Every time I visit DeafDC or DeafRead, there’s a mix of articles. Some are on perennial subjects, such as cochlear implants. Others are on the “hot event” of the day, such as the Gallaudet protests last year. The latest such issue is the Doug Bahl case. Often such topics are inter-related, or lead back to larger questions. For example, the various captioning posts here at DeafDC lead back to the broader question of equal communication access.
Last night, I discussed with a few people the Bahl verdict, and this led to a wider discussion on concerns such as employment, equal treatment, community relations, and other similar areas of interest to the Deaf/deaf community. It got me thinking: suppose we could only focus on one or two key objectives, what would they be?
Rather than write a post about what I think the community should focus on, I’m wondering what you think. Let’s pretend you have just been named to a state commission for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, or you are the head of a social services agency, or regional/national advocacy organization. What are the top one or two goals you would set, and why?
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I’d focus on revamping Deaf Ed and reducing discrimination in the workplace.
But it also might be a good idea to train police officers to not shoot deaf people holding rakes.
Better yet, it might be a good idea to train deaf people cooperate with police officiers.
Chris, you’ve commented extensively on Deaf Ed elsewhere (and I think you’ve made many good points in that area). But you haven’t really discussed reducing workplace-related discrimination. How would you work toward this?
Chris: Train? Please. I told Dave last nite that training, workshop and awareness do not work at all. Hire Deaf people to work in Police Departments — that’s the only way for them to understand us better by interacting with us on daily basis.
Robert: Your comments are disgrace — wish someone could blow you away.
R-
Excellent post! Great to ask other people their opinion, especially in this format.
My choice would be outreach/educating the public service agencies. Too many agencies are in the dark and clueless on how to best serve Deaf/deaf/dod/hoh/etc. And this is not the first time there’s been a conflict between a Deaf man and the police and probably won’t be the last. But the once-a-year outreach/training ditties that the police typically are taught by advocates and/or Deaf leaders are quickly forgotten. So, I guess I would add or stress continued and proactive outreach that consistently creates links between agencies and Deaf/deaf/dod/hoh/etc.
Second thing would be to educate the Deaf public on how to best handle the police. Obviously, Bahl could’ve handled his situation a mite better, and same for the police. In a case of he said/police said, we’ll never know for sure exactly what happened. A recent case down in Texas involving a Deaf woman making false charges of abuse by the police don’t help matters, either.
Great question. Glad to see people looking outwards rather inwards.
:)
Paotie
Thanks. :) Ok, I agree with you on the first point. But how do we ensure that the work that we do with such public service agencies don’t end up like the training sessions done with the police, etc.?
David ..
Great question and thanks for the feedback.
I come from the disability ranks in terms of advocacy, and the focus within those groups has generally - at least in my experience - been about self-independence, how to be independence and how to advocate for themselves. The Deaf community I grew up in was primarily a social group with a few people active in politics. But empowerment seminars for our community tended to revolve around “Deaf rights” at times, which I found to be a good idea. But little was discussed on self-independence or advocacy in general.
Seems to me if we could begin teaching kids (at what level, I don’t know - high school?) empowerment somehow. I don’t pretend to know all the answers and am just brainstorming here, but an early exposure to self-advocacy/empowerment relating to the larger world seems an obvious component that we could explore.
David, if you know how to advocate for yourself, you know how to contact the appropriate people/parties/organizations. If you know your civil rights (even in general terms) and how to advocate for them, you would know what to do (and not) in terms of contacting public agencies and/or receiving services from them.
I guess I would be putting more responsibility on the Deaf community than for public agencies, but experience has taught me that public agencies generally are already inefficient in more ways than are necessary for stating here.
Of course, this is just a simplistic version of a complicated idea, I suppose. Just thought maybe it was an idea worth exploring since I do see many Deaf people frustrated because they don’t know who to contact, or how to do it at times. Or even what to do when a problem arises.
Sorry for the length.
:0)
Paotie
Hmm… Ok. You could be on to something here, Paotie. Do you think it’s time to bring back such programs as the National Leadership Training Program that once existed at CSUN? I know there’s a whole new generation now who experienced the DPN protests in 1988 and the protests last year, yet very few of the leaders seem to have had any formal previous training in advocacy.
If we don’t bring back such programs, how would you suggest we “grow” our own leaders, compared to how they are developing now? What is being done right, and what can be improved?
I have 3 top goals that I would set.
1) Try to make all of the states pass a law requiring that if you are the teacher of the deaf, you must choose between two methods - AVT or ASL. If you choose ASL, then you must pass the ASLPI to be able to teach the deaf.
2) Work on increasing mental health service providers that are proficient in ASL and Deaf culture savvy. Quite frankly, we have a lot of deaf who desperately need mental health services, but they sure aren’t going to go to a hearing counselor who’s clueless about our language and culture.
3) Work on the interpreting situation. There’s a huge shortage of interpreters EVERYWHERE. And many questioned the competence of the interpreters in the Bahl trial. We need to especially make sure that all interpreters who interpret in the medical and legal fields are truly the best of the best, and know all of the terms necessary to do the job.
I love all of these suggestions. But I’m wondering why you only presented 2 options in #1?
because oralism is EVIL. *gasp*
Because those two are the primary methods used in Deaf Education right now. If people want to use sign in education, then use ASL, not some half-assed PSE.
We could add a 3rd option, Cued Speech. But I don’t know how prevalent Cued Speech is, or whether there’s testing to see how proficient someone is in Cued Speech.
And Noelle, no it’s not because Oralism is evil. :P
A deaf Pundit
You said to provide a choice between ASL and AVT for the parents who make a decision, but unfortunately hearing parents of a deaf child will be more likely to pick AVT than ASL.
I have to agree with what Noelle said, Oralism is evil. Ella Mae Lentz is right.
FYI… Noelle was being sarcastic.
Heh. *wry grin*
If it were up to me, cued English for deaf children in the United States would make sense rather than AVT. Cued English (or any other language) is a 100% visual counterpart of spoken English and it doesn’t require a deaf child to have speech skills or the ability to read lips to learn a language. In other words, if they fail orally, their linguistic development will not be forever retarded.
We need to appreciate the fact that the National Cued Speech Association recognizes the importance of ASL and welcomes bilingualism.
Thank you, Katherine. AMEN.
- Fellow Cuer
If it were up to me, cued English for deaf children in the United States would make sense rather than AVT. Cued English (or any other language) is a 100% visual counterpart of spoken English and it doesn’t require a deaf child to have speech skills or the ability to read lips to learn a language. In other words, if they fail orally, their linguistic development will not be forever retarded.
We need to appreciate the fact that the National Cued Speech Association recognizes the importance of ASL and welcomes bilingualism. Check this out:
http://www.cuedspeech.org/sub/.....ualism.asp
There is “testing” to see if someone is fluent in Cued Speech…that’s for interpreters, by the way. They can get certified as Cued Speech interpreters, and I’ve had to hire one or two Cued Speech interpreters for certain performances at the Kennedy Center when a patron specifically requested one.
Well, I’m talking about teachers for the deaf. Is there an uniform test to see how someone is proficient in Cued Speech, like the ASLPI for ASL?
If a teacher wants to used Cued Speech to teach her students, fine.. but they better be good at Cued. Same thing for ASL.
No idea, Deaf Pundit. Sorry.
Deaf Pundit:
You might be interested to take a look of this about how certifications works and this does not seem to apply only to transliterators:
http://www.cuedspeech.org/sub/.....ements.asp
Katherine, thanks. But that url showed certificates for Instructors of Cued Speech.. meaning they are certified to go out and teach Cued Speech to others.
I’m not talking about a certification.. I’m talking about a test that shows how proficient a person is in Cued.
Without a certification, I would presume one is not qualified to model it. What I find interesting is that you state nothing about testing for AVT instructors.
Can one of cuers or people in the field answer this? Thanks! :)
Because the teachers who teach the oral deaf kids teach them like they would teach hearing children.
I honestly don’t get it that you mentioned AVT, not cued English as one of two options, especially when cued English is 100% accessible to language acquistion unlike AVT.
Oralism has been going on for decades that have produced ample of failures and AVT is a relatively new concept, which is left to be desired. To me, still a Russian Roulette.
Cued Speech has begun in the 1960’s and while the number of cuers is small, there is a high incidence of success that we also see among native users of ASL. What is evident with both cueing in English and signing in ASL for our country is that they are 100% visual that are linguistically sound.
I mentioned AVT because it is still very prevalent in deaf education. It’s just an evolution of Oralism. I am just being a realist. Would I like to see AVT gone? Yes. Will it happen? No. If that makes me an audist, then so be it.
And quite frankly, a lot of teachers enter deaf education not knowing how to sign their way out of a paper bag. So by forcing teachers to choose which specialization in deaf education, will ensure those who do choose ASL to teach deaf children, KNOW the language, damnit. :P
As for Cued Speech, I’m not very familiar with it, for several reasons. It is not *that* prevalent in deaf education. There has not been a lot of research on Cued Speech that is widely known.
I do not know one single person off-line that uses Cued Speech. So that’s why I didn’t mention it.
Michelle:
Just to let you that it is known as Cued Speech Transliterator.
Yeah…one gets so used to saying “interpreter”. My bad.
;-)
Don’t worry and it’s human to err! Aren’t you thankful for this famous saying to get you off the hook? :-D
Interesting choices, Deaf Pundit. But why those three choices? I guess I am trying to explore not only what we should focus on, but develop arguments for why we as a community might decide to tackle just a handful of issues. I also like to know where my readers are coming from. However, I notice there’s a common thread in your choices: equal communication access. ;)
Yeah. Equal Communication Access. :) All of our fights come from a fundamental level - a level and equal playing field to communicate with others.
If more people are aware about ASL, and its benefits and the fact that ASL does NOT impinge the deaf person’s ability to learn speech, then that will increase the deaf children’s access to language. People already know about AVT, but is there enough accurate and truthful information on ASL? I don’t think so. In the long run, ASL will help level the playing field for the deaf, because more of us have access to language, therefore, more access to education and so on.
As for mental health, I think that’s important because so many of us are angry, but we don’t know how to use it appropriately. We also don’t really have many safe places to vent our anger. Our support system in general is lacking. We can support each other, but there’s not enough of us who know how to deal effectively with this anger that’s pretty much ready to explode. I honestly think the Deaf Community is ready to explode soon.
So boosting that aspect, will improve our support system a bit better, so we can stabilize ourselves, learn how to use our anger and energy for good and go on to fight for what’s best for us and our future children.
The interpreter part - hearing people need to hear our side. We need the interpreters to be the top, so they can help facilitate communication, so our story is told in the way WE want it to be told. And when the interpreters are the best, we also can learn from the hearing.. both sides are able to come together and learn from each other. It’s all about communication.
Ok, thanks for answering my question in more depth! :) Education seems to be a top priority for a lot of people here.
Your advocacy of mental health is an interesting one. So if I’m understanding you, you feel that we need to strengthen ourselves before we can take on other projects? Work on internal divisions, then external ones?
Interpreters are important, I agree. But how can we effectively advocate and fight for change in situations where interpreters aren’t present or are in scarcity? There are times when a situation is pressing, and an interpreter isn’t available or can’t be summoned in time?
In my response above in #88170, I mention “growing” our own leaders. Do you think that is a possible solution? Why or why not?
Yeah. We need to fix our internal divisions first before tackling external divisions. ‘Divided, we fall. United, we stand.’
That ties in with your “growing” leaders also. I definitely think it is possible, but that would require the Deaf Community to step up and get involved instead of pointing to NAD and screaming, ‘You do it!!!’ NAD can do a ton, but it’s more efficient if ALL of us get involved on a local and state level.
Anyway, it ties in perfectly because once we learn how to effectively deal with our feelings about oppression, the next step is to learn how to deal with oppression itself.
YLC’s (Youth Leadership Camp) a great place to learn leadership - I went there in 1996, and while I pretty much disliked my fellow campers, I did learn a lot. :) I would encourage the Deaf Community to set up more programs like YLC, but on a local/state level. Also the CSUN one would be great to have all over the nation. I don’t see why each state couldn’t have its own version at a state university.
I also propose that Gallaudet set up an adult leadership institute - many universities have a similar program to that. You could get a certificate in leadership, or whatever they would prefer to call it, with the understanding that you WILL go out for a year or so, and try to implement the things that you learned.
As for interpreters - my proposal is to increase the ITPs all over the country. Ensure there are 4 year ITP programs, with specializations in legal, medical and educational fields. Each field has its own terminology, so it’s essential that an interpreter is proficient with those terminology.
I would take it a step further and ask for a graduate program for ITPs… I would prefer to have an interpreter who has a Masters or above interpreting for me in quite a few situations. That also would increase professionalism within the interpreting field. It’s a win-win situation, imho.
A Deaf Pundit,
Gallaudet has an adult leadership institute directed by Jay Innes, see:
http://gli.gallaudet.edu/
They have one course focused on advocacy:
http://gli.gallaudet.edu/Flyer.....vocacy.pdf
Nice! Thanks for bringing that to my attention, Shane!
Deaf Pundit, I agree there needs to be a push for more interpreters who have advanced skills in areas such as legal and medical interpreting. I think, as you point out, part of the solution to that will need to be advancing ASL in four-year colleges as a viable course of study. Right now it’s mostly at the junior/community college level. While some of these ITPs are fantastic, I think ultimately interpreting as a profession, in any language, needs to be further strengthened and legitimized. There are interpreter shortages in many places in many languages, not just ASL. One major hospital in my area, for example, as of a couple years ago had only two full-time Spanish-speaking interpreters. This is in a city/county with at least a 50% Latino population…
A Deaf Pundit for President!
I love your 3 suggestions — never mind Allison. she asks too many questions and thinks she’s all that.
R-
*smirks about the president part* I certainly didn’t expect that. :)
Well, I don’t have a problem with Allison - I like her and have a lot of respect for her and her ideas. I think it’s good Allison asks questions. More of us need to do that and respectfully at that, like she did. Also, by asking questions, we make sure that we cover all of the angles.
Not all deaf people know ASL or even sign language for that matter. Many police stations are now starting to buy the UbiDuo communication device as a standby option to use. Not all police can be proficient in ASL. It is just simply too unrealistic to expect. And there is the possibility of interpreter shortages or not available in the area.
One thing is to push the technology aspect that can help with the communication issue is one thing. There are many ways how one can address this. But by having a communication device handy or ready should help make communication easier between a deaf person and a cop.
We’re not asking the police to be proficient in ASL. We’re asking them to recognize that there ARE deaf people out there.
I know. I am just saying that in passing.
In many places, cops do get training on learning how to sign certain key words, such as “License, please” or “Registration, please” or “Insurance, please”, and it does work pretty well.
I strongly agree with McConnell. We will never, ever achieve an utopia in which everybody magically knows how to sign so we have to push technology to equalize ourselves. Hard.
Where did anyone say that we wished everyone to sign?
David,
Your visit 2 months ago was grand. The deaf community needs to focus on what lies ahead of them. They have to realize they’re going to have to shed sacred parts of their society in order to be able to survive the challenges the future has in store for them. Yes they’ll be painful changes. Yet they have the golden opportunity right now to reduce the pain of the changes they will have to face and they should make that a priority.
Showtime is producing a show that will be put on Myspace. Current law doesn’t require media content to be captioned on the internet. The future of the media is going to be on the internet, which means that we will be left behind as deaf consumers. I think that should be our number one priority instead of navel-gazing on how evil ‘cochlear implants’ are.
When we’re done tilting at the windmills, we’ll find that media will be uploaded to our TVs from the internet, and that it won’t be CAPTIONED. I’m sick of the deaf community not realizing the importance of Apple’s recent decision to provide closed-captioning support in their iTunes and their iPods, which means we can use handheld devices to watch captioned media content. This is fricking huge, and flies in face of the law that only televisions larger than 13 inches have to have closed-captioned decoders built in.
This is an issue that impacts every single deaf and hard-of-hearing American in this country. Most of them are not “Deaf” or in the Deaf community. Most of them don’t use ASL. They speak, wear hearing aids, and use cochlear implants.
I for one, was thrilled that Apple started to provide captioning support on iPods, but there’s not a lot I can say about that except, ‘Woo!’
What else do you suggest we do about this? Ideas would be good.
So far there aren’t any captioned shows on iTunes. We should do a coordinated campaign with a large number of e-mails, letters, and faxes to those networks to include the caption files with the shows they upload to iTunes so that we can get captioned shows on our iPods.
Also, it might be feasible to try and push this as a ’story’ of communication access to newspapers. For instance, why don’t we contact that WSJ reporter who wrote about how the internet was leaving the deaf behind.
Sure. I’ll be more than happy to v/blog about it, if I have the contact info where to send the emails, letters and faxes to. Maybe you can contact the WSJ reporter?
Noelle ..
Your points are well appreciated. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there’s been some movement in Washington, D.C. lately to patch up the ADA. Maybe now is a good time for the deaf community to join in supporting the ADA Restoration Act of 2007.
Now may be the best time to start talking about what things we can seek to fix within the ADA, as well as possibly either adding or clarifying certain aspects of the ADA to include more contemporary issues, such as the Internet, for example.
Yeah - I wish I could watch TV on my laptop with captioning since I travel a lot. After awhile, DVD’s got to be a pain; I either forgot them at home, or I’d already seen in 25 times. And I would love to watch streaming video feeds of college football games on my laptop, too - with captioning.
Thanks.
:o)
Paotie
I agree- while many associations and organizations may be fighting for the ADA Restoration Act of 2007, it wouldn’t hurt for the rest of us to become familiar with what’s going on and write letters in support. That’s one of the benefits of blogs, I think– through this method, we can help educate each other and hopefully convert dialogue into action.
I would suggest:
1. Focus on equality. Deaf people should recieve equal
treatment in a workplace. Deaf should be hired
regardless if they can answer phone or not. There are
gadgets for them to handle phone calls - now thanks
to ip-relay - deaf people can have their own phone
numbers where a hearing person or company can call
a deaf person DIRECTLY without dialing 800 nbr. While
the deaf person communicates via AIM. If deaf person
is not in the office, then leave a message which will
be left in your email. Many are not aware of this.
Deaf people should not be seen as “laborers” or
suited for “community” jobs - most often mental
health related jobs or deaf based institutes
(schools or senior centers). - you will see
hiredeaf.com most of them are all mental health jobs
or school related. Is that we, deaf good enough for?
Many of us have great business sense, creativity,
visual and an eye for things - we should be able to
get any job we want without facing discrimination.
Deaf people are not being treated equal. That’s a
fact!!!
2. Expand and reform deaf education. Many deaf
institutes have extremely low expectations of deaf
students. Allowing them to get away with it when not
doing homeworks or projects and giving them easy
assignments and more play time rather than focused
and strong education. I cannot name schools but I
have worked at a school where I was disciplined for
giving my students a lot of writing assignments. When
my students procrastinated giving me homeworks, I
discipline them by lowering their grade and being
firm but not strict. I was again disciplined by the
school to take it easy. WHY take it easy? cuz they
are deaf kids? treat them like they have mental
illness? - Deaf Institutes is not a school that is
suited for deaf children with behavior problems or
mental illness. Which is my current school is for,
a dumping ground for those who are diagnosed for
some mental or behavior problems. While deaf kids
who are “seen” as smart and “normal” were placed in
hearing schools with interpreter. Nothing wrong with
having a deaf going to hearing school with
interpreter. Just that deaf schools just be just as
good as a hearing school would be.
3. Provide all accessibility for all deaf and handicap
people. Movies, theatres, events, festivals,
political parties, hotels and so on.
Sorry for the long overly detailed reasons.
No, no, it’s fine! Detail is good. That’s what I wanted. How do you think we could try to achieve that first goal you listed?
There are many ways, we can follow the examples of the African-American people! Million Man March - Million DEAF March! Rioting? (Rodney King - Bahl)!!! NAACP (powerful and lots of Media attention - NAD??? (not strong enough no media attention)
Million Deaf march? One million Deaf people?
It’ll never happen. Even the African American “million” man march never really approached a million by National Park estimates. I see what you’re saying though. Maybe a few hundred thousands if people really put their efforts in.
People like you McConnell is the reason why we do not have a Million Deaf March. NEGATIVITY AND GIVEN US THE SENSE OF LOST HOPE!
I would just ignore negative people and keep on doing our thing. If we truly believe in our cause, then nothing should stop us.
That’s right, both of you! :)
C.B.
You’re missing the whole point of my discussion. It’s not negativity but about facts. I was talking about million Deaf march, not deaf march. It’s about dealing with facts. There’s no way we have 2 million Deaf people. More ridiculous is the notion that we have 2 million Deaf voters.
I’ll print my earlier response again in this section just so you see where I’m coming from.
No. Just isn’t possible. You’d be lucky if it’s over a million Deaf people. It’s more like in the several hundred thousands or 900,000 according to my estimate. A few years ago I did a research paper on that (14 pages worth) on that very subject. And it turns out it’s more closer to 900,000. (see my blog response to the so called “2 Million Deaf voters” http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.....trong.html ). But the person who suggested the “million Deaf people” march meant Deaf people rather than just deaf people which there are some 30 million in the U.S. alone. If million deaf people march, meaning deaf and hard of hearing whether they are culturally deaf or not, would be a feasible idea to think about.
Now, the idea that there are 140,000 Deaf people in the United States is laughable. Way, way too low. In the 2002 Pennsylvania census on culturally deaf people, they estimated about 22,000 Deaf people in that state alone. There are several states that have a much bigger Deaf population. In the city of Chicago, for example, there is an estimated number of 26,000 Deaf people out of 2,900,000 persons according to the State of Illinois Deaf and Hard of Hearing Commission. This Deaf population represents 8.9% of the total population in the city of Chicago. That’s 26,000 + 22,000 = 48,000 Deaf people already which is approaching 1/3 of your estimate of 140,000 Deaf people, RLM. Simply way, way too low.
A million deaf/hh march (culturally deaf or not) would make a big political and economic statement for industries to seriously think about (ie captioning in movie theaters, etc.) when it comes to making an economic gain (ie profit).
Presenting certain facts isn’t negativity. I’m all for the idea of a million Deaf/deaf/hh march. But let’s get realistic here and do this sort of day dreaming. Nothing would be more embarrassing to disclose to the news media of the ambitious million Deaf march and only some 75,000 showed up.
Exactly what negativity have I shown? Things get twisted out of context easily here just as rumors keep changing while people pass it along until it becomes fabulously outrageous.
Hey, I’m all for the march. But a million Deaf march?
Let’s get real here.
For what it’s worth, the NM State Legislature recently passed a memorial to study why deaf/hoh people do not participate in democratic processes. Interestingly enough, it blames equal communication access for deaf/hoh people having an “inability to decide intelligently on the issues.”
And it mentions specifically interpreters not being provided for democratic functions as a direct causation of the deaf/hoh community’s inability to be effectively involved with democratic processes.Even then, you’ve still got to teach them the decisions they made previously were all “unintelligent,” too once captioning or interpreters have been found.
New Mexico has a terribly apathetic community in the sense of political or democratic processes, as we see. I don’t buy that interpreters or closed-captioning for political commercials is the cause of why so many are making unintelligent decisions, let alone not participating in democratic processes.
Mike is right – at least in the context of New Mexico. I suspect many states have the similar issues, while many others have more proactive deaf/hoh communities.
:o)
Paotie
NM Legislature Senate Memorial 2
McConnell I was never part of that cencus bureau that I was deaf. Well that is 22,000 plus me.
C.B., I find your comment a bit offensive. Yeah, many of us can’t make intelligent decisions, but that ain’t our fault. It’s the EDUCATIONAL system’s fault.
To blame us for that is a cop-out. Did the study explore WHY we didn’t make intelligent decisions?
I have to agree with the subsequent commenters, C.B.– I’m not sure a march would be the most effective move. Too many diverse groups these days have done marches in D.C., that now a lot of people nationwide are “ho-hum” on this tactic. I like the fact that you are trying to think of diverse possibilities to achieve goals, and I certainly agree with you that attracting the attention of the media is necessary.
4. Cochlear Implant is not a cure - I would also demand doctors and audiologist to be 100% factual about Cochlear Implants and the side effects and that it is not a CURE. Because of their lies and exaggeration about C.I. (heairng do not know what it is like to be deaf or know what it sounds like after getting C.I.) cannot promise families or others hope that their child will no longer be deaf and that ASL is not needed! That needs to stop! Thanks to Cochlear Implant - it has taken us back 25 years! (we are now fighting again why ASL is important!)
I agree with Chris. Trainings, workshops, and demos I’ve found are really gimmicks to the hearing. Hearings assume to know how to handle the Deaf. Often they fail and hurt the Deaf. Hiring the Deaf to work with would be the best education for the hearings.
The long-term problem for work-place discrimination lacks of an interpreter for the Deaf or/and anyone with sign language skill, especially in towns with very few Deaf population. I am one of them.
Oh yeah, cochlear implant creates the Deaf hearing robot with the hearing’s remote. How about ASLhand implant that would create the hearing ASL robot with the Deaf’s remote? Hey, the way we will have more ASL users because the hearing population is larger than the Deaf population.
Um, that’s quite insulting to deaf people with cochlear implants. I have a CI, and I don’t consider myself a robot.
Of course you’re not a robot, Noelle! You are part Cyborg! *evil grin*
Intriguing question, Evans! Thanks for posing this question - it’s a terrific mental exercise. Just one or two? Phew…
I’m not sure I can confine this to just one or two, but ill do no more than 3 or 4. Deal? ;)
1. I realize this is already a work in progress as per the ReunifyGally blog, but the ADA *needs* work. It should mandate that ALL visual media that incorporates audio that is available, both current and future technologies, is REQUIRED to be captioned. This would prevent what is happening now - new technology has no such requirement, so we’re playing catch-up. And remove that moronic 13-inch limit, while we’re at it. I’d LOVE to be able to buy a battery-powered 5-inch TV for use in emergencies, but what good would it do me without a CC chip built in and zero electricity for my old TeleCaption II decoder???
2. Require that doctors, speech pathologists, audiologists, and anyone coming into contact with parents who are still sorting things out before the child starts school, provide unbiased information to all parents about all choices, distilling the available research into easy-to-digest brochures. For example, there is research clearly showing that sign language ENHANCES speech acquisition and the decelopent of English. That info isn’t widely disseminated.
Another issue related to #2… I’ve heard that some doctors are *requiring* parents to sign a paper promising that they will never allow their child to use ASL or *any* form of visual communication if they implant their child. I don’t have any evidence, and if any of you know where there is proof, please chime in. But if this is true, that’s terrible. That’s denying options and closing doors. This must be stopped. An implant shouldn’t mean one way only - all options should remain on the table.
3. Deaf ed and teacher training programs need serious revamping. Most programs teach outdated research and emphasize oralism or some form of English, looking down on ASL. Again, closing doors here. People going through the system are not exposed to current research showing the validity and success of ASL. (And that it actually enhances speech development and written English in many!!)
Only 3? Terrif! *grin*
You and I have previously discussed your addition to #2. As I said previously, I’d love to have evidence of this, because if it is happening, it *shouldn’t* be, and such behavior would be extremely disturbing.
Hopefully someone will step forward to verify what you’ve heard, either that it isn’t happening or that it is.
Ok, I agree– the ADA needs work, and hopefully the legislation currently pending will be a step forward. But one of the biggest problems with the ADA is not that there isn’t legislation, but that the courts continue to interpret it in vastly different terms than from what the public expectation of ADA has been. This remains one of my biggest concerns re: the ADA.
4. I would fight for all airlines to have its in-flight movies to captioned.
OK. If I were head of state commission of the deaf or advocacy organization or whatever, I would work on the following:
1) Change the wording of “reasonable accommodations” in ADA…that term is a major cause of avoidance AND/OR cutting corners by hearing people in general when it comes to providing deaf people with access. We want *QUALITY* access, not bare minimum.
2) Work with the state association in the state I’m living in by making sure that they have access to all deaf people in that state and have resources to meet their needs, and collaborate with the state association.
3) Work on implementing Bicultural-Bilingual (Bi-Bi) philosophy in schools with deaf children in the state.
4) Set up/sponsor a channel featuring Deaf-directed, Deaf-produced programs, and set up a “farm” system to train Deaf actors, directors, producers, crew, etc.
I can think of more important stuff to work on, but these four will do for starters.