Switched at Birth petition controversy re-visited

Last year in March I covered a petition that was against the show "Switched at Birth" simply because some of the cast of characters weren't "Deaf enough." That is not enough deaf people (as opposed to hard of hearing) who are native signers. The petition provided insight to the amount of shallowness and cruelty considering the fact that the show's main cast of characters have more culturally deaf characters who are native signers and more hearing characters who pick up sign language for the benefit of their deaf sibling, deaf child or deaf friend (such as the hearing character, Bay, who was dating Emmet) than there are hearing characters who do not know sign language. The show is actually a great example of what diversity is like among the main cast of characters who are culturally deaf, hard of hearing, hearing, signers and non-signers. You can thank Marlee Matlin for that.

She also pointed out that until recently, deaf characters were generally a guest role written in to just a handful of episodes at best. She credits Marlee Matlin, who plays a mother of Daphne's friend, making a difference, saying, "[She] really did an incredible job of paving the way for deaf actors." 

But she noted that "Switched at Birth" has taken the progress one step further. "You get four characters with hearing loss, and different ranges of hearing loss, and it really accurately represents the culture, the issues within the culture, and the way people feel about the culture."

You have three main characters who commonly appear on the show who are culturally deaf and they are Emmet (Sean Berdy), Travis (Ryan Lane), and Melody (Marlee Matlin).  The other deaf/hh (main) character is Daphne (Katie LeClerc) whose grew up speaking and listening as a hard of hearing person that wears a hearing aid and knows sign language. Whenever deaf characters speak to each other the audio is edited to remove all background noise except for ambient noise. This allow viewers to focus on the visual emotions and physical nature of sign language while at the same time provide a perspective of what it is like to be deaf and not hear sound around them.

Rob Nielson, a  Deaf ASL teacher in Texas, was the original author of a petition (with a paltry 100 signatures) against the show reasoning that the show isn't suitable to be shown on the ABC Family channel tv show because

"the main Deaf character isn't even Deaf and a so-called "family channel" is resorting to scenes of drug use, sexual innuendos, and in a recent episode, gratuitous teen sex."

Yet in the petition it was made more abundantly clear it was more about the main character (Daphne) wasn't "Deaf enough" for Rob and his students.

ABC Family first dropped the ball by hiring an actress who is not Deaf. Katie Leclerc is an actress that only recently started losing some of her hearing due to Meniere's Disease. The only reason she knew any ASL before the show was because she took it in high school and that was because, In her own words, "I was very bad at Spanish." Leclerc has to take voice lessons in order to "sound Deaf" on the show. Leclerc portrays herself as an ambassador of the Deaf community - "I feel comfortable in the deaf world I feel comfortable in the hearing world," Leclerc said. "I'm glad I can cross over." - There is no crossing over. She is a hearing person that is playing the part of a Deaf character. She is not a part of the Deaf world. Thus, some of the things about her character are not things that are normal for a Deaf person who grew up in the Deaf world - such as her ability to lipread flawlessly, her constant sim-com (talking and signing at the same time), and her signing being jerky and awkward at times. There are many talented and beautiful culturally Deaf actresses that ABC Family could have hired.

The part about that Katie LeClerc is a hearing person is absolutely false.

Katie Leclerc is hard of hearing in real life
Playing a deaf girl comes more naturally to Leclerc than it would to most actors because she has first hand knowledge of what it's like to live with hearing loss. At the age of 20 the actress was diagnosed with Ménière's disease. She explained the affliction, "[It's] a problem with fluid retention in the inner ear. You get fluctuating hearing loss, attacks of vertigo, ringing in the ear, and pressure in the ear. So it is a very sporadic disorder. The attacks come and go as they please with no rhyme or reason."

And although the condition sometimes makes it difficult for Leclerc to work, she never loses sight of the important role hearing loss has had for her as an actress. "Without the Ménière's disease, I would not be able to play the role of Daphne. In the deaf community, in order to play a role of someone with a hearing loss… you have to have hearing loss. So without this Ménière's disease, I wouldn't be able to have this dream come true, this role of a lifetime, this incredible opportunity."

She found out she has Meniere's Disease at 20 years old that explained her losing her hearing which gets progressively worse as she gets older. Katie LeClerc made clear that she is in fact a hard of hearing person, and not a hearing person that Rob is claiming.  She made no claims of being an "ambassador of the Deaf community," either.  That was Rob Nielson's doing by turning it into a something else to suit his own agenda (of insecurity).

According to Don Grushkin and other culturally deaf people they would agree that Katie LeClerc is a Deaf person (go here and here to see why) with "Deaf" to mean an all-inclusive word. But according to Rob Nielson he is basically saying that Katie LeClerc's character, Daphne, is not "Deaf enough" solely on the basis that the character does not behave like some culturally deaf, native signer as clarified in Rob's petition.

She is a hearing person that is playing the part of a Deaf character. She is not a part of the Deaf world. Thus, some of the things about her character are not things that are normal for a Deaf person who grew up in the Deaf world - such as her ability to lipread flawlessly, her constant sim-com (talking and signing at the same time), and her signing being jerky and awkward at times. There are many talented and beautiful culturally Deaf actresses that ABC Family could have hired.

Which is it, Rob? Accept a deaf/hh character (or for that matter in real life a deaf/hh person) for who he/she is or get nit-picky because the character doesn't sign flawlessly or smoothly enough for you? On the show you have three characters who sign "flawlessly" that fits Rob's ideal world and you have one hard of hearing character who does her best at signing to communicate yet her signing does not fit Rob's level of signing proficiency because, ya know, she's all jerky and stuff.

Again, Katie LeClerc is most definitely NOT a hearing person but hard of hearing.

Maybe it's time Rob, the "Deaf ASL teacher of Texas," the fair and "open-minded one," should publicly apologize for saying that Katie LeClerc is not a deaf/hh person and that her character is not "Deaf enough" because she's not like Marlee Matlin who can sign "flawlessly"?

This is deaf identity politics at its worse. That kind of ugly discrimination need to stop.

Deafhood truth??

Dripping with sarcasm and heavy with hyperbolic facial expressions signifying suppressed internal rage and anger in a video and at around the 12:30 mark where Ella essentially proclaimed (or was it blessed?) Barry to be free of "deafhood" saying Barry doesn't want to know or acknowledge the "deaf truth" known as..."deafhood."

I thought that piece was a bit arrogant. "Deafhood" is all about truth now?

Sounds so very new age-y there.

The real truth is that each person's journey is a deeply personal one. I cannot tell you what your deaf or hard of hearing journey should be. Or how your journey should emulate. No one has that right to define exactly what your journey should lead to. There is no need for a label because a journey is unique and very personal to begin with. That's really up to each person. I cannot stress that enough. All we can do is acknowledge that a deaf or hard of hearing person's own journey is unique. Our own identity is unique. Just like our whorls on our finger tips. Each whorl of our own fingerprint is unique.  We may look the same but we are indeed unique and different. We travel different paths.

I have no interest on wanting to be a part of a fold that thrives on negative energy attacking people who decide not to embrace their ideology of "deafhood." Why get upset? Pretty silly to get personally upset over that. It's a personal decision. Myself, I have no need for labels like "deafhood." I know who I am. I know what my identity is. I have friends who are culturally deaf, deaf, hard of hearing and hearing. I don't have a need to peel their skins back like a banana and see whether if anyone of the people I meet are "deaf centric" enough or not in behind closed doors. Right, Don? I don't have the need to judge others whether if they are "deafhood" enough. If Barry doesn't want to do anything with "deafhood," then so be it. His decision isn't hurting anyone. He still provides inspiration to culturally deaf, deaf, hard of hearing and hearing people. He is sensitive, respectful and understands about Native American Indians and their ancient culture. His past videos and blogs have shown that.

Again, Barry, thanks again for the subtitles. Thousands of other people down the road will appreciate your effort to include subtitles to your vlogs. That's the true spirit of including people who are deaf, hard of hearing and hearing who do not know (or very little) sign language to understand your message. That's true inclusion and not discrimination or segregation.

Yes, Ella, you are a leader in the eyes of your followers.

Back a few years ago in 2008 Ella first brought it up saying that she wasn't a leader but a "follower" and brought it up again in her recent vlog. Well, I don't know about that one since that's heck of a lot of people lining up behind her to do what she says. But that's rather strange because in 2007 there was an press release from the California School for the Deaf Fremont that mentioned her where she posted that article in her old blog.  CSDF described her as a "community leader."

A community leader and California Association of the Deaf Board member....

I certainly did not see her object to that description where she proudly displayed the press release on her own blog.

Not a leader? Um, right.

David Eberwein certainly didn't seem to mind being called as one of the Deaf leaders described by one follower/admirer.

#5. A Great Leader is always in high demand. Take Ella Mae Lentz, for example. Her personal and professional contribution, advocacy and stewardship of the language and culture of Deaf people in our world today has been profound. Yet, even after her retirement, Ella Mae continues to change the face of the Deaf World today with her contributions and discourse on empowering concepts, such as those ideas involved in the term Deafhood. And, she’s not alone. Deaf Leaders such as David Eberwein, Genie Gertz and many others also share such contemplative devotion. It’s an enviable gift. Focus and endurance are clearly the cornerstones of their creative genius and leadership.

David certainly didn't mind being seen as a Deaf leader if you read his comments. By de facto he approved LaRonda's blog piece which tells me that he agreed with her analysis that Ella is a leader, too, by basing on "specifically identified behaviors" on what makes her a leader.

Picking myself off the floor. What a great blog.

Yes - it is probably your best (so far), not because you named people, but because you SPECIFICALLY identified behaviors, ideas, etc

Not a leader? Not even one of the "deafhood" leaders? Um, sure!

From the mouth of an ex-founding DBC core member who identified Ella as one of the (top) DBC and "deafhood" leader

I’ve thought long and hard about this. I have encouraged DBC twice to become more transparent. I’ve asked two DBC leaders to vp with me, so we can discuss this further, but they both weren’t ‘available’. In e-mails, I asked them why they don’t want to acknowledge to the Deaf Community that they practice Deafhood heavily but received no response. Transparency and integrity are essential as these will benefit the organization and also the Deaf Community.

Since the top DBC leader, also the Deafhood leader, Ella Mae Lentz had accused me of assumption and confusion in the comment section of a vlog, I have no choice but to come forward. These are the facts.

I was one of the founding core members of DBC. When it started, we had a very simple mission: baby signs for deaf babies. Later it was expanded to include deaf babies and deaf children by several members. Two Deafhood leaders began to push Deafhood on us. The majority wasn’t comfortable with that as they only wanted to focus on Bilingualism and nothing further. However, these leaders persisted, ignoring the moderates’ objections. As Anne Marie Baer said, there was no voting or due process, including an election of DBC leaders, though we wanted to set up a formal system, etc. Finally two moderates, including me, resigned and four other moderates were pushed out summarily without notice afterwards. Then I found out two other leaders, including a strong Deafhood proponent, were appointed one month prior to my resignation and none of us knew about this new development. We went ahead and set up our organization which addresses to deaf bilingualism only. Some wanted to disclose to the public, but another former member and I asked them not to mention anything. We still want to see DBC succeed. Looking back, I wonder if that was a mistake keeping quiet as afterwards Dr Hocokan volunteered his hard labor for four months, believing in bilingualism only to find out the Deafhood agenda has been infiltrated into the organization. What Dr Hocokan had described so far, run parallel to what we experienced. Very recently, Dianrez and Anne Marie acknowledged being booted out without any notice.

Not a "deafhood" leader? Right. Right. Who was doing all the "deafhood" pushing again? Of course, she's not the only one doing that but people *are* certainly following her. Yet she says she's a "follower." So, who are those people following her? Man, that's a lot of followers following the "follower." 1150 subscribers to be exact. 

Heck, even one well known culturally deaf person, he who shall not be named, in his own right called Ella as a leader.

.....by bashing Deafhood/DBC leaders from day one. You see, Ella Mae Lentz, David Eberwein, Barb DiGiovanni and John Egbert made a lot of leaps and efforts to reach and educate people of social injustices upon Deaf individuals and communities.

Not..a...leader? He just made a ringing endorsement calling Ella, DE, Barb and John as "leaders."

BTW, Barb G. resigned from DBC. You could probably figure out why, too, if you study up a bit of history first.

There is no bashing here but simply pointing out the facts that perhaps the majority of culturally deaf people who know Ella already see her as a leader in their community, a leader of "deafhood" and a leader in DBC. For a follower, Ella sure act like a leader.

Fund Ella's Hope

Here's a good Pepsi Refresh Project to click on and vote for $25,000 on helping promote greater awareness on the importance of Early Intervention Therapy for a child with this condition. Once a diagnosis is done early enough then proper treatment can begun in earnest that can enable a child to catch up to age appropriate grade levels on communication. Autism can be a life disabling condition unless early invention is done.

Next to vote for is the "Give Deaf Children a Voice" Pepsi Refresh project idea for $250,000. Currently it is in 33rd place. This is also another early intervention help on communication, only this time is to help deaf and hard of hearing children get the gift of speaking that will last a lifetime.

And while we're on the subject of Pepsi, some people continue to misconstrue the AGBell "Superbowl" Pepsi letter that was written almost 3 years ago on Jan 31, 2008 thinking it's a letter attacking sign language. Again, this hardly the truth when it's about raising awareness to Pepsi officials that the majority of deaf and hard of hearing people do not know sign language.  The letter explains to Pepsi that their commercial merely help perpetuates the false myth that most deaf and hard of hearing people know sign language. That is not true. The majority of deaf and hard of hearing people use spoken language as their primary mode of communication. Nothing more. Nothing less. And certainly not an attack on sign language or Deaf people.