current NSF (National Science Foundation) awards. The heading states that the list is possibly incomplete and based on a cull from 1/10th of the awards flagged.
Science has always been political. To assume otherwise is either willful or blissful ignorance. There are no systems without analyses of power, and politics is about power.
If you can, do something, speak up and act up. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Question for #blind or #deafblind people: are tactile posters a thing that would be welcomed? Poster sessions at conferences tend to be visual - could/should they be tactile as well? And maybe a tactile layout of the conference? Not instead of a protactile interpreter, but in addition to.
Loved reconnecting w/ old faces & meeting new ones to discuss deaf education research @ #ACEDHH2025 conference. I wasn’t expecting it, but I woke up this morning as the President-Elect for the ACEDHH organization! Honored and excited to work with the Board to keep pushing deaf education forward.
Hey #deaf scholars--has anyone snagged the Edhi data off the CDC yet?
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting this weekend as I became the person in charge of planning & executing (along with an essential/committed team) a conference I first attended in 2011. I started as a shy grad student scared of making a fool of myself in front of the biggest names in my field (1/~3)
Great poster session at #ACEDHH2025! Cool research happening and it's exciting for people to discuss their work 1-on-few. Also, and maybe it's just me, but I like when people that give full presentations also do posters about their work. Posters don't only have to be for grad students.
The #ACEDHH conference on deaf education is just getting started, and my heart is already full from the people I’ve run into so far. 🥰
A few highlights from my book: Language policy doesn't involve managing language(s) but exercising authority to impose new norms in how we interact. We don't manage language itself but who, how, where and when can participate in discourse. #linguistics #appliedlinguistics #sociolinguistics 1/x
I have been working on a million-dollar USAID project, funded by your taxes, supporting deaf education in Rwanda, Malawi, & Philippines, collaborating w/ local Deaf researchers to create meaningful systemic changes. The work is only halfway done. We were informed the project is being suspended. 1/
I have supported many deaf graduate students and currently support a deaf post doc using this mechanism. What’s happening at NIH is terrible for science and closes doors for deaf students who face so many more challenges than their hearing peers
The NIH diversity supplement pages have all been pulled down. What is a diversity supplement and why should the public care? A diversity supplement is funding to help diversify the research workforce. You may be wondering, “so what?”. Let me explain. www.nigms.nih.gov/Pages/PageNo...
Media fuels hysteria & an us vs. them mindset. I saw it w/ Biden 4 years ago (Republican reactions) & now w/ Trump (Democratic reactions). Reminding myself not to jump to fear-based conclusions based on info I get from social media’s algorithm. Gotta read legit sources from varied perspectives. 🧐
NIH appears to have canceled/postponed all of its study sections—the independent review panels that approve federal grants for health research. Such grants fund the work/salaries of 300k people at more than 2,500 institutions
All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.
Our new paper just got published at Nature Human Behavior! www.nature.com/articles/s41... We study trust in science in 68 countries and how it relates to other variables. It was wild to be part of this project 👌✨
Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries - Nature Human Behaviour
What is the state of trust in scientists around the world? To answer this question, the authors surveyed 71,922 respondents in 68 countries and found that trust in scientists is moderately high.
nature.com
This is just the beginning. The subsequent restructuring of NIH will have a long-lasting impact on the global landscape of medical science research. Expect a "brain drain effect" as scholars in the US leave to other countries. Expect the US to become much weaker in medical science and technology.
Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring
Researchers facing
science.org
High school "There is no way people will take you seriously without a college degree." College "If you want to be taken seriously go to grad school." Grad school "Get a job at a university. Then you will be taken seriously." University job “You are so out of touch nobody takes you seriously.”
Trump wants to convince us that US citizen children of undocumented immigrants and trans people are criminals while pardoning actual criminals
“One poll found 59% of adults oppose pardoning people who “forced their way into the Capitol.” Two separate surveys found 66% and 62% opposition to pardoning anyone “convicted” in the attack on the Capitol. A poll from Quinnipiac found 59% of registered voters opposed…” www.cnn.com/2025/01/20/p...
I remember attending Obama’s first inauguration in person. It was a cold but special day. There was so much hope and joy… opposite to what I feel today.
Maybe the field isn’t ready yet for a #NoTalkTISLR but at the next conference we *could* perhaps have two parallel streams of on-stage presentations, one without interpreting, as a way to ease us towards a sign-only future? #TISLR15
For #NoTalkTISLR to happen at future TISLR meetings, I think we may have to change the fundamental space of the presentations. More workshops, more posters for direct signing?
Maybe the field isn’t ready yet for a #NoTalkTISLR but at the next conference we *could* perhaps have two parallel streams of on-stage presentations, one without interpreting, as a way to ease us towards a sign-only future? #TISLR15