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?!”
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