Naturally so...

A certain person who used to be a moderator in one forum recently claimed that I made a slanderous remark against a new forum in a recent blog I did. A claim that is certainly unfounded. The problem is that I've always supported competition as I've said before elsewhere. If people think they can build a better mouse trap (i.e.better product, services, etc), go for it. This is exactly how it happened between Deafread and Deaf Village. Both are blog aggregator websites where Deaf Village was borne out of its own need (and frustration) on a matter of principle and ideology in 2008 to build it's own blog aggregator site instead of relying on Deafread's blog aggregator site. In fact, I was one original Deaf Village staff who helped get Deaf Village off the ground in 2008. And yet I am a blog contributor to both Deafread and Deaf Village blog aggregator sites.

The same story goes between DeafvideoTV, Deafcube and ASLrocks.net (now defunct) which are (or were as for ASLrocks) video blog aggregator websites but Deafcube (and ASLrocks) was, too, born out of its own need (and frustration) on a matter of principle and ideology recently to build it's own video blog aggregator site. So, nothing is new under the sun when Naturally Deaf came about a few weeks ago borne out of its own need (and frustration) and as a matter of principle and ideology against All Deaf to build it's own forum.

People are free to make their choices when it comes to competition over the internet and that's what makes America great. There are now more choices to chose from for deaf and hard of hearing people, late deafened, culturally deaf, cochlear implant wearers, CODA, hearing parents of deaf/hh children and people who are simply curious or interested about deafness issues. I've already told a few people about the new forum site to check it out yet the snarkiness and sniggering on congratulating me for helping generate traffic to their new forum continues as I speak which certainly tells the story. 

As I have said before to the new moderator, good luck on the new endeavor and duty as a moderator. I mean it.

Now, back to my blog.

It's understandable that some people would miss my warning that I'd play the devil's advocate (I made it abundantly clear in the beginning) in one of my recent blog.  Long story short, I explained that some people might think of the phrase "naturally deaf" as applied to people would find it odd. Much the same questioning could be said for "naturally blind" and so on. But if people actually think I did make a slanderous statement against the new forum in my recent blog then show exactly where I made that slander. Otherwise it'd be smart to retract that accusation when it was never true in the first place which, ironically so, is the very definition of a slander. Go figure. Yet, I have my own opinions and beliefs regarding forums, blog and vlog aggregator sites. I have the right to express them as I see fit. Even when I believe some favoritism and bias have played a role on influencing moderators. There is no such thing as a bias-free moderator, naturally so. And in retrospect, I'd be wary of joining a deaf discussion forum with that kind of rampant bias and favoritism.

Point of View

Let's get this straight. No one is saying that having different point of views is censorship. As in the case for Deafread, people have been and are trying to force the owner of Deafread through intimidation, protests, slandering, harassing, and conjuring up myths about the owner of Deafread, Tayler Mayer, in order to get him to acquiesce and run an aggregator site that accept only Deaf POV videos and institute a so-called better "R-List." Thus pushing the practice of censoring to the extreme.

What is "censor"?

cen·sor
noun
1. an official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds.

In fact, Tayler and his moderators do censor what's allowed in Deafread since there are certain requirements to be met in order for a blog or a link to be posted in Deafread. But the big irony is that because of Deafread there are loads of POVs from all kinds of people who are deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened, culturally deaf, CODAs, cochlear implant wearers, signers and non-signers alike, those who prefer to speak and listen, and hearing parents of deaf/hh kids.

Tayler Mayer made it clear that he does not want to censor Deafread by restricting it even further and have it accept Deaf POVs only but rather have Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing and hearing POVs instead.

One central reason for developing DeafRead is that Jared and I wanted to empower the deaf community; we wanted to allow everyone a voice, a place where people could speak out.

What is censorship?

the actions or practices of censors; especially : censorial control exercised repressively

So what Don and others are advocating? More censorship and control through force and intimidation against the owner of Deafread, and get him to capitulate at all cost.

If Don and others want to create their own aggregator site that accepts only Deaf POVs they are more than welcomed to create an alternative aggregator site that reflect their own policies, rules and ideals. Deaf Village did the same thing by breaking away from Deafread to create its own blog aggregator site. A place to provide aggregated and filtered online content that reflects a spirit of inclusion, collaboration and partnership among the diverse members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.  They didn't whine and moan for 3 or 4 years when they disagreed with Deafread's actions or policies. They up and left and created their own blog aggregator site in a matter of months which is now in its 4th year.

There's a similar situation for vlogs as well. You have DVTV for signers which is an aggregator site for vlogs via YouTube. At one time people got upset with Tayler Mayer's (DVTV) policy regarding the ground rules on accepting vlogs and decided to create their own vlog aggregator site and the first one was ASLrocks. That attempt failed spectacularly and ASLrocks didn't even last for one year probably due to the rampant cyberbullying that went on.  Next came along Deafcube and it is still going.

Instead of complaining, go out create your own if you're not happy with Deafread. Using the strategy to try and bully Tayler Mayer into changing will not work. That tactic has obviously failed. It's better to hear from all sides than to be fed with only one viewpoint all the time.

Hypocrisy on the DR boycott and "avdism"?

About a year ago people decided to boycott Deafread because of Tayler's refusal to put the "A"-word in the Deafread guideline as grounds for not accepting a blog.

Because I lack the experience, knowledge and authority, I refuse to embed the term “au****” into the guidelines. Doing so would have significant impact on the deaf community and would not be able to bear the responsibility of forcing the wrong interpretation upon the community. Until there is greater consensus on “au****”, therefore having less room for it to be abused, the guidelines will protect DeafRead by the “excessive negativity” clause and DeafVIDEO.TV by the harassment rule. Following this fiasco in which au**** was exposed to be both widely misunderstood and abused, I retracted my committment to Patti to add it to the guidelines. As Patti and I agreed more recently, I will instead work with the DeafRead team to incorporate a broader term that will offer tighter protection than that of the “excessive negativity” clause.

Note that I am censoring part of the "a" word in Tayler's comment in the above for my own personal reason. You can read here on why. I could've replaced it with "avdism" though but either way I'm making this known for you readers.

And because of Tayler's refusal to include such a word in the Deafread guidelines numerous Deaf bloggers decided to boycott Deafread and not have their blogs show up on Deafread. One of the blogger is Dr DonG where he explained why he boycotted Deafread.

I have long since been speaking against au****. I have taken a stand against a****. I believe that if you “talk the talk”, you must “walk the walk”. Au**** hurts, and it hurts worse when it comes from one of our own. But it hurts worst when one of our own allows it AND profits from it.

That is the reason that I feel I can no longer be involved in DVTV, if au**** is allowed to continue. I cannot let someone directly profit from au****. It’s bad enough when Hearing people, like at Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, profit from au****, but we Deaf should not allow it, we should not accept it.

So, people boycotted Deafread because of the "rampant" avdism seen in the aggregator list linking to blogs with attidudes of "avdism"? Right? What about Deaf Village's aggregator site, too? Now, isn't avdism seen in majority of DV's submissions include lots of stuff about how wonderful hearing and speaking is for children, CIs and their marvelous results, all technically defined as the "A"-word in all its mutations  If so then why is DonG's website listed on Deaf Village's aggregator site as seen on DV's blog contributors list? And yet the most recent submission of DonG's in DV was on September 10, 2010 with a total of 24 submissions ever since he boycotted DR over a year ago over a single word.

Regardless, I still think it's rather a petty and trivial thing to boycott over a word when Tayler made clear on why he is unable to institute such a word into Deafread's guidelines.

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?

Deaf America Syndrome

At first glance my blog title may sound like something of a disease or a condition I'm trying to infer. A disease or condition that afflicts Deaf America and that being Deaf or a person who is culturally deaf is an affliction. An anomaly. A contagion. Something that needs to be cured or fixed. We also hear the word “syndrome” almost daily. We hear about people with Down’s Syndrome, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Shaken Baby Syndrome, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, Rubella Syndrome, and so on and so forth. All of them deal with the negative connotation as being a disease or condition of some sort in association with the word “syndrome.”

You as a reader might be hastened into thinking that this blog entry is nothing but negative things about Deaf people, Deaf culture, and the Deaf community in America. Not so. It is not my intention to present wholly negative viewpoints just for the sake of it but more accurately an attempt to provide a more equitabe and balanced look. Questions need to be answered and how our perspectives view things differently from many different angles.

Now, if we look at the definitions of the word “syndrome” we can see that it has primarily two meanings. From the medical definition it is defined as “a group of symptoms or signs that appear together and that tend to indicate, with some consistency, the presence of a certain disease or other condition.” From a non-medical point’s of view the definition of “syndrome” is defined as “a complex of concurrent things.” This blog entry, “Deaf America Syndrome,” is about the complexities of concurrent things that meshes together with the pitting of ideas, concepts, and long held mythical beliefs between hearing, deaf, Deaf, and hard of hearing people in America. Nothing about illness but the complexities that we see and experience today.

The issues Deaf people in America have to deal with involve all of their own complexities and idiosyncrasies, including how they feel about hearing people, deaf people with cochlear implants, late deafened, or people who are hard of hearing and wear hearing aids. Many people do not always see things as other people do. Of course, this is how people behave. Our perspectives are different about life and of each other. Some perspectives are negative while others are positive. Some people refuse to acknowledge certain things in life thinking it's all a conspiracy, while others simply accept it as a given and seek better ways of doing things. Some steadfastly stick to their words until one day something dawns upon him/her and do an abrupt but humbled 180 degrees turn on their opinions or beliefs. Deaf America has its own true richness in life combined with the unique cultural upbringing that cherishes Deaf family support and friends. People try and lead a good example for others to follow but everybody stumbles along the way. We have the good, the bad, and the ugly in America when it comes to diversity and perception issues. People cannot simply ignore these things and we must face these things head on instead.

Diversity Issues.

When diversity is lacking you would know it right away. So, in the case of the blog aggregator business the best way to assure diversity is to first make sure that you have an example of that diversity in place. For a start, you have a group of people who contribute and maintain an aggregator site that exhibit that very same diversity make-up with those on the outside. Otherwise it’d just be a political tool in the attempt to claim the “diversity” label when it’s really not the case. Such an example of this may be in the form of a group that promote Deaf-centric values but do not reflect the same diversity mixture to those on the outside. Ideally, for a group of people to reflect that diversity mix would be a “cuer,” a person who is Deaf, a person who is deaf or hard of hearing, a person who is hearing and have a relationship of some kind to somebody who is deaf (e.g. hearing parents of a deaf/hh kid), CODA, late deafened, a deaf person who wears a cochlear implant and so on. Though philosophies may differ in the area of language or communication but you have a diverse group of people who share a common ideal and bond on the need to communicate with each other regardless the preferred mode of communication method. You may have people, for example, who know how to sign (e.g. SEE, ASL, PSE, BSL, FSL), those who do not know how to sign and do not want to sign, those who prefer to talk and listen only, or those who prefer to use cued speech with their talking. Each person has his or her own personal value when it comes to their hearing loss whether it’s a Deaf-centric one or not. Deaf-centric value does not take center stage on Deaf Village but is seen as an equal among other values that deaf and hard of hearing people share.

No one aggregator site is an island.

This latest incident about DeafRead (and here) reminded me of a time when people began abandoning Deafnotes several years ago for a variety of reasons. Former members began to design their own online forum websites and the net result was a noticeable shift by those who felt uncomfortable or disgusted to join these new forums. Others left and joined new forums because moderators were less heavy-handed and more neutral on allowing new members more freedom to discuss various deaf or non-deaf related topics. This includes less fear of getting booted or locked out of a discussion forum for political or apolitical reasons. The reasons for leaving or joining other deaf or hard of hearing website forums are many but in the end there are now more deaf and hard of hearing related forums that it was several years ago. And today we see many Deaf, deaf and hard of hearing related forums.

Now, for the aggregator business it is a niche business by catering to a particular subject for blogs to be aggregated. And there are just a few of them right now. But just because an aggregator website has a niche subject such as deafness to choose their blogs from, it isn’t necessarily enough sometimes. There can be this perception issue in regard to an aggregator site by those who run it. A perception by those on the outside who may see one aggregrator site as a wholly Deaf-centric and Deaf-controlled aggregator site that mostly aggregates Deaf blogs rather than a site that promotes true diversity while trying to fullfill and keep to the loyalty factor to their mostly Deaf bloggers.

And then we have those damning myths or half-truths where parents of deaf/hh children, older deaf/hh people and the late deafened from young kids who have lost their hearings to older adults who may view Deaf people as living in an insular Deaf bubble world. And why would they see that? Well, it only takes a few examples to help propagate those myths or even half-truths (and some cases wholly true) on a continuing basis where bloggers may end up on not wanting to be associated with a particular blog/vlog aggregator website simply for that reason whether it's true or not. It's the perception and the various myths, half-truths and truths that drive their decisions.

Take one particular example of a Deaf leader who represents the editors or moderators that help run an aggregator site. The leader may claim the “diversity” mantle by pointing to the fact that there are many aggregated blogs from bloggers who are deaf, Deaf, hard of hearing, deaf/blind, cochlear implant users, late deafened, deaf and blind, cuers, or those who wear hearing aids while each of them have a different and preferred method of communicating. And that would be fine. But then this picture gets a little skewed and wanting when, for example, the leader refuses to include subtitles in his/her own video blog but signs only. Now, would the average person believe this Deaf leader’s claim of diversity when he/she refuses to add subtitles in the first place on the basis of not destroying the “purity” of ASL signing? Since there are 30 million people with hearing loss you’d have about 3% of that population that can understand ASL well enough but to actively engage to exclude the rest of the population is not a sign on acceptance or the embracement of diversity in totality. Lead by example is the heart of this question.

All this becomes a Deaf-centric, Deaf-loyalty issue and not about the firm belief on diversity when it gets down to the core issue of communication access for all. This is what Deaf Village, a blog aggregator site, is set out to do and that is to embrace diversity, promote tolerance, provide common sense ideals in regards to communication access and the proper respect to bloggers who do share those common core beliefs.

Granted, this is a long discussion on “diversity” but it was necessary to put these thoughts down. I am sure there are millions of deaf and hard of hearing people who will share the exact same sentiments as mine. There is no doubt about that. We don’t strive to live in a bubble or insular world but to become a world where everyone can be a part of by welcoming one and all. After all, we all share the one common theme and that would be hearing loss and communication access.