Archives for April 2006

This article originally appeared at i711.com.

I’ve got lots on my mind, so bear with me as I go into a million tangents.

Why can’t manufacturers or companies create an attractive alert and alarm system ideal for the home? All the alarm systems and signal systems on the market specifically designed for people who are deaf are white, black or silver, and ugly. Not to mention clunky. On my husband’s nightstand is a stark white alarm, and on my nightstand is a drab black alarm – both eyesores in our bedroom full of wooden furniture. What I usually do is throw the alarm clocks under the bed when guests visit.

So how about it, manufacturers? You’re sitting on a money-making idea here.
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Am I the only one driven crazy by the new, widespread sign for “e-mail,” where the non-dominant hand makes a “C” while the other hand ‘slashes’ through it?

I asked a linguist why this sign seemed so wrong to me. Thank heavens he had an answer. He explained that the “C” handshape already has a purpose assigned to it in ASL linguistics: to show a bump on a wall, a cup/jar, a shape/size, or other related classifier tasks. So the use of “C” in the sign for e-mail violates the handshape’s linguistic rules, among other rules. And I’m not alone; a lot of people tell me they hate the sign, too – usually those who have been signing since birth.

The irony: when I ask deaf people why they use this sign, they say, “Interpreters told us to use this.” When I ask interpreters why they use this sign, they say, “Deaf people told us to use this.” Let’s not mangle the language of ASL any further, please.
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A while ago, someone made a motion during a meeting for one of the organizations I belong to. That person wanted to remove the word “of” from the organization name (I’ll use a fictitious name): “Deaf People of Earth.” S/he also wanted to make it “Deaf People Earth,” because “If we use English words in organizational names, we’re oppressing ASL.”

What’s even funnier is that this person’s own company name has “The” in it. Go figure.
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I, like so many others, am riveted to the Gallaudet presidential search process and the controversy sure to follow. But there’s lots going on at the state level around the nation, too.

One instance is the superintendent selection process at Indiana School for the Deaf. Indiana School for the Deaf was among the pioneers in bilingual/bicultural education back before “bi-bi” was cool, and is considered one of the elite deaf schools in the nation. Just like the Gallaudet selection process, people in Indiana are divided into two camps – some bitterly – over the candidates. I’m curious how this pans out. And has anyone noticed how more and more hearing superintendents are being hired at deaf schools around the nation, even with more and more deaf people getting their administration credentials and doctorates?
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There’s nothing that makes you appreciate live captions more than being in a small town. I visited my grandmother over the weekend, and I lost my patience after a few minutes watching the local news which used scripted captions. The captions flew by, out of sync with the spoken words, and then froze for a few minutes before it flew by again in a blur. Ugh!

When I got back to Minnesota, I immediately wrote an e-mail to KARE-11 and thanked the station for its superb captioning.
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I was fortunate enough to visit the Greater St. Louis Association of the Deaf’s new center over the weekend, after the DeafNation Expo. Impressive! Kudos to the people there for ensuring that the financial donation they got didn’t go to waste.

Even as deaf clubs disappear around the nation, we continue to find a way to gather. This is the spirit of the Deaf community, folks.
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Thanks for letting me get all this off my chest. Gotta love the Deaf community, hands down.

Copyrighted material, used by permission. This article can not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.

 

This article originally appeared at i711.com.

There’s been a string of lawsuits at hospitals across the nation for the lack of qualified and/or certified sign language interpreters, including one here in Minnesota that resulted in over 20 hospitals coming together for better accessibility. Mind you, these lawsuits aren’t about simple cases like having the flu or an ear infection; these are about solemn situations where lives were put at risk because the hospital didn’t consider the legality of consent for surgical and/or invasive procedures.

So why did “ER” – one of NBC’s top primetime shows – find it necessary to ignore all these lawsuits? In a March 30 episode, a deaf man is beaten by cops and taken to the hospital where an interpreter is never once called. Rather, Jerry, the bumbling idiotic front desk worker, suddenly becomes “trilingual” in American Sign Language. Sure, Jerry used the right signs, but it was obvious that he had simply memorized the handshapes instead of truly learning the language.

This made me remember when Shoshannah Stern appeared on the show. Back then, I laughed at how Dr. Weaver (played by Laura Innes), a poor signer, was able to understand Stern’s fluent signing without any difficulty. As an ER fan for all of the years it’s been on the air, I was quite disappointed at Thursday’s episode. ER has aired episodes in the past where stereotypes about deaf people were effectively tackled, such as Phyllis Frelich’s doctor character. So why didn’t Innes, who directed the March 30 episode, do her homework? Don’t say that she probably didn’t know about the lawsuits. A simple Google search would have brought up report after report. Besides, it wasn’t her first encounter with deaf people.

Sure, this isn’t a reality show; these are actors. They’re taking on roles that may or may not be realistic. Still, television shows have astounding influence upon society at large. They share information – or in this case, misconceptions – to millions of viewers. With episodes like last Thursday’s, ER promotes dangerous stereotypes about how easy it is supposedly to communicate without an interpreter for serious situations. And this is wrong.

David Pierce, CEO of Davideo Productions, moderates an e-mail discussion group devoted to deaf people and filmmaking. He writes in an April 2 message, “Films can be used to effect social change. In the case of Deaf films, portraying the Deaf community in a negative light can continue to propagate negative stereotypes and stigma in society, thus setting us backward in time after all the hard work we’ve done to promote our community in a positive way.”

Pierce’s nailed it on the head. ER has a responsibility to air accurate information, regardless of whether it’s a television show or reality show, along with removing inaccurate perceptions about deaf signers’ needs for clear communication.

I’ve heard so many horror stories about a lack of communication in emergency rooms. In fact, I’ve had a few of these experiences myself, and I can say this: there is no scarier feeling than going into a procedure not really knowing what’s being said or done, even though you’ve asked for an interpreter. Why in the world would ER want to promote these types of risky situations? Why would they create mistaken ideas that eventually result in legal nightmares and even loss of life?

I’m not sure, but one thing’s for sure: ER has lost one of its most loyal viewers.

Copyrighted material, used by permission. This article can not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.