Hypocrisy? Double Standards? You be the judge.

The one common language that all Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing and hearing people in the United States have immediate access to on the internet is the printed English language.

Now, tell me. I'm utterly befuddled with this glaringly and obvious conundrum by those screaming about Deaf Village's #5 requirement (submitted video entries require a texted version). Why hasn't there been a collective hue and cry over Deaf bloggers for not including ASL video versions of their blog entries? Deaf bloggers have been doing this for years. Ridor is a good example who have purposely ignored those who want/require/need an ASL video version of the written texted entries. He is, after all, a well known and favored Deaf blogger. No? What about DeafRead? They failed to provide an ASL video version in their guidelines and elsewhere! Boy, talk about not having "mutual respect." And yet no one is screaming bloody murder over that one? What about Gallaudet University's website for not including ASL video versions with all of their texted versions? And NTID? Or other Deaf websites? Why not the outrage over these bloggers and websites? It's because everybody knows that English is the one common language that is immediately accessible to the largest group of people, including Deaf. So by eliminating the texted version requirement would not fit the philosophy of Deaf Village on providing the most common form communication access. The printed English language is that common ground we all have.

Now, until people start addressing the issue of "non-compliance" committed by Deaf bloggers, Deaf websites, Gallaudet University's websites, NTID, DeafRead, etc, for not including ASL video versions of their texted entries then those people "might" have a leg to stand on with their complaints. Otherwise trying to spin it in the direction of Deaf Village on not having that "mutual respect" would be nothing but a hypocrite response. I'd say that'd be a heck of an Achilles Heel right there by those making that complaint. I'm sorry to say this but people need to look into their own Deaf mirrors before making those charges of double standards. Go after the Deaf bloggers first for a change because these bloggers ought to know better to include ASL video versions of their texted entries. Right?

Ok. I'm being quite facetious and sarcastic, obviously so, but I'm trying to make a point here, and I apologize to those who may feel offended by my comments here. But if people are going to make charges of "double standards" then please apply those same charges to the many Deaf bloggers and Deaf websites for not including an ASL video version of their texted entries. Else you end up looking like a hypocrite.

Deaf Village's target audience isn't only just Deaf people but people with heairng loss from all stripes and those who want to learn more about deafness and read about deaf/hh people experiences. But the bottom line in all this is that the one common language shared by all is the English language.

UPDATE I (a response):

Tony wrote:

Secondly, Ridor’s blog is a personal site, which is different to deaf village which is an
“aggregator”. Once again, the terms for access are different.

Um, Tony. That kind of reasoning doesn't fly which you infer that an aggregator site has an obligation to help ensure access. Not in the case of any aggregator business. People are saying that DV should somehow be obligated to provide a captioning or transcripting service for Deaf vloggers which are also personal blog sites in the form of videos. If an argument is going to be used in the attempt to somehow exempt Deaf bloggers or Deaf websites from their responsibilities on providing text versions of their ASL video blogs then it won't work if they scream in the same breath that they are entitled to these captioning demands simply flies in the face of incredulity. Else they'd be walking hypocrites. It's also called a "non sequitur" with that kind of reasoning.

So, for the case of Deaf Village you are saying, Tony, in fact, that Deaf Village should somehow provide a text version of vloggers' ASL video blogs so that they can be submitted properly? If so, then certainly DeafRead should also provide subtitles or transcripts for videos by those who speak and want to share his/her opinions to the Deaf masses on deafness issues supposing the person doesn't know how to type or don't know how to do subtitling. Ok. A far-fetched scenario but still equally applicable on the DeafRead side. The resources are simply not there to address these concerns. So, the onus or responsibility still falls on the person making the video to ensure access in the form of a text version. The responsibility does not fall on the content aggregator site when it comes to providing captions/subtitles or transcripts. It's the individuals. That's already clear.

Secondly, everybody knows that English is the one common language that is immediately accessible to the largest group of people, including Deaf. So by eliminating the text version requirement it would not fit the philosophy of DV on helping provide the most common form communication access. And that would be the printed English language which is that common ground we all share.

Now, if Deaf Village (or even DeafRead) or a future aggregator site had the resources, the time, the people and the money I'm sure they would be all too happy to provide a service to help include captions/subtitles or transcript for vloggers' ASL video blogs in order to stay compliant with DV's philosophy on equal communication access. The English language in the printed format is, again, the most common form of communication access that is accessible to the majority of people out there, including Deaf. Guideline #5 is there for a reason, to ensure that readers who do come to DV's content aggregator site will be ensured that whatever mode of communication used in blogs and vlogs will be seen in English.

Now, supposing a service is available for free, will Deaf vloggers take up this service and ensure that their ASL video blogs be captioned in English so that the larger audience can access their video blogs? Or will they take the "purity" route like Tayler did and forego any captioning because it "ruins" or "distract" those who watch ASL vlogs keeping to the mantra of ASL-only videos? Remember, these availble resources do take time, money and people power to make it work.