Uploaded August 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Gina Oliva announces the twentieth anniversary edition of her classic book, "Alone in the Mainstream." In this vlog, she describes the importance of the book and offers simple suggestions for parents and professionals on how to improve the lives of deaf and hard of hearing children.
"Alone in the Mainstream: Looking Back on Public School as a Deaf or Hard of Hearing Child" is now available from Gallaudet University Press at
https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/A/Alone-in-the-Mainstream
Visual description: A white woman with short white/gray hair, wearing a grey sweater over a black camisole is sitting in front of a greyish/green wall with a brass wall clock behind her.
***This video may not be repurposed or incorporated into other works in any way without the express written consent of the author.***
Transcript:
Hello everyone. It’s nice to share some good news. Good news for me and maybe for you, we’ll see!
So, twenty years ago, this book was published. Now, here is the new version, take a look. Wow, and look at the subtitle.
It’s great that Gallaudet Press contacted me and asked if I wanted to do a 20th anniversary edition of that book. I was surprised and like “well, ok … would it involve a lot of work (hope not!). What do I have to do?”
We had some good discussions and were able to agree so things worked out.
A really important point is the change in the subtitle to really show that this book itself is not only my own story. Yes, I am a “character” in the book, the main character (so to speak).
But sixty adults, who themselves grew up as “the only one,” wrote emails and essays sharing with me their experiences and feelings in retrospect. Those sixty people wrote four essays each, which I analyzed for common themes. So the book, as such, is research-based.
So anyway, I decided to accept GUP’s offer and proceed with that.
Now, from another perspective, the book is apparently needed again twenty years later. It means there is still a lot of work to do to improve and make life better for those kids—the deaf and hard of hearing kids that you care about.
So I would like to offer a few simple suggestions. Simple but important suggestions for you as you read and go forward with your life work or as a parent of a deaf child.
So here they are: first, of course, you have to focus on your own child—your own child or the ones you work with in school, or you work with in audiology, but you do have to focus on that kid, on how to improve that kid’s life. That’s your job.
Secondly, that kid is “the only one” and you are “the only one,” but there are many people like you all over the world. The world is full of deaf solitaires (one here, one there, one there, and so on). So it’s important to work with, collaborate, support each other and work to improve the entire system. That system results in language deprivation and social deprivation.
[I’m using the sign-concept of “restricted” or “limited” to indicate or add to the understanding of the concepts of language and social deprivation.]
Those are the facts of public school life, and it’s hard to reduce those problems. They must be fixed at the state level.
Gina Oliva announces the twentieth anniversary edition of her classic book, "Alone in the Mainstream." In this vlog, she describes the importance of the book and offers simple suggestions for parents and professionals on how to improve the lives of deaf and hard of hearing children.
"Alone in the Mainstream: Looking Back on Public School as a Deaf or Hard of Hearing Child" is now available from Gallaudet University Press at
https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/A/Alone-in-the-Mainstream
Visual description: A white woman with short white/gray hair, wearing a grey sweater over a black camisole is sitting in front of a greyish/green wall with a brass wall clock behind her.
***This video may not be repurposed or incorporated into other works in any way without the express written consent of the author.***
Transcript:
Hello everyone. It’s nice to share some good news. Good news for me and maybe for you, we’ll see!
So, twenty years ago, this book was published. Now, here is the new version, take a look. Wow, and look at the subtitle.
It’s great that Gallaudet Press contacted me and asked if I wanted to do a 20th anniversary edition of that book. I was surprised and like “well, ok … would it involve a lot of work (hope not!). What do I have to do?”
We had some good discussions and were able to agree so things worked out.
A really important point is the change in the subtitle to really show that this book itself is not only my own story. Yes, I am a “character” in the book, the main character (so to speak).
But sixty adults, who themselves grew up as “the only one,” wrote emails and essays sharing with me their experiences and feelings in retrospect. Those sixty people wrote four essays each, which I analyzed for common themes. So the book, as such, is research-based.
So anyway, I decided to accept GUP’s offer and proceed with that.
Now, from another perspective, the book is apparently needed again twenty years later. It means there is still a lot of work to do to improve and make life better for those kids—the deaf and hard of hearing kids that you care about.
So I would like to offer a few simple suggestions. Simple but important suggestions for you as you read and go forward with your life work or as a parent of a deaf child.
So here they are: first, of course, you have to focus on your own child—your own child or the ones you work with in school, or you work with in audiology, but you do have to focus on that kid, on how to improve that kid’s life. That’s your job.
Secondly, that kid is “the only one” and you are “the only one,” but there are many people like you all over the world. The world is full of deaf solitaires (one here, one there, one there, and so on). So it’s important to work with, collaborate, support each other and work to improve the entire system. That system results in language deprivation and social deprivation.
[I’m using the sign-concept of “restricted” or “limited” to indicate or add to the understanding of the concepts of language and social deprivation.]
Those are the facts of public school life, and it’s hard to reduce those problems. They must be fixed at the state level.
