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Will Fertman

@willfertman.com

970 followers 3K following 950 posts

Father and author of The Deaf Baby Instruction Manual, coming April 2026 from Bloomsbury Academic. https://willfertman.com - https://buttondown.com/will_fertman All opinions are my own. Links are not endorsements.

willfertman.com

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Will Fertman @willfertman.com · Nov 17

For hearing parents out there with #deafkids —and I can't believe I'm the first one to use that hashtag here—here's some resources that appear in my upcoming book.

Good baby books to sign, #ASL media for kids, Deaf-made apparel, helpful orgs and docs for IEPs, etc. willfertman.com/resources-fo...

resources for parents – William Fertman, author

willfertman.com

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 1h

And now with the elimination of OSEP and federal IDEA staff, the punishment phase begins.

Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 21d

If you, like me, are the parent of a neuro-atypical child dreading this autism press conference, please remember: These are the people hurting our kids. Not us. They are the ones stigmatizing and pathologizing them. They are the ones peddling untested science. And we should be very, very angry.

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 5h

The combination of the coffee maker and rice cooker has made the house smell amazing this morning.

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 14h

But Lilith had the advantage of being Bebe Neuwirth...

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 15h

SJ Perelman is brilliant, underrated, and will be unreadable in another generation or two.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 15h

Exactly right. Forcing kids to read good books risks ruining the book for them. Forcing them to read bad books risks ruining reading altogether.

KG @kgxvi.bsky.social · 17h

Required reading in high school ruins most people’s ability to enjoy good books. Better approach is to give kids a couple of options and even let them change what they’re reading if it doesn’t work for them

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 15h

I actually counted (for my master's) the number of times he falls ill or swoons, and while I forget the number, it's something like 18.

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 15h

Seconding the ooh.

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 15h

Say more.

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 19h

Wyoming residents, come see me talk about reading books to #deafkids in Casper next Monday at 9am, in-person at the D/HH Outreach Library or live online. Register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Reposted by Will Fertman

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 1d

Special education isn't a "nice thing to have." It isn't "charity" or doing something to make us feel better. It is a right. The right to a Free Appropriate Public Education is codified in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, signed by a Republican president.

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 1d

U.S. Department of Education fired nearly everyone in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in a wave of new layoffs that began Friday, according to the union representing the agency's employees. www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 1d

This is a great article that touches on something parents of #deafkids often need to grapple with: when the only support is bad support, how do you protect your child and get the most out of a bad situation? I think the answers are different, but I address similar concerns in my upcoming book.

Thinking Person's Guide to Autism @thinkingautism.com · 2d

Sometimes parents have no choice but to put their autistic kids in ABA therapy, and this has NOTHING to do with being a good or a bad parent. Sometimes ABA is the family’s only supports option for their disabled child. What can these parents do? At TPGA:

thinkingautismguide.com/2025/03/when...

When You Have No Choice But ABA Therapy — THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM

You may know that ABA is a questionable therapy. But since not every parent can avoid ABA, what can those parents do to protect their kids?

thinkingautismguide.com

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 1d

They're not "now moving on to..." Folks with #disabilities have been at the top of the hit list since Trump took office. It's not a contest—the cuts to USAID are monstrous and bigoted—but I want to point out that they saw it coming, warned us, and were mostly ignored. bsky.app/profile/novi...

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · Mar 27

Thanks so much to @theguardian.com for having me, and especially @estelletang.bsky.social for her fastidious edits. www.theguardian.com/global/2025/...

The US right is coming for disabled people. Here’s why that threatens everyone

Trump’s administration is dismantling disability rights and education. History has shown this can be a warning sign for all civil liberties

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Will Fertman

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 2d

Slashing special ed staff in the Department of Education and gutting public health agencies is what you do if you are a straight-up eugenicist.

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 1d

And here's one on OSERS, for adults with disabilities and their families: adayinourshoes.com/osers/

OSERS Has Been Dismantled: What This Means for Disabled Adults and Their Families.

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) has been gutted in recent federal cuts. Learn what this means for vocational rehab, transition services, and how families can protec...

adayinourshoes.com

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 1d

Here's a good first pass on what parents of #deafkids and other kids with disabilities should know and should be doing in the wake of the OESP firings: adayinourshoes.com/osep/ ♿

Reposted by Will Fertman

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 1d

My parents were Republicans because George H.W Bush signed the Americans with Disabilites Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. A generation of people with disabilities went to college, got jobs and lived independently because of IDEA.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/spe...

Special education staff decimated after Trump administration shutdown firings: Sources

The nation’s special education services have been significantly damaged after Fridays’s mass layoffs within the Department of Education, sources told ABC News.

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 2d

On the district level, bigoted LEAs are going to run hog wild now that oversight is gone.

On the federal level, does anyone think that eugenicists DON'T blame parents for having children with disabilities?

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 2d

A lot of parents about to learn that their nondisabled privileges do not extend to their kid no matter how much they attempt to make said kid's disability about them
... and also that your IEP's LEA was not in fact operating out of the goodness of their heart in providing supports. 💀

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 2d

The destruction of oversight is clear and deliberate. There's at least one district I know about that has started refusing services to kids illegally, relying on the enforcement systems to be broken at the federal level.

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 2d

Parents of #deafkids, this is the moment that’s been cooking since Trump got elected.

Thinking Person's Guide to Autism @thinkingautism.com · 2d

WTF: "An Education Department staffer told USA TODAY the agency laid off just about every employee who works to administer funding for IDEA, the primary federal law supporting students with disabilities. He was unsure how those programs will exist moving forward."

www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 4d

Lockdown was a real experience.

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 4d

Strictly by semaphore or gorillagram, I’m sure.

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 4d

Boo I say, boo.

Reposted by Will Fertman

Nathan Young @nydeafswimmer.bsky.social · 4d

For over 4 YEARS I have campaigned to our Government to END the DISCRIMINATION of #deaf #athletes. On Tuesday 14th October 2025 I will sit before the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee alongside my life long friend & now team mate Henry & #UKDeafSport to share my story & my hope for the future

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 5d

The loss of the public school system would send Deaf education back to the absolute dark ages. #deafkids #deafed

Jennifer Smith Richards @jsmithrichards.bsky.social · 5d

To understand the Trump administration’s vision for American education, @megomatz.bsky.social and I studied dozens of hours of political appointees’ speeches and podcasts and essays. What emerged is a desire to dismantle the nation’s system of public schools.

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.

Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...

www.propublica.org

Will Fertman @willfertman.com · 5d

"If we can't fully control this, we totally oppose this."