Proof when voice is more effective than signing....

Or is it?

Well, one person was the Chapter president (Sacramento) of California Association of the Deaf, an organization who pride themselves their strong heritage on using ASL, used his voice instead at a California Senate Health Hearing discussing the AB2072 bill in a roomful of culturally deaf people which would make Alexander G. Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, John Tracy Clinic, Oberkotter Foundation and all of the oral/aural schools around the United States quite proud.




Sign language interpreters were at the hearing to help interpret both voice and sign language.  Yet it's perfectly alright to use your voice, even at Gallaudet University, CSUN, or elsewhere as long as there are interpreters and/or CART services available so that everyone, deaf, hard of hearing and/or hearing can understand what's being said. Tim Riker, former chapter president of CAD, made it perfectly clear on June 23, 2010 at the California Senate Health Hearing that using his voice was wholly acceptable finding it preferable and more effective than signing.  Although one cannot avoid noticing the total irony coming from a chapter president of an organization that exclusively use sign language.

It was perfectly clear that using my voice at Gallaudet University's blog/vlog conference with interpreters and real time captioners available for the audience and for those watching over the internet (it was a live taping) was more effective for me than signing. It was simply due to my preference and communication ease. I discussed one of the topic surrounding the use of technology on whether ASL is in danger of disappearing.




It was perfectly clear when a Gallaudet University Board of Trustee member, Dr. Brenda Brueggemann, used her voice at a Gallaudet University graduation commencement speech was an effective use of her communication preference to the graduating class of 2006  with an inspirational speech but you need to know the true story of why she had to use her voice before you get angry first.

It was perfectly clear that John Fortius, an oral person who does not know sign language, who used his voice at the California Senate Health Hearing was an effective and efficient way of communicating to the assembly members.  Even though, ironically enough, the former chapter president of CAD criticized John (it appears he was talking about John) for having "unintelligible" speech.  Even though there is a complete transcript of John Fortias' speech and that sign language interpreters were clearly interpreting in ASL what John said for the deaf audience in attendance at the Senate Health Hearing.





Thank you, Tim Riker, former California chapter president of Sacramento CAD. Thank you, John Fortias. Thank you Dr. Brenda Brueggemann.

Whatever mode of communication you find most effective and efficient is what really counts.

Using your voice at Gallaudet University and elsewhere is OK

There were several instances of a protest supporter, student, faculty or alumnus who used his/her voice (without signing) in front of hearing, deaf, and  hard of hearing audience. Most of these people who used their voice instead of signing were either deaf or hard of hearing at places like Gallaudet University and the Senate Health Hearing in California on the AB2072 bill. In all cases there were sign language interpreters available and in some cases included voice interpreter and real time captioner.  This is about respecting communication preferences of deaf and hard of hearing people. A preference that they feel most comfortable in. Due to certain circumstances sometimes voice had to be used instead of signing.

Before I get started I want to remind people that Gallaudet University is a true, bi-lingual institute. I would like to think students attending Gallaudet University are not linguistically disabled in the English language, especially towards the end of their undergraduate career with a strengthened English competency and literacy.   I see both the English language (spoken or written) and sign language as equally supported on campus. Both ASL and the spoken English language deserve equal respect in the cases I'm about to present.

Secondly, I must remind people that president Hurtwitz of Gallaudet University re-iterated a key point that ICED issued a global call to "accept and respect all languages and all forms of communication" in the education of deaf and hard of hearing people. There were no restrictions or specificity against the use of Cued Speech, oral-auditory methods, SEE, PSE, AVT, note takers, CART, captioning, texting, voice to text, use of hearing aids and cochlear implants to help communicate and listen, and so on. Nor did ICED specify or condemn for using one form of communication method over another. Nothing was said about which form of communication MUST be used but rather that all forms of communication MUST be accepted and respected.

Did you get that?

Thirdly, as a side note, most students on campus do not sign in "pure ASL" but instead mouth the words while signing almost or completely in English word order like a PSE or signed English format. Some do sign and use their voice at the same time like former interim president Robert Davila of Gallaudet University as you can see (and hear) in the video below at time stamp from 1:13 to 2:01. Also note in the video on how deaf/hh people sign and mouths the words at the same time and oftentimes in English order. Pure ASL? Not really.



Moving on.

 

The first notable so called "scandal" that I'm aware of took place at Gallaudet University in 2006. Dr. Brenda Brueggemann, who is deaf, was the Commencement Speaker for Gallaudet University's graduating class of 2006.  She used her own voice instead of sign language.

 

 

 

She was at the time the interim Acting Chair of the Gallaudet University Board of Trustees. She was essentially pushed to take over Celia May Baldwin's position after she suddenly resigned claiming threats were made against her by some nutty pro-DPN2 protesters.  After the 2006 Gallaudet University graduation ceremony Dr. Brueggemann was wrongly attacked for using her voice.  The attackers simply did not see the bigger picture the reason why she had to use her voice in the first place as explained to me by Bruggemann in her email to me in 2010.

Meanwhile, I do also completely understand the reason and "right" for using ASL more and "better" --especially at places like Gallaudet. My ASL is only about half-good right now--not even as good as my German probably. But I can have conversations. I did so all the time as Board Chair with King and other Gu administrators directly on VRS (not using interpreters). I get by. And had I had any time to actually prepare my remarks for the GU graduation last May, I probably would have signed them more or at least part of them. But I didn't have that prep time. I was dropped into the Acting Chair's position on May 10, to be exact--once CM Baldwin resigned. And I was handed the remarks she was supposed to deliver (already scripted) for graduation on May 12. In fact, they didn't even give me the script until the morning of May 12. And it still had her name at the top of it! So, using oral/spoken English, I could feel comfortable enough to develop a few of my own "touches" in the prepared script. But I sure couldn't do that trying to use ASL....

If only the attackers knew about the little known history of why Dr. Brueggemann used her voice then they would not have screeched themselves into an apoplectic fit.   Instead, they get eggs on their faces just like Random Thoughts and Musings by moi blog who got everything wrong about Dr. Brueggemann's reason to use her voice that day.

Feeling silly right about now, don't you?

Let's keep an open mind here, folks.  Signers have a different level of fluency and visual reception/recognition. Not all deaf or hard of hearing people know sign language.

Dr. Brueggemann gave me a poignant but funny message in her email to me to share with everybody:

"Hey, I like my voice!" I'm proud of it. It's unique, it's mine, I like it. I think I'll use it! - Dr. Brenda Brueggemann. Sept 1, 2010.

Yeah, me, too.

The second "scandal" occurred around November of 2009 when a hearing doctoral candidate at Gallaudet University presented a dissertation defense in spoken English rather than ASL to a diverse audience of deaf, hard of hearing and hearing students as well as professors. Gallaudet University provided ASL interpreters. That "scandal" was short-lived, too.  Not much details other than it happened. Although I do admit this has nothing to do with a deaf or hard of hearing person but it was the idea that a doctoral candidate was allowed to use his own voice to speak in his dissertation defense at Gallaudet University.

Then we have an unknown person named "Bobby W" who claimed to have used his voice in 2006 to defend his student teaching experience for his degree at Gallaudet University:

If it makes you feel any better at the height of the campus scandal in 2006 while I was defending my student teaching experience for my degree from Gallaudet in front of the Education Department. I also choose to use my voice to do so. I used ASL for the answering/question session but the actual defense I used my voice. Imagine defending an education degree from Gallaudet University orally. I'm sure I was the FIRST to ever do so.

I received a few funny looks from my peers and a few of the EDU professors but It was a success...

-Bobby W.

Bobby W, where are you? Are you deaf, hh or hearing?

Next, of course, you have another Gallaudet University alumnus, which would me, who used his voice to speak at an audience at Gallaudet University's first ever vlogging/blogging conference in 2007.  I was one several panel members at that vlogging/blogging conference.  It was streamed in live in front of an internet audience and those physically present. Most people, I think, were quite receptive of my decision to use my voice based on the comments I received compared to Dr. Brueggemann's who probably got more people their panties in a bunch.  I don't think mine counted as a "scandal" by any stretch of the imagination.

And then we had this culturally deaf guy who was the Sacramento chapter president of CAD used his voice at the Senate Health Hearing in California in a room full of culturally deaf people which easily outnumbered the number of hearing people present. It's not a scandal if a deaf person choose to use his or her voice to speak or use sign language. The deaf and hard of hearing community support those who have a different but preferred mode of communicating.  You can find the original video of Tim Riker and others at the Senate Health Hearing in here.  




But the real eye-brow raiser was when Tim Riker criticized another oral deaf person, John Fortias, for having "unintelligible speech. " The sad thing is that the "unintelligible speech" claim is not true at all. John's speech is intelligible as evidenced in a transcript and by the interpreters in both videos (see above and below). It is quite evident that a sign language interpreter could understand John's speech as evidenced in the video below (video source).



The message?

If you're deaf or hard of hearing, whether you wear hearing aids, cochlear implants or none at all, it is alright to use your voice to speak in a public setting as long as other modes of communication are accessible to those who cannot hear, have trouble understanding the spoken word or unable to understand a different language such as ASL.  Let's hope students and faculty members at Gallaudet University will not shame students for using their voice as a choice.  After all, Gallaudet University is a bi-lingual institute.  Don't let people bully or chide for your preferred communication choices.

I have a question

A captioned video, "I have a question."

Marlee uses her voice on Celebrity Apprentice

I've begun to catch up on the Celebrity Apprentice show only because Marlee Matlin is in it. I normally don't watch that show but while watching the episodes I noticed that Marlee has used her voice several times and no signing at all. Sometimes I hear her when she uses her voice talking but the show doesn't pick it up with their captions.

One example of that is captioned as seen in a screen capture of her saying "Okay. We're home" as seen in the screen capture in Season 4, Episode 4 ("Off the Hook") at the 10:05 minute mark as seen on the Hulu video.

Sometimes she uses her voice at the same time with her signing such as in Episode 4 (48:40 mark) during the commercial making challenge for the ACN video phone by voicing to her daughter on how much she missed her.

Now, nothing wrong with her using her voice but I simply noticed this of hers and whether anybody else picked up on that as well. It's good that she is using her voice and not be afraid to use it for fear of some crazy public backlash. Just like not being afraid to show her support for the Starkey Foundation on giving out free hearing aids to kids from around the world, too. She even wears Starkey hearing aids, too. At least she's busting the stereo-type that all deaf people are unable to use their voice to communicate just like most people can.

Episode 5 should be interesting on testing her leadership qualities as the Project Manager. My wife enjoys every bit of any shows or movies with Marlee Matlin in it. After all, both my wife and Marlee Matlin knew each other in high school as school mates and friends while living in Chicago.

Addendum:

Check out this poll about the $1 million dollars donation to Starkey Hearing Foundation on whether people approve or not the donation for free hearing aids to deserving kids from around the world, I'm sure Marlee Matlin approves.

Damn the ASL, Full speed ahead!

If you know a thing about naval history or two you'd probably might recognize this slightly changed phrase "Damn the ASL, Full speed ahead!" as borrowed from one of the famous and well known naval quotes. And if you look at the bolded italics below it's exactly what I've been doing lately as seen in my latest vlog in response to a deaf professor's rant against a deaf female blogger as I continue to steam full speed ahead on being who I am regardless of the "mines" around me.

"Damn the torpedoes, Full speed ahead!"

Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870). Aboard Hartford, Farragut entered Mobile Bay, Alabama, 5 August 1864, in two columns, with armored monitors leading and a fleet of wooden ships following. When the lead monitor Tecumseh was demolished by a mine, the wooden ship Brooklyn stopped, and the line drifted in confusion toward Fort Morgan. As disaster seemed imminent, Farragut gave the orders embodied by these famous words. He swung his own ship clear and headed across the mines, which failed to explode. The fleet followed and anchored above the forts, which, now isolated, surrendered one by one. The torpedoes to which Farragut and his contemporaries referred would today be described as tethered mines.

[Hearn, Chester G. Admiral David Glasgow Farragut: The Civil War Years. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1988): 263-265. According to the book by Admiral Farragut's son, The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, First Admiral of the United States Navy, (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1879), pages 416-417, Admiral Farragut said "Damn the torpedoes! Four bells! Captain Crayton, go ahead! Joucett, full speed!"]

I've not changed in who I am. I have used my voice in the past at Gallaudet University's blog/vlog conference and I will continue to do so into the future whether it'd be on YouTube, my blog or in DVTV.  And "Damn the ASL" as I continue to sign in PSE or ASL or a mix of both. No shame in how I communicate. I acknowledge my own English language upbringing, my use of my voice, my hearing aid, and even my way of signing. So, full speed ahead! Those mines are duds!

My discussion in DVTV continues on the issues between PSE and ASL. It's not that I'm discounting ASL but rather questioning the fact whether deaf/hh people who know signing actually sign in PSE rather than in purely in ASL.  And seeing the irony of how some people proclaim to be ASL signers but sign rather obviously in a PSE or PSE/ASL format instead. There is no shame in signing and acknowledging the use of PSE over ASL. There are people who have a preference and reason to sign in PSE rather than ASL and vice versa. No shame in that. Just as there is no shame for me to use my voice in expressing my opinions in YouTube provided that I includes captions so that my videos are accessible to most people, deaf or not.

DVTV will allow my recent video to stay on and I'm thankful to Tayler for allowing that. I have not broken any rules and according to the R-List the goal is for a full and healthy discourse that are accessible for deaf and hard of hearing community users.

We at DeafVIDEO.TV are committed to increasing the accessibility of information for Deaf and Hard of Hearing community users and look forward to a positive and thriving exchange of views in a respectful and safe manner.

Tayler has been doing the right thing in DVTV on helping to try and keep dialogues in a respectful and safe manner.

The next deaf/hh person to speak/voice at Gallaudet University?

I wondered just recently, how many deaf or hard of hearing people at Gallaudet University actually used their voice to speak to an audience along with interpreters on the campus of Gallaudet University? Students, alumni, guest speakers, or even one from the Gallaudet University administration? I can think of  four people who have done that and I'm sure there were more Deaf, deaf or hard of hearing people who did use their voice instead of signing.

The first one come to mind which is the most famous in the lore of Gallaudet University is Dr. Brueggemann who used her voice at Gallaudet University's graduation ceremony.  She was a last minute replacement for Celia May Baldwin after she resigned from her position because of threats against her by some nutty pro-DPN2 protesters. She was wrongfully scorned for her actions because people simply did not know the true story of why she spoke instead of signed at the May 12, 2006 graduation ceremony.

And had I had any time to actually prepare my remarks for the GU graduation last May, I probably would have signed them more or at least part of them. But I didn't have that prep time. I was dropped into the Acting Chair's position on May 10, to be exact--once CM Baldwin resigned. And I was handed the remarks she was supposed to deliver (already scripted) for graduation on May 12. In fact, they didn't even give me the script until the morning of May 12. And it still had her name at the top of it! So, using oral/spoken English, I could feel comfortable enough to develop a few of my own "touches" in the prepared script. But I sure couldn't do that trying to use ASL....

Dr. Brueggemann received hell for using her voice at Gallaudet University, mostly from bloggers and those who contributed to the discussion about her. You can watch her commencement speech video starting at 45:15.

Next is Michael Chorost, a well known cochlear implantee born with a hearing loss, who spoke at Gallaudet University in March 21, 2007 yet no outrage for this guy although he did sign his introductory name.

View externally


Next is another (unknown) person named "Bobby W." who claimed to have used his voice in 2006 to defend his student teaching experience for his degree at Gallaudet University:

If it makes you feel any better at the height of the campus scandal in 2006 while I was defending my student teaching experience for my degree from Gallaudet in front of the Education Department. I also choose to use my voice to do so. I used ASL for the answering/question session but the actual defense I used my voice. Imagine defending an education degree from Gallaudet University orally. Im sure I was the FIRST to ever do so.


I received a few funny looks from my peers and a few of the EDU professors but It was a success...


-Bobby W.

And then, of course, myself when I used my voice while I was one of the several panel members at Gallaudet University's first ever vlogging/blogging conference in 2007 that was televised live in front of an internet audience and the audience that were physically present. Most people, I think, were quite receptive of my decision to use my voice compared to Dr. Brueggemann.

In a space of about a year from 2006 to 2007 four different people who are deaf or hard of hearing used their voice in front of an audience on the campus of Gallaudet University as far as I know. Could it be a start of a trend?  I'm sure there may have been a few more examples of that since then so does anybody know other deaf/hh people who did use their voice in front of an audience on the campus of Gallaudet University? And if so, how did people respond? Looking back, why did people respond differently to each of those four different people I just mentioned? Will the future see more people deciding to use their voice instead of signing as a choice?

UPDATE: I came across another individual ( a 1975 Gallaudet University alumnus) who did an oral defense at Alliant International University (and not at Gallaudet) as described in Gallaudet University's alumni news page. But note the irony on the study of the defense was about:

'75 - Joe McLaughlin passed the oral defense for his doctoral dissertation, "Sign Language Interpreter Shortage in California: Perceptions of Stakeholders," at Alliant International University in San Francisco, Calif. in January. McLaughlin received his Ed.D. degree in higher education in June.

Growing up...something about me.

There were lots of things I remembered while growing up as a little boy. A boy that wore happily and proudly a body hearing aid from almost the age of two years old to age seven. I took a trip down to memory lane over the last few weeks over a pile of my baby and boyhood pictures. I also got to see many of my old drawings and other artsy stuff I did. Read some of the John Tracy Clinic correspondence letters that were written to my parents. Got to see my past grades, state testing results and more. I even found my old State Champion soccer patch that my teammates and I won in a hard fought soccer game for state champ recognition in 1974 when I was in the 4th grade. It was my second state champion team in 1974 after winning a state championship soccer game in 1973 when I was in the 3rd grade.

As I went through my old stuff I recognized the fact that I liked to draw where many of my hand drawn pictures were happy, memorable ones. Oftentimes with me wearing proudly my body hearing aid.  The hand drawn and colored in picture you see above "Something about me" was a drawing about my missing tooth.  I drew that picture when I was in the first grade at 7 or 8 years old during the 1972 - 1973 school year. It was part of an activity drawing of a story of mine with 8 pages of drawing made into a "book." My oral upbringing was certainly filled with memorable times where I was happy, outgoing and a fun guy to play with my friends, hearing and deaf, where I didn't let my body hearing aid stop me from having fun.

Something about me.

Use of voice is way, way better than ASL!

There you go, this has taken me four years to get to this point where I can now use three different actual situations from three different people who are Deaf, deaf or hard of hearing and were either raised orally or orally-aurally (the pronunciation of words plus auditory feedback) and their choices between using ASL or voice. In each situation the venue had the proper number of ASL interpreters along with either having real time captioner available for the audience. The core understanding is that for each of them they had the right to choose between using their voice or sign in ASL to the audience. But because of their choice their reasons shouldn't matter because supposedly the enlightened Deaf crowd ought to know already that it shouldn't matter why voice was used but that they should be respected for their choice since their message was never lost that day.

The three people are:

1) Dr. Brenda Brueggemann, a deaf person who was the interim Acting Chair of the Gallaudet University Board of Trustees and chair of the ASL Department at Ohio State University chose to use her voice that day as the Commencement Speaker at the 2006 Gallaudet University graduation ceremony. But you have to read her story on why she used her voice before jumping to conclusions and make any further wrong assumptions.

2) Mike McConnell, a hard of hearing person who graduated from Gallaudet University in 1991 was one of the several panel members at Gallaudet University's first ever vlogging/blogging conference in 2007 that was televised live in front of an internet audience and the audience that were physically present. I already explained why I chose to use my voice that day.

3) Tim Riker, a Deaf person who is the chapter president of California Association of the Deaf decided to use his voice (English) at the committee meeting in the California Assembly building on June 23, 2010 in the effort to raise ASL by pleading and making a case through voice (English). Although Tim Riker has not yet offered his reason on why he chose to use his voice that day.

All of them are deaf.

In all three situations there were professional ASL interpreters available. In two situations there were real time captioners available at Gallaudet University's graduation ceremony where Dr. Brueggemann did her speech and at Gallaudet University's vlog/blog conference. In all three situations each of the person had their own personal reason for their decision to use his or her voice. It didn't matter if you think it was a "wrong" decision to do. What's important is that they had that right to choose between ASL or voice when it was made available. They all chose voice for a variety of reasons. And that should be the end of it. People should just simply respect their choices instead of going all nutso for not signing or go into some deep analysis to arrive at four different conclusions (that were never the correct ones) as to why the person did not use his or her voice is a waste of time and frankly quite inappropriate and none of their business.

So, kudos to Dr. Brueggemann and Tim Riker for paving the way when it comes to choices (I can't really kudos myself can I?) and not be afraid to use his or her voice instead of signing in ASL! And that, yes, deaf people can talk!

Dr. Brueggemann eloquently said four years ago,

"there also does need to be some flexibility and respect for all abilities and kinds of language and communication."

Amen. And that's true in this day and age. So true.

As for for my blog title, "Use of voice is way, way better than ASL." It's all about personal choices and not whether voice (English) is the better language and/or modality than ASL. It's just a preference.

Can you guys finally calm down now?

Why did CAD chapter president use his voice at AB2072 hearing?

I've waited to see if anybody had actually objected to Tim Riker, the chapter president of the California Association of the Deaf (Sacramento chapter), who used his voice at the AB2072 Senate Health Hearing on June 23, 2010 instead of signing in ASL as seen in the Calchannel.com (June 23) along with a partial transcript below on what he said which starts at 31 minutes and 40 seconds into the video:

Tim: Good afternoon, my name is Tim Arthur (actually, it's Tim Riker), I’m the president of the California Association of the Deaf, Sacramento chapter. I graduated from Georgetown University, and this fall, because of all this, I’m looking forward to starting my masters’ in public policy. We are opposed to the bill as it is currently written, but we’d like to see an amendment that would work for the best interest of deaf children and the parents. First of all, I wanted to thank you for the positive changes to the current mark up language of the bill, and it means progress, but the language of the bill still needs a little bit more work to make it so that we can really put the focus on the deaf children and getting the parents access to the information that they need. I wanted to point to a 2003 state senate resolution number 20, it formally apologized for the outrageous attempt to *socially engineer people out of *existence. The regional version of Mendoza’s AB 2072 bill leads us towards a slippery slope of *eugenics. So the proposed amendment is a very good step in the right direction. It is fair, if we have a few changes to the amendment. The proposed amendment by the health committee, it still threatens the fundamental values of a deaf education and language development, by giving audiologists the power to discriminate information for which they are not trained or licensed. The audiologists’ training gives them the buyer that’s inherently unacceptable, if the audiologist ought to have a role, it must only be to identify that child is deaf, as soon as possible, and then refer the parent to an appropriate professional or entity with a focus on the educational aspect of raising a deaf child. That needs to be determined by the panel of people who are, represented by people involved with the...

How come no outrage from people in the Deaf community for Time to use his voice when the issue was about getting ASL into the spotlight? With Tim Rikier's refusal to sign and use of his voice, was it to try and appear more "intelligent" and more "educated" hoping that linguicism would prevail on the part of the committee looking favorably at Tim's pleas and be impressed with him?

A) When a Deaf person is able to speak English with his voice, or write excellent English, he gets lauded as intelligent and well educated. This person is considered successful in life.

B) When a Deaf uses ASL (no matter how fluently), but writes mediocre English, and cannot speak English, he is considered intellectually inferior, ill-educated, and guaranteed to fail in life.

On linguicism:

SCENARIOS:

Two persons are talking. During the course of this conversation, one of the persons is assessing the other’s wealth, quality of education, status in society based on the other person’s use/choice of language or dialect.

A) If the other person shows an excellent command of English, the assessor assumes he is quite well-educated, possibly from a wealthy family, which then indicates an elevated status in society.
B) If that other person shows poor command of the English language, or uses another language, the assessor assumes that he’s ill-educated, poor, possibly from a ghetto and therefore from the lower classes in society.

What I don't understand is that since Tim Riker is deep within the world of Deaf culture and community as chapter president of CAD he uses his voice.... instead of signing using his proud and preferred language, American Sign Language. I kind of wondered what exactly was Tim's strategy in doing that. What was his goal to use his voice that day as chapter president of CAD? There were voice interpreters there that day and would have interpretted his signing yet he choose to use his voice that day, on live tv, in front of thousands of Deaf people tuning into the AB2072 soap opera. Not one single outcry from a Deaf person, community or group objecting or asking why he used his voice instead. Not one (as far as I can tell so far).

Why the silence? Is this another example of hypocrisy at work?

Now, I'm in favor of a person in choosing how one prefer to communicate. I won't discriminate anybody for doing that. It's really none of my business. There were ASL interpreters available for both voice and ASL translation at the meeting it wouldn't matter to me. I am not opposed to Tim or anybody else who choose to use his/her voice or sign. I'm just noticing the obvious disconnect between what Deaf people say about using voice over ASL when it comes to choice. And it's usually a negative one.

Now, when I choose to use my voice at Gallaudet University's first ever blog/vlog conference where it had ASL and voice interpreters, and real time captioners available for the live internet audience, I had gotten a few grumbling complaints and objections from some Deaf people saying what I did was rude and so on. And of all places on the sacred grounds of Gallaudet University did I dare use my voice in front of Deaf people. Oh well.

What I'm presenting here or trying to say is not about the complaints per se although I am wondering about that too but it's the irony in seeing a chapter president of CAD who is Deaf use his voice in front of thousands on live streaming tv (which is now recorded for history) in order to elevate the status and use of ASL. Did he unwittingly lowered the status of ASL as not important and choose to use his voice instead? Did he unwittingly elevated the use of voice over ASL that day? Those are the interesting questions I have here.

ADDENDUM: If you have no objection (I don't) to Tim Riker's using his voice then you should have no objections to Brenda Brueggemann, who is deaf and knows ASL, using her voice at Gallaudet University's 2006 graduation commencement speech?

ADDENDUM #2: In a blog called Random Thoughts and Musings by Moi blogger discussed the Breuggemann's use of her voice and agrees strongly that she shouldn't have used her voice and that it was plainly wrong. Oh really?

People in our community are free to choose what language they want to use in various situations - I absolutely agree with that. Dr. Brueggemann's choice, however, went far beyond the bounds of diversity and was, in my view, a grave offense. I took great affront at her choice that day...

Too bad this blogger doesn't know the true reason why Brueggemann decided to use her voice in an email exchange that Brueggemann and I had at the time. I wonder how this blogger feels about Tim Riker's use of his voice being that he's a chapter president of CAD? In both situations both had ASL interpreters at the time with the exception of Gallaudet University that had both an ASL interpreter and real time captioner for the large video screen at the graduation ceremony.

Related blog - Voice is way, way better than ASL!

Incredible Hulk Character equals Oppression to Deaf?

Now, I gotta laugh at this one. In DonG's blog he lamented over whether Lou Ferrigno's acting as the Incredible Hulk character who had no speaking role and did the whole "Aaarrgghh!" thing instead somehow constituted as "avdism" (purposely misspelled) just because the actor happens to be deaf? Oh, please.

So, I wonder why in the comic book, the Hulk can talk, but in the TV series, the Hulk never talks, except to say GRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! I’m thinking it is either:

The writers found the Hulk would be played by Lou Ferrigno, and assumed that he can’t talk, even though Lou was raised orally and can talk.
OR

The writers wanted to emphasize the Hulk’s lack of intelligence, so they wrote it so the Hulk can’t or doesn’t talk in order to emphasize his stupidity. That is, muteness is equated with stupidity.
Either way, that’s a*dism, right?

No, it's not. They cast him because of his size and build. He was a well known bodybuilder and was consider large for his size at the time at 6'5" and 275lbs. In fact he was one of the tallest professional bodybuilders at that time next to Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't think it was that important to have a Hulk tv character to do these simple angry one liners when an occassional "Aaaarrrgghh!" would suffice. And it did. It was all about visual effects. Not about voice.

There were five TV seasons, several TV movies and the first Incredible Hulk movie feature where the Hulk character never talked even though in comic books had him saying simple words like "Hulk smash! or "Hulk no like puny humans!" But that soon changed in the last Hulk movie a few years back by using Lou Ferrigno's voice to do the "Hulk smash!" voice over.

Hulk's verbal skills and intelligence have varied in the comics, but he's never been as mute as the TV version. So it's a little ironic that TV Hulk Lou Ferrigno will give voice to the Hulk in this film. Producer Gale Ann Hurd says Ferrigno was a last-minute addition to a panel on the movie at New York's Comic-Con. Director Leterrier invited him to "audition" onstage. "Lou did this amazing, 'Hulk smash!' " says Hurd. "And (director Louis Leterrier) said, 'Come in, we'll record you next week.' Everybody thought it was either a staged event or we wouldn't really do it. But the next week Lou came in in L.A. and his voice is the voice of the Hulk."

Satisfied?

So, let's knock off this nonsense in the attempt to find anything to do with "avdism" or the use of the a-wordism and attach that to this Hulk thing. I'm sure Lou Ferrigno would have laughed at the whole silly notion. What's next? Preferring to talk instead of ASL would be labeled as avdist for a deaf person, too? Oh, please! Such moronic thinking.

When a deaf person is mocked for his voice...by another deaf person

Imagine a deaf person mocking or making fun of another deaf person's use of his/her own voice. Well, it does happen. It's even worse when someone goes after a deaf father and his deaf son who wears a cochlear implant. And I have a video response for that based on a recent YouTube incident between Russell Errigo and ASL1817.

Here's my video seen below.

In the beginning I sign, and then I switch over to voice just to make a point, and then in the end I resume signing. This was brought up when ASL1817 used the opportunity to slam Russell Errigo about his speaking ability even though he didn't ask ASL1817's opinion for it. It was all centered around a topic about Russell's son, Dominic, and his ability to speak and listen with the use of his cochlear implant. A success if anything else. It's a double edged sword when you happen to be the deaf parents of a deaf child in a Deaf community even though the parents know ASL but gets their child implanted with cochlear implant at age 2. This is all about early intervention. Something that, apparently so, Russell and his wife knew about early on. You can find the video of Russell's son and the comments that came with it in YouTube.

Here's my response to ASL1817's attempt to slam Russell in more ways than one.

The Value of Cued Speech

When cued speech works.












I specifically choose these videos because they came with subtitles so that everybody can have the opportunity to understand what is being said in those videos. Subtitles are in short supply in many videos whether geared toward hearing, deaf, hard of hearing or Deaf viewers. Enjoy these videos and learn more about cueing. No attacking, please.