My response to Mishka Zena

When navel gazing goes too far into the trash can

What Mishka Zena said:

Actually, Shelley, I think Mike does get it. He doesn’t care as he apparently feels the needs of the oral deaf and hearing people more important than the needs of ASL users. Again this is my personal interpretation based on my observations on his posts and comments the last two years.

Incidentally he had already read this post the first time. This is not new to him, not at all, yet he is still pressing on for cc/subtitling of ASL vloggers while being quiet about blogs not being accessible to ASL users.

My response of which I already replied in her blog comment box:

Mishka, it’s a bit of a non sequitur (not to mention being a bit disingenuous) in the attempt to say that written blogs ought to have ASL video interpretations just to make it “fair.” If that’s the case then Closed Captioning on television shows and such ought to be replaced with an ASL interpreter in the corner of the tv screen. If it’s English is so bad to read then make sure you go after Gallaudet University for not including an ASL version for every article written whether it’s news, sports, administration update and so on. If you really want to see hypocrisy go after Gallaudet University or NTID for not including ASL versions in all of their writings over the internet. Or what about the countless Deaf websites that do not have ASL video versions next to their written English sections?

Secondly, you are making a statement (as well as helping perpetuate the 4th grade reading literacy myth/fact) about the literacy levels that Deaf people have by sayinig they are unable to read yet they have no problem taking the time to comment in many blogs. Maybe you ought ought to go after Ricky Taylor’s blogs for not including an ASL vlog version alongside each and every blog entry? But I don’t see Deaf people reaching for their pitchforks going after him for not adding an ASL version to his blog entries. Heck, go after DeafRead for no having an ASL version for their guidelines. After all I wonder how many Deaf people who already read DR’s guidelines didn’t understand them at all because it was all in English? Who knows, maybe they violated DR’s guideline umpteen times it’d make your head spin? You wanna talk about hypocrisy, diversity and accessiblity all in one fell swoop now, Mishka?

English is the one single common language that is accessible to the majority population, deaf or otherwise, who are literate. ASL is not accessible to the majority of the population in the United States. The majority of Deaf people are literate enough to read simple sentences to more complex ones such as yours, Mishka. I guess you better starting adding an ASL version of your blog entry just for the sake of “fairiness.” After all, you blogs are certainly not “accessible to ASL users.”

And for the record, I have not read or accessed Mishka Zena's post until today. Oh, and I do get it. It just perhaps you guys don’t get it and the level of hypocrisy y’all are displaying?