Can you spot the video difference?

Can you spot the differences between these three videos? Maybe the irony? Before you complain, think first. Keep it clean...and nice. That's my only request.





The last video talks about this guy in a screenshot which can be found here.

Enjoy.

Am I an oral/aural success?

That's a matter of perspective and wholly subjective based on experience and ability as a deaf/hh person who grew up speaking and listening.  I grew up with a lot of hearing friends and some deaf friends. I grew up playing sports such as soccer, baseball and wrestling and I excelled in them. My soccer team was a state championship team in 1975. One of my baseball team in early 1970s that I was in was a championship team as well. I placed 2nd in my weight class in a wrestling tournament. I competed in high school marching band competitions as a drummer and competed in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.  And so on.

But was I an oral/aural success?

My first words were “bye bye” at 14 months old.
At 18 months - “Jamie,” “Baby,’ “DaDa,” “Bye Bye,” “Car” and “Hot”
By 30 months or 2 ½ years old I had a vocabulary of 20 to 24 words
At 2 ¾ years old I was forming sentences “Dada bye bye,” and “Dada eat.”

At this point after a year and half of oral training with John Tracy Clinic and Birney school I was progressing fast and saying many words.

At 2 ½ years old all of my words were hard for me to pronounce them because of my deafness. I received my new body hearing aid at that point and with the help of my mother and John Tracy Clinic my vocabulary grew. By 3 ½ years old I was forming questions. “Where is Jamie?” “Where is Dad?” I even said to my brother, “No no. Momma pretty” in reference to her hair. By 4 ½ years old I could recognize my own name and names of my classmates in Birney school in Tacoma. By 5 ½ years old I was able to read basic words, identify colors, count number from 1 to 10.

I was in a class of hearing first graders for ¾ of the day. At first I was emotionally upset for awhile with the big change from an oral setting in Birney School to a regular classroom with hearing students. But I finally adjusted and did well. According to my mother’s notes I was above average in most subjects. In March 1973 I received my first behind the ear hearing aid to replace my worn out body aid. I wore my behind the ear much better and was able to get more sound out of it. The miracle of advancing hearing aid technology.

I went regular school from 4th grade to 12th as a hard of hearing student. Did theatrical plays, played in the middle school symphony band, took piano lessons starting at age 7, and I was on the high school marching band that competed in the southeast marching band competitions.  I was your typical middle and high school student.

Am I an oral/aural success?  Certainly.

I still can order my food and listen at the drive through speaker and make sure they got my orders right. I can speak to my family, friends, and strangers in person or over the phone without problems. In a physical setting with people around me the acoustic environment must be conducive enough for me to carry on a conversation.

I've come to think of myself as a person with a hearing loss. A person who is deaf. Also a person who is hard of hearing. Or even person who is hearing impaired with the focus that my hearing is impaired, not just myself.

I'm an oral/aural success? Certainly.

Despite that, I still cannot hear completely and my hearing aid helps me tremendously. I can keep up with conversations in small group conversation but the settings have to be right.

I did well in regular school in a non-mainstreaming setting. I relied on my hearing aid to listen. Sometimes they needed to repeat what was said. I got good grades. I went from high school to a hearing college and then to Gallaudet University as a lark and curiosity to see what a deaf/hh setting was like. I learned how to sign and communicate in ASL. While going to Gallaudet University I also attended nearby George Washington University without the need for note-takers, interpreters or any other support services and did well in those courses.

After Gallaudet University, and George Washington University I attended a graduate school at University of Idaho and successfully got my masters degree in Geology. I did well in classes without the need for note-takers, interpreters or any other support services. I was successful in defending my thesis during an oral thesis defense that lasted almost 2 hours.

An oral/aural success? Certainly.

Throughout my life while attending regular school from elementary, middle and high school I had more friends than I could count on my fingers. I had hearing friends in my neighborhood that we skated together and did a bunch of fun stuff. These friends of mine weren't the "misfit" or "outcast" types. I still have them in my Facebook.

I was never really bullied though a few tried to do that to me but I pushed back and made myself clear. I wasn't worried about being shunned or quietly ignored by the “cool kids” because I learned quickly early on that such "coolness" was highly over-rated.  I never had a mental breakdown because I've always spoken my mind.  I was a good friend to many, and I considered them good friends to this day.

Am I an oral/aural success? Certainly.

But also, because of Gallaudet University, I am successful in sign language. I learned to sign while an undergrad at Gallaudet. I made many new deaf and hh friends. And also learned a great deal the insidious problem of identity politics. I was in the Honor Program. I worked as a math tutor. I spent time focusing on my education but had time to play with my friends, attended a few Rock Festival events, football games, and so on. I graduated from Gallaudet within 3 years. After that I attended graduate school at University of Idaho for 5 years with enough credits for two degrees but only got one degree in Geology and yet made some more hearing friends while there, too.

Now, I have many deaf, hh and hearing friends. 

Today, my working environment involves working with mostly hearing people. I still use the phone to speak and listen with no assistance needed. I still use the field radio when I go out into the field alone in the woods. I still deal with wildfires. I strive to meet other employees who are deaf or hard of hearing.  I strive to help educate hearing people and co-workers about people with hearing loss whether it's mild or profound hearing loss or those who communicate primarily with sign language. It's a win-win situation for me and others when people understand better on the issue of clear communication.

I have never dread sitting at a table surrounded by people who are hearing as long as I feel the acoustic environment is suitable, I'll join. I don't dread meeting different deaf people at bars during deaf nights, either, as we sign away through the night with my wife. I enjoy meeting different people whether deaf or hearing but I do enjoy my solitudes. At work I like calling the shots on when I need CART, a microphone or online captioning for those video conference calls that have a lot of people participating.

Am I an oral/aural success? Certainly.

Am I deaf? Sure.

Am I hard of hearing? Sure.

Am I hearing impaired? Sure. I won't let a little identity politics get in the way. That term doesn't bother me.

But that's not important.

What I like to see today is to help other deaf and hard of hearing people (signers and non-signers) achieve their own brand of success in life with the help of technology whether it's at school, work, play or at home. I serve as a source of inspiration to many deaf and hard of hearing people. Other deaf and hard of hearing people serve as an inspiration for me. I like seeing hard work rather than listen to people complain about how unfair life is. Or hear people make stupid excuses when they are really lazy or ignorant. I like seeing people take the imitative and be pro-active about something positive in their life. Grab the bull by the horns and get busy. Complaining about your past life won't do anything for you or get anywhere. Best you can do is to move forward and make the best of what you got. Me? I take the best of both worlds, hearing and deaf. And I'm making the best of it the best way I know how one day at a time.

I am me.



You are not me.

Don't try and be me but be yourself on the things that you do best at.

Focus on your own successes and what works for you. Success is relative. Success is subjective. I see myself as an oral/aural success. I have never regretted my life and the things that I have done. I continue to go down that path. If you complain about what I do and/or say in this blog then you need to stop focusing on the negative and do something constructive in your life for a change.


Bonus video for hearing people only:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9QwOC4ZxDM

Enjoy.

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.

The new deaf generation....listening and speaking.

Cochlear implant technology has enabled a whole new generation of deaf people enabling them the ability to speak, listen and understand the spoken word, and acquire a language. Below are two split videos of a documentary of deaf children who were outfitted with cochlear implants while very young. They were interviewed later on in life as pre-teens and teenagers and talking to them, you wouldn't know they were deaf. These group of deaf people are the next upcoming crop of new generation of deaf people with cochlear implants.

In the documentary, those children and teens are from Australia where all of them grew up with all of the inflection, pitch and intonation in their voices with an apparent Australian accent. When that happens you know for fact that early intervention works and that cochlear implant provides that very access to a world of speaking and listening, and spoken language acquisition. For parents of deaf babies to watch this documentary would prove to be powerfully insightful and full of hope for them that anything else wouldn't be anywhere near as convincing. This documentary points out that cochlear implants do work and that early intervention is the most important key of them all because of the brain's early plasticity development. Parents would be the glue to make it all work.

Be sure to watch all of the video documentary before commenting so that you can be properly informed on what was covered in the video.

Part I
http://youtu.be/0lmCuyrgc80

Part II
http://youtu.be/ttd2l9J9oqE


When I watched that documentary I was simply amazed at the children and teens' voices and I could actually hear their full inflection, pitch and intonation of their accented (Australian) voices as opposed to hearing American kids with cochlear implants (they do just as well, btw). The difference was hearing their Australian accent vs American accent. Which means one thing, cochlear implant does work even to capture the accent of their (hearing) native spoken language. Not only just speaking but listening as well. The boy with the rocket ship doesn't need to look at his teachers' mouth (i.e. lip reading) to have a conversation. He even understood the electronic voice in the space rocket announcing a countdown (5, 4, 3, 2, 1...blast off!) and the boy would hear that and lifts the rocket up.

Early intervention is the key and parental involvement must play a huge role in this. Not doing those things would simply be left to chance. All this is from an aural and oral development point of view I acknowledge readily. I still see that signing such as SEE, SE, PSE or ASL can play an important role for deaf and hard of hearing children although perhaps in some areas not as critical to others (e.g. profoundly deaf vs those with mild hearing loss at 30 db). It's simply up to parents to make an *informed decision* before moving forward. And we must accept those parents' decisions. The decision does not rest with anyone else. Yet this documentary video will prove to be compelling to parents of deaf babies by providing them the biggest hope and a confirmation that it does work.  How can you compete with that when it comes to speaking and listening development?

A public relation message to the deaf and hh community

The meaning of "organic."

The "organic" word is hippy! Cool! Naturrral! Or with the more provocatively French you could say "Au naturel!" For a deaf or hard of hearing person not to do anything with hearing aids and cochlear implants one could try and claim as being the "organic" wholesome deaf person.

Sure. If you believe in that.

Although I do have my "organic" moments whenever I take a shower.  Even going for swim at a remote swimming hole and go "au naturel" within the volcanic bedrock deep in the territory of Oregon could constitute as an "organic" wholesome moment.  Make that pretty darned wholesome moment. Even singing some songs as you hike the trails would be an "organic" moment because it comes naturally to use your voice. Even if you're tone deaf. Nothing more "organic" than using your voice and scream "Hello" and hear the "organic" echos reverberate off the canyon walls.

Just because one action, belief or way of doing is considered as "organic" or "wholesome" doesn't necessarily mean it's natural. Having an "organic" moment by running nekkid through the city streets in broad daylight with your dingleberries bouncing like leather Hacky Sacks will certainly earn you a trip to the nearest asylum. So, is using your voice to yell "fire" in the most shrieking "organic" way will certainly be a guaranteed way to get yourself arrested.

But I'm sure speaking and using your voice constitute as an "organic wholesomeness" action. Something like the time when one deaf person decided to to speak at the Senate Health Hearing in California decided to go really "organic." The whole nine yards, vocal cords and all. After all, to speak and use one's voice is quite natural for many deaf and hard of hearing people. I don't think you can't get any more "organic" than that. Signing is also "organic," too.  The Native American Indians were doing their own "organic" stuff for a long time until a better, improved "organic" way of communicating stepped in.


I end my thoughts here with a captioned 1967 song called "Born to be Wild" by the Steppenwolf band. Crank up that volume and enjoy your "organic" moment whether by feeling it or by listening to it.

Comfort Zone

I read for the first time a blog called "SayWhatClub" about a woman with a hearing loss describing her "inner struggle." A struggle about who she is. This is about a late deafened woman who lost her hearing at age 19 who is now a much older woman. She explained she could never feel at ease in trying to fit into with the Deaf community and has already found her comfort zone.

My problem was, I just did not fit in with the deaf/Deaf community.  I wasn’t comfortable.  It wasn’t my world.  I was trying hard to be a deaf person, not a hard of hearing woman when in truth, I was and am a woman with a hearing loss who lives in a hearing world.  I was very comfortable in the hearing world and I’m very proud of the fact that I became extremely skilled at reading people. ASL taught me to be very aware of body language, facial expressions, the movements of the mouth and of course, the eyes tell me a great deal about a person as well as what they are saying to me about the individual. 

It wasn’t until closed captioning and CART came along that I finally stopped to really think about who I am?  Most recently, CART and closed captioning has given me a great deal of hope and  brought me closer to accepting that I have truly found my comfort zone.  I became more involved with SWC (SayWhatClub) and met many people like myself over the years.  Then, I recently became involved with CCAC and realized that between these two major groups,  hearing impaired individuals really do have a culture of their own.

I really do believe that "hearing impaired individuals" do have a culture of their own just and how they interact with their kind. If you ever been to a HLAA meeting you'd know exactly what I'm talking about.  They are a different breed of people who sit between deaf and hearing worlds. A world of sound, sometimes clear, other times garbled. They have their own way of interacting and communicating with each other and other people. They share their own cultural understanding of each other. A diversity all of their own.

Pick the Pepsi Challenge to help Deaf Kids!

Here's your chance to vote in the 2010 Pepsi Challenge and vote for your favorite idea on who could could use a $250,000 grant. Voting ends on December 31, 2010. So, go ahead and vote! And maybe a chance to help out 175 deaf kids!




Here are the goals should John Tracy Clinic get the award:

* Provide significant funding for one year of preschool services
* Teach parents how to advocate for their deaf child's future
* Help 175 deaf children learn spoken language

Atlanta Braves Baseball Donates Money to AVT

This is a great contribtuion by the Atlanta Braves baseball who donated $2500.00 for future scholarships toward Auditory-Verbal therapy (AVT) in teaching kids to hear and speak without the use of sign language.

ATLANTA—October 10, 2008— At a recent Atlanta Braves game, the Auditory-Verbal Center Inc. was awarded $2,500 to be used for scholarships toward Auditory-Verbal therapy. Each year the Atlanta Braves Foundation grants funds to youth-serving organizations that focus on health, education, and recreation; and the Auditory-Verbal Center (AVC) was proud to be a first-time recipient.

“AVC offers an opportunity for mildly to profoundly deaf children to learn how to hear and speak without the use of sign-language or lip reading; it is a great honor for this unique work to be recognized by an organization such as the Atlanta Braves Foundation.” says Debbie Brilling, executive director of the Auditory-Verbal Center, Inc.

I remember back then living near Atlanta, Georgia during the mid 1970s and early 1980s my family would attend the Braves baseball game soaking in all that experience up in the bleachers. And watch Dale Murphy go at bat and hit a home run.

In Praise of the CODA Brothers

I’ve watched some of the CODA Brothers videos (Olsen twins they're not) on YouTube and noticed some of their sight gags while I listened to the video's voice over background while they signed cracking jokes and pretty much ad lib-ing over each other. Though a bit ironic watching a video that came with voice over ASL interpretation to a hopefully receptive hearing crowd to their favor. I wonder why? A disinformation campaign?

Now, using sight gags in order to take advantage of the current sentiments with the Deaf crowd is one way of trying to be funny just to be on their “side” which comes with the territory I suppose. But it is another thing knowing how such sight gags can affect others who don’t exactly see eye to eye such as using gags like an overly used and much abused hyperbole. For example, one sight gag in this video doing a cochlear implant impression by using what looks like sawed off portion of a small aluminum can seeing how it protrudes quite noticeably from the side of their heads and with great effects I should say. Nice visual gag by making fun of those who wear CI like this screen capture of the video gag below.



I know. I know. CODA brothers meaning no harm. Just “joking,” right? Kind of like when a bunch of hearing students at a regular high school making fun of those that wear a hearing aid by using a ketchup cup over their ear to imitate a hearing aid at a school’s cafeteria. Yeah, that happened to me one time when I was in high school. Did I think it was funny? No, but I had to tactfully inform my friends on what they did showed ignorance and disrespect. And I pretty much took care of that problem right away, and they apologized afterwards, too, realizing their mistake and ignorance. Doesn't hurt to quickly inform people of their mistakes. Right, CODA brothers?

Next sight gag on the CODA brothers video? Remember the hyperbole remark I mentioned earlier? Well, let’s take “oral” Dan in this video who went to great lengths to imitate a deaf oralist but with exaggerated lip movements, the thick “nerd” glasses, the deep “duh” voice while signing haltingly so reminisce of what a beginner signer may behave while wearing, no less, an AGBell t-shirt (though not everybody is a product of AGBell anyway, at least I wasn't).



It’s one thing when there are some deaf people who may have the tendency to talk in an exaggerated fashion although no fault of their own. Others do not even come remotely close to "oral" Dan. Even more bizarre is that these guys are hearing who do not have these “impediments” in the first place. Oh, I know. I know. It‘s just a “joke” and people shouldn’t take “offense” at this but I am sure the CODA brothers know better. And I’m just rolling with the punches here. I'm sure the CODA brothers will find this video here breath-takingly funny as well with comedians in the "Absent Minded Comedy" show signing and mimicking like an expert ASL interpreter.

Keep it up, CODA brothers. Hope you roll in tons of money off of this venture of yours. And you have a DVD, too! Congrats.

Here's a video message for the CODA brothers.

Deaf Children Can Learn to Talk

While growing up at around age 6 or 7 years old I received my second hearing aid after having worn my first one since age 2 1/2 years old. It wasn’t the behind the ear hearing aid but a body aid. I’ve gotten a lot of good mileage out of my old hearing aid. Obviously so because without that hearing aid of mine I wouldn’t be here where I am today. Successful. And it has helped me with my ongoing Ragtime and early Jazz piano playing, too, ever since I was seven years old when I began playing. I am proud about all of my past hearing aids to the present because I have used them with great benefit.

Below is a picture of my hearing aid inside a protective case. It’s a Zenith. Along with a Battery Membership card, and that special yellow button as you can see what it says.


(see a larger picture here)

It’s so well preserved though I am sure it can work if I put in the right kind of battery in. But is my old hearing aid considered as an “antique” one since it’s approximately 38 years old? And that got me wondering. Is there a hearing aid museum somewhere in the Untied States? I was pretty sure there ought to be a few of them around. And sure enough there is one.

Pretty fascinating on how hearing aids (even cochlear implants!) have helped so many people with hearing loss. Isn’t technology great? And soon enough well have biotechnology to finally help restore hearing loss someday.

WARNING: - If you go into an apoplectic fit after reading this, read it again just to be sure. Step back and breathe slowly before responding. And please leave your conspiracy theories at home about me and this blog piece. Thank you.

More cochlear implant bloggers needed in DeafRead?

Is there a need for more of these CI bloggers in Deafread? Something like Rachel's blog? For so many years there have been a chasm between those who support CI and see that it does really work very well and those who support ASL and believe CI doesn't work that well or worse. But what I have been seeing lately are more discourses and discussions on the issue of cochlear implants, some have been quite fruitful while others are a bit perverted.

I did a quick Google research using a variety of keywords associated with "Deafread."

"CI" and "DeafRead" - 10,300 references.
"cochlear implant" and "DeafRead" - 3,940 references.
"ASL" and "DeafRead" - 21,700 references
"ASL" and "deaf" - 494,000 references
"American Sign Language" - 2,250,000 references
"hard of hearing" - 2,210,000 references.
"cochlear implant" - 497,000 references.
"hearing loss" - 5,040,000 references

Interesting figures. Make what you will with those data but people deal mostly on the issue of hearing loss first rather than about Deaf culture or ASL among the 30+ million people with hearing loss in the United States.

In Jodi's blog one commenter made this comment about Harlan Lane's own attitude towards cochlear implants which is quite compelling in terms of unwillingness to acknowledge certain things and/or help promote proper discourses:

He not only refused to admit that they could work, but when my friend attended one of his lectures with his hearing, speaking deaf CI daughter and approached Lane afterwards asking him to speak with her, Lane refused. Talk about close mindedness!

Do we have these little "Harlan Lanes" running around doing the exact same thing in some of the cochlear implant blogs or even in other non-CI blogs refusing to even acknowledge those with cochlear implants can and do extremely well in the speaking and listening skill area even to the point that ASL wouldn't be a need for them? But sometimes I can't help but think that some Deaf and even hearing supporters (e.g. Harlan Lane types) have managed to somehow hurt the image of the Deaf community by their very act of narrow-mindedness and attitudes. And all people have to do is point to these instances in blogs, vlogs, newspaper clippings, and so on on what Deaf culture is like seen (to them) as unwilling, cruel, or even an unacceptable bunch of Deaf people who are against other deaf/hh people who choose an alternative preference in life other than a Deaf culture one. A case of political correctness run amok might be seen to be as one of them, too. It only takes a few bad apples to spoil the rest of the basketful of good apples to ruin the picture. Yet some deaf forums are starting to take steps to insure that those types of Deaf responses (i.e. "negative activities") are eliminated or reduced through warnings or banishments. Quite telling coming from one Deaf forum when it comes to image control. Again, all of this go to this deep, deep question of mine that I've been asking over the last two years, "unity for whom?"

UPDATE: For ya'll who may be reticent or adamant at the idea of seeing more cochlear implant bloggers (or even cued speech bloggers for that matter) in DeafRead, complain to DR editors about that. And make sure that DR will not want to welcome all deaf and hard of hearing vloggers and bloggers with open arms into the deaf/hh v/blogging community and learn from them and their perspectives on life as a deaf or hh person. Don't look to me to complain. Not cool. Look into the mirror if you want to complain about that. And for the record, I never said I was unhappy with DeafRead. Provide a few Google stats do not mean I am unhappy with DeafRead. Far from it. Although I do provide some interesting blog articles to get people to think. I, in fact, welcome all deaf, hh, Deaf people with open arms and that we are all in the same boat when it comes to communication access. Variety is the spice of life. But if you insist on being that limited group that will only open arms to those with a conditional requirement then go for it!

Cochlear Implant and Swimming..doing the impossible

Here's a cool video of how a deaf kid can wear a cochlear implant and swim in a swimming pool without it getting wet. This means diving into the water, jumping in, swimming, splashing and all that stuff. How? Take a gander at this video for this BTE cochlear implant. Thanks to the ingenuity of this kid's Dad, he can now swim and hear what people are saying. Even hear underwater. And, oh, btw, the deaf kid sounded like any other hearing kid to me. His voice sounded just great. I'll get around to it and use Overstsream to add the caption in later. But the video does provide a "screen transcript" of sort explaining the warnings and other useful information.

Enjoy.