Viven who tweaked this blog’s design explains the whole redesign process. David Airey left a comment saying the logo needs fixing because the title reads as “Bionic ar Blog” — something I never noticed as a problem until he mentioned it. I’ll have to see what I can do… like I have time!
Deaf Organisations, Deaf People & Information Sharing Part 1 and Part 2
Active All Deaf forum discussion on deaf world vs. hearing world
Finland: Deaf Viewers Demand Public Broadcasters Provide Subtitles
Bill seeks to expand captioning for the deaf: References online videos. Yeah!
Rabbi says deaf ‘ineligible for conversion’: Unbelievable. A step backwards by 50 years. Please know that not all Jewish people agree with the Rabbi.
Trendhunter shows pictures of “Vibering,” a vibrating bracelet that comes with two stylish rings. The wearer must wear both rings, not just one, for the system to work.
The system captures sounds and notifies the wearer of any sounds. The rings do the listening while the watch does the reporting of the identified sound. The rings listen for sounds coming from behind the wearer and determine the length and position of the sound.
“The wristwatch module will identify the sound wave and show results in an easy-to-read LCD display. Heck, it is even smart enough to recognize key phrases such as “Excuse Me”, your own name and even a vehicle’s horn.”
This bears the question of what will Vibering do in a noisy or public place?
I looked all over the Internet for more info on the product other than the standard release that you see in many blogs. No such luck. It could be in Chinese, which may be why I can’t find the original source. I’m sure we’ll hear more about this innovative product.
One thing. The name fits perfectly. However, before I read about the product, I thought the name sounded … ahem… pornographic. Sure enough, in searching for the original source, several XXX-rated products and sites showed up in the search results.
In eight years of blogging, I don’t think I’ve participated in more than 10 memes. I could be wrong, but I’m not about to dig through thousands of entries to prove it. Bob at the Writing Journey asks if we meme. My response:
I find meme postings interesting and insightful. I learn more about the person behind them. But I rarely subscribe to memes in my own blog — more so in the Bionic Ear blog because it’s a personal blog.
I do memes in e-mail though — my friends aren’t bloggers and we love learning about each other through these memes.
So this post motivated me to take up Bob on his meme.
Here are the rules:
So, here we go, my lists of 4s:
4 jobs I have had
4 movies I can watch over and over
I had to think about this one. I have so many movies that I want to see that I don’t like to waste time watching something I’ve already seen. It was more of a… do I want to reveal what I like though it means I might come across as a dork?
4 places I have lived: Actually, this is the COMPLETE list.
4 TV shows I love
4 places I have been on vacation
4 of my favorite dishes
4 web sites I visit daily
4 places I would rather be now
4 bloggers I am tagging
This autobiography isn’t just another one about my life as a deaf person…
“After a head injury that ended his promising football career, and a painful divorce, Thunander downed much of a fifth of Jack Daniels, put a single bullet in a revolver, put the gun barrel to his head and pulled the trigger.”
Corsicana Daily Sun gives us the highlights on the life of former Oklahoma University football player who’s book, Silent Thunder, comes out this month.
My blog sister is celebrating her 8th birthday on June 1. I’m just a baby as I wasn’t born until 2003. If you subscribe to me, you get entries into a drawing for over $2000 in prizes!
Captioning Flash-based streaming video [pdf file] [Link, y3]
AT&T finally offers data-only plan for deaf iPhone users: the plan is also good for other phones except Blackberry. More info at DeafDC Blog and at&t’s iPhone page and for plans for other phones except Blackberry and iPhones.
Boy regains hearing after cotton pops out: How do doctors miss this after NINE years? Every time I take my kid for a check up, the doctor checks the ears. Heck, the doctor checks my ears knowing I’m deaf. Being deaf doesn’t mean we’re exempt from ear infections and other problems.
Social Media Summit on Hearing Loss held today complete with closed captioning.
Remember the 100th Episode celebration show on “Dancing With The Stars” is on Tuesday May 6. Marlee Matlin and other contestants are on “Dancing With The Stars” will appear on that show.
Reader Tokumbo writes, “Go to Amy Efron Cohen’s website to check out the bittersweet story about the true story on movie ‘Sweet Nothing in the Ear.’ Amy explains about how the idea come from that movie and the idea was coming from deaf actress whose her life is based on that movie.”
The video is in ASL. Anyone willing to sum up the video for us ASL-impaired folk?
As expected, lots of conversations are happening surrounding last night’s TV movie debut.
My opinion? Haven’t finished it yet, but I was impressed with how the film portrayed deaf characters’ interactions with others and sound. I also liked how the movie presented the arguments we hear from both sides of the cochlear implant debate.
However, it was disappointing the story revolved around a custody case. I hated seeing Dan (Jeff Daniels) and Laura’s (Marlee Matlin) relationship take a turn the way it did. They had such a loving relationship with him respectful of the deaf culture and we watched that relationship slowly fall apart thanks to their differences on the cochlear implant issue.
It was a delight watching the kids from the school for the deaf perform Wizard of Oz. The movie turned off sounds from time to time so hearing people could see how the deaf experience noisy situations.
Someone mentioned that no one asked Adam (the child) what he wanted. Like I said, I haven’t seen the whole movie. Considering Adam is at least eight, I believe most lawyers would ask the child what he wants at this age. But I could be wrong.
Jericho’s Shoshanna Stern played a deaf person who went the oral route. She showed her cochlear implant — that thing looked like something from the ’80s. It was thick. I searched for older pictures of cochlear implants to see if they put an older one on her, but no luck. None of the cochlear implants look like that today.
“A hilarious sitcom about a dysfunctional deaf family.”
Those are words guaranteed to stop traffic. But they’re not pulled from a skit on “Saturday Night Live,” nor are they meant to be offensive.
What they describe is a short, family-friendly comedy film created specifically for the hard of hearing and deaf community. “The Deaf Family” is filmed in American Sign Language.
Continue reading "Comedy Film for the Deaf and Hearing-Impaired" »
Here is a nice interview with the Christine Harris, author of Mask of the Jackal. She explains the motivation of including a deaf character named Jordy into the story.
The book isn’t about deafness, but rather just happens to includes a deaf person as a character. That’s the way life is… we just happen to run into people of all cultures and differences in situations not having to do with the culture or difference.
Those interested in Egyptian history will enjoy the interview as the author discusses her fascination with anctient Egypt and its artifacts.
Fun post from UK site, B3ta. Using hand signs to represent car logos — some familiar and some impossible to get especially for us Americans who won’t be familiar with some of the cars.
I’m impressed with the signer. While on a recent road trip, I attempted to create signs without remembering what this site showed and it wasn’t easy! Below are the links to the logos — don’t worry, no spoilers — click and scroll your mouse over the space to see the answers.
In celebration of its one year anniversary, Project readOn unveils a new feature — Embedded videos. Users can grab the code from Project readOn to add captioned videos to their own sites, blogs, and social network pages.
The player on the Web site contains two new buttons, “Email this captioned video to a friend” and “Grab this captioned video for my website.” Click one of the buttons and a small popup window appears with the information. Either enter your friend’s email address, or copy and paste the “embed” code as needed.
So here’s my first try at including a captioned video from Project readOn. I had been wanting to check out Jeff Dunham’s shows — but couldn’t find anything captioned (the videos don’t indicate whether it’s captioned or comes with subtitles)… and Project readOn has two videos (one was a Christmas show with Achmed the dead terrorist).
Rita suggests deaf people with families to apply to be on a reality show as few have shown deaf families. She lists three shows.
Extreme Makeover Home Edition had deaf parents (Vardons) on the show and the Llanes who have a deaf son. Plus it takes a lot to qualify for the show. I think a deaf family on Wife Swap would be a wonderful eye opener for viewers.
Wife Swap: Wives trade places and join the other’s family.
Super Nanny: Having trouble with difficult children? Super Nanny helps.
Extreme Makeover Home Edition: Family in difficult situation with home that’s dangerous or falling apart? Requires a lot of crying on TV.
I have a Captel phone, but hardly ever use it mainly because my family takes care of phone calls or I use the Internet relay service without voice carry over (VCO). I prefer using my computer for calls since I can keep a record of the call — something the Captel phone doesn’t have.
Now Sprint makes it possible to make relay calls over the Internet AND use VCO. I read about a way to do this a long time ago, but it was very confusing and required messing with the phone set up. But not this time.
Already found one drawback, I can’t call someone in Toronto or Ontario. It just happened that the first call I tried was to Ontario (I didn’t realize the person was in Canada from the area code). Nonetheless, Sprint impresses me with all the tools, services, and prices available for the deaf. I’ve worked for two major telecommunications companies and neither were Sprint.
Ew. I’m sorry but the smell alarm just doesn’t appeal as shown in this Make article. I’ll stick with the vibrating alarm. Contrary to what the post says, deaf people don’t wear alarms. Yes, they have to be activated — but it’s not hard. Besides… the smell of smoke could erase the smell of horseradish.
I opened the floodgates when I posted about a voice mail to text service. I learned about another and another and another. Here are the companies that provide voice mail to text services:
Pricing is generally the same at $9.99 for 40 messages per month. Curious as to how the services differ. I’m sure with a little Internet research, plenty of answers will come.
However, I’m about to sign up for a plan targeted to deaf people. Great price, but using voice features would cost $0.20 per minute. Not sure I want to get a voice mail to text service for $9.99 a month and pay $0.20 per minute on top of that when I don’t know how many messages — if at all — I’ll get based on past experience.
One company gave me a pager that came with an answering service. The service sent voice messages to me in text. I rarely got messages that way. So what are the chances people will use this service to contact me?
Another option is to wait until my family’s plan expires and join them on another plan that includes voice and unlimited data. In this case, I wouldn’t have to pay per minute for voice mail. Decisions!
Chris of DeafDC Blog opens an interesting discussion about Hollywood’s actions indicating a preference to deaf actors and actresses who speak.
My vote — do a mix. Some roles can be deaf actors who don’t speak and some do. This will be more representative of the deaf population’s diversity. Having a hearing actor play a deaf person who speaks crosses the line.
Baby Sign Game is adorable! This game provides a word and players pick one of four pictures that correctly represents the word in sign language.
I only missed one word and that was dog (easy), which didn’t use the fingersnapping. Not sure what that was about.
Surprised myself — I know more sign language than I thought. I picked up words over the years. Plus my little guy loves learning signs, so we open my ASL book and look up words together. My family has signed ILY for years using only one hand. My little guy goes the extra mile and does “I” [cross arms for love], and [puts extended hand with thumb on chin for mom]. Aww.
OMG! I saw this in Guy Kawasaki’s e-mail signature (he surprisingly responded to an e-mail I sent to Alltop). SpinVox (UK residents go to the main SpinVox) can convert voice mails to text. This just might be worth the money. It also has a Memo feature, but I am not sure if it sends memos to the inbox with sound or with text.
I tried the test, but it didn’t work.
Just learned National Association of the Deaf (NAD) wrote a letter [pdf file] [Letter and video in NAD blog] to Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing regarding AGBell’s letter to Pepsi. Here’s the backstory, if you missed it.
I appreciate NAD’s letter. I think it would have more power had the President mentioned deaf people who don’t know ASL. I know the focus is about AGBell’s comments on ASL. But acknowledging that there are oral deaf people shows respect and acceptance of the diversity of those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Now I am tempted to write a letter to Pepsi.
Here’s a great story from the Guardian about how being deaf can help when traveling especially to other countries.
When I flew alone on Southwest Airlines, I went to the check in desk and let the staff know that I was deaf and would need notification when to board. Without a beat, she said I should board first and would let me know.
Nice getting a seat up front so I could exit the plane faster.
I haven’t had the pleasure of traveling to other countries besides Mexico and the Caribbean. The thought makes me a little nervous as English in foreign accents doesn’t come easy for me as a lipreader. Maybe it’ll go better like the article says.
Great links to interesting articles and sites.
Just read about Rally Caps at Hearing Exchange. It sounds like a nice story. Stories surrounding a disability or difference don’t always make a good read. I was looking for a children’s book with a deaf character to read to 2nd graders and didn’t like any of the ones I found. So this might have potential.
The story focuses on two friends on a baseball team. One has a cochlear implant. Here’s the official description:
Ten year old Jordan is injured in an unfortunate and frightening accident while trying out for the Little League Travel team. Recovery is difficult. At summer camp he struggles to conquer his anxiety and fear in order to return to his beloved game of baseball. He forms a friendship with a deaf Italian boy, Luca, who wears a cochlear implant. Luca’s compelling positive nothing is impossible attitude, along with the inspiration he draws from his idol, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., gives Jordan the courage to return to baseball with a passion. Find out what happens as “Rally Caps” are raised in the bottom of the final inning in the biggest game of Jordan’s life. Boys and girls alike will enjoy this touching story of persevering through difficult times.
Found this great video on Blogs with a Face. I may not know much ASL, but the video gets its message across loud and clear.
Within an hour of writing this, I saw this song with captions on TV. It’s a lovely song.
Ahem. This Wired article is a fascinating read, but read it in a safe place not at work or some place where someone seeing “Sex Drive” on your screen would embarrass.
Sex sells. No matter how you do it.
Rita’s Expressive VLog has a video of one person’s experience of being the only deaf kid in a hearing family during the holidays. The video is in ASL.
Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year everyone!
Hacking Netflix posts an entry regarding Netflix’s customer support didn’t provide TTY support fast enough when the company moved to phone support. Furthermore, it doesn’t caption its online video (big surprise).
I love that one of the comments says that the lack of subtitles/captioning affects more than just those who are deaf or hearing-impaired. The commenter writes, “Frequently I turn on the English subtitles when watching NF rentals with difficult English accents. And some times I turn on the subtitles when the music is overpoweringly loud compared to the spoken soundtrack rather than constantly adjust the volume.”
Continue reading "Internet Video and the Deaf Problem Noticed" »
Shawn Henry’s book, Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design, is available online. Yes, the entire thing. Henry provides two persona examples of people with disabilities. Personas help Web designers visualize a Web site’s target market and design for that market. Thought it worthy of sharing in this blog.
One persona is a retiree with macular degeneration and the other is a college student who is deaf.
Henry does a good job with the college student. Although, I think many deaf people use a cell phone with a QWERTY keyboard. I could be wrong, but many of the deaf bloggers say they use a Sidekick or other cell phone with QWERTY. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t use a TTY anymore — however, I am sure that’s not common especially those with many friends who are deaf. I prefer using instant messenger to make my relay calls as the computer is faster than a TTY.
Henry does account for differences, “Remember that people are diverse. Be careful not to assume that all users, including users with disabilities, use the product the same way.”
Fookem and Bug ask we print letters and mail them to filmmaker David Risotto. He is working with avid Cincinnati Reds Baseball fan, Steve Sandy, to create a documentary on the life and achievements of William Ellsworth “Dummy” Hoy, the first deaf baseball player in history.
I like what the blog says… that it’s not about the fact he was deaf, but about Hoy playing baseball at a time when citizens ignored deaf people. Read more about the project, writing letters, and Hoy’s achivements.
It only takes a minute to print the letter and sign it.
Just came across this interesting BBC video of a deaf couple who desire a deaf baby. The 2004 video shows the program in its entirety (one hour long) and with subtitles.
Interesting readings…
Standardized testing… the source of stress, ulcers, baldness, debates… I don’t know what they prove because the SATs proved nothing for me. SATs are supposedly the indicator of how well a student will do in college. Well, my scores were embarrassing (took it twice) and I did fine and dandy in college, thankyouverymuch.
Anyway, Jamie Berke points to an article where a deaf school did very poorly on New York’s standardized test.
I don’t believe deaf people should be exempt from testing. Start that and it leads to other testing exemptions. Besides, don’t we have working brains like anyone else? Some people are smart and some aren’t. Exempting deaf people from test sends a message that we’re all not bright enough.
Sometimes I wish I could take the SAT to see if I can do better (since I was happy with my GMAT score), but I’m not about to show up in a school with a bunch of 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds.
JobEnable.com is a new site that connects disabled job seekers with job opportunities. Matt Lawrence and the NetworkIP team started the site to help people with disabilities find employment. Matt is an employee of NetworkIP who happens to have a disability. He developed Dystonia when he was 13. It’s a progressive neurological disorder that gradually progressed to affect his speech and fine motor movements.
Another aww … story for you. Girl Teaches Deaf Dog Sign Language
As proof that cats and dogs can get along, Libby plays the role of seeing-eye cat to Cashew, a 14-year-old deaf and blind yellow lab. What a sweet story! [Thanks, Dogster]
Aww…
“Simon J. Carmel’s lecture, ‘Silent No More: Testimonies of Deaf Holocaust Survivors’ related the unheard stories of the persecuted deaf Jewish during World War II.” The article reports that roughly 25,000 deaf Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust and that 20 deaf survivors remain today.
Hitler’s soldiers not only killed Jewish people, but also people with disabilities, gay people, black people, and Gypsies. So it’s a miracle that any deaf person survived. Also German doctors sterilized many deaf Jewish people to prevent them from having deaf children. But statistics show only 10 percent of deaf couples bore deaf children.
What a fascinating story of a teen who can hit the target with pillows, play video games, rollerblade effortlessly, and identify objects on the street — and he can do all this even though he doesn’t see like we do. The videos show him in action and the article gives all the details.
Found a misspelling in the article. With web “site” becoming a frequently used term, the person writing the article slipped and wrote “site” instead of “sight.” See the screen capture below.
I loved reading this first person story from a teen who is doing well in school, which includes AP classes and loves dancing. Former Miss America, Heather Whitestone, made an impact in her life.
Access Accessibility gives a rundown on its run in with Freedom Scientific, a big name in assisted technology as the manufacturer of JAWS (screen reader for the visually-impaired). Apparently, the company won’t provide transcripts of its podcasts.
Sure, we’d love for every podcast to have transcripts, but is that realistic?
Posted an entry on the main blog regarding marketing to people with disabilities. Have an experience? Please share so others may learn from it.
October 15 is Blog Action Day in which bloggers post something about helping the environment. One thing I wish everyone especially politicians would do is watch An Inconvenient Truth
You don’t have to do something big like buy a hybrid car. Little things like recycling make a difference. One thing I try to do is limit how much I print. When I do print something, I reuse the back of the paper whenever possible. For shredded paper, I use them in packaging.
If you have hearing aids, TTYs, glasses and other equipment that you or someone else no longer uses, consider recycling them by donating them. The following resources accepts equipment donations:
Gallaudet has a page of information pointing to more resources.
Here are resources from Blog Action Day’s site. Go, Green!
The ardent support of web accessibility and captioning shares his honest opinion of what’s wrong with online captioning. The focus is on the quality not the lack thereof. It’s a great read in an outline format since it’s from a presentation he gave. Sure, I’d like online captioning to look and read better — but I’ll take what I can get as there’s so little of it online.
One thing that caught my eye from the outline:
Not only is only one show captioned, they have yet again found a new and shocking way to completely screw it up. (Continuous scrolling text in a frame to the right of the image, with upcoming text clearly visible and the current text scrolled upward into a reverse-type field. And! All capitals! 1979 called; it wants its captioning back.)
TV captions have always and continue to be — all uppercase. Why should online captioning be different? In the example Clark refers to — upper case is the least of the problems. The image background makes it very hard to read.
Regardless — I appreciate that he’s speaking loud and clear for online captioning.
Christy Smith, a contestant who is deaf and appeared in Survivor: Amazon, is working with David Justice, sign language interpreter and job coach in Discovering Deaf Worlds. They plan to travel to different countries to meet with Deaf storytellers, community leaders, organizations, and youth from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, Thailand, India, Nepal, Kenya.
“While traveling around the world, Dave and Christy intend to visit many Deaf schools and organizations. Their goal is to gain a better understanding of a variety of cultures worldwide, and share the experiences they bring from the United States. They will be capturing traditional stories of native Deaf signers, interviewing Deaf leaders on current issues in their communities, living the adventures each country has to offer, and creating possibilities along the way.” [Thank you, Paula]
A fantastic deaf karaoke performance “singing” Natalia Imbruglia’s Torn.
Over a year ago, I reported Purdue researchers were working on Mathsigner, a virtual reality program that teaches math to deaf students. Future Making Serious Games provides more details. You can download a demo program to learn more about the project.
It will be fascinating to see how well the program does in teaching math.
A Purdue researcher is working on a new method for assessing hearing loss that reflects real world situations. The purpose of the testing is to determine the best route for the patient. This is not for infants.
The Jewish Deaf Congress Web site, www.JewishDeafCongress.org, provides information on about Jewish Deaf Congress, Inc. which was formerly known as National Congress of Jewish Deaf (NCJD). The new site is a work in progress with a goal to give an insight of the JDCs story, JDC Quarterly archives, articles submitted by various Jewish individuals, and updated information of its upcoming retreats and national conference.
The organization’s mission is to provide religious, cultural, and educational experiences. Members include those who became deaf before acquiring language, those who became deaf later in life, and those who are hard of hearing. Parents join our organization, as do grandparents. Some with our deaf constituents represent a community of interpreters or educators, and rabbis, or perhaps even children or siblings or just friends of deaf adults.
JDC, Inc., encourages pluralism in our community - whether Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist - we are all an essential part of Klal Yisrael- the worldwide community of Jewry. As an organization, we join the larger Jewish community in our dedication to tikkun olam - the healing of the world.
“Whoa!” does not begin to describe my reaction to the bling bling of hearing aids. Widex hearing aids come with 24K gold and 220 diamonds (real stuff… and not the Swarovski kind) and cost $50,000 / £s;25,000. Well, gee, right in line with two cochlear implants cost an estimated $60K.
Sources: SCF FI Tech > Techie Diva
Kokonut Pundit took phone orders while working for Domino’s Pizza. It reminded me of a job I applied for while a teen doing gift wrapping at a department store. First, I had to take one of those personality tests — I had never seen this before in my life and didn’t pass. I don’t know why as I’ve always live my life as an ethical person.
Regardless, the store hired me. When I showed up on the first day, I promptly quit. The manager said I needed to answer the phone. He just didn’t get it that I couldn’t understand what the person on the other end of the call would say.
As a kid, I was more willing to talk on the phone when I needed — to family and close friends. But I don’t do that anymore — especially thanks to all the technology available (when the dagnabbed network on my mobile phone isn’t down). The way I handled the conversation made me feel like a child (hence, my more likely to do it as a kid and not now).
Heck, I admit making a few crank calls with friends. One memorable call — the woman asked if I was French. Hey, cool… my deaf accent sounded French to someone!
Kids today have it made. They don’t have to wear the ugly hearing aids and other hearing devices that some of us wore while growing up. Beige, bulky and uncool. It’s not just the Baby Boomers — but many generations that have no problem wearing glasses, but do all they can to hide their hearing losses. Me, too. And I am a Gen Xer.
However, I am not shy about wearing my hair in a pony tail anymore especially since I play tennis. No way am I wearing my hair down for that especially in Texas heat and with thick, curly hair like mine. The “stay comfortable” factor aside, the black-colored implant cover is less embarrassing than the old beige hearing aids I used to wear.
Not only do hearing aid companies produce cool looking ear molds (the ugliest thing of the whole hearing aid), but also hearing aids are now PCAs. Normally I would roll my eyes at this change of name for those things that help you hear better, but PCA does sound cooler than hearing aids. We don’t call glasses “eye aids” or “seeing aids.”
Meet the Lexus, BMW and Porsche of hearing aids: Phonak PCAs. Nice marketing move, Phonak.
Can we stop using “hearing aids” and start using “PCAs?” I don’t like to call my cochlear implant device a hearing aid since it’s not the same thing as what we consider a hearing aid. PCA, however, would be easier to say and understand.
Evelyn Glennie makes a full-time living as a percussionist. According to her site, “Evelyn is the first person in musical history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist.” And she’s been profoundly deaf since age 12.
Her site doesn’t say much about deafness — and that’s fabulous only because it shows she wants people to recognize her as a talented percussionist. She speaks so clearly that I recognized some words without reading her lips. Here’s a Wikipiedia entry on Glennie.
She published her Hearing Essay. which explains why her office rarely mentions deafness in any press releases or on her site with the exception of the essay.
I hope that the audience will be stimulated by what I have to say (through the language of music) and will therefore leave the concert hall feeling entertained. If the audience is instead only wondering how a deaf musician can play percussion then I have failed as a musician. For this reason my deafness is not mentioned in any of the information supplied by my office to the press or concert promoters. Unfortunately, my deafness makes good headlines. I have learnt from childhood that if I refuse to discuss my deafness with the media they will just make it up. The several hundred articles and reviews written about me every year add up to a total of many thousands, only a handful accurately describe my hearing impairment.
Here’s a great post from Deaf World as Eye See It of an interview between a Deaf vlogger and a hearing audiologist. When I started this blog — my goal was to educate people what life is like from my perspective as a person born deaf.
With the diversity of backgrounds, hearing loss histories and hearing loss types — I can only represent my point of view. However, deaf people find we share a lot of common traits and experiences. Anyway, I’m straying from the purpose of this post. The interview is an insightful read since it provides another point of view.
Folks, I am just the messenger here! Found this discussion on MeFi that I had to share. Check out the deaf blogs and you see many write well. However, I did have a couple of pen pals when I was a child and they wrote in ASL-speak. For the most part, it was easy to understand what they were saying. There was one whose writing was very hard to translate.
Just like in America — you have some people who write well and others who can’t read more than a few words in English. You’ll find deaf people who write perfect English, ASL-English and hard-to-understand English. It isn’t just a deaf thing — more like an ESL and education thing.
One thing is true — sign language has its own accents. For instance, ASL and British (UK) sign language are not and do not look the same even to a person who doesn’t know much sign language. Four Weddings and a Funeral
For those of us who make our calls through the relay — maybe we should send this article on sounding confident on a phone call to our relay operators :) Actually, it might be useful to those who make voice carryover calls (VCO).
One useful tip in the article is to press # after leaving the message so you can hear your message. Well, that won’t work too well on a relay call. The relay operator will hear your message not you. But it’d be interesting to hear my voice since I know what I said.
Captioned video of a deaf comedian doing his routine on a bus. To be honest, I didn’t get his jokes.
Ben and Dennis have an interesting discussion going about Deaf and deaf, and not deaf enough. I know that I’m not a part of the Deaf culture, and that’s OK. I just try to get along with everyone deaf, hard-of-hearing or Deaf. I respect everyone’s communication and culture preferences. When I like a person as a friend, it’s because of her personality — who she is, not what she was born with or how she communicates.
It bothers me when people judge based on someone’s choices or birthright. I’ve met people who do both ASL and speak with their voices. They’re part of the Deaf culture, and they’ve shared stories where their Deaf friends got mad because they spoke or wore hearing aids. It’s not fair to the person because she made the choice of doing both.
I imagine this post might get me in trouble, but I’ve met many people over the years through pen pals, the Internet and in person — I enjoyed getting to know them. If someone has a problem with me because I speak and don’t know ASL, then that is what it is. I would hope people would get to know me and not punish me for my choices.
What American accent do you have? Deaf, of course, but that wasn’t an option and it didn’t stop me from completing the quiz. The site identified my accent as Midland:
You have a Midland accent is just another way of saying “you don’t have an accent.” You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Based on the description of a Midland accent, it doesn’t surprise me. 11 years of speech therapy shows you how to pronounce things the dictionary way, not with a Texas accent. Got to admit that last line in the description of the Midland is funny.
I’ve had relatives claim I have a Texas accent because of the way I said certain things like “Dad” where I make the “a” last longer than normal. I’ve also been asked “What country are you from?” or “Are you French?” I don’t think a deaf accent resembles a French accent.
The Dallas Morning News [may require free registration] had a fascinating article about how much technology helps athletes. For instance, Masazumi Soejima won the Boston Marathon in his wheelchair coming in almost 45 minutes ahead of the first one on foot.
What about Tiger Woods receiving LASIK to perfect his vision? He has been winning more golf tourneys since the surgery. Having had LASIK myself, I don’t think there’s a performance difference between contacts and LASIK. Contacts can annoy you at times when it doesn’t feel right.
How can we ensure fairness in sports? That’s a tough question and I’m glad I don’t have to figure that out. I don’t plan on joining kind of olympic or sports committee.
Learned that Barack Obama’s Web site contains lots of captioned video. Whether or not you support him — we appreciate the opportunity to get to know candidates as much as we need to with captioned television. I still prefer online mainstream videos and TV videos to be captioned over politics (after all, there’s something in it FOR THEM to have captioned videos).
The folks behind the site say they worked with Project ReadOn. You can read more on Obama’s site or check out the | Permalink | Comments (2)
I can’t believe I didn’t know about these sites earlier! I had heard about Will Ferrell’s hilarious landlord video that stars his 3-year-old daughter as a mean and drunk landlord. But I never pay attention to videos since I know most don’t come with captions… until today.
Project ReadOn requires lining up the captioned popup box with the video (turn off pop ups on the site so you can get the captions). The FAQ explains how to ensure the captions and video sync up.
Captioning video gets easier pointed to Dotsub where you enter the captions yourself and Project ReadOn where you can request your video get captioned. So I check them out and got to enjoy the landlord video.
From now on if I hear about a big video — I’ll be sure to put in a request with Project ReadOn. Thank you to BBC.co.uk for the article. Be warned … once you get into them, it may be difficult to get back to work.
Interesting reading from Communication Access Now regarding a deaf woman’s terrible experience with the law in Brazoria County, Texas. As a born and bred Texan, I can happily say I haven’t had any experiences like these.
Thanks to of DeafNetwork for the link.
The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), formerly known as The Captioned Media Program, has a new home. The change makes sense since it covers or adds the following:
Video-described media for persons who are blind and visually impaired.
Educational video description guidelines.
Searchable information portal, including links to information from educational and consumer groups.
Expanded media search options.
“DCMP for Kids” section with separate student accounts, so students can directly access DCMP under the monitoring of teachers and parents who will determine which subject areas are accessible.
Delivery methods including downloading media and access to streaming via both Real Player and Windows Media Player.