Kokonut Pundits reports on Greg Gunderson First Deaf NASCAR Driver! I’ll let him do the talking while I go recover from the flu.
British Deaf Comedian
Learned about Steve Day, a Deaf comedian from the U.K. So I did a little searching and here is his MySpace page. Looks like he has a busy performing schedule, and you can watch a video of him on a game show.
Deaf People Treated as Ghosts
Angry Deaf Man Deaf shares an experience about shopping with a friend when the salesperson tends to look at the friend instead of him. I haven’t had the opportunity to travel much overseas and his comment about not having this problem outside of the U.S. intrigued me.
It happened to Angry Deaf Man again. This time with a parking attendant.
I get scared at the thought of traveling to a foreign country because lipreading a foreign language tends to be harder. In one company, I worked with people from around the world. I looked forward to working with them and getting to know them. But then reality set in. I couldn’t understand them very well. So whenever I communicated with them, it had to be brief and about business.
I can relate to Angry Deaf Man’s experiences. I can recall many group events, team bus rides and other situations where I felt invisible. Sometimes I push and get myself involved with the discussion or group. Other times, I back away. It all depends on who I am with and how well I understand him or her.
That’s what I love about blogging. None of the barriers get in the way and I can enjoy intelligent discussions with others.
Deaf MTV and Open Captions Project
Thanks to BrownEyedGirl for bringing my attention to Deaf Performing Artists Network (DPAN), which presents music-style videos with sub-titles, ASL or both. There’s more ASL than there are captions. I watched “Where’d You Go” and it is well done and the music rocks. Unfortunately, only bits and pieces are captioned and I try to fill the gaps by reading the signers’ lips.
Ke5ter points to the Open Captions Project:
Open Captions allows anyone to caption online video. With free simple tools to caption videos from a web browser everyone benefits. Whether it is their own work or a favorite video from a friend online, as captions are added the Internet becomes more accessible.
Radio for the Deaf
While RFW’s post about Radio for the Deaf isn’t to be taken seriously, it reminded me to discuss the topic. I’ve never pushed for radio captioning. Sure, it’d be cool to follow along with the songs and practice my hearing — but really — most of the time I am the driver not the passenger. Not a good idea to read and drive.
How often do people listen to the radio at home with MP3 players? One thing I’d like to see is a greater use of technology that gives you the title of the song and the group/singer. My car is too old to have this, but Paul’s car radio displays the song title and artist if the song contains the ID3 Tag. Radio data system isn’t it, but it has relevant information.
It’d be nice to know the title of a song I find myself enjoying. I rarely discover new songs since high school as I don’t follow music by watching VH-1 or MTV because I don’t have the luxury of repeatedly listening to a song until I learn the lyrics. I have to have the lyrics in front of me while playing the song — that means no multitasking.
Technology Lags for the Deaf
With Baby Boomers hitting middle age, the number of deaf people is climbing. Millions Of Us Are Going Deaf And Our Computer Won’t Help Us rants about the things many deaf people discovered long before now. Still, it’s an insightful read and helps spread the word about the challenges deaf and HoH people face.
MP3 Player for Cochlear Implants
A woman with a cochlear implant is working with Samsung to create a wireless MP3 system for the deaf. I have Cochlear’s Freedom and it comes with an attachment to attach the implant to a player or the computer for listening to music. But I don’t use it because it drove me nuts having the cord pulling and besides, headphones work fine.
I have two headphones: one wireless and one wired. I wear the wireless ones upside down because they fit better that way. My regular headphones look like the wireless ones minus the rubber piece that holds the headphones in place on the ears. The piece is useless to me.
I can’t imagine an MP3 player for the deaf working any better than any other MP3 player. Maybe it will work better for those who can talk on the phone. For me, I can’t tell the difference. Heck, I can’t tell the bad singers from the normal singers on American Idol.
Deaf in Israel
Deaf children without barriers is an excellent read and gives insight on life for the deaf in Israel.
Life Before, After and Way After CC
Banjo’s World has a great discussion about captions in the comments. I shared my first experience with captions in an old, old entry. What’s cool is that last line has come true. Music videos are captioned.
More on Not Deaf Enough
Social Work/Social Action points to Deafness and the Riddle of Identity, which discusses Jane K. Fernandes and the “not deaf enough” issue. It isn’t fair to use the fact that Fernandes wasn’t a native signer against her.
Not I’m not going to defend Fernandes, but want to say don’t hold this sort of thing against a person. Remember, when we’re children, our parents and guardians make our communications decisions for us. So some great ASLers may not have learned ASL until later in life.
Granted, Fernades wasn’t fluent in “real” ASL, so I understand that. The point of the message is to not judge someone because ASL wasn’t his or her first language.