I live in Connecticut. I gave hour-long long distance TTY English lessons to deaf adults in Alabama. One had poor English skills, the other had relatively good skills. They called me for each lesson. Neither the calls nor the lessons cost them a cent. My students used the NEXTALK computer program which allows no-cost text-telephone use. Both students experienced improvements in their English skills. TTY English lessons work! Anyone who says you can’t teach a deaf adult with poor or limited English skills to improve his skills doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Deaf adults with limited English skills can be taught. They can and do learn. Their skills do improve. They can become prepared for English-active jobs, the same good jobs hearing people get. I know because I taught them.

Here’s how our TTY English Lesson Program works. The deaf adult student uses his computer and the NEXTALK computer program to make free TTY phone calls of unlimited duration to anyone anywhere in the country, and it doesn’t cost him a cent. He calls me or another English Lesson Teacher (at no cost to the student) and the English lesson is conducted entirely by TTY for around an hour..

Basically, the lesson is simply talking about anything of interest to the student with the teacher. If the student makes a mistake in grammar, spelling, construction, etc. while communicating with the teacher, the teacher corrects him immediately. The teacher types XXXXX and this tells the student to stop typing and wait for the teacher’s correction. If the student is not able to save the correction from the teacher on a printer, he will note the correction with pad and pen. The student takes his lesson in the privacy, comfort and security of his home. You’d be surprised how fast students start seeing improvements in their English skills with the TTY English Lesson Program. .

The idea of the TTY English Lesson Program is for the deaf adult student to become qualified for English-active jobs which Modern Deaf Communication will help the unemployed deaf job seeker go after and get. Interested unemployed deaf people should fill out our Job-Placement Registration Form and mail it to Modern Deaf Communication.(See Main Menu).

FREE COMPUTERS TO ADULT STUDENTS ENROLLED IN OUR TTY ENGLISH LESSON PROGRAM

If the deaf job-seeker does not have a computer of his own in order to take advantage of the NEXTALK program so that he can take TTY English Lessons, we’ll help get a computer for him gratis. And if he doesn’t have a dictionary, we’ll help get this for him, too.

The computers are provided gratis to Modern Deaf Communication by the Danbury Area Computer Society for distribution to deaf job-seekers enrolled in MDC’s TTY English Lesson Program . Dictionaries are provided gratis by the Danbury Public Library.