Day 3 of ALDAcon

I’m still whooshing just as bad, but, I’m trying to just deal with it for now.  Luckily my alarm clock is also a sound machine, so playing the “waterfall” sound really loud gives me something else to concentrate on while trying to sleep, and it’s helping a little.  So, back to ALDAcon!

Day 3 started with the workshop “The Power of Nonverbal Communication” by Michael Bower, a Life Enrichment Consultant.  Mrs. Bower does not sign, but gives many presentations to hearing loss groups.  She explained that there are 3 parts to communication:

1. The words we say—only 7% of communication
2. The way we sound doing it—38% of communication
3. The way we look doing it—55% of communication

There are a number of things involved in communication that impact how we are perceived, including loud vs. soft voice, pitch (too high is shrill, too low is aggressive), how fast (‘brash’) or slow (‘simple’), universal sounds (angry voice, ‘pillow talk,’ etc.), touch, how we look while talking (facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, etc.), cultural issues (distance apart, what we wear), and body language.  Mrs. Bower explained that with practice and awareness, people with hearing loss can improve their communication through good non-verbal communication skills.

My second workshop was “Dating and Intimacy with New Partners” by Marisa Musso.  I was a little worried about attending this workshop, since I’m married, but it was the only workshop being offered about relationships.  Ms. Musso started by reminding attendees that “you are not your hearing loss; it is only a part of you, it does not define you.”  She explained that deaf and hard-of-hearing people are looking for the same things in a relationship as Hearing people are, with one addition:  they want a partner who will accept their hearing loss.  This can be difficult because it is common to get tongue-tied, and the fear of disclosure regarding hearing loss can be scary.

Ms. Musso went through a number of questions for participants to think about—questions to have answered before going out on your first date with someone new, so that you’re already prepared.  The first question is, when do you want to disclose your hearing loss?  This is a personal choice and could be prior to the first date; on the first, second, third, etc. date; when the other person notices, etc.  The second question is, how do you want to disclose your hearing loss?  Examples include:  apologetically (probably not the best approach); as a significant part of your identity; as an insignificant part of your identity; with confidence; with humor; or not acknowledging it at all.  The third question is, how would you prefer disclosure to occur?

The theme of the workshop was “Confidence is Sexy!”  Ms. Musso suggests disclosing a hearing loss in a positive manner, such as saying what you have learned from it and the bright side.  She gave us each a sheet of paper to fill out for preparing for a date, which includes writing some details about your hearing loss, tips for communicating with you, humor, how to show you’re proactive, and how to show you’re confident.  It is important to show your dating needs and habits, so anticipate possible barriers that could arise on a date (such as bad lighting or too much background noise), plan solutions for these situations, and be proactive by mentioning common problems before they happen.  For communication, Ms. Musso stressed that bluffing (pretending you heard/understood when you really didn’t) is not allowed when you and your date are sharing personal thoughts and feelings.  Be clear about what you need to be able to hear, and be honest when you don’t hear.

Intimacy barriers that stem from hearing loss include environmental (e.g. lights), attitude (e.g. avoidance), and emotional (e.g. fear and shame).  Ms. Musso reminded us that self-esteem is a very important factor in successful dating, and people with hearing loss often have self-esteem issues related to their hearing status.  She told the audience to keep in mind that many relationships end for the same reasons, whether someone has a hearing loss or not, but people with hearing loss and disabilities often blame themselves or their disability for the end of a relationship.

Websites recommended by the workshop include:

A Greater Date (online dating for Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing)

Dating4Disabled 

Dating Tips and Advice 

And a website about Self-Esteem 

Our keynote speaker at the Awards Luncheon was Patricia Graves, the president of Caption First and a pioneer in captioning since its inception in the ’80s.  She has developed the standards for CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) captioning, and is certified in “every state and national captioning certificate that exists.”  Ms. Graves is losing her vision due to diabetes, and drew may comparisons of going blind to going deaf, such as bluffing (saying “oh yes, that’s a lovely painting!” when she really can’t see it), and being accused of having “selective seeing” (people with hearing loss are often accused of having “selective hearing”—only hearing when they want to).  She said to her ALDA family, “You have taught me to recognize that limitations are okay, and it is okay to ask for help.”

My final workshop of the convention was Part 3 of “Communication Strategies and Basic Sign Language” by David Litman.  We reviewed family signs, and learned signs about time, weather, and emergencies.  I learned a new sign—HURRICANE.  Mr. Litman reminded us to “think visually!”  I loved seeing the room full of people eager and excited to learn Sign Language, and I am so glad that ALDA encourages its members to embrace ASL.

Our all-night Karaoke Party deserves its own post, so stay tuned!

  

Day 2 of ALDAcon

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:

First Day of ALDAcon

Technically the first day of ALDAcon was on Wednesday night, but I didn’t arrive at the hotel until 7:00 and the only ‘activity’ was registration.  I picked up my nametag, totebag, and program book, and met up with the two ladies I had been e-mailing, Marilyn and Jane.  We ate dinner, chatted a bit about their Cochlear Implants, and headed off to bed because we’d been traveling all day.  There was a Hospitality Room set up with card games, board games, and puzzles, and there was a group of people having a great time playing and laughing, but I was just too tired.  Thanks to the altitude, I couldn’t really sleep though.

Thursday morning, we started with the Newcomers Workshop.  Cynthia Amerman, the President-Elect who had sent me that awesome welcome e-mail the week before, welcomed the 20 newcomers by name (she was too far away to see our nametags) and had us stand up.  Our first activity was a Bingo game, where we each had a Bingo card with descriptions taken from our Newcomer Form.  We had to go around the room and find whose name fix in each square, such as “uses sign language,” “has a Hearing spouse,” “enjoys gardening,” and “likes to write and knit” (that one is me!).  Next, Cynthia asked people to think of some advantages to being deaf.  A lady said that it’s easier to sleep because of the silence.  A man said that his room is right next to the elevator, but it doesn’t bother him because he can’t hear it.  Then she asked us to raise our hands if these had happened to us:  being embarrassed by bluffing (pretending you heard something and just nodding along), being accused of ignoring someone when you couldn’t hear them, losing friendships/relationships because of hearing loss, being left out of family conversations, and being exhausted from constantly straining to hear and understand.  Cynthia showed the sign for ACCEPTANCE, and said,

“You will find acceptance here, your home.” 

I think most of the room was crying at that point (myself included!).  Then another lady, Judy, got up to talk about communication.  She explained that ALDA “supports whatever communication method works for you,” because “if it works for you, it works for us!”  I just love this approach; it’s so inclusive and open-minded.  Judy explained that “we don’t have to bluff here!” because everyone can find a way to communicate—with signing, lipreading, or writing things down.  There were pads of paper sitting on every table in every room of the ’Con—even on every table in the hotel restaurants!  There were also small whiteboards that people could borrow.  She explained that the Sign Language interpreting done at ALDAcon is more English word order than ASL, and the interpreters mouth all the words to help with lipreading.

After the first workshop, we had some free time before lunch to tour the Exhibit Hall.  On the way in, I struck up a conversation with a Newcomer couple, Bob and Sarah.  Bob has been losing his hearing over the past few decades, and has Phonak BTE hearing aids and an FM system just like Brandt’s.  Sarah is the Hearing Spouse, and I couldn’t believe my luck that I had found a couple so much like Brandt and myself!  The three of us became instant friends, and we spent the rest of the ’Con talking and sitting together.  It was wonderful to be able to talk with Sarah about ‘Shadow Spouse’ issues like going to restaurants, being stared at while wearing the FM system, and having our husbands get upset when they misunderstand and think we’ve just insulted them.  She often had to repeat things for Bob when he missed them, and I knew exactly what that was like.  Bob recently missed being a Cochlear Implant candidate by only 8%, so I could definitely sympathize with that as well.  I was sad that Brandt couldn’t be there to meet them, but they got to hear ALL about him.

Our speaker at the President’s Luncheon was Cheryl Heppner, the executive director of the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons.  Ms. Heppner signs, lipreads, and has a Cochlear Implant and Hearing Dog.  She even wrote a book entitled Seeds of Disquiet:  One Deaf Woman’s Experience.  She is a hardworking advocate, focusing on improved telecommunications and captioning for television and movie theaters.  At the luncheon, she told us that the #1 gripe she hears from Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing people is about captioning.

The afternoon workshop I attended was “Organizing Effective Advocacy—Working Together to Build an Accessible World,” given by John Waldo, a deaf lawyer and founder of the Washington State Communication Access Project (“Wash-CAP”).  Mr. Waldo explained that advocacy done by individuals does not get much accomplished; the other end of the spectrum is filing a class-action lawsuit.  However, he suggested a middle ground—organized advocacy groups, such as his group Wash-CAP.  These kinds of groups are “more effective, comfortable, and strategic.”  When deciding what to advocate for, Mr. Waldo suggests developing a priority list, balancing what is “most valuable” versus what is “most achievable.”  Then, you must “identify who will say ‘yes,’ and who can’t say ‘no.’”  For example, when a movie theater company says it cannot possibly afford to install Rear Window Captioning, pointing out how many millions of dollars in profits they make every year can show them that they really can’t afford to say ‘no’!  If advocacy work is not successful, then you should consider exercising your legal rights.  Mr. Waldo said that word gets around fast, so this option doesn’t have to be used often to be effective, because it “gets the attention of the person who can say ‘yes.’”  His final suggestions for positive advocacy were:

• take and give credit
• publicize
• say “thank you”
• support and enjoy

Next was our guided tour of the Garden of the Gods park.  I was really dizzy and tired from the altitude, but I was determined not to miss the tour.  On the bus, I sat next to ALDA’s current president, Linda Dratell.  I told her about growing up with Aunt Louise, and about Brandt.  She was very interested in my story, and asked if I would be interested in starting an ALDA chapter in our area.  I know it would be a lot of work, but I’m intrigued at the idea!  We visited several areas of the park, and the scenery was breathtaking.  I love mountains, so I had a blast.

After the tour, we went out to dinner.  We had a private room in the restaurant, but there was music playing overhead which made it hard to understand people because it mixed with the noise from all the conversations going on.  Luckily, everyone that I talked to also signed when they spoke, so we were all able to communicate fairly easily.  I never would have been able to understand these conversations relying only on speaking or signing, but with both, communication was fairly easy.  It was amazing!

I took over 100 pictures at Garden of the Gods, but here are 3 of my favorites:

Panoramic with Pike’s Peak in the background

These rock formations are huge

Rockclimbers

Labor Day Movie

I’m back from a fabulous time at the ALDAcon in Colorado Springs!  I met a lot of amazing people, and learned a lot as well.  And I got to practice my signing, because almost everyone there signs at least a little bit!  I was sad to leave, and was actually crying along with many other people when we said our final goodbyes yesterday.  I can’t wait to attend next year, and Brandt and Josie, this is fair warning—you’re both going no matter what!  It will be in Indianapolis in late October, so we can have a nice (looong) road trip, and I’m recruiting anyone else who can fit in our car.

Unfortunately, I’m still recovering from Altitude Sickness (did you know that you can also experience bad effects when you return to low altitudes?  I found that out the hard way!), so I need another day or so to start tackling my notes.  I will also find out tomorrow whether or not my ASL Level 4 (or repeat of Level 3) class has enough people, so I might be running off to class at the last second.  I’m hopeful, but not expecting it to make…

Since today was a holiday, that meant that we could actually attend a matinee Open Captioned movie (the one day a week there is an afternoon showing in OC; the only nighttime showing is on Tuesday nights).  We had 4 choices, and I let Brandt pick.  The American is new this week and has a 61% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so knowing next to nothing about it, we decided to see it.  It wasn’t our style, and left us pretty confused, but, the captioning was perfect and I never heard anyone complain about it.  There were a lot of older people in the theater, and most of the actors had accents, so I imagine the captioning was a big help to many people watching.  I am very proud of the movie theater company for adding something new:  they put big laminated signs on easels outside each of the theaters that was showing an OC movie, announcing that it was captioned.  They’ve always taped little signs to the cash registers at the box office, but these new signs looked very professional.  Now if I could just get them to show captioned movies more than 2 days a week…

One of the workshops I attended at ALDAcon was about movie theater captioning, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
  

’S Wrong! ’S Word!

I’ve written before about funny and confusing closed-captioning mistakes; they’re a never-ending source of entertainment and I keep a running list of my favorites.

I’m a big fan of Gilmore Girls.  Even though I’ve seen every episode several times, I still record it on DVR every day and play it in the background while I’m writing e-mails or reading a book.  Last night I was watching the episode “’S Wonderful, ’S Marvelous,” where Christopher takes Lorelei on a romantic date to watch the musical Funny Face.  I was typing an e-mail but looked up to watch the captioning as the final scene of the movie was playing, since I often have trouble understanding song lyrics and accents.  Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn were dressed in their white wedding attire, singing their love for each other: 

“You can’t blame me for feeling avarice/

Oh! ’S wonderful! ’S marvelous!/
That you should care for me!”

Wait…what?  “AVARICE”?!  Let’s check Merriam-Webster, shall we?

av·a·rice:  excessive or insatiable desire for wealth or gain

Umm… Maybe we should check the actual lyrics of this beloved Gershwin song:

“You’ve made my life so glamorous/

You can't blame me for feeling amorous…”

am·o·rous:  strongly moved by love; enamored

There, that’s better!

  

Welcome to the 21st Century!

After the disastrous June hearing of the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3101), I wasn’t sure if this act was ever going to get passed.  But, much to my excitement and surprise, the House and Senate versions have both been passed—just in time to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act!

Senator Mark Pryor from Arkansas submitted an amendment to improve the Senate version, S. 3304, last week and it passed on August 5 (H.R. 3101 was passed on July 26).  Senator Pryor said,

“The Internet and other emerging communication equipment are no longer a luxury. They are an essential gateway to learn, interact and conduct business.  This legislation will ensure all Americans, including those with disabilities, are able to fully participate in today’s online world.”

Senator John Kerry added,

“In the digital age, an inclusive America demands that no person with a disability is left behind either online or offline.  The goal of our bill is crystal clear.  We must ensure that Americans with disabilities have every opportunity to access our shared communications infrastructure.  Anything less than our best effort dishonors the Americans with Disabilities Act and all that’s been accomplished over the twenty years since its passage.”

This act will require the internet and communications technologies to be more accessible to deaf and blind people, as well as people with other disabilities.  Among its many requirement, the act will:

• Require captioned television programs to be captioned when delivered over the Internet.
• Authorize the FCC to require 7 hours per week of video description on the top 4 network - channels and top 5 cable channels nationwide.
• Allocate up to $10 million per year for equipment used by individuals who are deaf-blind.
• Require televised emergency information to be accessible to individuals who are blind or have low vision.
• Require accessible advanced communications equipment and services, such as text messaging and e-mail.
• Require access to Internet services that are built-in to mobile telephone devices, like smart phones, if achievable.
• Require devices of any size to be capable of displaying closed captioning, delivering available video description, and making emergency information accessible.
• Require accessible user controls for televisions and set-top boxes, and easy access to closed captioning and video description.

I am not 100% sure, but I think the act will require Netflix to caption its Instant View movies and television shows.  I certainly hope so, because as far as I know they haven’t added any more captioning other than the first 4 seasons of Lost, and I’m really tired of having to pay full price for a service that isn’t fully accessible to us.

On the National Association of the Deaf’s page announcing the passage of S. 3304, Deaf actress Marlee Matlin wrote,

“We may be Deaf but we made NOISE.  A lot of it.  Now the ramp to the information highway is green for us and we can drive as fast as we want to!  Let's continue to fight for ‘caption action.’”

As an added bonus, the NAD also announced that the Department of Justice is calling for public comments on proposed amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act.  They are seeking feedback on accessibility in the areas of:  websites, movie theaters, 9-1-1 services, and equipment and furniture.

   

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!”

  

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!

Not 3D, But Still a Great ‘Story’

3D, or not 3D—that was the question.

Over the weekend, Josie FINALLY got to come visit us.  It was the third time this year we had planned on her coming over; in January we had to cancel at the last minute because Brandt and I caught Swine Flu, and in April we had to cancel when my Aunt Louise passed away. 

Ever since our nearby Big City got Rear Window Captioning last summer, Josie had been wanting to come try it out.  She is hearing-impaired and loves going to see movies, but back in our hometown they only have Open Captioning and she gets tired of waiting the 2 or 3 weeks after a movie is released before it’s offered in OC.  And while I love driving over to see movies with her, it’s not always possible for me to make the long trip back home.

Josie and I have been excited about Toy Story 3 since it was first announced, but the big question was, should we choose to see it captioned, or in 3D?  Josie decided that she would rather see it in 3D, but when I asked Brandt, he voted for captioning:  “Personally, I’d rather know what they’re saying.  We can always see it later in 3D, like we did for Avatar.”  Brandt isn’t a big movie buff (which I hypothesize is because he could never understand them, so he didn’t develop an appreciation for them—just like music), but he was so impressed with Avatar in Rear Window Captioning that we decided to see it a few months later in 3D.  Hard-of-Hearing blogger Megan at Hearing Sparks chose to see Avatar in 3D and reported “hav[ing] trouble hearing the dialogue in quite a few parts.  It's one of the ones I will have to get on DVD just for the subtitles.”  When I told all of this to Josie, she agreed that it would probably be better for her to see the movie captioned first.

Toy Story 3 released on June 18, but Josie couldn’t come over until this past weekend.  I was hopeful that the theater would show the movie captioned for a second week, which it sometimes does with big releases.  They decide their upcoming movie schedules on Tuesdays, so I usually call on Tuesday afternoons to find out which movie will be in RWC.  I was ecstatic when I was told that “Toy Story will be shown for a second week.”  I even asked him to double-check, and he confirmed it.  Brandt and Josie were both excited at the good news, and we invited several of our Deaf/HoH friends to see it with us as well.  It was shaping up to be a great outing.

And then I got the bad news.  The movie theater doesn’t post their official weekend movie schedule until Thursday nights, and when I checked the website, it showed that Grown Ups was going to be captioned for the next week.  I panicked, called the theater, and told the manager that he would have to “do something!!” because I had a group expecting to see Toy Story 3 captioned on Saturday night, one of whom was driving over 2 hours to see it.  He made a few phone calls and didn’t accomplish anything, but promised the regional manager would call me “first-thing in the morning.”  Of course I didn’t get a phone call, and Friday afternoon I called the corporate office asking for “anyone who could possibly help!”  I was almost instantly connected to the regional manager, who hadn’t heard anything about my problem.  Within 5 minutes I had assurance from him that our movie would be captioned and we would be “well taken care of.”

I was a nervous wreck when we got to the theater, prepared to remind the employees to switch out the film and captioning disk.  But instead, as soon as we asked for the RWC reflectors, the manager appeared and told us that everything was all set and ready for us.  I was still nervous when the movie started, still not convinced that it was actually going to be captioned, but when the words popped up in my reflector, I silently clapped in my seat.  The manager and several employees came in throughout the movie to make sure the captioning was still working, and each time they walked by I gave them a thumbs-up.

The movie was incredible—I think everyone in our group (and the rest of the theater) was wiping away tears during the closing credits.  I’m partial to Mr. and Mrs. Potato head (go figure!) but Buttercup the unicorn and Mr. Pricklepants the lederhosen-clad hedgehog might be my new favorite toys.  Josie had mixed feelings about the Rear Window Captioning itself, since it’s hard to shift your focus from the screen to the reflector panel and back, but said it was nice to be able to see a movie without having to wait several weeks for a specific day and time.  The tentative plan is that she’ll come back in November to see the next Harry Potter movie, so Brandt can see it too.

So it all worked out beautifully, and if that employee hadn't misread the schedule to me on Tuesday, we wouldn't have been able to see Toy Story 3 captioned at all.  And now that we know what the dialogue is, I can’t wait to go see it in 3D!

  

“AND ANTI-POLL GIFT”

I haven’t blogged yet about the mistakes made on television Closed-Captioning, but it happens a lot.  I’ve been writing down my favorite mistakes for a few years now, something I learned from Aunt Louise.  Many many years ago, she kept a notebook next to the television and would write down the funniest errors, but there were so many she finally gave up on keeping a list.

Tonight I was watching The Daily Show, and perked up when Jon Stewart announced that his guest was Spencer Wells, “a Geneticist and an Anthropologist, he’s the Explorer-in-Residence with the National Geographic Society and his new book is called Pandora’s Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization.”  Since I am an Anthropologist as well, I’m always excited to see ‘our kind’ on television.  Unfortunately, the transcriptionist for Daily Show has trouble with our profession.

The Closed-Captioning (it’s always in ALL-CAPS) introduced Dr. Wells as:

“A DBA NET SIFT AND AND ANTI-POLL GIFT.” 

It was slightly corrected on the next line: “HE IS AN THE ANTHROPOLOGIST,” but it still left out Geneticist and Explorer-in-Residence. 

I know it’s not the transcriptionist’s fault.  Closed-Captioning on television, as well as CART Reporting—Communication Access Realtime Translation—is live (realtime) captioning performed on a stenotype machine.  The transcriptionist does not type in words, but rather syllables that are then translated by a computer program into words.  So if you ever notice that the Closed-Captioning mistakes seem strangely phonetic, it’s because that’s how they were entered!

This wasn’t the first time that my field-of-study was displayed incorrectly on The Daily Show.  Last year, Peter Mancall was on the show promoting his new book Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson; he was introduced as a professor of History and “AND TROA POLL DBI.”

Most of the time, the Closed-Captioning mistakes aren’t too bad and can be deciphered.  When Lorelei on Gilmore Girls yells that she is “out of dog TATS” instead of dog treats, you could probably figure it out.  Same with Gary on Early Edition insisting that he loves his “PANTS” instead of his parents—in the context, he was in the middle of talking about his parents, so it’s pretty easy to catch the mistake.

Then there are times when the mistake is extremely confusing.  A few weeks ago, Brandt and I were watching the season finale of How I Met Your Mother, one of our favorite shows.  Lily and Marshall were discussing a cab driver they’d just seen who looked exactly like their friend Barney.  According to the captioning, Lily said,

“The CABBAGES didn’t look enough like Barney.”

Brandt looked at me, confused, and I paused the show.  “Cabbages?  What do cabbages have to do with Barney?” he asked.  “I have no idea…” I said, equally confused.  It really did sound like she’d said “cabbages.”  I hit rewind, listened to it a few times, and finally yelled, “The cabbie just didn’t look enough like Barney”!

Phonetically, it was close.  Logically, it was way off.

  

Captions in the City

Happy Memorial Day!  Brandt and I got to spend a nice evening out, watching an Open Captioned movie in our own (nearby) city, for the first time.

Our local movie theater company knows me pretty well, since I’ve been writing them letters and e-mails for the past 4 years asking them to provide captioning.  We lived here a full year before I even knew there was captioning available—one location in the city had Rear Window Captioning, but the only captioned movies offered were bloody horror films and stupid kids’ movies.  I kept calling and e-mailing the company, asking them to please offer something decent, but they never did.  Two years later, they completely removed the RWC system because that location had gone all-digital, and the digital system couldn’t support the captions. 

After a year of no captions, where we had to drive 2 to 4 hours away for a captioned movie, and several persistent letters and e-mails from me, the company reinstalled their RWC in a smaller theater that still used the old film system for its movies.  The theater was an hours’ drive away, and they only offered one movie per week, but it was certainly better than nothing.  With RWC, we could go to any showtime we wanted. 

But Open Captioning is still preferable to Rear Window Captioning, because it doesn’t require the user to have any special equipment.  The text is right there on the screen, and is much more enjoyable than RWC.  I bugged the company about OC (again) and they finally installed it in their biggest theater—which is only half an hour away from us—a few months ago.  Since they know me so well, they were sure to e-mail me with the news.

There were two major problems, though.  First, they weren’t offering any movies that we were interested in.  The Green Zone, The Last Song, Death at a Funeral, etc. were not our preferred kinds of movies.  The company usually offers the biggest, most popular movie in RWC on opening weekend, so the OC movies were second-rate at best.  The other problem was the timing.  They only offer OC on Monday afternoons and Tuesday nights, despite my explaining to them that this wasn’t going to be enough.  Even though they installed two OC projectors on two different screens, they were showing two movies in OC at the exact same time, only twice a week.  Weird!

Blogger Deafinitely Girly said it best, as she couldn’t attend any of the captioned showings of Sex and the City 2 in London because they were almost all offered on weekday afternoons:

“I don't understand!! Are deaf people not supposed to work or something? Is there some Government initiative that gives us the right to take paid time off to attend subtitled cinema screenings?”

Because I have ASL class on Tuesday nights, and Brandt is of course at work on Monday afternoons, today was the first time we were able to see an OC movie in our own city.  We had the choice of Macgruber, which had horrible reviews and looked stupid, or Robin Hood, which had equally horrible reviews and looked possibly-decent (and possibly-boring).  I let Brandt pick, so off we went to Robin Hood. 

The theater had signs taped on the entrance doors and all 4 ticket registers warning that the two movies would be “captioned for the hearing impaired.”  I took that as a good sign that they wouldn’t forget to turn on the captions (which has happened before).  We sat close to the exit, so I could bolt for the manager if there was any problem with it.  When the previews started, something was horribly wrong with the audio and the dialogue sounded like robots shrieking loudly.  After the third painful preview, people started getting up to complain.  I looked at Brandt, who wasn’t reacting to the screeching noises.  I asked him, “Can you hear that?”  He shrugged and said, “I can’t really understand it, no; but I knew I wouldn’t be able to.”  I explained that there was something wrong and it all sounded like robots; he said, “Oh really, the audio is messed up?  I couldn’t tell.  Good thing there’s captioning, then!”

Thankfully they got the audio fixed, and when the movie started the big yellow subtitles appeared, describing the “opening fanfare and orchestral crescendo” of the opening credits.  I did a little happy-dance in my seat, relieved that it was working properly, as most of the audience laughed at the continued descriptions of the music.

The movie turned out to be really good!  I’m not usually a fan of action flicks, but I love historical books and movies.  And while we doubted the accuracy of most of the plot, it was well-acted, the costumes were great, and the scenery was gorgeous.  There is no way I would have been able to understand all those accents without the captioning, and I bet a lot of others in the audience were thankful for them as well.