subscribe

Date: Sun, 10 Mar 96 18:06:59 -0800
From: EYRUN OLAFSDOTTIR
Subject: Deafness in Iceland

Hi Michael: My name is Peter Peterson. My wife is deaf and a native Icelander. I´m a Canadian, hearing person who was a former sign language interpreter. Former being that I am not fluent in either Icelandic sign or their highly declined ancient language.

I thought you might be interested in hearing a few facts from Iceland. If for no other reason than it may be your first communicae from here.

Iceland has recently given all of the deaf people a computer with a communications program, from Norway, called Notex. It means we can throw away the TTY´s Yahoo.

They have recently added a program at the university where about 60 students are learning interpreting. Not bad considering there were only about 10 interpreters prior to this.

Iceland has about 200 deafies and one school for the deaf. Tv is not captioned unless a foreign film is being shown (often) but the deaf have their own News broadcast 10 minutes prior to the hearing news broadcast.

Well, all for now. I´ll read the rest of your page now. Lets hear from you if you have the time or interest.

Peter and Eyrun