Gallaudet University's holiday video....no signing II

Looking back on what I wrote today about the recent holiday video that apparently upset a few people. It is a video produced by Gallaudet University that includes Dr. Hurwitz shown at the end of the video where he signed and used his voice (starting at the 16:44 mark). And then I remembered something. It was the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf's (ICED) statement about a "A New Era: Deaf Participation and Collaboration" where they issued a global call to "accept and respect all languages and all forms of communication" in the education of deaf people. ICED made sure that the message is to accept and respect all forms of communication be loud and clear. Nothing was said about which ones MUST be used but rather they all MUST be accepted and respected. All forms of communication need to be accepted and respected. That's what I saw in Gallaudet University's holiday video as well. That is what Dr. Hurwitz embraced.

Gallaudet University's holiday video....no signing

At the 3:54 minute mark in a Gallaudet University's video on how holidays are celebrated in different countries as explained by different people, Oluyinka "Yinka" Fakunle who is the part of the Communications and Public Relations Staff as an Administrative Secretary discusses her holiday tradition by talking and not sign. However, we don't know when she was hired or how long she was at Gallaudet University.



Gallaudet University's communication policy:

2.2 Policy Concerning Bilingualism
Gallaudet University is a bilingual, diverse, multicultural institution of higher education that ensures the intellectual and professional advancement of deaf and hard of hearing individuals through American Sign Language and English. Gallaudet University’s mission as a unique educational institution is inextricably bound to the need for direct, accessible communication among students and faculty. To that end, all members of the University Faculty are committed to promoting bilingual communication. The University is committed to providing training and resources, as needed, to support all members of the Faculty in developing the necessary language skills.

The video provides captioning and meets, as a minimum, Gallaudet University's policy guideline that the communication be direct, comprehensible and accessible. In Yinka's case hers is not a bilingual example. Secondly, the video is not in a classroom setting and those in the video volunteered to speak. Third, before ya'll get huffy, we don't know the circumstances or reason behind Yinka not signing in the video. We don't even know how long she's been at Gallaudet University and may have been recently hired.  This has happened before when people got unnecessarily angry and ugly at a deaf professor who talked at a Gallaudet University's graduation commencement speech instead of signing. For the sake of fluidity and speed, and perhaps not enough signing skill to start with Yinka choose to speak instead. And lastly, Yinka should not in any way be reprimanded, retaliated against or scolded for speaking in that video.

For those who already accessed Yinka's email account and wrote nasty emails to her in response to the video, shame on you! If you're thinking about writing a nasty email to her, don't! The people in charge of the video-taping and editing choose to keep Yinka in that video as part of Gallaudet University's video on "How Does Gallaudet University Celebrate the Holidays?" Go talk to them first before going after Yinka. She should be given the widest latitude in this circumstance. Regardless of the outcome, the real question shouldn't be about Yinka's communication preference but the people who made that video. At least it was captioned and we all should be thankful for that. Nobody missed out on anything in that video.  And it doesn't hurt to show a bit of diversity, either....as long as communication access is readily available just like when I did my speech without signing in 2007 at Gallaudet University.