RELIGION
Rochester is home to several churches for the deaf, and many Rochester area churches have deaf ministries:
- Alpha Lutheran Church of the Deaf
- Anchor Christian Church (deaf ministry)
- Emmanuel Church of the Deaf
- First Bible Baptist Church (deaf ministry)
- Genessee Park SDA Church (deaf pastor)
- Liberty Baptist Church of the Deaf
- Victory Baptist Church (deaf ministry)
Deaf Jewish people in Rochester have the Louis S. and Molly B. Wolk Center for Jewish Cultural Enrichment for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
RECREATION AND CLUBS
Sports and recreational opportunities abound in Rochester. A sampling:
- Rochester Recreation Club for the Deaf
- Greater Rochester Deaf Golfers Association
- Greater Rochester Recreation Association of the Deaf (Possibly defunct; their website has a message saying they are no longer in existence, but at least one social calendar showed them to still be active).
- Lilac Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf for deaf lesbigays in Rochester
- Deaf Elders Around Rochester (senior citizens who are deaf)
- Eastern Athletic Association of the Deaf
- Rochester Rascals Deaf Softball Organization
SOCIALIZING
As befits such a large deaf community, social opportunities for the deaf in Rochester are plentiful:
- Deaf International of Rochester - social gatherings of deaf people from various countries
- Deaf Professional Happy Hour held monthly
- Deaf Coffee Nights (GRRAD)
- Silent Suppers
SOCIAL SERVICES
When times are hard or people are abused or just need help with hearing aids or other hearing loss-related concerns, families and deaf people in Rochester have places to turn to, such as:
- Advocacy Services for Abused Deaf Victims
- Rochester Hearing and Speech Center
- Substance and Alcohol Intervention Services for the Deaf (at RIT/NTID)
- Big Brothers Big Sisters has a deaf/hoh program
BUSINESSES
Several businesses in Rochester are fully accessible to the deaf (or are deaf-owned). At least one real estate agent, Parker Zack, advertises his sign language skills.
MEDIA
Three Rochester area television stations (WHEC, WOKR, WROC) have real-time captioning of the local news. In addition, NTID has a caption center.
ARTICLES
Articles about Rochester's deaf population are scarce. The New York Times published an article on December 25, 2006, "Where Sign Language is Far from Foreign". That article claimed there were about 90,000 deaf/hoh in Rochester, a figure disputed by Tom Willard in his blog posting "90,000 deaf/hoh in Rochester? Yeah, right."
Most other published articles are about NTID, but one of Lividas' articles, published in the Democrat and Chronicle on March 26, 2002 ("Local deaf population in national spotlight"), focused on the deaf community of Rochester as a whole.
