An aspiring hard of hearing cartoonist, Pete McEachen, has launched his "Living Impaired" comic strip on the About Deafness forum. In his introduction to the comic strip, Pete writes:

I call the strip Living Impaired 1.0 because whether we're deaf, hearing impaired, blind, diabetic or have a foot that chronically falls asleep, we're all living impaired in some way. It's how we deal with these imperfections that make us who we are! :)

Pete is seeking feedback from About.com Deafness readers, and he will be posting a new strip daily on the About.com Deafness forum. He hopes that readers will post their feedback as responses to his cartoon postings. His characters are based on real people in deaf history and the disability community!

Enjoy - I know I will enjoy reading this strip and watching Pete develop as a cartoonist.

When the Kern Community College District cut interpreters' pay, interpreters not surprisingly quit in droves. The result? Deaf students failing courses or dropping out. Interpreters' pay was cut because of revision of the interpreting job description. Another reason for the cut was an "invalid" form of payment (the article is not clear on what is meant by "invalid.") Pay dropped a whopping fifty percent, and interpreters quit. The college is attempting to cope by looking into technological solutions.

Every year, I usually get an e-mail or two from someone wanting to know how to sign "Merry Christmas" in American Sign Language. This year, there is a different request on the forum from beadterp:

Hi, I am looking for signs for Merry Christmas as used in other 'foreign' countries. Our elementary school is doing a production where these words are voiced in other languages and thought it would be cool to sign these other languages. Does anyone know some of these signs or can help me with a source, please?

This is a tough one and I don't have an answer. Does anyone have suggestions? Post your suggestions here or on the forum in response to beadterp.

These are challenging times for schools for the deaf. State budget cuts. Pressure from No Child Left Behind. More deaf kids from non-English speaking families. Aging facilities. Rhode Island School for the Deaf faces all this (as reported by The Providence Journal), and more.