Captions AND Sound!

A few days ago, I drove back to my hometown to see an Open Captioned movie—Eclipse—with Josie.  (And no, we’re not Twilight groupies, and we don’t argue about Team Edward vs. Team Jacob!)  When I bought my ticket, I asked the kid at the box office, “It is captioned, right?”  I ask this every time, since they no longer inform us when the movies are captioned.  I also do it as a reminder for them to turn on the captioning, since they used to forget and I’d have to run back to the lobby screaming “TURN ON THE CAPTIONING IN AUDITORIUM 6!!!”

Josie and I walked into the room and there were only 3 people seated.  I sarcastically said, “Gee, I wonder where we’ll ever sit!”  One of the middle-aged ladies in the back of the theater asked us, “So did they try to sell you tickets to the 7:30 show instead of the 7:00?!”  She was very upset about it.  “Um, no, I don’t think so” I said, checking my ticket.  7:00.  The lady continued complaining, wondering why on earth they would make her wait another 30 minutes for the 7:30 showing.   Just to make conversation, I asked her, “You know it’s captioned, right?”  I have no idea why I asked this, since I already knew what her answer would be.  She looked completely disgusted and said “Oh it is?!  No, we didn’t know that!”  I answered, “They used to post a sign at the box office and tell everyone buying a ticket, but they haven’t done that in years.”  She asked, “Is the 7:30 showing captioned, too?!”  She really sounded panicked about it.  “No, this is the only screen that’s captioned,” I said.  The lady whispered to her friends and then asked me,

“Well is it JUST captioned, or is there sound, too?!” 

I stifled a laugh and said politely, “Oh yes, there’s regular sound.  It just has the captioning at the bottom so you can understand it better.”  With that I sat down, straining to hear their conversation (I wasn’t successful).  I waited for them to get up and go to the 7:30 showing, but they stayed put.  The couple right behind us, who came in a few minutes later, did get up and leave right after the movie started.  They never came back, and we wondered if they left because of the captioning. 

This is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone complain about captioning, although I’d never had an actual conversation with someone about it before.  I always try to listen for people talking about it when the movie starts and also when it ends, wondering if they’ll say something negative about how distracting it was, but I never have, in the 5 years I’ve attended Open Captioned movies.

My only complaint about the movie is the audio, which has been my (and Brandt’s) complaint about movies for years.  With the Open Captioning, I didn’t have trouble knowing what the actors were saying, but it was annoying just how muffled it was, especially when Robert Pattinson talked.  It sounded like there was a sock stuffed in his mouth!  I thought this was just a problem that the two of us were having with movies, but last week I read Megan’s post on Hearing Sparks, which referenced a recent article called “The Rising Problem of Inaudible Dialogue.”  The author, Simon Brew, blames this problem on two growing trends:  first, “very complex surround sound mixes,” and second, “actors are rediscovering the art of the mumble.”

I’m glad it isn’t just me that’s having problems!  In The Dark Knight, for example, I could understand maybe 80% of the dialogue.  Brandt and I saw it before our city had movie theater captioning, and he kept whispering to me, “What did he say?!  What’s going on?!”  All I could do is shrug and say, “I don’t have a clue what they’re talking about or who that even is!”  We had to watch the DVD with subtitles to figure out the details of the plot.

Mr. Brew has some wonderful advice for these mumbling actors:

“Make sure your audience can hear what it is you're saying.  Stop mumbling incomprehensibly.  If you're not mumbling, speak clearly.  You're an actor.  That's your job.  And let us all enjoy the dialogue in the script that presumably was one of the reasons you signed up for the project in question in the first place.”

And for the movie’s production team, his message is:

“...Never forget the audience at the end of it all.  Seriously.  If you're watching a first cut of a movie, and you can't hear what's being said properly, then what chance have the rest of us got?”

He ends his article by saying:

“I do accept that I'm lucky. My hearing is okay, but as I get older, inevitably—as it will with us all—it'll deteriorate.  And I wonder whether I'll get to the point where I'll watch more and more films and television programmes with the subtitles on.  Not because I've got problems in everyday hearing, but simply because I need the best chance of finding out what's going on.  The subtitles might just give me that extra leg up that film and programme makers may not be willing to offer.”

Frankly, I think more people need to embrace subtitles on movies (and closed-captioning on television), rather than looking at them as something you have to subject yourself to.  Trust me, you’re missing more than you realize, even if you have perfect hearing.  Try watching your favorite movie with the subtitles on and I guarantee you’ll have at least one instance where you shout, “So that’s what that line is!  I’ve been hearing it wrong all these years!”

  

Fun with Ethnicities

In last week’s ASL class, we learned signs for a number of countries and ethnicities.  As I have mentioned before, ASL involves something called “frank talk,” where things are discussed openly and honestly without worrying about ‘political correctness.’  For example, the old signs for Asian countries/ethnicities all involved pulling on the side of the eye, which is now considered offensive.  The signs have been updated, but the old signs will undoubtedly still linger.

The “frank talk” also applies to our class discussions.  One of my classmates asked our teacher Mary (who is White) how to describe her racial heritage.  Mary asked her, “Well, what are you?”  My classmate asked back, “Isn’t it obvious?!”  Mary responded, “I want to hear how you describe yourself.”  She responded, “I’m African-American, of course!”  Mary showed her how to sign AFRICAN (another updated sign) and AMERICAN. 

Then Mary asked Carl, “So what are you?”  Carl answered, “I’m BLACK.  None of this ‘African-American’ crap.  I am a BLACK MAN!”  Mary taught him the sign for PROUD, and he stood up and signed “I AM A PROUD BLACK MAN!”  Another classmate said, “I agree, I’m not ‘African-American,’ I’m just BLACK!  I am a PROUD BLACK WOMAN!”  She then asked Mary, “So if someone is White, do you just sign ‘WHITE’?”  Mary said, “No, that sign is just for the color; for the racial description, like ‘Caucasian,’ you sign THIS…  You just can’t call us CRACKERS!”  She laughed as she made the sign CRACKER (as in the food).  Fortunately, everyone else laughed, too.

Mary next turned to me and asked what I was.  I looked down at the nearly-transparent skin on my arms and said, “Um, I’m gonna go with WHITE.  Very, VERY WHITE!”  Everyone laughed again.   “Actually I’m 1/8 Native American, too; but you can’t tell by looking at me,” I added.

As we were walking out to the parking lot, Mary said to me, “I was afraid I was getting myself into hot water for a minute there, but everyone seemed ok with it!”  I told her that when our Level 1 and 2 teacher Susanne (who is Black) first introduced nationalities/ethnicities last semester, she used one of the white students as an example for the sign and said, “You’re WHITE.  I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, please don’t get mad at me, but you are White!”  She then said the same to me; I laughed, showed her my arms, and said, “It’s pretty obvious, it’s not like I can hide it!”  She said, “There’s nothing we can do about our skin color, so we shouldn’t get upset about it.  We can’t change it, just accept it!” 

Our assignment for this week was to practice a short description of our ethnicity/heritage, and present it in front of the class.  I’m always afraid when I get up to sign that it won’t come out the way I practiced it, but this time it went perfectly.  I said (roughly translated):

“I am mostly German, a little bit Native American; but I look like I am 100% WHITE!”

I got some good laughs out of it.

Another girl in the class, who is “mostly Black,” has the same partial Native American heritage that I do:  the Choctaw tribe.  We joked that we’re probably long-lost cousins.

I love it when interracial groups can be open about race, especially when we can laugh about it.  We live in an area where race is a pretty touchy subject, and there is still a lot of racial tension hanging thick in the air.  Discussions like this give me HOPE!

Choctaw family in native dress, ca. 1908

Meta-Misunderstanding

After my 2,000-word thesis yesterday, I’ll give you something short and light to read today.

When Brandt gets sleepy, he tends to talk about very random things.  On Saturday night, well past midnight, he started randomly talking about someone, but I didn’t recognize the name (he was Earless; my excuse is a lifetime of misunderstandings caused by chronic ear infections as a kid).  The conversation went like this:

Me: “…Who on earth is ‘Biekel Burkett’?!”

Brandt: “‘Eagle Bucket’?!”

Me: “Wait, what name did you say?!”

Brandt: “WHOOPI GOLDBERG.”

Me: “Ooooh Whoopi Goldberg!  Yeah, that’s not what I heard at all!”

Brandt: “I don’t know who ‘Beagle Bartlett’ is…”

It was a misunderstanding of a misunderstanding of a misunderstanding.  That’s got to be a new record!

Last Day of NAD Conference

Saturday was the last day of the NAD conference in Philadelphia, and it was busy busy busy (and long long long!).  Our first workshop was “Corporate Best Practices—Accommodations and Accessibility.”  It was a panel of 3 Deaf businessmen:  Seth Bravin with IBM, Li Ye Chen with GE, and Sacha Klein with Booz Allen Hamilton.    The panelists described the numerous accommodations that they use in their jobs, including:  ASL interpreters (in person); Video Relay Service (ASL interpreting for phone calls via video telephones); Video Remote Interpreting (ASL interpreting done remotely via a web camera or teleconferencing setup)—this is used for meetings and other situations when the Deaf client is in the same room as the people he needs to communicate with, and an in-person interpreter is not available; Real-Time Captioning; instant-messaging; e-mails; and speech recognition software.  None of the 3 panelists had ever had a problem with getting their company to pay for any of these services.  When asked how many hours a week they used these accommodations, Mr. Bravin with IBM said that he is “addicted to VRI” and uses it 15 to 20 hours a week (sometimes up to 30 hours a week) and uses VRS quite often as well.  He prefers live interpreters because they are more convenient to work with, and because he is able to always use the same interpreting company, his interpreters are already familiar with him and the terminology used in his work.  Mr. Chen with GE said that he uses VRS or interpreters about 25% of the time, and mainly uses live interpreters for large meetings.  He uses instant-messaging a lot, and because he has a Cochlear Implant, he does well speaking one-on-one with colleagues.  Mr. Klein with BAH prefers live interpreters, especially for meetings, and uses them about 5 to 10 hours a week; he also uses VRS for phone calls about 10 hours a week.  The panelists emphasized the importance of asserting your needs for accessible communication at work, and epitomized how it is possible for Deaf people to move up the corporate ladder.

We weren’t sure what to expect from “Navigating Social Media and Ethics: Code of Professional Conduct,” conducted by ASL interpreter SB Morgaine.  It turned out to be about ethical issues and ‘gray areas’ for ASL interpreters, discussing if an ethical line is crossed in such hypothetical situations as:  an interpreter ‘friending’ a Deaf client on Facebook and vice versa, an interpreter posting on Twitter that she is interpreting at a specific hospital and “is sooo bored,” an interpreter posting pictures of herself interpreting at a live concert—with the Deaf client visible, and a Deaf client ranting online about a specific interpreter.  Although this topic didn’t apply to us directly, it was very well-presented and we enjoyed it a lot.  It made us think about social media issues that apply to everyone, not just interpreters.  A more detailed blog post on this workshop was written by NAD blogger Jeannette Johnson.

During lunch, we ate at one of the restaurants in our hotel.  Everyone sitting around us was signing, so Brandt and I tried to sign a little as well.  Our waitress told the couple sitting next to us that she had learned several signs during the week, and she was proud to show off “THANK YOU” and “CHECK?”.  When she asked us if we were ready for the check, she signed “CHECK” again with a big grin on her face.  As the couple next to us left, the man taught her how to sign “SEE YOU LATER, ALLIGATOR.”  She loved learning the sign for ALLIGATOR!  When we got up to leave, the man on the other side of us asked me if I was an interpreter.  He had hearing aids and had been signing and talking with his wife (she was in the bathroom); he said that she was an interpreter and he was “learning sign and loving it—I’ve been sitting in the lobby every night this week, just watching everyone signing.”  I was surprised and said, “Oh, you can do that?!  I thought they considered that rude!”  “Sure, you can watch them!” he said.  “I was just watching the group that was sitting next to us, and they taught me a few signs.”  As we left the restaurant, he wished us luck and told me to “keep up the good work.”  How nice!

The workshop “Deafhood: The Cure for Deafness” was an Anthropologist’s dream come true!  It was given by Butch Zein, Organizing Chair for the Deafhood Foundation, which is “dedicated to achieving economic and social justice for all Deaf people.”  The vision of the Foundation is to “provide financial, educational and social opportunities to end the economic exploitation of Deaf people.  The Foundation aims to free the world from audism and recreate a society where everyone experiences full humanity and celebrates Sign Language.”  Mr. Zein explained the 5 dimensions of viewing deafness: 

• Medical, which focuses on the ear, sees “hearing loss” as a problem to be fixed, and views “hearing-impaired” people as “helpless” and “isolated”;
• Social Welfare, which aims to “solve the problems of deafness” through institutions including school and vocational rehabilitation, and views the Deaf as “clients” and “reasons for charity”;
• Human Rights, which aims for “equal opportunities” and “access,” and supports disability discrimination legislation and laws providing equal access;
• Linguistic Minority, which views audism and oralism as forms of genocide/ethnocide, and aims for bilingualism (English and American Sign Language); and
• Deafhood, which is an “all-encompassing perspective” and “holistic view” which aims to encourage “healthy self-esteem” in Deaf people, “celebrates ASL,” “recognizes and preserves Deaf peoples’ potential and desire in a collective sense,” and wants mainstream society to realize that the Deafhood perspective “has much to offer humanity, science, academy, and Deaf people now and in the future.”

Mr. Zein summarized the difference between the first and last dimension as:  The medical dimension aims to “eradicate deafness,” while Deafhood’s perspective of Deaf people is “We don’t need help, we’re just different.”  A Deaf woman in the audience came up to the front of the room at the end of the workshop and declared,

“I am not disabled, I CAN!  I am ENABLED!” 

It was a powerful, wonderful statement.

A video on the Deafhood Foundation’s website gives a detailed explanation of the creation of “Deafhood.”  Historically, deafness has been viewed “as a problem,” defined by things the Deaf couldn’t do, such as read, write, talk, and hear.  “Deafness” is a negative label that was attached to Deaf people, but is not a label that Deaf people like or “want to accept.”  Instead, they want to “turn that label around to its flip side” to one which they “will proudly wear”—Deafhood.  The video explains:

“Deafhood is the sum of all the positive aspects of us as Deaf people.  Under Deafhood, Deaf are seen as being able to do things:  Deaf can read, Deaf can write, Deaf can sign, Deaf can socialize with others, Deaf people have a community, they have a culture...  All these things are positive, and this is Deafhood.  Deafhood is about understanding ourselves as Deaf people, looking inside and examining ourselves, understanding and recognizing the oppression that has occurred over the centuries...  Deafhood is understanding that we are Deaf, not Hearing, and that it is okay to be Deaf!  We are equal in all respects to Hearing people!  Hearing people have their ways, and we have ours, and one is no better or worse than the other.  They have their language, and we have our sign language.  They have their ways of socialization, and we have ours.  They have their culture, and we have our culture.  Both are equal, and both are equally valuable.  We can socialize and get along with them, and they can socialize and get along with us.  But we recognize that we need not conform to their ways to be “equal.”  We do not need to be able to hear and talk to become equal to a Hearing person.  We can be equal to Hearing people on our own, Deaf terms.  Deafhood is about envisioning a future, a positive future for ourselves.  A future in which our academic levels are higher, our community is uplifted, stronger and more cohesive.  Our language, our signs are not deteriorating, but rather, elevated and fluent.  Economically, instead of struggling and being poor, we can raise our economic level to work together and improve our community and gain political power to lobby our government…”  

Our final workshop was “Self Advocacy: Encouraging Doctors to be Deaf Friendly,” given by Dr. Melanie Nakaji, project coordinator for the RID Oncology Program at the University of California San Diego, also called the American Sign Language, Deaf Culture and Cancer Control program.  Medical students in this program enroll in an American Sign Language course, participate in Deaf Patient Simulations, spend a month during the summer at Gallaudet University’s Summer Immersion Program, participate in Deaf cultural events, spend 10 hours with an Interpreter Mentor, and create a health education program for the Deaf community.  The main purpose of the program are for doctors to learn about Deaf culture and to understand the different perspectives of clients, including culturally Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, Deaf with a Cochlear Implant, etc., as well as their different communication methods and needs.  Dr. Nakaji recommended the website DeafMD.org, which provides health and medical information in ASL.  “Diseases A-Z” provides explanations of a long list of medical issues in ASL videos, and “Understanding Tests” explains over 20 medical tests in ASL videos.  The website also has a database of “Deaf-Friendly Doctors” in 32 states.  NAD blogger Tayler Mayer has written a detailed summary of this workshop.

After a ‘short’ walk over to the Liberty Bell (where I almost had a heat stroke!), we ended our trip to Philadelphia with a night tour on top of a double-decker bus.  The tour guide spoke over a microphone, but the speakers were all downstairs and it was very difficult to hear him.  Even though he was standing just a few feet in front of us, I strained to understand him, and Brandt couldn’t get a word.  We quickly decided to use the FM system, and I tried to repeat as much as possible into it.  This turned into me giving brief summaries, usually just saying as quickly as possible what we were passing:  “Huge City Hall!”  “LOVE Statue!”  “Some sort of really popular fountain with people swimming in it!”  “Statue of…um…what name did he say??...ok it’s not George Washington, although it looks just like him!”  When we stopped at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for everyone to run up the “Rocky Steps,” a lady who was sitting towards the back of the bus said to her friend, “I can’t hear a word that guy is saying, can you?!”

  

Miss Deaf America

I’m not usually a big fan of beauty pageants, so I wasn’t sure what to expect going into the Miss Deaf America Ambassador Pageant.  Brandt stayed in the room, since the last-minute tickets were $80, so I sat towards the back by myself.  Several people excused themselves and asked if they could sit on my row, and I understood them perfectly.  Then a woman asked to sit next to me, and asked where I got my program.  I was about to tell her that I was still learning sign, and then realized that I had understood her!  I told her that I got it at the entrance door, but they ran out, and I asked if she wanted mine.  She asked if she could borrow it and it give it back at the end, and I said “SURE!”  Then the man in front of me asked if his head was blocking my view, and when I told him I could see just fine, he said “Good, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t blocking your view!”  These conversations all took place in ASL, and I was very excited that I didn’t have to apologize or explain to anyone that I was still learning.

The contestants opened the show by signing the national anthem, as they had done for the Opening Ceremony on Wednesday.  It was just as powerful the second time.  Then they signed the song “Dream On” by Aerosmith, and it was so beautiful.  They must have practiced a lot to be able to able to sign along to the words perfectly. 

There were 11 contestants, and they were narrowed down to 6 semifinalists who would perform their “artistic expression,” “platform presentation,” and on-stage interviews.  Miss Deaf California’s platform is Deaf Mentorship programs for youth, and performed “Overcoming Her Struggle,” her own story of overcoming childhood abuse.  If she could change one thing about the world, it would be to stop child abuse and domestic violence.  Miss Deaf Illinois, the contestant who spoke to me in the elevator on Thursday, performed an ASL poem: “Deaf Role Models from A-Z.”  Her platform is Sign Language Literacy, and when asked to tell us something to help us remember her, she said that she loves reading and teaching, and recently taught 200 Hearing students about Deaf culture.  Miss Deaf Maryland’s platform is Deaf Literacy, and she performed The Giving Tree.  If selected as Miss Deaf America, she answered that her plan of action would be to work with Deaf youth.

Miss Deaf Minnesota’s platform is Deaf Access to the Performing Arts, and she signed the song “Defying Gravity” from the Broadway musical Wicked in full dress as a witch.  One notable thing about her is that she can spell “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”  Miss Deaf Missouri’s platform is Breast Cancer Advocacy, and she performed her personal story of surviving a plane crash.  Her plan of action as Miss Deaf America would be to protect Deaf rights, and prove that “everyone is a leader.”  Miss Deaf Pennsylvania’s platform is “Accessibility is Freedom for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People.”  She performed the poem “Ulysses” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, dressed as a Greek goddess.  If she could change one thing about the world, it would be “world peace!”

Miss Deaf Maryland was second runner-up, Miss Deaf Pennsylvania was first runner-up, and Miss Deaf Illinois won the title of Miss Deaf America 2010-2012!  I like to think that it was all thanks to my wishing her good luck in the elevator.

It was 10:30 by the time I got back to the room, so we went to eat at Hard Rock Café because we didn’t know what else was open nearby.  There was a live band playing, and it was so loud I couldn’t even hear myself talking.  Brandt and I tried signing back and forth, but we couldn’t have a real conversation with our limited vocabulary.  Finally, Brandt pulled out his iPhone and we had to write back and forth.  He asked me if I thought any Deaf people would ever come into the restaurant, and I said, “Why not?  A lot of Deaf people love loud music, because they can feel the vibrations.”  About that time, a Deaf couple came in and sat down next to us.  The waiter asked the man something, and he pointed to his ear and shook his head.  I wondered how anyone would be able to hear anyway, over the pounding rock music.  I noticed that everyone else was having trouble ordering their meals, too, and were giving up and just pointing to the menu.  The waiter stopped even trying to talk to us and just pointed:  to the water, to the dessert menu.  I looked over at the Deaf couple, deep in easy and effortless communication.  I couldn’t help but smile.

  

Day 3 of NAD Conference

My internet at the hotel completely died halfway through my stay, so it will take me a few days to get caught up on the second half of the NAD conference…

Friday was my 3rd full day of the NAD conference.  Brandt was able to join me in Philadelphia last-minute on Thursday night, which was a huge relief because I was feeling very socially isolated by my lack of ASL communication ability.  Our first workshops was “Federal Enforcement and Deaf Advocacy in Health Care and Vital Human Services,” given by a Regional Manager at the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Human Services, Paul Cushing.  He educated the audience about the different laws that “prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability” and guarantee Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing patients the right to “auxiliary aids” (including qualified ASL interpreters, assistive listening devices, phone amplifiers, video interpreters, and captioning) to provide “effective communication.”  Several of the audience members recounted times that they were either denied access to an interpreter, or were forced to pay for an interpreter out of their own pockets.  They were surprised to learn that it is the responsibility of the medical care service provider (such as doctor’s office or hospital emergency room) to provide and pay for all necessarily auxiliary aids.  Even if the Deaf person is not the one receiving the medical treatment, such as if a Deaf woman’s Hearing mother is in the emergency room, the Deaf person still has the legal right to an ASL interpreter.  Mr. Cushing encouraged the audience to file a complaint if they believe they have been denied the right to effective communication regarding their medical care—it must be done within 6 months of the discriminatory event.

Our second workshop was actually a commission, called “Captioning for Access: Here, There, and Everywhere.”  Instead of a structured lecture, this was a discussion about the need for more captioning access, run by members of a technical working group for the FCC, where audience members were encouraged to share their frustrations about the lack of captioning and brainstorm ideas for how to achieve more access.  Topics brought up by the audience included: delays on HDTV closed-captioning, placement of captioning that obscures the action in sports games, poor transcription quality on YouTube videos, lack of captioning on Netflix Instant View movies, and lack of captioning in movie theaters.  Karen Peltz Strauss with the FCC encouraged audience members to file a complaint if they experience problems with: closed-captioning on television, access to emergency information on television, telecommunications relay services, and telephone equipment services.  You can also e-mail her directly at:  Karen.Strauss@fcc.gov.  I found out on Saturday that there is a Deaf blogger named Tayler Mayer, owner of the website DeafRead, who has been blogging on the NAD conference.   He wrote a great synopsis of the commission on captioning.

Brandt and I ate lunch at the famous Reading Terminal Market, which houses over 80 restaurants and shops.  Many of them are operated by the Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish).  The most amazing thing about the market, though, was seeing Deaf people signing to each other at practically every shop, restaurant, and diner.  At every turn of a corner, there were more Deaf people deep in happy communication.  I tried my best not to be rude and stare, but it was hard not to.  It was a fascinating interplay of two cultures who are probably both used to being stared at when they are out in the mainstream public.

The two afternoon workshops were on theoretical aspects of ASL.  Theory has never been my strong suit, so I can’t possible do these workshops justice in my attempt to summarize and explain them.  “Whose ASL Is It? Is ASL Culturally and Linguistically Diverse?” was presented by Arkady Belozovsky, a lecturer in ASL/Deaf Studies at Brown University.  He is fluent in ASL, Russian Sign Language, and Gestuno (International Sign Language).  He spoke about the popularity and spread of ASL throughout the world, in large part due to international students attending Gallaudet University and bringing ASL back to their home countries.  He is upset by the continued teaching and use of Signed Exact English, which is a created form of Manually Coded English—signs used in English word order.  SEE is not an actual language, and uses invented signs for prefixes, suffixes, verb tenses, etc. that are not used in ASL.

The last workshop, “A New Theory of Sign Language,” was given by Jeffrey Mansfield, an architecture Master’s student at Princeton and board member of the Boston Access Advocates for the Deaf.  His presentation was fascinating, but the theory was so above my head that instead of trying to summarize it, I will just quote the description from the program:

“Revisit ASL linguistics and cultural identity in a broader cultural framework and learn about the rich complexity of American Sign Language and the Deaf experience. Starting with the work of post-structuralists Barthes, Foucault, and Derrida, this presentation navigates through Huxley's Brave New World, Derrida’s performative and McLuhan’s media ecology before examining responses from Baudrillard and deaf artists Aaron Williamson, Louise Stern, and Christine Sun Kim.  Joseph Grigely’s Textualterity will be explored in parallel with the field of cymatics, as well as Borges’ “Tlön, Uqbar, and Orbis Tertius,” the Stokoe Notation, and quantum theory to present a staggering and previously unacknowledged complexity vis-à-vis ASL and the Deaf experience.”

I have to point out the phenomenal job done by the ASL interpreters and CART transcriptionist in this workshop; they were worriedly preparing for the presentation before it started, reviewing all their notes, but they did an excellent job.

My next post will be on the Miss Deaf America pageant!

Day 2 of NAD Conference

My first workshop this morning was “Leading a Successful Advocacy Campaign,” given by a Disability Policy Manager at NISH  (National Institute for the Severely Handicapped), Alicia Epstein.  I have taken classes on designing health interventions and on program evaluations, so this workshop was a good refresher.  The presenter went over the main steps to advocacy campaigns:  researching the issue, collecting data, identifying the key messages, identifying resources and assets, identifying potential allies and opponents, identifying targets and agents of change, identifying strategies and tactics, and evaluating the campaign after it is over.  Epstein said, “You are the salesperson for your cause,” and emphasized that people like to feel ownership and empowerment when advocating on issues.

I had a lot of trouble understanding the female interpreters in this workshop.  Yesterday in both of my workshops, the interpreters used microphones, so I didn’t have any trouble watching the presenter on stage, looking at the PowerPoint screen off to the left, and could also take notes while listening to the interpreters.  But in this workshop, they didn’t use microphones and I was sitting too far way to hear them easily.  I decided that the microphone must have been malfunctioning…

The second workshop was “How the WFD (World Federation of the Deaf) Works for ASL and International Human Rights.”  I quickly found out that it wasn’t a problem with the microphones; I could barely hear the female interpreter speaking at all, and there was no microphone in sight.  There were people talking behind me, as well as a baby screaming, so all I could do was watch the CART captioning on the screen off to the right.  This was incredibly frustrating, because I wanted to be able to watch the presenter, Dr. Joseph Murray, signing.  It was also very difficult to switch my eyes from the captioning screen on the far right, to the PowerPoint screen on the far left, to Dr. Murray in the middle, and back.  The male interpreter was easier to understand (interpreters almost always work in tandem, switching off every 10 to 20 minutes to prevent fatigue), but I was just too far away to hear him easily.

The WFD was established in 1951 to represent the needs of the 70 million Deaf people worldwide.  The presentation was mostly about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which has the objective of legally requiring that countries grant Deaf people the human right to use sign language, and to recognize sign language as an official language in that country.  87 countries have ratified the UNCRPD, including the United States.  The core message of the presentation—and of UNCRPD—is that sign languages should be considered equal to spoken languages and speakers of sign languages should not be discriminated against.

After the workshop ended, I went up to the interpreters and asked them if I was supposed to request that they use microphones.  They said no, that microphones weren’t provided, and were surprised when I said that in both of my workshops yesterday the interpreters had used them.  One of them said that since ASL is a visual language, if I needed to rely on hearing the interpreters then I should sit next to them; but also said that they would ask someone about possibly getting microphones.  I completely agreed, but said “I didn't think to ask, since the first 2 used microphones.  Now I know!”  A guy who had been sitting right behind the interpreters said, “I was sitting right there and still couldn’t hear!”  So at least it wasn’t just me.  

I went to Starbucks for lunch again.  I got in the elevator, with my lunch in one hand and drink in the other.  One of the Miss Deaf America Contestants, wearing her crown and sash, got in with another lady (probably her chaperone).  They both signed hello to me, and I struggled to switch my drink over to my left hand and say “HELLO” back.  The contestant saw that I was a first-time attendee and asked if I was enjoying the conference so far.  I understood what she asked, but it took me a few seconds to process it, and by then she was saying something else.  I signed, “SORRY, I’M STILL LEARNING,” and she repeated her question slower.  I said “YES, I’M ENJOYING!”  She showed me her sash, and asked if I was attending the competition tomorrow night.  I signed “YES, TOMORROW!”  As they got off the elevator and waved goodbye, I signed “GOOD LUCK!” and she thanked me.  I was so excited that I had (finally) successfully communicated in ASL!

Both of my afternoon workshops were given by the same panel, representing The Deaf Bilingual Coalition.  The first was entitled “Deaf Babies’ and Children’s Human Rights to ASL and English.”  The founder of the DBC, John Egbert, is Deaf and was raised orally (speaking only, no signing) and did not learn to sign until he attended Gallaudet University.  He is married to a Deaf woman, and both of their children are Deaf.  The second presenter, David Reynolds, is also Deaf.  The third presenter, Tami Hossler, is Hearing and has a Deaf daughter who is 25 years old.  She spoke fluent ASL throughout the presentation, and the translator spoke for her.  (And I was relieved that the interpreters both used microphones!)

The Deaf Bilingual Coalition states that

“Signing from the start gives success for a lifetime.”

The two main purposes of the DBC are:

1. To emphasize the importance of the social, emotional, linguistic, and cognitive aspects of ASL pertaining to early visual language acquisition for all Deaf infants and young children.
2. To make the general public aware of the prevalence of misconceptions and misinformation that devalues ASL.

Deaf babies are deprived of “visual language learning,” and are therefore deprived of learning any language at the beginning of their lives.  The DBC laments that the medical profession focuses on the pathology of deafness—viewing the lack of hearing as a problem that needs to be fixed.  They claim that over 90% of parents are ill-informed (or not informed at all) about sign language, and are warned not to let their Deaf children learn ASL.  The DBC panel provided data showing that babies taught ASL from the start have a stronger foundation in language and reading skills, despite claims that teaching them ASL hinders their language and literacy skills in English.

To provide Deaf babies and children ASL, the Deaf Bilingual Coalition advocates for Bilingual-Bicultural Education.  This means that the child is taught ASL first, and is then taught English as a second language.  The book A Journey Into the DEAF-WORLD, which I recently read, also advocated “Bi-Bi” education, as it is often called, and gives detailed reasons for why it is the best choice for educating Deaf children.

The second workshop by the DBC was entitled “Language Begins with Early Detection and Intervention: A Need for Systematic Changes.”  The presenters argued that the national Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program, which tests the hearing of newborn babies and sends those who fail to an audiologist, is based on the pathological view of deafness, and does not provide any information to Hearing parents about ASL or Deaf Culture.  They joked,

“To the medical perspective, we are just ONE GIANT EAR, needing to be fixed!”

Instead of this pathological view, the DBC wants to reframe how deafness is perceived, and to establish a “united front against The System.”  They feel that the reason Hearing parents are devastated when told that their newborn baby is deaf, is because it is presented in such a negative connotation.  John Egbert said, “We don’t have a problem, we just happen to be Deaf.”  He later stated that he is “not against Cochlear Implants or speech,” but is “for the education of our [Deaf] children.

These workshops were quite emotional for me, and while I already supported the theoretical idea of Bi-Bi education for Deaf babies and children, I am now a firm believer in it.  There were several times during the presentations that I started to get tears in my eyes, it was so powerful and emotional!

I kept thinking that one of the interpreters from today's workshops looked awfully familiar, but I couldn’t place where I would know him from.  I finally realized that it was Jon Wolfe Nelson, the actor who portrayed Marlee Matlin’s ASL interpreter on the Showtime show The L Word!  I started watching The L Word a few months ago when I was researching Marlee, and all but the final season were available on Netflix Instant View.  I watched the show for the ASL, and learned some rather naughty signs!

The College Bowl Tournament tonight was a lot of fun.  The questions covered categories including Literature, Natural Science, Mathematics, Geography, Entertainment, Current Events, and Deaf Culture and History.  Gallaudet University won the tournament, with the Rochester Institute of Technology/National Technical Institute for the Deaf just 2 points behind, and California State University at Northridge came in third.

  

First Day of NAD Conference

Greetings from the City of Brotherly Love!  (aka, the HOTTEST CITY IN AMERICA!  It was 102 when I landed at 6:00 p.m. yesterday, beating the all-time record by several degrees!)

My ears tolerated the plane fairly well (meaning they hurt really bad but I didn’t cry or start to pass out, which sometimes happens), and I found the baggage claim with minimal difficulty.  So my first solo flight was a success!  When my taxi reached the corner next to the hotel, I saw a group of about 6 people signing to each other.  My face lit up and I got really excited (and nervous!) and knew that I was in the right place.  In the lobby, there were small groups of at least 25 people total deep in signed conversation.  At the front desk, two interpreters were waiting to sign for the Deaf attendees.  I thought about requesting one, since I could barely understand the soft little voice of the man helping me, but I didn’t want to take them away from someone who definitely needed them.

I was nervous about going to registration, since it would be the first time I’d be interacting with Deaf people at the conference.  The man I talked to didn’t have any trouble getting my name—and he looked me in the eye while I signed, instead of my hands where I always look; I still don’t know he can read fingerspelling off to my side while looking at my face.  Then he asked me something, or told me something… I couldn’t get it.  I said “SORRY?” and he repeated it, but I didn’t have a clue.  After several repeats he gave up.  I got pretty shaken up by it, and then I realized that this is what Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people go through EVERY DAY OF THEIR LIVES.  Miscommunication, and the frustrations that result from it, are a part of life with hearing loss.  I’ve always known that in theory, but experiencing it is something quite different.

The Opening Ceremony was a lot of fun.  It was fully accessible to all, by offering 3 ways of understanding what was said:  signing, oral English, and captioning.  So when someone was signing in ASL, there was an interpreter voicing a translation into English, and then that was captioned.  It’s amazing how fast this information can be transmitted, in 3 different forms!  “Betsy Ross,” in full costume, signed her welcome to the 50th biennial National Association of the Deaf conference, and the 130^th birthday of the NAD itself.  The outgoing Miss Deaf America, and the contestants who will compete on Friday night, signed the Star Spangled Banner.  It was quite compelling, and I ‘clapped’ (the Deaf ‘clap’ by raising up their hands and shaking them back and forth) along with everyone else in the audience. 

The President of the NAD, Dr. Bobbie Beth Scoggins, opened by saying that regardless of hearing status and language used to communicate, “We are all Deaf and we all have inherent rights.”  The first keynote speaker, Dr. M.J. Bienvenu, is the Chair of and Associate Professor in ASL and Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University (the only liberal arts university for the Deaf in the world).  She spoke about the notion of “Deaf Gain,” which I had not heard of before.  She declared that the term “Hearing Loss” connotes something negative, stating that Deaf people have a deficit.  Instead, she wants to promote the idea of “Deaf Gain,” which recognizes that Deaf people are a “variety of the human race” who “can make great contributions to mankind.”  She detailed examples of how Deaf people have made such contributions, including studies on language, literacy, international sign, and architecture.

Deaf actress Marlee Matlin received the NAD’s Media Advocacy Award, for her work in lobbying for internet captioning and other important Deaf issues.  She didn’t attend the conference, but did send a video acceptance.  Next to speak was Claudia Gordon, who is a Deaf, Black, female attorney.  Talk about having to overcome obstacles and discrimination!  Formerly an attorney for NAD, she now works for the Department of Homeland Security as the Senior Policy Advisor of the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.  She spoke about the need to branch out from our comfort zone, to take risks and challenge ourselves.  Gordon encouraged everyone in the room to identify one Deaf issue and advocate for it.

The NAD awarded 3 companies with their Accessibility Award.  Google received the award for voluntarily starting to caption their videos.  The NFL and CBS have also worked hard on voluntarily offering more captioning on their Super Bowl commercials and promos.  In just 2 years, the NFL has gone from 10% captioning to 80% captioning, even though they are only required to have their actual programs captioned.  And the Director of Captioning for CBS, Mark Turits, announced that by the end of this year, ALL of their online content will be captioned!  (Josie, I know you will be thrilled by this news!)

I went to Starbucks for lunch, and the couple in front of me was Deaf.  The man wrote down his order on his Blackberry and handed it to the employee; the lady wrote hers down on the notepad from our totebags.  I got into the elevator to go eat in my room, and wasn’t paying attention that it stopped on the 3rd floor instead of the 7th, so I stepped off and quickly realized it was the wrong floor.  A man pushing his daughter in a stroller got on the elevator, laughed, and signed “WRONG.”  I laughed too and repeated the sign “WRONG.”  I got back into the elevator and signed “STUPID,” laughing.  He looked at my nametag and signed “FIRST TIME” (I have a pink flag that shows this is my first NAD conference); then he started signing rapidly, and I couldn’t catch a single word.  I forced a smile and said “SORRY, I’M STILL LEARNING…”  He smiled, nodded, and waved goodbye as he got off the elevator.  I was sad that I didn’t know what he said.

My first workshop was entitled “We Will Not be Ignored!: Working with the Deaf Community in Public Health Research.”  I have a Graduate Certificate in Public Health, and a Master’s in the closely-related field of Medical Anthropology, so I was very excited about this workshop.  The presenter, Matthew Starr, is Deaf and has a Master’s in Public Health.  He works for the National Center for Deaf Health Research at the University of Rochester, and talked about the importance of Community-Based Participatory Research.  Now, I could write pages and pages about CBPR, since it is a main tenant of Medical Anthropology, but I will summarize it by saying that it focuses on involving the minority community that is being researched (such as African-American, Hispanic, Deaf, etc.) in every aspect of research and interventions.  This gives the research and interventions a much higher chance of success, because ‘rich white men’ are not going to understand the community nearly as well as the people who actually live in the community and belong to the minority group.  Starr shared data that was collected in Rochester on health issues in the Deaf community, including higher rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and suicide attempts.

The second workshop I attended was “Interacting with Law Enforcement for Positive Outcomes.”  It was presented by Glenna Cooper, the Director of Communication Services for the Deaf in Oklahoma, Neil McDevitt, Program Director of the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network at the Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc., and a local police officer.  Through role-playing, the police officer demonstrated how he would interact with a Deaf person in a routine traffic stop, a nighttime DUI/DWI stop, and a domestic violence call.  He emphasized the importance of keeping your hands on the steering wheel, and trying to remain compliant.  He communicated with the Deaf participants by writing on a notepad.  The presenters pointed out that during an interaction with law enforcement, Deaf people “prioritize communication” (such as why they are being pulled over, how they will communicate, what is going to happen, etc.), but the police “prioritize life safety.”  They encouraged the audience to be careful in these interactions, because their concern and distress in worrying about communication can be misconstrued as aggression and resistance.

Tomorrow I have 4 workshops (and still haven’t decided between some of them!) and the College Bowl Tournament.  And I’m sure I have more communication failures ahead of me, as well!
  

Last-Minute Philly Prep

I leave for the National Association of the Deaf conference in Philadelphia on Tuesday—my first-ever time flying by myself!—and I’m in a bit of a panic about all that I have left to do. 

I’m almost done reading A Journey into the DEAF-WORLD, two-thirds through with my new American Sign Language Phrase Book, halfway through Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard, and just started A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf Community in America.  I have watched the documentary Through Deaf Eyes (it was wonderful!) and re-watched Sound and Fury (a documentary which shows the controversy of Cochlear Implants) and Mr. Holland’s Opus (one of my all-time favorite movies).  I still need to watch Music Within, a movie on the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (which I’ve had from Netflix for way too many months), and re-watch Children of a Lesser God, which I haven’t seen since I started learning ASL.

I also need to pack and decide which sights and museums I’m going to try to squeeze in!

Last month I found out that the CODA Brothers, my favorite YouTube performers, will be at the conference.  I’m very excited about getting to meet them; they are absolutely hilarious, and watching their videos really helps me practice my signing.  Check out their video announcing the conference (since it’s actually a commercial for ZVRS, a video relay service, they don’t have a voiceover):

After Brandt’s unfortunate experience with the shoplifting detector at Lowe’s a few weeks ago, I decided that I definitely need to attend the workshop “Interacting with Law Enforcement For Positive Outcomes.”  It will be presented by the Program Director of the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network at the Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc., and the Director of Communication Services for the Deaf.  Here is the YouTube video previewing the workshop:

A New Sound

Last night Brandt and I were sitting in the living room playing on our laptops.  He was Earless (no hearing aids) and was typing along happily when suddenly he stopped, and whipped his eyes back and forth.  I thought maybe he had just read something that he was thinking deeply about, when he looked at me and asked,

“Based on your lack of a reaction, I’m guessing you can’t hear that noise?”

I raised my eyebrows and said, “Nooo…  What noise?  What does it sound like?”  He thought about it and said, “It’s like a monotone… which is different.  Usually my tinnitus is like a static.”  “Both ears?” I asked.  He thought again.  “More in the right.”  “Hmm, that’s weird,” I said, “since your hearing is worse in your left ear…”  He laughed, sighed, and said, “Oh goodie, a new sound!  Isn’t this fun?!”

I thought I had fully researched tinnitus and the [lack of] treatments for it, but today I discovered a possible new treatment that is being explored at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  Dr. John Dornhoffer is the director of both the Division of Otology and Neurology and the Hearing and Balance Center at UAMS, and suffers from tinnitus and hearing loss himself.  While researching treatments for “space motion sickness” in astronauts—which was funded by NASA—Dr. Dornhoffer discovered a possible treatment for tinnitus as well. 

By applying low-frequency, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to the auditory cortex, Dr. Dornhoffer and his colleague Dr. Mark Mennemeier discovered that they could “reduce or eliminate tinnitus temporarily in over 50% of patients,” as reported in the medical journal The Laryngoscope in 2008.  Dr. Dornhoffer explains that they can locate the areas in the brain that perceive tinnitus, target that area with magnetic stimulation, and eliminate the tinnitus; but “the problem is, it doesn’t last very long—that’s the next step, that’s for the future.  Right now we know we can find it, we can localize it, we can make it get better, we just now need to ask the question, ‘How can we prolong the response?’.” 

There are only five Centers in the world working on this research:  two in Germany, one in Belgium, and two in the United States, and “all of us have the same common goal:  To help these patients.”  Here is a video of Dr. Dornhoffer explaining his research on tinnitus (unfortunately it isn’t captioned and the Transcribe Audio isn’t all that great—sorry!):

Dr. Mennemeier also has a video about tinnitus, although it is a bit harder to hear.

Keep up the amazing work, Doctors Dornhoffer and Mennemeier!