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?

DBC's credibility gap?

Here's the news on AG Bell giving out awards to people who made significant contributions to the hearing loss community that got some Deaf people freaking out over in Alldeaf land. The hatred for AG Bell is just dripping. So, that got me thinking and looking.

On March 1 and 2 there will be an EHDI (Early Hearing Detection Intervention) conference to take place in Chicago. And when I checked out the Exhibitors List I noticed that DBC (Deaf Bilingual Coalition) will have a booth there. So will AG Bell.

Hmmmm.

Now, about the DBC, it's not a surprise that they have a relationship with the AFA (Audism Free America with link via the DBC website) by going "on record as being supportive of AFA" as seen in Dianrez's blog. And the fact that John Egbert and others of DBC attended an AFA protest rally last year in April 2009 tells a bigger story about the DBC's own organization and the people who run it. The AFA is hardly separate from DBC's own organization and its ideology where both groups have specifically targeted AG Bell. DBC has yet to remain neutral in this regard and keep to their mission instead. But the leaders and members of DBC cannot even be kept separate from the AFA group when it comes to DBC's mission as an organization.

"For now, it was an honor to meet many bloggers that first came to my attention through DeafRead. Who could forget meeting in person: John Egbert, Insane Misha, Ella Lentz, David Eberwein, Ruthie Jordan, Aidan Mack, Sharon Duchesneau, Jehanne, Robin Polin, Candace McCullough, Tami Hossler, Patti Durr, Pinky Aiello, Star Greiser, and many others whose faces I recognized but didn't get their names."

Many of the names seen in the Board of Directors and Members list on the DBC website are known to heavily dislike AGBell, even Brian Riley who helped write a letter for DBC used "fighting words" against AG Bell. It sure doesn't make them that much more credible, I can tell you that.

Here's another problem.

The DBC seems to lay claim on ownership of all deaf/hh babies by calling them as "Deaf babies" or "Deaf infants" with a capital "D" (see "Big D, small d") which denotes cultural deafness.

I. What is the Deaf Bilingual Coalition?

A. The Deaf Bilingual Coalition (DBC) is a community of Deaf and hearing people whose goals are to promote language acquisition, social justice, and quality education through the awareness of ASL and its excellence in cultivating the critical intellect of Deaf infants and young Deaf children.

B. The DBC’s mission is two-fold: We emphasize the importance of the social, emotional, linguistic, and cognitive aspects (of ASL and all natural sign languages) pertaining to early visual-language acquisition for all Deaf infants and young children; and to make the general public aware of the prevalence of misconceptions and misinformation that devalues ASL.

C. Since its inception, the DBC has empowered people to set up state chapters to research and explore early intervention programs, the Deaf education system, and to mentor hearing parents of Deaf babies to help equip them with critical information on language acquisition and development.

D. The DBC's original core committee was composed of volunteers who had all experienced bilingualism in their upbringing or been impacted by bilingual education. John Egbert of Minnesota founded the DBC in the summer of 2007.

Babies are born with a hearing loss. Babies are not born "Deaf" if from hearing parents. Maybe so for Deaf parents as they see their own baby as a Deaf baby but certainly not the case for hearing parents. DBC does not own these deaf/hh babies. It's the parents' decision, they decide and not DBC when it comes to their own babies and whether to call their baby a Deaf baby or not.

Next, I question whether DBC really does "mentor" hearing parents of "Deaf" babies. Do they get all pushy to try and somehow force their ideology onto unwitting hearing parents by making them aware? Or is it better to inform parents of deaf/hh babies by using positive examples of ASL rather than resort to conspiracy talks, continued negative remarks and darts and daggers aimed at AGBell whether implied or directly, and the continued bringing up old history rather than to look forward to the future in a positive way?

Having said that. You know what else I think? I think all hearing parents of deaf/hh babies should be informed of DBC's members and leaders past actions so that at least hearing parents can be fully informed about DBC's background and their ulterior agenda lurking in the background by continually attacking AG Bell in one form or another. AG Bell certainly doesn't do that by going after organizations by attacking them and use protesters as their pawns. AGBell has a mission to adhere to but they certainly do not attack ASL and certainly noticed past Deaf protests against them since 2007.

Since July 2007, another group affiliated with AFA has been staging demonstrations at AG Bell national conferences and state chapter meetings claiming that AG Bell is against sign language. In an effort to clarify its position on this issue, the AG Bell Board of Directors approved an official position statement on ASL which states, in part, “AG Bell acknowledges that a chosen approach depends on culture, family interests and desired communication outcome. AG Bell believes that the language and communication approach chosen should be based on an informed decision made by the child’s parents/family and based on their own unique circumstances…AG Bell does not believe that ASL should be prohibited or restricted as achoice, nor does AG Bell advocate against learning ASL as part of a child’s overall development if that is what the child’s parents desire.”

Regardless, AFA initiated this most recent demonstration at AG Bell headquarters and issued a call to action for supporters to demonstrate at oral/aural only programs in their local areas; in other words, to demonstrate at local pre-schools that offer a listening and spoken language educational approach for children who are deaf.

“This latest effort to target pre-schools and pre-school children I can only describe as unconscionable,” stated Graham. “To protest and criticize families who choose a particular communication and language approach is the height of intolerance.”

That way hearing parents can make an informed decision over a variety of issues and concerns, including any hidden agendas, if any. A good way to assess, for example, DBC's own credibility problem. Those on the outside may certainly see them as cry babies.

Next I can't help but wonder what are the odds that there'll be a protest by a bunch of Deaf people outside the conference to raise hackles about AG Bell just as they did over a year ago as noted in AG Bell's press release letter denouncing the protest? What are the odds that a protest will occur, if it ever, and that it'll have connections to AFA and, what else, the DBC organization just like before?

Makes ya wonder, doesn't it? We'll see how it goes March 1 and 2 in a few weeks from now.

*Note: apologies to Cox and Forkum for the cry babies picture that was slightly modified.