Friday was a very busy day at ALDAcon. We started at 7:30 with the Newcomers/Chapter Leader Breakfast, where us newcomers were introduced to the regional chapter leaders and were welcomed again to the ’Con.
My first workshop was “4G Mobile Technologies Creating Accessibility,” given by Mike Ellis and Ken Arcia with Sprint. It’s too bad Brandt wasn’t there, since he’s such a technology-geek! I learned that 4G can deliver mobile downloads up to ten times faster than 3G. One of the great things for Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing people is fast, high-quality, 2-way mobile video, which allows for communication in Sign Language.
Next, I attended “The Battle for Captioned Movies—an ADA Case Study,” given by deaf lawyer John Waldo of the Washington State Communication Access Project (“Wash-CAP”), who also gave the workshop on Advocacy and Access the previous day. Mr. Waldo explained that when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, Open Captioning print had to be burned onto movie film, making it expensive and cumbersome. This is why the House ruled that Open Captioning was not required by the ADA, but was “encouraged.” However, new digital technology has changed how Open Captioning is done. The text is provided on a separate disk, which synchs to the sound of the movie. Every movie theater screen has 2 projectors, one that shows the previews and one that shows the movie. So the captioning is simply shown on the projector used to show previews (I certainly didn’t know that, did you?!). I also learned that digital Open Captioning is provided to movie theaters free of charge by the Media Access Group at WGBH—the organization that invented television Closed-Captioning, Descriptive Audio, and Rear Window Captioning. In the case of Rear Window Captioning, the captioning disks are provided to the movie theater free after the theater has paid to have the equipment installed.
Mr. Waldo gave an overview of all the lawsuits filed over the years for captioning in movie theaters, including the recent Arizona case that was the first time a judge had ruled in favor of requiring movie theater captioning (and the judge called the movie theater company “jerks” for not offering the captions voluntarily!). Since movie theaters can no longer argue that captioning is too expensive, their current argument is that Open Captioning is “too distracting” to Hearing audiences. This is why captioned movies are always shown at off-peak times and days. Mr. Waldo explained the “New Jersey pattern,” named after the 2004 case where Regal Entertainment Group in New Jersey was required to have 12 captioned movie showings per week: 2 shows per day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, except for Friday and Saturday nights. I am definitely going to ask Mr. Waldo’s advice for getting our local theater to offer OC movies more than one afternoon and one evening a week!
Next was the Appreciation Luncheon with Dr. I. King Jordan as our speaker. In 1988, Dr. Jordan was named the first Deaf president of Gallaudet University (the only liberal arts university in the world for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students), following a student protest called “Deaf President Now.” Dr. Jordan signs while he speaks, and has a very powerful yet down-to-earth presence. He spoke about advocacy and how there is a difference between access and compliance with laws, saying “many places comply with the laws, but don’t really provide access,” such as the off-times of Open Captioned movies. Talking about the lag-time on MSNBC’s Closed-Captioning, Dr. Jordan said,
“My wife won’t watch TV with me anymore because I bitch and moan so much about the captions!”
Despite this, though, he admitted that he has never filed a complaint with the FCC, nor has he written a letter to MSNBC or any other channel that has captioning problems. He said, “We’ve all experienced the same thing; why don’t we do more? It really is our responsibility.”
My third workshop was Part 2 of “Communication Strategies and Basic Sign Language,” given by clinical social worker David Litman (I missed Part 1 the day before for Mr. Waldo’s workshop). Mr. Litman had us review the alphabet, and then he taught family signs. I was having another bout with altitude sickness, so I was glad they were all signs I already knew!
The final workshop I attended was “Life After Deaf: Adjusting and Thriving,” by Sharaine Rawlinson Roberts, the Marketing and Account Manager for Caption First. Ms. Roberts became deaf overnight at age 14, after volunteering in a hospital in preparation for becoming a pediatrician. She caught spinal meningitis from a patient and nearly died (doctors told her parents that if she lived, she would be a vegetable). Her first thought when she came out of her coma was, “No one will marry me now.” After graduating high school, she attended the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, where she “learned communication skills by socializing.” She learned Sign Language, because there are “so many variables” for successful lipreading. Ms. Roberts has a Cochlear Implant and is happily married. Her “Tips for Survival” after becoming deaf are:
- Ask people to repeat what they said
- Learn fingerspelling
- Check into Assistive Listening Devices
- Turn on the captions on your TV
- Seek out counseling
- Do things that bring you joy
- Join ALDA
Speaking to those with Hearing spouses, Ms. Roberts advised,
“It will help your marriages if you try to learn a way to communicate.”
For “pillow talk,” she highly recommends learning some signs.
I skipped the Cocktail/Social Hour for a quick nap before the I. King Jordan Award Banquet. The winner of the I. King Jordan Award was Dr. Jane Schlau, a late-deafened woman who earned her Doctorate in Education after she lost her hearing. Her dissertation was about acquired deafness. In her acceptance speech, she asserted, “Deaf people CAN!”
Bill Graham, the founder of ALDA, spoke about how ALDA was started with a Chicago pizza party in 1987. Their first convention was held in a hospital in 1989, with 42 attendees. It was the first time that Real-Time Captioning was used in a group, ever. Mr. Graham said that without Real-Time Captioning, ALDA never would have become a major organization. He told a hilarious story, where the new CEO of the National Association of the Deaf, Howard Rosenblum, asked Mr. Graham, “So how can we get some of your people to come to NAD?” Mr. Graham responded,
“You’ll have to hire someone to do Crappy Sign Language!”
I was doubled over from laughing so hard, because it’s true! My sign language is not true ASL, and ASL is not used by the interpreters at ALDAcon. While most ALDAns at the ’Con signed while they spoke, it was far from perfect signing—because if you’re late-defeaned, you probably didn’t grow up speaking ASL, and who can speak a language flawlessly that they didn’t learn until adulthood?! I think “Crappy Sign Language,” or “CSL” as we started calling it, is a great tongue-in-cheek description of the popular communication style at ALDAcon.
A lady got up to speak (I forgot your name, I’m sorry!) about ALDA and how it had changed her life. She said, “All of us are in the same boat, struggling to communicate.” She ended by saying, “We are your family.” This is something that I heard many times throughout the ’Con—that ALDA is a family. I had read this on their website before the ’Con, but it really is something you have to see and experience in person. It truly is a big family, and the ’Con is their annual family reunion.
Our final activity for this very long day was the entertainment, “Taiko with Toni.” I didn’t know what to expect, so WOW was I surprised. It turned out to be traditional Japanese taiko (“drum”) and bamboo flute music, and it was incredible! First, Lance and Toni explained the different pieces of Japanese clothing that they were wearing, and then they explained the different sounds made by the drum: don is loud, su is soft, tsu is silence, and ka is hitting the drum on its edge. Everyone really enjoyed the music, and at the end, someone started a conga line. I was exhausted, but Linda, the ALDA president, told me I had to join the line. I cut in right behind Dr. I. King Jordan, and that was a surreal moment. I thought to myself, “I’m conga dancing to Japanese drums behind the first Deaf president of Gallaudet University—how is this even possible?!”
I forgot my camera, so here is a picture of Lance and Toni from their website:
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