Archives for January 2007

Real People, Real Cars: A Look Back

This article originally appeared at i711.com.

It was ten years ago this month that one of the strangest stories I’ve ever worked on began to unravel.

In late 1996, Saturn, the car company, was in the midst of its “Real People, Real Cars” advertising campaign. This ad campaign featured actual car owners who were not actors. One night, my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I were watching a taped show when we saw Holly Daniel in the commercial. As we watched it, my stomach churned. The commercial featured Daniel, wearing a white shirt and blue denim jumper, standing in a picturesque environment with her Saturn car behind her. She signed, with subtitles appearing onscreen:

My name is Holly Daniel
and wherever I go,
people ask me about my Saturn.

But it takes too long
to spell out S-A-T-U-R-N,
so I made my own sign
“Saturn!”
(shows her made-up sign)

That way I have more time
to drive.
Ha. Ha. Ha. (
fingerspells ha-ha-ha)

The Saturn SLI $11,995

I had a gut feeling that Daniel, of St. Francisville, La., was not deaf. Her signing gave her away, although I did wonder if she was maybe deaf and had learned American Sign Language (ASL) later in life. I decided to check my facts before I assumed anything or offended anyone.

I called Saturn the next day and spoke with a representative, who assured me Daniel was deaf, and that she wasn’t an actress. That’s when I learned that the ad campaign featured actual Saturn owners. Fine, okay. The issue, for me, shifted to her invented sign. I was increasingly frustrated by the proliferation of commercials inaccurately portraying ASL, and I didn’t like that she had “invented” a sign without gaining community approval. I decided to send a letter to Saturn.

Next, I sent an e-mail to relatives and friends, encouraging them to write or call Saturn. One of the people I e-mailed was the managing editor of DeafNation Newspaper. He mistakenly thought it was a letter to the editor, and printed it in the next issue. I got a few responses, but nothing could beat the e-mail from a deaf Louisiana man, who insisted that Daniel was actually a hearing (uncertified) interpreter at a school and had been his interpreter in college.

Suddenly, everything changed, and I began one of the most bizarre journeys of my writing career. Until that point, I had read articles here and there about Daniel, who never once said she was hearing. Two weeks later, I had at least six sources, including a pastor, who said Daniel was hearing.

I contacted Daniel, who insisted people were confusing her with a twin sister named Helen. I asked for a picture of them together that I could run with my article, and she said she had lost everything in a fire. I then asked if she could send me a copy of her birth certificate, and she did. Both Helen’s and her certificates were absolutely identical, except for the names. Even the signatures were dotted and crossed in the same spots. A friend who worked at a police department ran the certificates for me and confirmed that there was only a single birth.

Saturn, throughout this entire investigation, kept hanging up on me. What bothered me the most, other than Daniel’s lies, was that she earned thousands of dollars for this ad (one source says $75,000). Had she been an actress, I’d have been less disgruntled. Since the ad campaign featured “real” people, and Daniel was lying, I knew I had to get to the bottom of this mystery.

I talked with Daniel several times on the phone and via Instant Messenger. One day, I got a call from a reporter at the Baton Rouge Advocate. That morning, he had met with Daniel, who said she “had no idea why anyone thought she was deaf.” Never mind all the evidence I had where she said she was deaf, and the many articles printed by other publications about her being deaf. Meanwhile, my conversations with Daniel became more and more bizarre. There was one night where she said she had “talked with God” and would come forward to apologize to the Deaf community the next day.

In late spring, I got news that Saturn finally pulled the ad. The advertising executive called me, eating crow. What was even more odd is that after I did the three articles on this, I learned that Daniel had pretended to be deaf on many occasions as far back as two years prior to being invited to do the Saturn ad. Make what you will of that.

I’ve written a book about this, but it’s not published yet. I’m sharing this story at state conferences, interpreting programs and schools across the nation this year, for a very basic reason: we can’t let this fraud happen ever again. Besides, with all the recent vlogs and blogs, the emergence of the concept of Deafhood, and the Gallaudet protests, it’s a fantastic time for us to re-examine our community values.

And the question everyone asks: whatever happened to Holly Daniel? For the answer, you’ll have to read the book or come to my presentation.

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

In Loco Parentis

This article originally appeared at i711.com.

When I was a day student at the Illinois School for the Deaf (ISD) in 1985, I usually went to the dorms at lunchtime and after school for extracurricular and dorm activities. Although the socialization was always fun, there was one deciding factor for whether we kids would have a good time or not: whoever was on duty.

Whenever we had Mrs. G as our houseparent, we’d groan. Mrs. G, who was hearing, required that, when we ate meals, we keep our non-dominant hand in our laps at all times, with the other devoted to using utensils. We could use the non-dominant hand only for cutting meat. At any other time during the meal, we were to remain completely silent. If we even as much lifted our non-dominant hands, our meals were taken away. Each meal was always somber, although we – of course! – developed a system of communicating with our eyes and faces.

And let’s not forget Mrs. P, another hearing houseparent who used to sit in the dorm lounge smoking Virginia Slim after Virginia Slim as she watched Days of Our Lives. It was the only captioned soap opera at that time, so we all watched it with her. Neither woman could understand what we signed most of the time.

I don’t remember any of the hearing dorm staff with too much fondness, but I do remember the deaf ones with great respect and admiration – perhaps because they could communicate easily. My favorite was Jean, who was tall, beautiful and kind-hearted. An ISD graduate, she knew exactly what we all wanted and needed as young middle schoolers, and was always up for good girl talk with us.

Houseparents are such an integral part of any residential school, and this is something should be appreciated on a grander scale by many. Let’s face it – living in dorms at deaf schools has gotten a bad rap over the years (and in some cases, deservedly so), and so has the choice to become a dorm staffer. It always makes my heart ache when I see people saying, “S/he works as a houseparent. What a waste of college education!” or make fun of the profession. The truth is that dorm staff hold often-unrecognized major influence upon students’ lives and in the long run, the Deaf community. It doesn’t matter if the dorm staffers are deaf or hearing; they create an impact, and this is something that should be taken seriously.

My husband spent the majority of his school years living in dorms, something he remembers with great pleasure. Even though he had deaf parents and grandparents who were wonderful presences in his life, the dorm parents he grew up with also provided great impact upon his life. Sure, there are incidents in dorms that should never happen – bullying or sexual abuse, for example. But these are incidents that are absolutely preventable, and a good residential program with qualified staff who can prevent that from happening. For me, the key to a good residential program is having staff who can communicate effortlessly with students and understand the immense responsibilities of the work before them.

Being a dorm parent, to me, is a noble job and a daunting assignment to take on, one I would probably not be able to accept. Dorm staffers work in loco parentis – in place of parents – and in many cases, are the only signing adults other than teachers that the children interact with. Many children come from homes where there is minimal, if any, communication, This is the most important job task: teaching language, social skills, life values and world knowledge outside of the classroom to these children. People who work as dorm staff, hearing or deaf, must take every measure necessary to give full communication access to the kids.

Whenever I talk to deaf people who lived in dorms, they often can tell me who the worst and best houseparents were. Typically, the “awful” houseparents were the ones who couldn’t sign worth anything or sat around doing nothing. This is probably true at any boarding program around the nation, actually; it’s not just a “deaf school thing.” But still, within the close-knit Deaf community, this has far-reaching consequences.

In fact, it’s interesting how I can quickly tell who the enthusiastic and involved dorm staff are simply by going to football or basketball games at the deaf school here. The “good houseparents” – who are well-liked and strict but fair – usually attend the games, make sure their students interact and participate in a safe environment, and are fluent signers.

Being a houseparent is no easy task, and I really wish schools would set higher standards for residential staff, especially in the areas of fluency in American Sign Language and providing a productive, caring and educational environment. Raising this bar can only begin with the Deaf community’s heightened respect for people who choose to work as residential staff, increased expectations and an innate understanding of what the profession involves. We have to keep in mind that these residential staffers are helping raise our future community leaders, and do what we can to support their work.

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

Matt Daigle: Father, Artist Wins Logo Contest

This article originally appeared at www.deafprofessional.net.

Ask Matt Daigle what he does, and he immediately answers, “I’m a stay-at-home dad to my one-year-old son Hayden.” He’s also a freelance cartoonist, illustrator and graphic designer, but it’s his role as a father that he’s most proud of.

So it isn’t a surprise that Daigle’s design won a breastfeeding symbol contest for Mothering, a natural family living magazine. The magazine’s website reports, “The purpose of an international symbol for breastfeeding is to increase public awareness of breastfeeding, to provide an alternative to the use of a baby bottle image to designate baby friendly areas in public, and to mark breastfeeding friendly facilities.” Daigle’s entry beat out 500 other entries, and is now the international symbol for breastfeeding. The public domain symbol will be used on signage in various places, such as the airport, to let parents know that they may breastfeed at these locations.

“I submitted an entry in July after a friend told me of the contest. The contest ended in August, then the top 12 finalists were chosen in October,” Daigle, who is deaf, says. Preliminary voting took place during the subsequent weeks, and in early November, Daigle learned he was among the top three. Website voters and breastfeeding organizations from around the world voted on the three logos. “On Nov. 13, I was notified that I had won the contest. It was a tremendous honor,” he says.

“There’s a new culture. Here in America, there often are no provisions for mothers with babies, and we need to provide that accessibility. We’re becoming more modern, more understanding of health issues, families, values and so on. I think it’s a really important icon that Mothering brought up. They’ll be promoting it to airports, and there’s already been a lot of interest from different places. It’s an exciting step for both me professionally, and for families everywhere,” Daigle says. “It’s also cool because if the symbol is indeed adopted worldwide, then you can go places and see a sign with the symbol I designed, and know that a deaf guy did that. It’s such a kick for me.”

Having grown up with a stay-at-home mother, Daigle knew firsthand the impact of a stay-at-home parent upon a child. “About three months after Hayden had been in day care, we realized we wanted to have him spend his first years at home. I wanted to give Hayden personal attention and have that bond with him.” He adds, “Even though I worked at a nonprofit agency, the agency was large enough that it had a corporate feel. That was fine, but I made the bold decision of quitting my job in January to stay home with Hayden, which wasn’t what the company wanted to hear. But it all worked out wonderfully for us.”

Daigle planned to focus solely on taking care of his new child, but people began contacting him to do small projects. Even though he still works part-time as a designer now, he says it’s challenging at times. “You have to be flexible. Like last night, I was going to do a project, but had to postpone it because of Hayden,” Daigle explains. “It’s really nice, because most of the people I work with are very flexible, which is very different from a corporate environment. There are pros and cons to that. I like deadlines, because they help me finish projects rather than putting them off, but at the same time, it’s a challenge with a child around.”

Although Daigle works mostly with graphic design, his passion lies in cartoons and illustration. “I grew up in a world of comics. Being an Army brat, I moved a lot as a child, so my parents often bought me comics, and my inspiration comes from that.” In fact, Daigle was so good at drawing that he was chosen as one of the top three cartoonists for high school newspapers in Texas. He continues, “But that kind of faded away when I was in college. I had no role models back then, so I didn’t really think illustration was a big deal until I developed my skills further. Then I thought, ‘Wait a minute, I was meant to be a cartoonist.’ So I’ve continued perfecting my skills in that.” He draws mostly cartoons related to Deaf culture but also draws about a variety of topics.

“It’s my goal to become a professional cartoonist, and I also really want to create a book filled with my cartoons, but it’s tough. I have to find sponsors, I have to find the market, and I have to prioritize,” he adds. “I network with many cartoonists who are hearing, and they have been fantastic resources. There’s also only one newspaper, SIGNews, that publishes deaf-related cartoons such as mine, so the market is very limited. I’m trying to branch out to mainstream publications.”

Daigle has straightforward advice for others wanting to become illustrators or designers. “Network. You have to network. You can’t be isolated, because it’s about who you know. That’s how I got where I am – through word of mouth, and my portfolio. And you have to grab opportunities. If I didn’t network, I wouldn’t have entered the breastfeeding logo contest. The contest is a great way for me to prove that I’m different from other graphic designers in that I have my own niche and experience. So networking is key.” He also adds that staying updated with technology is key for graphic designers, something he admits is difficult sometimes as a stay-at-home parent. “But I do what I can,” he smiles.

“What I like in my career is the creative flow. There are so many different ideas that never stop coming. There are a variety of projects, like the contest, and I do different work every day. That’s what I like, the mental stimulation. I also get to learn fun things while I’m working.”

Daigle’s websites are at www.mattdaigle.com and www.mdaigletoons.com .

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

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