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Fort Myers Middle Academy is the only middle school in the district to house a Deaf & Hard of Hearing Program!
The DHH Program offers a full continuum of services to meet both the academic and communication needs identified on a student's Individual Educational Plan (IEP). Sign language interpreting services provide students access to classroom curriculum and extracurricular activities. The FMMA D/HH program currently consists of 11 students, two certified teachers of the D/HH, and five interpreters.
Deaf culture is very much infused into FMMA's school culture. For example, students in all classrooms use hand signals to request to use the restroom or get water, and FMMA also has an after-school club called the Signing Ripples, where any and all Ripple students are welcome to come learn American Sign Language!
Additionally, our D/HH students are very involved in extracurricular activities at FMMA, and can be found everywhere from our Step Team to our Drumline--and even inside our Rip the Dolphin school mascot costume! Outside of FMMA, our D/HH students also participate in things like local American Sign Language (ASL) productions (like "Alice in Wonderland" and "Frozen Jr."!) and local "silent dinners" with other D/HH community members.
Raising Community Awareness!
Raising Community Awareness!
Meet Emma! Emma, pictured at left, is a 6th grader in the Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing Program at FMMA who was recently featured on a billboard sponsored by the local Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing Center. The billboard was part of a campaign launched in September as part of National Deaf Awareness Month. Another such billboard featured our D/HH teachers Mrs. Eva Popp-Ruiz (center of bottom image) and Mrs. Franki Gablehouse (right of bottom image).
We are so proud of Emma and of our D/HH staff for raising awareness for the D/HH community! We are also very grateful for the local D/HH Center, which has partnered with Lee Schools for many years to mentor our D/HH students.
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