NTID Professor Edits Deaf Studies Handbook

Now available from Oxford University Press, the Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education surveys a field that has grown dramatically over the past 40 years, since sign languages were first recognized to be true languages.

Edited by Research Professor Marc Marschark, of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology, and Patricia E. Spencer, a research scientist at Gallaudet University, the handbook covers topics such as language development, hearing and speech perception, education, literacy, and cognition.

"This is a handbook that will become a standard text in university programs in education of the deaf, as well as in programs preparing other professional personnel for service in the field of deafness," said Robert Davila, NTID CEO. "No other deaf studies publication offers a more comprehensive perspective of the social, psychological, linguistic, and pragmatic aspects of deafness."

The book, intended for students, practitioners, and researchers, contains reviews of research by internationally recognized experts in a variety of areas related to deafness. In addition, it offers insights into future research agendas in each domain.

"This handbook is a ‘must have’ resource for anyone involved in studying or affecting the lives of deaf children and adults," said Lynn Liben, a distinguished professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University. "It will soon be difficult to imagine how the field ever managed without it!"

The first and largest technological college in the world for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, NTID, one of eight colleges of RIT, offers educational programs and access and support services to 1,100 students from around the world who study, live, and socialize with 14,000 hearing students on RIT’s campus.

Web address: www.rit.edu/NTID.