The vilification of Dr. Karl White

Generally, I'm not surprised by the utter hate and vilification that get thrown at Dr. Karl White by some in the culturally deaf community only because this is to be expected, unfortunately. This is true even in a YouTube video he was in recently. Dr. Karl White holds a different opinion when it comes to helping parents of deaf children and the Early Hearing Detection Intervention for babies that he supports. As a result on the differences of opinions when it comes to deaf children charges against Dr. Karl White run the gamut of "verbally attacking" culturally deaf people to calling deaf protesters as "terrorists" to accusing him of blocking submissions of papers on ASL at EHDI conferences.  All this even though Dr. Karl White is fluent in sign language. 

There are a place and time to agree to disagree and state your case but to vilify Dr. Karl White with slander and character assassinations won't go anywhere. Hearing parents will see these vile attitudes and see them as deaf zealots and assume the worse thinking the culturally deaf community acts like that and are nothing more than a group of people with extremist attitudes. Not exactly an ideal way to boost the image of the culturally deaf community.

Instead of throwing temper tantrums it'd be better to be more involved in the EHDI process and help spread awareness just like Dr. Beth Benedict has been doing.

It was established ten years ago, and not one deaf person attended the first conference in Atlanta, Georgia, where the latest conference was also held. Dr. Beth Benedict, a Communication Studies professor at Gallaudet University, heard about the EHDI conference, went to the second one and has been a loyal attendee ever since. She and the Alpha Sigma Pi fraternity hosted three workshops on EDHI, explaining how you can become involved and what you can do to spread awareness. 

That is a much better alternative than going online on YouTube just to piss and defecate every where in the comment section about Dr. Karl White like some 3 year old kid not yet potty trained.That's not spreading awareness. That's being petty and immature. Spreading awareness in the most positive light about sign language, early detection and intervention for babies born with hearing loss are what get hearing parents' attention. And certainly by not acting immaturely.

Dr. Karl White's YouTube Controversial Video?

Controversial only because people appear to be unwilling to watch on the TEDx YouTube presentation of what Dr. Karl White has to say about language, speech, and early detection and intervention on hearing loss in babies based on some of the comments received in YouTube. Virulent comments were made attacking Dr. Karl White for not supporting or recognizing ASL when in fact Dr. White covered ASL at the 6:20 mark to 6:44 whcih discussed two deaf children in their baby car seats who were communicating with each other in ASL.

"In short, American Sign Language is a complete language. They aren't just repeating words or naming things. They are having a conversation with each other. and ASL, if children are given a fluent example in their homes, and if we start early, is capable of doing that. They can communicate every bit as well as hearing people can communicate."

A pretty strong acknowledgement there by Dr. Karl White on ASL and deaf children.

From 1:10 to 2:16 in the video he discussed at length about Helen Keller by showing a video reel of her "reading" the manual alphabet in her hand. Dr. Karl White gets to the point the importance on the ability to engage and communicate with people rather than experience isolation from people. He even put up pictures of well known deaf or hard of hearing successful people such as Marlee Matlin, Beethoven, Vinton Cerf (Father of the Internet), Thomas Edison, Juliette Gordon Low (Founded Girl Scouts of America) and Jonathan Swift (author and clergyman). People who went on to accomplish great things and that deaf people can be extraordinarily productive and successful.

Yet the vindictiveness continue to fly and I wonder if anyone ever bothered to watch the whole video of Dr. Karl White?

I suppose it's not surprising is to see people who think Dr. Karl White made a statement saying that one communication mode is better than another. Hardly. Watch the video and see for yourself. He provided examples on the benefits of providing deaf children early access to language and communication. He even acknowledged that sign language is a "completely appropriate option that is chosen by many." He isn't even excluding the possibility of incorporating sign language as part of parents' early language and communication access for their deaf children if they choose to go that route. He has not once put down ASL in his video.

The whole point of Dr. Karl White's was the importance of early detection on hearing loss in babies and the need for early intervention when it comes to forming a foundation for early language development and communication access. Granted.  His oration was about access sound for language and communication development and the advancement of hearing technology and the huge strides on making those advancements compared to 25 to 35 years ago. He hasn't put down anyone and yet some comments in YouTube were explicitly aimed at Dr. Karl White with vindictive words.  A group who does not respect the right of those who have a different approach on addressing language and communication access in the sincere effort to help deaf children. Dr. Karl White certainly made it clear that his organization focuses on Listening and Speaking and that was the subject of his oration on TEDx.

Karl White's Speech at a TEDx Event on ASL and Speech/Listening

Here is a captioned video (Establishing a Sound Foundation for Children) of Dr. Karl White who is a Professor of Psychology at Utah State University and the founding Director of the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM) presents a talk about newborn hearing loss detection and early intervention, deafness, ASL, speech, speech intelligibility, listening, hearing aids,
and and cochlear implants.

 


In one examples Dr. Karl White provided in the video was two young boys (around 5 or 6 years old) with their cochlear implants and the level of speech intelligibility they have virtually indistinguishable from other typical hearing boys. Dr. Karl White also acknowledged the importance of early use of ASL as well for parents who choose sign language. And provided a video of two deaf boys (approximately 3 years old) sitting in their car seats signing to their parents and to each discussing what they see outside of their windows like a passing airplane. Cute video. Dr. Karl White is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on early identification and treatment of hearing loss in infants and young children. He has hundreds of publications and presentations at scholarly meetings, and has been invited to more than 30 countries to assist in the implementation of newborn hearing screening and intervention programs. His work has been recognized with awards from such diverse organizations as the Deafness Research Foundation, the American Association for Speech Language and Hearing, the Swedish Society of Medicine, the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped in India. He also serves on many national and international advisory groups and boards for organizations such as the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Global Hearing Health, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, March of Dimes, the American College of Medical Genetics, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Drama...drama...drama...

You know, looking back all those years we got to see one drama scene after another take place practically every 3 to 6 months in the deaf culture world, sometimes multiple times in a space of a few months that are manifested in the form of blogs, vlogs or some kind of petition on getting the word out. The latest drama would be this recent petition to get Dr. Karl White to resign from EHDI and leave the "culturally deaf community." This new drama earns the "Stephen Colbert's Drama Scream" animated gif for the continuing pathos evoked time and time again with the hyperbolic outrage as if everybody is on the same boat.

Not really.

It wasn't long ago, two months ago in fact, that there was a petition to get rid of a 19th century statue of two Indians fighting a mother grizzly bear (in her effort to protect her two cubs as it would appear) which was created by Douglas Tilden, a world renowned deaf sculpture, where it stands at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, California, claiming that the statue is racist and it "represents generations of dehumanizing violence towards Native American communities."

Not at all.

Of course, it appears that the majority of those in the Deaf community do not even accept the idea to get rid of the Combat with Grizzly statue that was made by a world renowned deaf sculpture.

Oh, I mustn't forget another recent outrage a few months back about a dirty sign language book penned by a hearing author. 

And, of course, another petition to get a printing company, St. Martin's Press, to not print her book because sign language only belong to culturally deaf people and not to the world.  By the way signing your name in an online petition does not work nor is it really that effective. It is one of the laziest ways to protest. Sorry to bring that horrified fact to you.

So, what are other list of dramas that I failed to mention here?