European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 30, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Williams wife Sherry who is deaf works As an accountant with the corps of engineers office in Wilmington. William peace administrator for the . Council for the hearing impaired is also deaf. Negative stereotypes of the deaf appear to be receding Williams said. However some misconceptions remain. One involves the Efficacy of lip Reading. In some movies and to shows deaf characters Are sometimes shown lip Reading perfectly word for word even from tremendous distances. In fact the Range of lip Reading is limited. For example the Mouth expressions for to and a sounds Are virtually identical As Are those form and  lip readers must often guess which sound is which and even the Best can translate with Only about 35 percent accuracy. Now two thirds of what i say May not matter very much Williams joked but i like to think it  other misconceptions surround american sign language Salthe primary signing system for most american deaf people. Asl is not simply a coded form of English but a separate language with hand signs serving for specific words and phrases. For the word communication for example the signer opens the Mouth and moves the hands Back and Forth mimicking the flow of speech Asl signers use thousands of specific signs for common words concepts or phrases. Like any language Asl has its accents. Williams said he had to learn about 70 new regional signs when he moved to North Carolina from Illinois. A fluent Asl speaker can even Tell where a signer went to school. Students at Gallaudet University the predominantly Liberal arts school for the deaf in Washington d.c., have a flowing flowery signing style. Those who went to the More science oriented National technical Institute for the deaf tid in Rochester n.y., take a More nuts and bolts approach. For More specialized or technical language such As Legal terminology Asl signers will Finger spell words in English with a specific sign standing for each letter. For deaf people who grew up on Asl however using English is like using a second language a language that May be difficult to master. Statistics from the tid indicate that about 30 percent of deaf americans Are functionally illiterate compared to 13 percent of the total . Population. Students at residential schools for the deaf frequently score Well below the average for hearing pupils in tests for Reading skills. They had High school graduates Reading on third and fourth Grade Levels said Philip Payonk of i Mington the father of a deaf child Andy. That was not acceptable for  the alternative Phil and his wife Isabelle found was cued speech a communications system developed in 1966 at Gallaudet University initially As a Means to help teach deaf pupils to talk. Cued speech involves some lip Reading but supplements that approach with about 40 hand signs for example to distinguish Between to and  the children Are seeing sounds they Don t hear mrs. Payonk said. The Payonis Learned about the system during a two Day workshop and became zealous converts. Philip Payonk is now president of the National cued speech association. Cued speech offers particular advantages for the hearing parents of deaf children mrs. Payonk said. It is much simpler for parents to learn. Acquiring fluency in Asl May require months or years of study by a hearing person transmitters i skin receiving antennas receive circuitry an implanted device can bring sound to people whose deafness results from defects in the minute hair cells in the inner ear that normally convert sound vibrations into electrical signals. The device translates sounds into electrical signals and transmits them directly to the auditory nerve which carries information to the brain. Middle ear Bones semicircular canal eardrum electrode auditory nerve to brain Cochlea Low frequency sounds link to sound processor and microphone a microphone picks up sounds and a processor divides them in this Model into four frequencies. Signals Are radioed through the Akin to antennas and after processing Are sent a electric impulses to the Cochlea where they Are transmitted to the auditory nerve. The person May hear to tote More than Static but to can help with lipreading and newer models that break sound and signals into Many frequencies a sound Quality. Contacts auditory