An AGB Protest or AGB Dialogue?

Just read a few updates about the protest that’s (or was at this point) taking place at the Marriott Hotel where the Alexander Graham Bell for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing convention is taking place (July 27 and 28) in Arlington, VA. And I noticed that somebody said that the Marriott Hotel manager(s) explained that they read all Deaf blogs concerning AGB and learned about the upcoming plan to attend the conference/hotel in order to protest ABG’s lack of policy or support regarding the use of sign language, specifically ASL.

Now, there seems to be a dichotomy at work here is what I’m seeing. The word “protest” is rife throughout those Deaf blogs. After reading those blogs I wouldn’t be a surprise to see that Marriott Hotel managers would be so concerned about the upcoming protest and that they would try to ensure that the convention go uninterrupted. And reading those Deaf blogs probably brought visions of last year’s protest on the campus of Gallaudet when protesters took over the campus and a few buildings, along with some destruction of property and defacements where everything was shut down and disrupted. All they saw was the word “protest” peppered throughout those blogs and how angry these Deaf people were and never enough on the discussion on the need for positive “dialogue” in a more neutral and constructive manner instead. Is this a protest or dialogue?

So, what are they supposed to think after reading all those Deaf blogs? How are they supposed to react when they know a group of Deaf protesters will try and enter their building not knowing if their intention is to disrupt the convention or not? Taking pictures or videos of ABG attendees does constitute a form of disruption, even harrassment. Even if they may seem peaceful on the outside just to gain entry and then proceed with the disruption once they have the opportunity. They cannot read protesters' minds on what they would do that day. And how will they react tomorrow knowing that more will come thinking they may get even more "rowdier"? Can we blame last year's protest at Gallaudet University that caused the managers to think or behave in the way they did today? Or is this something else? Did anybody in the months before attempted an honest person to person dialogue with one of the AGB officials? How many Deaf people in the protest crowd actually met any of the AGB people in person to discuss their policy regarding sign language in a neutral setting that's more conciliatory? I wonder. But it’ll be curious to see what both sides will have to say after this protest is done by tomorrow.

Elderly Man Viciously Robbed and Beaten, Hearing Aids Stolen, Shoots Robber

Elderly Man Viciously Robbed and Beaten, Hearing Aids Stolen, Shoots Robber.

This robber deserves getting shot after beating a 93 year old elderly man 50 times. And then proceeded to steal items from his house, including the old man's two hearing aids. When the old man regained consciousness he used his .38 caliber handgun to shoot the robber in the throat when he charged after the old man again. Poetic justice says the robber dies for his actions. If not then poetic justic says that he becomes a mute hearing person.

Moral of the story?

Don't ever steal a person's hearing aid.

New Improved Cochlear Implant Device!

As technology continues to help improve hearing for people with hearing loss this one cochlear implant technology (edited to add - actually a neural implant) isnt like your average cochlear implant. This implant is so small it can be inserted underneath the skin where the implantee can swim or even take a shower with it still on hearing the drops of water and the splash and gurgling sound underwater at a swimming pool.

In normal hearing, there is a strong response corresponding to frequency played. With the conventional cochlear implant, the brain registered sound, but not at a specific frequency. With the new intra-neural implant, the graph shows a strong, specific response–similar to normal hearing.

Middlebrooks explains the benefits of the new device. “It will give people hopefully better hearing in complex environments and also some perception of pitches, so they’ll be able to enjoy music and also understand the melodious quality of other people’s voices.”

He adds the implant has another advantage. It’s so small and uses so little electricity, it may be possible to implant the entire device under the skin. That means people could wear them in the shower or while swimming, giving them 24-hour-a-day hearing with no external battery to charge.

Researchers need to verify the safety of the new implants. And they hope to start human trials in about five years. In the meantime, Middlebrooks encourages people to go ahead and get a cochlear implant now if they are a good candidate for one. Doctors should still be able to implant an intra-neural device at a later time when it becomes available.

While electronic components continue to shrink in size more and more people will soon turn to these newly improved cochlear implants or upcoming neural implants as a viable option to help restore some hearing with even better clarity and sound discrimination. Choices will soon get easier for hearing parents of deaf children whether to implant them or not as long it's an informed decision.

Hattip - Mizhko.

Not so David Eberwein - hearing babies vs deaf babies on signing

Not too long ago I posted a video of my 1 year old hearing daughter signing during her 1st birthday party which easily showed the communicative value on signing. What makes signing so helpful for hearing babies/toddlers up to 2 to 3 years old is that they can communicate readily with their hands since their vocal cords are not mature enough for them to start speaking. In my video everybody was talking and not signing to my daughter for her respond correctly with signs. Most signs by hearing babies are related to important signs that address their basic needs and requests such as “hungry,” “food”, “milk”, “ice cream”, “drink”, “candy” and so on going into more specific food groups as the baby gets older while their signing vocabulary expands. This includes basic enjoyment requests from the baby/toddler such as “book,” “movie,” “toy,” and so on. It is clear that hearing babies/toddlers do understand what their parents are saying when they use their voice as evidenced in my video of my daughter at age 1 year. But what about toddlers who are hard of hearing? What are the benefits in the ability to understand speech and recognize sound at that age? What are the benefits to help develop speech and listening skills as the child gets older?

Recently David Eberwein, a Deaf person, said something that struck me as wishful thinking in his “press release” comment prior to the ABG protest soon to take place later this week:

“We want all Deaf babies to be proficient in both ASL and English.”

First off, babies born with hearing loss are not automatically Deaf. The word “Deaf” denotes people who are culturally deaf. Babies are born with a wide ranging amount and type of hearing loss from mild to profound. All babies or toddlers with hearing loss do not belong exclusively to the Deaf community but to the parents of that child. This is not to say that deaf/hoh babies shouldn’t learn sign language, they should. It gives them the edge on communicating with their parents regardless of their hearing status.

Having said that, it is equally important for babies with better hearing maintain their familiarity with sounds and words, and learn to develop their speech making skills whether it’s through hearing aids or cochlear implants. Receptive skills whether it’s aurally or visually are important when it comes to communication. Perhaps babies with better hearing would at first use sign language and then progress to using CUED speech after their vocal cords have already matured by age two or so and gradually drop out (or not) the signing portion. And when the child is much older (if hearing receptive skills and words discrimination are excellent) progress to speech and listening only with no need for CUED speech assistance. An example such as this may be good for children who are hard of hearing that can use what good hearing left as a source for their feedback loop to help with their speech and listening skills while using their hearing aids. Children with much more severe hearing loss could indeed fare better with signing (e.g SEE, ASL) but cochlear implant is changing all that on how it can help improve speech intelligibility with the help of CUED speech.

In order to understand that there are various reasons why parents would choose a non-signing approach over, for example, CUED speech or aural/oral approach you need to read a story about a hearing mother’s adoption of a deaf orphaned child from the Ukraine. Reading this story provides an alternative perspective on what a typical hearing mother may do in order to help her deaf child. This mother describes in her website her careful research about deafness, ASL, Cochlear Implant, the Deaf community, oral schools, Gallaudet University, CUED speech in order for her to make a decision on how she can help her deaf child with her education, English language development and acquire crucial communication skills. This is one extreme end when you have a profoundly deaf child compared to a child with mild or even moderate hearing loss on developing good listening and speaking skills alongside with good English language development.

All in all, advocating for all babies to take the early advantage of sign language to help facilitate early communication would be far better to promote than to protest and demand that all babies/toddlers who have a hearing loss ought to use ASL only and eventually become just as proficient in the English language. Doing so would be, in my view, a bit reckless and even militant in trying to get every baby with a hearing loss into the Deaf world with that approach. I’m sorry, David Eberwein, that kind of "militant" in thinking just won’t work. This would be especially so if you go around calling babies with hearing loss as “Deaf” babies. Just promote sign language for all babies and leave it at that, and let the parents make the informed decision on which particular communication mode would be best for their child. As always, each child is different in their ability and skills when it comes to good communication and English language development. This is especially true if they do take advantage of their ability to hear whether it's a hearing aid or cochlear implant. Sound is important. So is communication.

UPDATE: David Eberwein seems like a nice fellow. However, just because somebody's nice doesn't mean everybody must agree with his opinions. Or even agree with on how uses the words (e.g. "Deaf babies") . Not so. I made the opinion that saying "Deaf babies" for all deaf babies may be seen as militant in thinking by some people which is different than calling somebody outright as being militant (e.g. "David is a Deaf militant"). That was never my intention when my opinion was about the words "Deaf babies" he used and not about attacking the person himself.

Now, people need to get a grip here and stop with the ad hominem attacks nonsense by twisting the facts and just being plain petulent. Ad hominem attacks are not the same as presenting arguments. If you think you have a better one, show it to me. Convince me. But to call names is not even a sign of intelligence. Even a 10 year old kid can tell you that.

Trend on Deaf Actors in Films?

Lately there seems to be of lot of gripes by some Deaf people about how actors (a term I use to describe both female and male actors) who play deaf characters are not, ahem, "deaf enough" and that Deaf actors should be doing the play acting instead. Also, along the line of these gripes is that people seem to complain that there isn't enough shows, movies or televisions that have Deaf people in them.

First off, I feel all of this is a bit of a hyperbole of expression coming from some of these complainers about the "lack" Deaf actors in films or shows. Secondly, there continues to be a trend of more Deaf and deaf actors playing deaf character roles lately over the last 10 years than it did the previous 10 years. Just like we're seeing a trend in technology that offer better communication access to people with hearing loss. Still we get these certain types of people who are NEVER satisfied (I call them 'whiners' because they take things to the extreme) with anything and think in terms of "continuous oppression" mentality. What a load of....

Ok.

There are about 30 million people in the United States (out of 300 million) that have hearing loss. Approximately 900,000 of them are considered to be a part of the Deaf population which makes them to be the pretty small minority of people with hearing loss. And guess which audience will Hollywood cater mostly to? Yep. The mostly hearing population part. Not a surprise.

Over the last 10 years (1997 - 2007) there were many more films produced that have ASL components to it and/or with deaf actors in than compared to 10 years earlier (1986 - 1996). So, it's pretty obvious on the increasing number of Deaf actors in films and television shows. But is not just in the United States that we are seeing more Deaf/deaf actors play the roles of Deaf/deaf characters but elsewhere in other countries.

These kinds of progression in films and televisions do not happen overnight but the trend has been positive so far. However, many Deaf people are adamant that Deaf actors should not play dual roles where one could either sign or talk. Just as Marlee Matlin has done.

Matlin has played the lead role in Against Her Will: The Carrie Buck Story, a made for television movie based on the true story of a landmark Supreme Court case that addressed the experimental sterlization of mentally challenged women. Most fans who have seen Matlin’s performances on television or in film agree that her ability to speak is so refined that they cannot tell she is hearing impaired.

And when she did use her voice in one film (or in the case at the Academy Award) mass outrage ensued by many Deaf people over Marlee Matlin who dared to use her voice and not sign.

Gasp! The world crumbles! ASL will soon be obsolete! Aeeeiiii!

Now, what's wrong with Deaf actors who can play dual roles as a signer or be able to use his/her voice in another role? Or even do a bit of both in films? And they object? A little tight in the underpants are they perhaps?

Now let me end this by saying that there is no active central database on the internet that covers which movies, shows, television parts (e.g. news, specials such as PBS, etc) or plays that have Deaf/deaf actors or have Deaf/deaf contestants or competitors (e.g. Christy Smith in Survivor) for example that people can access and add to (see John Lubotsky as a possible source to update) that list . This sort of database would greatly add and expand on whats really out there for people to more fully informed. For example, information about a possible deaf contestant in Big Brother or an upcoming move such as Dummy Hoy would be one way how such a database could be used. If people were smart enough and have the time to do this massive compilation they would start compiling these information into an online central database over the internet. Doing so would allow anyone to query that database and look for a specific show, topic (e.g. such if a Deaf/deaf actor used his/her voice, signed or used Cued speech, etc) or person. In short a deaf Google of sort. Not just a Deaf Google but deaf Google since not everybody who is deaf or hard of hearing is Deaf.

Deaf Whiners Are Killing Us!

We live in a marvelous age, truly! In the last century deaf people had only been represented by the many incarnations of Helen Keller in made-for TV movies and deaf kids who would appear on sitcoms, teach all of the kids ASL overnight, then disappear. These days we have deaf FBI agents (Sue Thomas), deaf bad guys (John Doe), and deaf characters gratuitously placed on hit shows like “Jericho”.

We have captioned TV, DVD’s, and even Movie Theaters. But now, all of these things are under attack – not from evil Hearies, but from idiot deafies who are not willing to let fair be fair enough.

First, they gripe that there are no deafies on TV. Then they gripe because the deafies on TV don’t sign enough. THEN they gripe about the quality of the signs, that the actors are actually Hearies, or just aren’t “deaf enough”. I got news for y’all – this doesn’t send the message that we won’t settle for sub-standard – it sends the message we won’t settle for anything.

Here’s a case in point – ABC’s upcoming “Bionic Woman” series. The show was to feature a deaf character in a prominent role as Jaime Sommers’ deaf sister. Deafies went into a tizzy because the actress chosen to play her wasn’t deaf. Come on, folks, it’s called acting for a reason! In Hollywood Hispanics play Israelis, straight people play gay people, gay people play straight people, Buddhists play Methodists, and men even play women!

Instead of being happy that deafies are being portrayed as just normal folks who occupy virtually every strata of society, the Whiners are doing their dead-level best to prove that deafies are bitter, uneducated people who can’t possibly be pleased. They’ve told Hollywood that if any and all deaf characters don’t meet up to the vocal minority’s view of “d-Deaf Culture” they will be overwhelmed with petitions, boycotts, and lawsuits.

This leaves the Hollywooders with only one simple choice: drop the deaf characters. With no specific points of contention deafies can only gripe about one thing – the lack of deafies in TV and Movies. This is what happened with “Bionic Woman”. Jaime’s sister is no longer deaf – thanks go to whiney deaf bloggers everywhere.

A deaf blogger recently bragged about throwing a tantrum and essentially bringing everyone’s evening to a halt by blockading the theater entrance because of a technical problem that prevented him from seeing “Transformers” in Rear-Window Captioning. I can assure you theater managers everywhere will hear about this and decide they really don’t need our business that badly.

Deaf Whiner Activists have successfully gotten local religious and educational programming pulled from the air because the producers couldn’t afford captioning.

A couple of years ago I went to a hospital for a kidney stone, and found out that I had waited for an hour for treatment while an ASL interpreter was procured. At the time I didn’t know ASL. They were aware of this – but a local ordinance required an ASL interpreter for all deaf patients. I had the term “deaf” removed from my information. So, thanks to Deaf Whiner Activists, I’m at risk of having problems at the hospital because I don’t sign. Thanks for nothing, ya nimrods!

I’m all for equal access for deafies. I’ve even campaigned for my share of these rights. It’s because off me that the cops in my area all carry 4”X5” notepads and pencils in their cars to ease communication during traffic stops.

I don’t, however, think that our being deaf entitles us to special privileges. We should be treated with the respect we deserve by police officers, for example – but the entire justice system doesn’t need to come to a screeching halt because we get pulled over for speeding. We should have access to captions. We shouldn’t expect theaters to close down because they can’t have them on every single movie – and it’s not fair to expect Hearies to put up with captions on every movie, whether or not a deafie is in the audience. I used to be a hearie, and I can promise you captions are annoying if you don’t need them.

So – don’t settle for sub-standard, but be happy for concessions when we get them. In other words, a puppy won’t learn tricks if you whack him on the nose – even when he gets it right. True change doesn’t happen overnight – and it’ll never come at all if the folks who can make the changes don’t think we’ll be happy anyway.

SOURCE

UPDATE: Some people actually thought I wrote the above piece without ever clicking on the "source" link to see who actually wrote the piece. I didn't write this but somebody else did and put it here. Next time folks? Click on the link whenever you see the word "source" to see who wrote it. The word "source" should be enough of a clue for you to do that.

Geesh.

Matt Hamill Still Training with Ortiz?

This has been one question on a lot of people's minds wondering if Matt Hamill is still training with Tito Ortiz at the Team Punishment camp in California. In a 411mania.com interview the question comes up:

411Mania.com: Let's move to your Team Punishment camp for a bit. Are you still working with Kendall Grove and Matt Hamill? How is training going for their respective fights taking on Patrick Cote and Michael Bisping?

Ortiz: Unfortunately I've actually parted ways with Matt. I know he's in Cincinnati working hard. He's doing his own thing training with his guys. It's kind of hard for him to come out to California especially with a wife and kid. Kendall Grove is actually in Las Vegas training with Couture for his fight against Cote. We're actually pretty excited because we just signed Kendall to a contract with Team Punishment clothing so we'll be taking care of him for a while.

So, there you go folks. You have the official word that Matt Hamill isn't training with Tito Ortiz anymore. Plus, Matt Hamill has a new gym called "Matt Hamill Training Center" which opened up on June 1.


Check out all of Kokonut Pundit's blogs on Matt Hamill. Including exclusive interviews with him by Mike McConnell.

Is Amy Cohen Onto Something?

Out of curiosity I looked at the 90 day most read blogs or most looked at vlogs in Deafread and saw that Amy Cohen was consistently ranked at the top with 957 views as of this writing and had the most number of vlogs in the top 10 list than anybody else hitting 3 out 10, of course, tying with ABC.

I’ve known Amy ever since I entered Gallaudet in 1988 a few months before the earth shaking DPN event and so I know something about her personality and how she is easy to talk to.

Her attitude is consistent with none of that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality changes you would see in some bloggers who care nothing about the consequences of their own actions when using profane languages, hurtful words and even libelous commentaries over the internet. I also noticed that some bloggers tend to do these things while vloggers are less apt to do these sorts of things. Perhaps this is the very reason why more and more people are looking into Amy’s vlogs to see what she has to say? Even though I don’t agree with everything she says but her approach is the right one by getting people to think first and act later rather than succumbing to highly emotional knee jerk responses by acting first and thinking later - an attribute that many Deaf people share nowadays. Or so it seems.

Amy isn’t an infallible person and we all are emotional human beings. However, we learn from conflicts and from that we learn from each other as a result. We all have our own style of blogging or vlogging. Yet we can still learn from each other.

Maybe Amy Cohen is onto something here?

The Linnik Murder - how many illegal aliens in national sex registry?

Zine Linnik, a 12 year old girl was murdered by an illegal immigrant who was charged in 1990 with sexual incest with a 16 year old girl and that was the red flag for deportation. But that didnt' happen.

Somebody should introduce a legislative act something like the Linnik Act at the Capitol (or even at the state capitals) to help address this sort of thing as a remembrance to Zina Linnik. Didn't Adam Walsh do something like that when his boy was abducted and then murdered? What's more didn't somebody, somewhere, broke the law regarding the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 on reporting sex offenders to the national sex offender registry database when Zina Linnik was murdered?

Here's a fact to be aware of:

Recidivism rates for sex offenders often exceed those of other criminals. The Department of Justice has found that released child molesters were more likely to be rearrested for a sex crime than released non-sex offenders. Released sex offenders were four times more likely to be rearrested for a sex crime than released non-sex offenders.

Also, I am thinking out loud here. How many illegal aliens are in that registry? What are the odds on finding one in that registry seeing that many people are so indifferent about illegal aliens in our country? Would people be that stupid to put in illegal aliens who are sex offenders in the sex offender national registry database? And if so, wouldn't that bring a lot more attention to this sordid problem when background checks and screening continually fail?

Does anyone know? Anyone care to check those names in the sex offender registry and find out? Does the White House even care? Bush? Chertoff? Hello people!

Deaf Judges

The one thing that really galls me is seeing a Deaf person tell other Deaf people that they cannot become judges claiming that hearing peers will prevent them from becoming one. Especially more galling would be to see those comments aimed at a Deaf young boy or girl. A Deaf person cannot become a judge? In a word I put lightly here....loads of baloney!

Preventing someone from becoming a judge just because he or she has a hearing loss has absolutely no ground to stand on for saying that. Legally so. Because technology today allows people with hearing loss the ability to communicate using a, for example, CART system during a court proceeding whether the deaf person is a judge or lawyer. And because of that communication technology we are seeing more deaf judges nowadays than we did 20 years ago....which was nil on the number of deaf judges.

There are fewer than 100 deaf attorneys nationwide, but 15 years ago there were fewer than 15 in the profession. Now there are three deaf judges in the U.S. The numbers are slowly growing, thanks to technological advances such as e-mail, text pagers, availability of interpreters and computer-assisted transcription services (CART) and workplace accommodations required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But the fact remains that deaf lawyers are about as common as the albino buffalo. One reason is that deaf children don't see the law as a plausible career. A legal career requires strong communication skills, operates with a unique vocabulary and demands complex interaction but perhaps the biggest disadvantage is an outright bias against deaf people by legal employers.

That paragraph was written in early 2000. But according to the newsletter The Third Branch for the Wisconsin Judiciary printed in Winter of 2000 there are at least 4 legally deaf judges in the United States. As for lawyers, there are at least 170 deaf attorneys in the United States as of 2007. This includes Deaf attorneys as well.

Back in 2000 it was figured that there were at least 100 deaf attorneys in the United States. Now, the number of deaf attorneys has grown to 170 and will continue to grow. With that prospect in mind then certainly the outlook for the number of deaf judges will, too, grow as well.

With statistics in hand as proof lets hope we don't see more Deaf people tell younger Deaf people that they cannot become judges using the pathetic excuse that hearing peers will prevent them from attaining their dreams to become a judge someday.

UPDATE: Again proof begins with having Deaf/deaf/hoh lawyers. There are in fact a few deaf attorneys who own their own practices.

Our attorney members are employed by large private law firms, smaller firms, government bodies, corporations and public interest groups, and some are in solo practice. The diversity of attorneys on our boards is a benefit to all members of our community, especially our law students, who are able to learn about different areas of the law and practice environments from others with experience in those areas.

And that we have legally deaf judges in the United States. It would only be a matter of time until we see the first Deaf judge. Just as it is a matter of time that we will see Deaf dentists and doctors have their own private practices. In fact, Dr. Carolyn Stern, who is *Deaf* has her own private practice:

Dr. Carolyn Stern, a Brighton physician in private practice, drives a car with “DEAF DOC” personalized license plates, which she says helps educate a few people who seem surprised deaf people can even drive a car, let alone become a doctor.

It's equally amazing to hear from some Deaf people that for a Deaf person to become a judge would be impossible.

1 Year Old Hearing Baby Signing

Here's a video of a 1 year old hearing baby at her 1st birthday party showing the many signs that her mom, dad, and grandfather asking the baby how to sign a particular word. In this clip she signed several different words such as baby, table, tree, more, thank you, tummy, nose, ear, "Heather" (her name sign) and so on. In this video you can see people were asking her to sign certain words verbally like "Show me 'more' " and she would sign "more."



If video or captioning doesn't appear go here.

By the way, that baby girl in the video is my daughter, Heather. She knew between 20 and 25 signs by age 1 year old. Her first sign was "milk" at 7 months. Language development was easy for Heather. The mother and father, both with hearing loss, talked to Heather and she would understand our questions and would reply back using signs to respond. Or sign to indicate what she wanted from us such as "cookie," "hungry," "ice cream," "toy," and even "finish" when she was full, and so on . But by the time she was two years she was no longer signing and began to talk in complete sentences!

This video clip goes to show you the value and benefits of using sign language for hearing babies by hearing parents. Doing so helps reduce the level of frustration when trying to communicate. Especially for the baby whose vocal cords are yet fully developed for use.

The Gift of Hearing

Who says charity must begin at home?

For Austin, the CEO of Starkey Laboratories, Inc. and the founder of the Starkey Hearing Foundation, that business—like similar business in Mexico, India, and Turkey—was fitting hearing aids free of charge to more than 200 people too poor to afford them. But that attitude vanished when one of Austin’s assistants interrupted a fitting to deliver some daunting news: through sheer word of mouth, the group of 287 scheduled people outside had now swelled to a crowd of over 500.

It was impossible to accommodate everyone, Austin’s staff told him. They would have to start sending people home.

Austin’s reply was instantaneous.

“I said, ‘we’re doing it,’” Austin recalled. “People said it was impossible, but I said, ‘we don’t turn people away.’”

Working through the night, Austin made good on his word: all 520 people left with the gift of hearing.

Good charity stuff! Giving the gift of hearing to the poor.

“I had the opportunity to see people hearing again after having these profound losses and being shut away from life, all because of their hearing impairment,” Austin said. “I saw the value of the work, and you don’t have to experience losing people like surgeons can. I told myself, ‘There’s no morbidity here, and you really get to help people.’”

What Starkey is doing is a good thing. Never under-estimate the value and gift of hearing.

I wonder if free cochlear implants would be given out to the poor?

Yep. It's a start.

Reporters Win Awards for News Coverage of Deaf Racer

Check out the two reporters who won awards in the South Dakota Associated Press Broadcasters Association contest for 2006 with their coverage of Greg Gunderson on his quest to become the first Deaf NASCAR driver.


Non-Commercial Radio
Honorable Mention: Cara Hetland, MPR, “Deaf Driver”


Television Sports Story
Honorable Mention: Tim Peters, KSFY, “Deaf Racer”

Invasion of Privacy in Deaf Discussion Forums by Deaf Owners?

A serious discovery has come to my attention recently regarding the invasion of privacy of members’ Personal Messages (PM) by at least one deaf owner of a deaf discussion forum. This has been confirmed and it is NOT a rumor. Most likely this sort of activity happened on a regular basis and most likely this sort of disgusting activity continues to this day.

Just to be clear. The owner (and moderators) of Deafreedom DOES NOT invade and read other members’ Personal Messages. Deafreedom (DF) is the ONLY deaf owned discussion forum that I am aware of that makes explicitly clear regarding the use of Personal Messages whenever a DF member sends a PM to another DF member. Deafreedom constantly reminds you with a message prior to sending your PM to another DF member:

"ALL PM'S ARE KEPT 100% PRIVATE AND ARE NEVER VIEWED BY ANYONE EXCEPT THE SENDER AND RECIPIENT"

"AT DEAFREEDOM.COM YOUR SAFETY, SECURITY, AND PRIVACY ARE TOP PRIORITY!"

Again, just to be clear, the owner of Deafreedom DOES NOT invade and read other members’ personal messages unless he happens to be the recipient of that message. The owner of Deafreedom DOES NOT condone this type of disturbing activity and has always believed fully absolute privacy for DF members. Deafreedom prides itself on being an open and honest discussion forum for any and all Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing members. The owner of Deafreedom prides himself on not restricting political or unpopular discussions when other discussion forums may deliberately limit such unpopular discussions just because the site's owner does not agree with or has an obvious but bent political agenda.

Personal Message (PM) by its very nature is supposed to be private between the sender and recipient. This is supposed to be the very common sense obvious to those who run deaf discussion forums. An obvious no brainer there. But apparently this has never been the case according to at *least* one deaf owner of a deaf discussion forum who did this sort of practice behind members' backs. Owners and moderators should not at all read other members’ PMs. This is the very precept that everybody ought to be in agreement of.

I couldn’t tell you how disturbed I was about this recent discovery on how personal messages were deliberately invaded and read by one deaf owner. This was done on a regular basis as far as I could tell. This particular deaf owner of a deaf discussion forum also had the gall to pass those PMs to moderator(s) in order to "inform" them of what's going on. "Big Deaf Brother" indeed! What is it with these invasions of privacy?

If you have been around long enough as an active discussion forum participant and a member of one of the many deaf discussion forums out there then chances are your PMs may have been invaded and read by that deaf owner and perhaps by an assigned deaf moderator, too.

A lust for absolute power and control?

A bit of a peeping Tom fetish of sort?

A way to get his/her jollies, too?

Why?

That's the big question.

Maybe this deaf owner did not like you. Maybe the owner was suspicious of your behavior or didn’t like your comments or that your attitude just irks the deaf owner. It could be for a political reason to look into your personal messages. It may have been a personality issue between you and the deaf owner of a deaf discussion forum. It could be because you brought up unpopular discussions that the deaf owner doesn’t like seeing them being discussed. I don’t know. The reason could be many. But what I do know is that this is simply a case of blatant abuse of power and authority. What’s more, this particular deaf owner never notified or made explicitly clear to his/her members that their PMs could easily be read by the deaf owner and even his/her moderators! Be aware of the fact that you may have been a victim of invasion of privacy and not even know it! You may have a "Deaf Big Brother" right now who have been invading and reading your personal messages at one of your favorite deaf discussion forums!

If you are a member of one or more deaf discussion forums, please ask the owners whether they have a policy regarding personal messages and the amount of privacy members should expect while using PMs. Some software that runs these discussion forums gives the owner the ability to easily view your PMs. Ask the owners whether they allow moderators to read your PMs as well. And most importantly ask your deaf owner who runs your favorite deaf discussion forum whether he/she has read other members’ PMs in the past and will this practice continue? Make sure your favorite deaf discussion forum has a policy regarding the use of personal messages by members and how they are to remain private between the sender and recipient(s) only.

Now having said that, chances are one of the deaf owners of those deaf discussion forums will lie about what he/she has done with other members' personal messages. Also, be aware that not only personal messages were invaded and read without members' consent, IP addresses and email addresses of members were passed onto other people WITHOUT members’ permission as well. This has happened at another deaf discussion forum.

Scary, ain't it?

One thing tho', don’t bother asking moderators questions but ask the owners of your favorite deaf discussion forums instead on just how private your personal messages are.

This has truly been an eye-opening discovery for me. And I am truly disappointed in that one deaf person on what he/she has done by invading and reading other members' personal messages. There is no excuse for invading other members' personal messages, and passing them around to other moderators. No excuse whatsoever!

If you're that deaf owner reading this blog and have done this sort of practice, then shame on you!

Lastly, please DO NOT ask me for more information on which deaf discussion forums I’m talking about. I won't reveal my sources. Just be aware of the fact that your personal messages may have been invaded and read at one time and you not know about it. Don't worry about the federal government, worry about what your deaf owners of those deaf discussion forums are doing with your personal messages! "Big Deaf Brother!"

Deaf Beggars - a Part of Deaf Culture? Part II

You’ve missed my point about a beggar versus a peddler, Mike Schmidt.

The word “beggar” is about a person whose sole purpose is to elicit sympathy, guilt and pity from people in order to get money. And I tell you why what Richard Roehm suggested is really about begging for money.

First, the person is Deaf. That’s sympathy number one once the unsuspecting pedestrian figured out the person's is deaf.

Secondly, the person is selling Deaf cards with a sympathetic message that says “I am selling this ‘Deaf Education System’ card to make my living. Will you kindly buy one? Pay any price you wish! Thank you.” That’s sympathy number two. Or in this case an example of pity in the offering.

Thirdly, a lack of communication between a hearing pedestrian and the Deaf beggar will likely to occur on the street and it’d be the final catalyst for the Deaf beggar to take advantage of by getting the person to feel guilty and toss some money out to “buy” a Deaf card. Most of them do that just get away from that guy in the first place.

It’s begging, Mike. Let’s get real here.

There is a difference between a peddler and a beggar.

A peddler sells his/her wares on the street that have value to those who will *buy* them rather than just contribute a few cents to get that person out of his/her hair. It’s the value that stands out that makes the difference here. Not about using pity, guilt and sympathy that are squarely designed to elicit a response from unwitting pedestrians to give up some money for that Deaf beggar whether it's done aggressively or passively.

It's still begging.

Now, from time to time I go to the historic town of Santa Fe, NM and visit some real peddlers that sit or stand along the sidewalks and sell beautifully handmade Indian jewelries, cloths, potteries and such. Nothing about them that says we should feel pity for them. They have something of value to sell. And people are willing to pay good money for them. American capitalism isn’t predicated on using sympathy, guilt and pity as a way to collect money. Doing so is called begging. It's nothing about capitalism. Please note the differences here. The Deaf card idea is nothing more than another way of doing the begging business under the guise of "selling" something. Nothing legitimate there when it comes to business.

Now, you mentioned prostitution which is the selling of one’s body in return for money whether it’s illegal or not. It is a service that’s offered to those who want it. It is a service that some people are willing to pay and nothing about donating money. It has nothing to do with sympathy, guilt or pity like, “Aw, I feel sorry for you pretty lady. I’ll give you one dollar and we’ll do it in my car. Ok?”

It’s really about begging, Mike.

The selling of Deaf cards is predicated on the hope to elicit sympathy, guilt and pity from unsuspecting pedestrians in order to get money from them. It is not even a legitimate business to begin with even if they do get permits to, um, “sell” those Deaf cards.

Now, if that person has something of value to sell, then sure, he’s a Deaf peddler. But “selling” Deaf cards? I bet about 99% of the people who “bought” those Deaf cards threw them away in some trash can someplace or it was forgotten quickly because they don’t see it as something of value. Why? Because that Deaf person who was selling those Deaf cards on the streets used his/her own deafness along with the Deaf cards with a bit of pitiful messages in them as a way to elicit sympathy, guilt and pity from unsuspecting pedestrians in order to get money. And when that happens, it’s all about begging for money in a passive way and not about selling something of value.

Sympathy.

Pity.

Guilt.

It’s all about using people’s emotion as a mean to get money. There's no getting around to it.

It’s called “begging,” Mike.

As for hobos, it’s a word still being used today. It’s not about what era I’m living in but about whether America “failed” those who must beg for money by selling Deaf cards on the street. So I used the hobo example. In fact, in Britt, Iowa the town holds a hobo convention every year. So it is not lost upon those who actually know that hobos do exist today. What is a hobo?

Perhaps you need to learn a bit more of Americana and American history then? I know more about American history than you think lest you find your foot in mouth the next time you think I don't know about American history. The Dust bowl, 1929 stock market crash, the following depression, the CCC, and so on. That history is old, old stuff that I first learned when I was in middle school and into high school. Elementary stuff. But did you at all bothered to click on the link I put out connecting to a story of how hobos began but it was in the context of black hobos? ‘Outcasts among outcasts’? And why I used that in the first place to frame my context of my blog?

I’ll address more of this and your 2nd half of your vlog next week after the holiday break. Time for bed.


UPDATE: Looks like Mike Schmidt deleted his vlog post regarding his first response to my Deaf Beggar blog post (see the missing vlog post - http://drmzz.blogspot.com/2007/07/vlog-response-to-deaf-beggars-part-of.html ). If you go to his main page you can see that his July 3rd vlog response post is now gone and has only his recent July 2nd vlog post instead.

Why the removal, Mike? At least have the courtesy to tell your readers (and mine) why you choose to delete your vlog response post after I have linked your vlog in my rebuttal to your vlog reponse. Is this your way of saving face or what?

Deaf Beggars - A Part of Deaf Culture?

Are Deaf beggars a part of Deaf culture just as American hobos were/are seen as symbolic icons of America's failure? Outcasts among outcasts? Perhaps Deaf beggars represent the culmination of years of discriminations preventing them from getting work in the first place? Any kind of work I ask. Do Deaf beggars fare better than hearing beggars when it comes to eliciting sympathy in order to get money? Is this another entitlement scheme which they think is owed to them?

Note my tongue-in-cheek comments. Please calm down.

Now, what is doubly ironic is to see a Deaf person with a steady job (I am assuming here, maybe he's on SSI?) makes an actual bonafide money pitch by suggesting that a Deaf person could sell Deaf cards to pedestrians and passerby on the streets and make gobs of money by implying one could make upward of $700 dollars on a good day. This isn’t selling Deaf cards. This is all about begging using deafness as an excuse. Who is taking advantage of whom here?

Secondly, to suggest that this would be an "opportunity" says that seeking honest work isn’t important but eliciting sympathies in order to generate money is much more important. So much for misplaced work ethics here. Using deafness as a gimmick to solicit sympathy tells a lot about a person’s own work ethic and honesty.

I seriously doubt that selling Deaf cards helped the few Deaf people “get off the streets” and get better jobs or get a good education. Why would a Deaf beggar abandon his money making ways of upward of $700 dollars a day? That's potentially $3500 a week. Or $14,000 a month which translates into $128,000 a year. Is there such a thing as a professional beggar? Ok. A bit of imagination running wild here. So is suggesting that selling Deaf cards be considered as an "opportunity."

Now, there is nothing wrong with being a janitor, dish washer, burger flipper, a cook, a pizza delivery driver, and so on. But to suggest that begging for money would be better than taking an honest job of any kind, even undesirable ones, is simply irresponsible. I doubt putting down “Beggar” on a job resume would get anybody anywhere.

Granted, some Deaf people do consciously choose this path and become a Deaf beggar either because they are stuck between a rock and hard place or because they wanted to in the first place because they think its an easier way to make money. It is not. But the whole story changes whenever people with steady jobs or are well off suggest begging as an acceptable alternative to get money rather than seek an honest job. Any job. Even if it means washing dishes.

Suppose if one has a skill entertaining people on the streets to earn money for their efforts, would that be called "begging"? Not really since exhibiting certain skills and using them to entertain people show good work ethics. Like a violin player that plays on the street. People would toss money into his/her violin case as an appreciation for good music. Or perhaps a guitar player? How about a juggler? Maybe work as a mime though that'd be a bit of a cliche' around here. Maybe a drum player? A chalk artist? Some kind of a skill where one could *earn* the money rather than to chase after pedestrians and basically harass them into reading Deaf cards in the hope of getting some kind of sympathy out of them which translates into money . Grubby money. Better to get a job of some kind than to debase oneself using that tactic.

Selling Deaf cards is really about begging and harrassing people since the goal is to elicit sympathy and guilt as much as possible from passing pedestrians while using deafness as an excuse and a crutch. This kind of “free enterprise opportunity” is simply a euphemism for “begging.” It's about using deafness to elicit sympathy and guilt by taking advantages of people's gullibility. I suppose Deaf beggars would be better off if they get a stem cell transplant that would cure them of their deafness? Then they wouldn’t use their deafness as an excuse the next time.

Born Deaf, Live HoH, Die Hearing

Stem cell implant continues to make impressive improvements in the area that deals with sight. One of them is Ushers Syndrome, type 1, which can causes babies to be born deaf, have balance difficulties, and then later gradually lose eyesight to Retinitis Pigmentosa. One 16 year old girl who had Retinitis Pigmentosa received a stem cell implant on May 21, 2007 improved almost immediately.

Three days after her Stem Cell Implant she noticed movement in her periphery where she was previously unable to see. As the days past she was noticing more and more. Approximately three weeks after implant she happily proclaimed that she was able to see her arms swinging back and forth in front of her as she walked the dog! A few days later she informed me that she had noticed her shadow on the ground as she was looking straight ahead! Four weeks after implant, she proclaimed “I can see my feet moving as I walk” (she was looking straight ahead). Another amazing result of the Stem Cell Implant is that her balance has improved dramatically!

Elsiha is still missing a lot of peripheral vision, but is developing areas of vision in her periphery that were long ago lost. She has said she feels safer out walking because she is more aware of what’s around her. Each time she tells me of a new development, I weep for joy! I look forward to each new day as Elisha discovers more and more she can see of a world that was disappearing into darkness.

Good news to hear that certain types of vision impairments can now be addressed with stem cell transplant. That is good news? Right? Eye sight that could be restored in such a way?

Anway, in this example it only took several weeks for her eye sight to heal to the point where she could walk outside with comfort and not fear hitting something. This may give us some insight on how fast the nerves in our cochlea would able to be restored giving stem cell implanted deaf people to become hard of hearing at first and then become progressively more like a hearing person over time as the nerves continue to regenerate and become mature. Perhaps we're looking at several months from the onset of stem cell implant until the person becomes functionally like a hearing person?

Deafness is one of the traits in people with Usher Syndrome. It is relatively common among deaf people we today. With the rate of successes seen in stem cell (adult or tissue stem cell) transplants occuring, it wouldn't much longer until certain blindness and deafness conditions could be eliminated and have eyesight or sound completely restored. Or in this case, cured.

In a June 25, 2007 article "Can you hear me now? Stem cells enhance hearing recovery" shows progress on restoring hearing loss. We keep seeing more and more of these types of news on the restoration of hearing loss using stem cells. The pressure to find out how to restore/cure hearing loss is increasing every year knowing that the amount money could be made seeing that about 30 million people in the United States with hearing loss. That's a big marketing field. It'd turn out to be bigger than hearing aid and cochlear implant industry combined.

Soon, we'll be living in a era where babies are born deaf, gets treated become HoH for a short while and then become a hearing person, and finally die as a hearing person like everybody else. Would this be so bad if this could (most likely anyway) happen? What would you say or do if we get the first deaf person to be cured of his/her hearing loss in the United States? What would you say if that person happened to be a Gallaudet University alumnus? Or if he/she is a part of the Deaf community? Or what would you say if the first deaf person cured of hearing loss turns out to be a deaf baby belonging to Deaf parents a la Sound and Fury?

I probably have a few good ideas on how some people may react to these news of a hearing loss cure.

Hodgepodge News

Hodgepodge #1:
Do Americans who do not know sign language have more trouble understanding gestures from a Deaf person than the people of Israel? According to Kristy Nowak she noticed a big difference from those in Israel with whom she has tried to communicate than those in America.

“In America, people have no common sense when it comes to deciphering gestures,” Nowak said, clearly frustrated. “I can use a simple gesture and Americans won’t understand it. But here in Israel and in other countries, people understand. It’s so much easier.”

I wonder why?


Hodgepodege #2:
Gallaudet University on the brink of collapsing due to, perhaps ironically so, higher admission standards for incoming potential students?

Gallaudet's enrollment has also dropped since months of bitter protests last year over appointment of a president that students thought lacked sufficient leadership skills. The appointment was revoked.

Stephen Weiner, who starts Monday as provost of the school, said enrollment was bound to drop because higher admissions standards have been adopted to increase academic rigor. Davila said he hopes the probation will not hurt enrollment any further.

Well, if potential students cannot pass higher admissions standards, will it be sayonara for Gallaudet University College in a few years from now? Less bang for the buck?


Hodgepodge #3:
Is Gallaudet University trying to save face here?


Hodgepodge #4:
Local man takes to open road to raise awareness about infant deafness during a 12,500 mile motorcycle run across America. Awareness includes cochlear implant.

One of the ways children are coping with the challenge of being deaf is with the surgical addition of a cochlear implant. A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that helps provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing, according to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Web site. The implant does not restore normal hearing, but it can give a deaf person a useful representation of sounds to help him or her understand speech.

Stufflebeam has looked at research on the implants and one study showed that some children who received the devices early on were able to fully adjust to them by the age of 5.

"The earlier it is, the more these kids brains can adapt to it as normal," he said.

Certainly. The earlier the better?


Hodgepodge #5:
HoH strongman flips three tires to form a tire pyramid 6ft high with over 1400 lbs of tires.

New Grammar Software for Deaf/HH Writers and Professionals

New Grammar Software for Deaf/HH Writers and Professionals.

Check out the new "online, browser-based tool, aimed at deaf students and professionals who are conversant with sign languages like ASF (American Sign Language) but are not very fluent in English. It detects and simultaneously corrects any grammatical errors found in the user’s written English composition."

And how they developed this grammar software is interesting as well.

The writing skills of the deaf are sometimes poorer compared to that of their non-deaf peers. This leads to disparities in their professional and social standing. The CC gives them the accessibility and resources to excel in both of these arenas. The user types an English sentence into the browser window and the system immediately gives an analysis of grammatical errors and corrections in Standard English. Other programs, like the ICICLE and the Microsoft Grammar Checker, facilitate grammar support to the deaf, however they are not as exhaustive and effective as the CC.

The creators of the CC have been diligent in the selection of their source data. It was made sure that the algorithms were developed based on data representative of the eventual users. To this end, a special data collection tool was devised, through which 8233 sentences and an additional 1239 sentences in a free essay task were harvested. This has made the CC the only system with a unique body of data in the textual language arena, specifically for the deaf.

Yet, they even acknowledged that sometimes sign language interfered/influenced some deaf/hh people's English skill development.

The basic premise of CC’s design is to take into consideration the “non-standard patterns” of English grammar used by the deaf, instigated by the influence of sign language.

Instigated by the influence of sign language? Is that a good premise? Whether good or bad, at least this is a step in the right direction.

Vary Def, Herring Empared and Hees Muwt

Abby: “Hey, you like baseball?”

Cosby: “Sure. Love the sport!”

Abby: “Hear about the new players with the Red Sox?”

Cosby: “Yeah, I heard something about it but I don’t know their names. I do know they replaced the old ball players on 1st, 2nd and 3rd base.”

Abby: “Yeah. The guy on 1st base? Herring Empared. How unreal is that?”

Cosby: “Sad to hear that.”

Abby: “What did you say?”

Cosby: “The guy on 1st base you just mentioned who can’t hear very well.”

Abby: “Oh no, no, no. He hears just fine.

Cosby: “What’s his name, again?”

Abby: “Herring Empared”

Cosby: “I asked you for his name but didn’t you just say that he can hear fine?”

Abby: “Yep.”

Cosby: “Seems like a contradiction here. Can he use the phone without any problems and talk and listen to other ball players without any problems?”

Abby: “Yes. You’re asking odd questions. I just told you, he hears perfectly fine.”

Cosby: “I see. And the name of the new guy on 1st base you just mentioned earlier? Maybe I missed what you said but first I'm pretty sure you did say hearing impaired?”

Cosby: “Yep! Correct! Right there on the nose, buddy”

Abby: “But you said he hears perfectly fine!”

Cosby: “Naturally.”

Abby: “You’re getting me confused.”

Cosby: “Speak for yourself.”

Abby: “Wise guy. Ok. What does his birth certificate say?”

Cosby: “Read my lips carefully. The birth certificate says ‘Herring Empared.’ ”

Abby: "I didn’t ask for his medical birth condition. Didn’t you hear me what I just asked for? What are you? Deaf?”

Cosby (looking a little confused himself): “No."

Abby: "Ok. Let move away from 1st base and go to 2nd base. What's the guy's name on 2nd base?

Cosby: Funny you should ask. The new guy on 2nd base with the odd name is Vary Def.”

Abby: “He’s hearing impaired, too?”

Cosby: “No, that would be the guy on 1st base, Herring Empared.”

Abby: “C’mon! What now? Are you going to tell me that those players on 1st and 2nd base communicate with each other through signing with their hands?”

Cosby: “No. That would be between the pitcher and catcher. The catcher does that hand signal thing to the pitcher. Herring Empared and Vary Def are normal people. They do have strange names but normal people nonetheless.”

Abby: “What strange names? I didn't hear any! And did you say 'normal people' ? Like hearing people?"

Cosby: “You are one strange dude. Of course, they’re normal like hearing people.”

Abby: “I’m the strange dude? Look at you. You just told me those basemen players can’t hear very well.”

Cosby: “No. That’s not true. However, the guy on 3rd base has a hearing loss.”

Abby: “Hearing impaired?”

Cosby: “No. That would be the guy on 1st base, Herring Empared.”

Abby: “Knock it off! You’re making me angry and confused here!”

Cosby: “Certainly you do look confused.”

Abby: “Aaargh! Ok. Ok. How does the 3rd baseman communicate to the 1st and 2nd basemen players?”

Cosby: “Oh, that’s easy. He doesn’t talk. You should know that. He’s famous and he’s quite the controversial player. You ought to know his name.”

Abby: “Mute?”

Cosby: “Yeaaah. How did you know?"

Abby: “Just a wild guess since you said he doesn't talk.”

Cosby: “What does his not talking to the 1st and 2nd basemen have to do with his name? You know, Hees Muwt.”

Abby: “What the hey...? What name? Ok. Let's back up for a minute. You said he doesn’t hear very well?”

Cosby: “Yes, true.”

Abby: “And you said he is unable to communicate to the 1st and 2nd basemen players.”

Cosby: “No. I said he doesn’t communicate to the 1st and 2nd basemen players because he’s angry at them for a reason. That's what makes him so controversial!”

Abby: “So, he talks fine?”

Cosby: “Certainly. Just his voice sounds a little funny. He’s angry at those baseball players, Vary Def and Herring Empared, for making fun of his voice. And that’s why he doesn’t want to talk to the 1st and 2nd basemen players.”

Abby: “He's mute?”

Cosby: “Yes. Hees Muwt. Born in Norway. You know, having a hearing loss with a funny Norwegian accent could probably make a few people snicker, but I digress.”

Abby: “Knock it off! You’re confusing me!”

Cosby: “Hmmm. You certainly do look confused. Maybe you need a vacation?”

Abby: “Let me get this straight. The guy on 3rd base, he's mute? He can talk but not to the 1st and 2nd basemen players?”

Cosby: “Right so far.”

Abby: “But it wouldn’t matter on trying to talk those people either very deaf or hearing impaired since they can't hear anyway. And that mute guy? He can't communicate to those people because he can't talk to them anyway in the first place! ”

Cosby: “Why are you bringing up their names for? Those baseball players, Vary Def and Herring Empared, hear just fine."

Abby: “What names!!?”

Cosby: “And why do you keep saying that the Muwt guy cannot talk?

Abby: “You just said he's mute. ”

Cosby: “Yeah. Hees Muwt. And you have a problem with that or what? He speaks fine. Just that he has a funny little “accent," that’s all.”

Abby: “Aaargh. Ok. Lemme get this straight. You say that mute guy on 3rd base talks fine and has a bit of a hearing loss. And that he can talk to very deaf and hearing impaired basemen players without any problem. He doesn’t use sign language because the 3rd baseman, that mute guy, can talk to them anyway yet he doesn’t want to communicate to the 1st and 2nd basemen players because they made fun of his voice?

Cosby: “I think you got that in a nutshell.”

Abby: “I think I do need a vacation....from you!”

Cosby: “By the way, there’s a funny story behind those three basemen players and their grandfathers. They use to play pro baseball with the Yankees and played as basemen, too!”

Abby: “No kiddin? 1st, 2nd and 3rd base?”

Cosby: “Yeah. Talk about historical irony. They're not around anymore to see this happen with the Red Sox.”

Abby: “What were their names? Starting with 1st base.”

Cosby: “Who.”

Abby: “The guy on 1st base?”

Cosby: “I said, Who.”

Abby: "Who is on 1st base?"

Cosby (Looks away from him, folds his arms, rolls his eyes, sighs loudly and reponds very quietly): “Correct.”

Abby (He mockingly cups his ear): “What?”

Cosby: “That would be the 2nd baseman.”

Abby: “Who?”

Cosby: “He’s on first base. And on 3rd base, I Don’t Know.”

Abby: “Aaarggh! And you said you knew their names! Get away from me you freak of nature! I am going on a vacation!”


Courtesy of Mike McConnell. Author of "Vary Def, Herring Empared and Hees Muwt."

Deaf Strength

It is not often you come across a website or even nowadays a blogsite that discusses deaf/hh weightlifters whether they're powerlifters, bodybuilders, or even a strongman. These things are in short supply around here. Sometimes you may come across personal websites that are new such as the new Deaf Strength website by a guy named Dave Blackwell out of United Kingdom. He competes in bench press competitions with a bodyweight between 80.5 kg (177 lbs) and 90 kg (198 lbs). You can see a video of him doing the bench press during the competition. He has successfully bench pressed 297 lbs at a bodyweight of 177 lbs (80.5 kg) and bench pressed 319 lbs at a bodyweight of (183 lbs). Pretty strong guy.

Also, Dave has a new Deaf Strength discussion forum where you can go and discuss strength training and other sports. If you're interested, drop by and sign up.

And since we're on the topic of "Deaf Strength" be sure to check out the updated North America Deaf Strongman website for more information on the upcoming first ever strongman games for deaf/hh competitors to take place sometime in the summer of 2008. Right now, it looks like Phoenix, AZ may turn out to be the spot for the NADS games in 2008 at the same time with Deaf Nation.

And lastly, and if you're are curious, do you want to see a video of me doing a partial bench press of 585lbs at a bodyweight of 190 lbs (86.3 kg)? Or curling 135 lbs with a barbell? Then check out my recent exercise and training videos and be amazed. But then again I'm just an above average guy compared to those other freaks who lifts phenomenally!

HOH Advantage Over Deaf?

In response to Butterfly’s blog piece “Hard of Hearing people get advantage over Deaf people?? ” I guess it's time I better speak up since I am one of the few "rare" HOH individuals here.

Now, what I will be describing here is by no means “showing off” but rather to give my readers an idea on what I can or cannot do in terms of my hearing loss and speaking ability to help frame my response to Butterfly’s blog. So, please, none of this "audism" accusation stuff in my comments.

Like Ben Vess (see comment #9 in Butterfly’s blog) I have absolutely no problem speaking and listening on my cell phone. I do this without even using the T-switch (ie telephone switch) which I have never used anyway. In fact I use my cell phone's speaker phone so I can talk hands free. I can even use the speaker phone without using my hearing aid. I even use it while I'm driving, although I rarely do that since I am driving. I love using the speaker phone since I don’t have to worry about my arm freezing up in one position after talking on it for so long.

My speech is fine and my voice carries a bit of a southern accent. I managed to acquire it when I moved to Georgia from Washington state at age 10 even though I was born with a hearing loss. Speaking is never a problem with me. Not one bit. And people wouldn't know I have a hearing loss listening to me. I naturally talk and use my voice all the time, which leads me to about my work.

I really have no problems at work communicating with other hearing employees. I do that everyday, including at meetings or dealing with the public. I make lots of phones calls. And so on. And no, I don't use ASL or sign at work. I have no need to sign at all while at work because I don’t need it. I am not even a native signer. I go to the meetings and meet people like everybody else by talking and listening.

About phones, I even once operated the phones for several months taking orders while working at Dominos Pizza. And then came back to Dominos Pizza several years later to become a manager.

So, in retrospect, I agree with Butterfly’s blog that HOH people do have certain advantages over those who cannot hear well (or not at all) or speak effectively, which is why hearing employees would naturally gravitate to them than a deaf person as a "path of least resistance," so to speak. But it is by no means that I am (or "HOH" people are) better than them. It just happens that I use what hearing I have left and use it to my best advantage and hearing people would take advantage that situation, too. No more, no less.

It's really up to each person's responsibility to inform other people about his/her hearing loss and let them know the importance of communication. They either need to speak up for you or clarify for you on what they are saying in order for you to be involved in their circle of communication. Whether it's signing, talking or listening, it's up to you to clue them in. For me, I make sure people speak up if they tend to speak quietly or have soft voices.

UPDATE: Just to add a few more thoughts here. Should there be a deaf employee in my workplace and my hearing co-workers come to me because I know sign language and can hear and understand them would I welcome that? Not really because that would not address the communication situation with the deaf employee and that they should learn to communicate with her/him rather than through me. Although I have from time to time did some interpreting for a few deaf employees which was really more informal than a formal setting.

Deaf Prisoners More Violent and Less Educated than Hearing Prisoners?

Deaf Prisoners More Violent and Less Educated than Hearing Prisoners?

This is probably an unusual study finding that more deaf prison inmates were found to be convicted of violent offenses than the hearing general prison population.

Previous research suggested an unexplained difference in the patterns of offending behaviors among deaf people when compared to hearing people. This study, conducted in Texas, compares the incidence and types of violent offenses of a deaf prison population in comparison to the hearing prison population.

Sixty-four percent of deaf prisoners were incarcerated for violent offenses in comparison to 49% of the overall state prison offender population. This finding is consistent with previous research.

The study goes on to explain varous potential factors as to why there were more deaf prisoners than the hearing prison population, statistically speaking. But what was perhaps not surprising (see my past reports on Deaf Residential schools and rape in Part I, II and III) among deaf prisoners is that they, statistically speaking, committed 3 times more sexual crimes when compared to the general hearing prison population in this Texas prison study.

The most significant difference between the populations was found in the category of sexual assault, which represented 32.3% of deaf offenders in contrast to 12.3% of hearing state prison inmates overall.

And then the study goes on to test deaf inmates' IQ which showed them to be a bit wee "smarter" than the hearing inmates:

In Texas prisons, offenders' intelligence is measured during the intake process using the Revised Army Beta Test. The Beta is a nonverbal instrument that yields an IQ score. Deaf offenders who take the Beta test and do not receive a score within normal IQ ranges (85 or higher) are retested using the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI) or the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS-R). IQ scores were available for 50 of the 64 deaf violent offenders in this study. The mean IQ of the deaf violent offenders was 93.4, as compared to the mean IQ of the total number of Texas prison offenders, which was 91.0 (TDCJ Statistical Summary, 2001). Both these scores indicate that the typical violent offender was of average range intelligence regardless of audiological status.

But don't get your hopes up too high. The study went on to assess the deaf inmates' educational and literacy skill levels which were, in short, atrocious.

The average reading grade level for deaf violent offenders was grade 3.5, which is well below the 4.5–5.5 reading level of the average deaf person upon leaving school at age 18 (Center for Assessment and Demographic Studies, 1996).

The average EA of offenders in Texas prisons was grade 7.4 (TDCJ Statistical Summary, 2001). For the entire population of deaf violent offenders, the average EA was 3.6 (Miller, 2001). However, 34.0% of deaf violent offenders had reading levels of 2.8 or below, which is the federal government's standard for defining functional illiteracy.

About one third of the deaf violent offenders in this Texas prison are actually functionally illiterate even though nearly 70% of the deaf prisoners use sign language to communicate. Should we be surprised about this? Or is this some anomalous quirk? Or is this deaf violent prisoners study on illiteracy and educational skills reflective of those on the outside who are not violent? An accurate portrayal of the Deaf community? Who is to blame for deaf people to commit violent crimes? Society or should these deaf violent offenders be responsibile for their own actions instead and not blame society completely?

Read the rest of the deaf violent offenders study from a Texas prison. A fascinating read. Here's the Adobe Acrobat pdf version for download.


UPDATE: Read "Defending the Deaf Offender" starting on page 10:

Most deaf defendants, however, read below the sixth grade level and have not mastered the English syntax. In their case, phrases such as “the right to remain silent”, “constitutional”, “you have the right to speak with a lawyer and have him present with you at any time during questioning” bear no meaning and cannot be translated in terms they can understand. In fact, in many districts, police officers are warned not to attempt to translate Miranda Warnings. They are required to have an attorney present for the defendant before they even attempt questioning. This is not the case in Arizona. Therefore, as a defense attorney, it may be possible to fi nd that Miranda Warnings given to illiterate or semi-illiterate deaf suspects either orally, in writing, or in sign language could be inadmissible at trial (Vernon and Raifman, 1997).

Before introducing such an argument, it may be helpful to understand the difference between a person who is deaf from birth or early childhood (prelingually deaf) versus a defendant who has lost their hearing as an adult. Prelingually deaf individuals are those who do not have adequate useful residual hearing for understanding speech and learning language. As a result, most grow up with huge information gaps, low educational achievement levels, and limited understanding of the English syntax. It is especially diffi cult for these individuals to identify meanings for abstract or intangible ideas, memories, and/or social mores. According to studies of psycholinguistics and cognition, our ability to code and store information in long and short term memory is closely linked to language.

It's interesting but is it accurate and reflective of the general Deaf population?

Text4Deaf Launches Text Messaging Site for the Deaf Community

Text4Deaf Launches Text Messaging Site for the Deaf Community (click to see press release).

What is it?

Text4Deaf is a "web text" messaging service that allows users to send messages from the Web to any mobile phone in the U.S. or Canada, and vice versa.

The official launch of Text4Deaf came out on June 20, 2007. So, I'm not really sure how well received this news has been so far but it is certainly all over on Google. Be sure to watch the video clip of "Kerry" where she signs and talks verbatim using her voice at the same time. The video can be seen on the right side of the website. Not that I'm criticizing her signing and talking at the same time. I certainly am not interested in taking a Deaf politically correct stance. She communicates just fine to me. And her voice is clear although you can tell she has a bit of a "deaf-voice."

A Fancy, Schmancy Blogpost.....Part Deux

There is no pleasing a certain crowd in the blogosphere as one can see the near over-reaction comments seen here regarding my post "A Fancy, Schmancy Blogpost" that was done nearly two months ago. Put it simply, it was about my refusal to, ah, uh, "simplify" my writings (ie my vocabulary) to those few who might have problems understanding them. For one, this is how I write and express myself. It has been my writing style ever since I was in high school. And, secondly, I trust readers are already smart enough and have the sensibility to look words up. Would it be better to assume that they are incapable of doing that? If I said that I'd have people up in arms charging me with "audism" or some other obscure knee-jerk responses. After all this is the internet and vocabularies are easily looked up. And I find this kind of discussion and introspection somewhat fascinating seeing how few people have reacted to my earlier "Fancy, Schmancy Blogpost."

Just humor me, ok?

Virginia L. Beach wrote up a short DeafDC blog article called 'Building a Blogger's Ethical Framework' where she discussed deaf/hh bloggers' ethics, basically so. Now, the word "ethics" is defined as a motivation based on ideas perceived as right and wrong. This is synonymous with the word "moral" which is about discerning between right and wrong actions. But talking about "ethics" in terms of bloggers' responsibilities tread close to the idea that they ought to be afraid of offending someone else's sensibilities and by doing so it is said to be wrong, heartless, cruel and not understanding of their positions.

I don't buy that completely.

For example, there is one comment Virginia made I pretty much disagree with:

I believe that if you are going to put your thoughts, opinions, and feelings on the Internet for the world to see, you are responsible for the outcome of such actions.

Not exactly sure what "such actions" would be. Could be anything. Those "outcomes" will result whatever people make of it. If they're the sensitive lot or tend to misunderstand what's written, they may scream like a banshee and demand that blogpost get stricken down somehow or worse get that blogsite banned completely from the internet. Just because people don't agree with somebody else's blogpost on deaf-related issues or viewpoints. Or even when certain truths are exposed do they want to become that little dictator. And yet I thought those who would react in such a way make up a very tiny minority among those in the Deaf community. Now, looking back I may be wrong about this.

Just humor me on this. I'm trying to be introspective here.

In my still ongoing poll survey, "If You Had the Power to Remove Blogsites Would You Do It?", approximately 30% of those who participated said that if they had the power to censor a blogpost or blogsite they would or might take action to censor a blog or remove blogsite from the internet for carrying such an opinion or viewpoint that they disagree with over deaf-related issues. Before doing this survey I thought I'd get like way less than a 10% response result by those who would indeed abuse that kind of power. Maybe even 5% of the people would be like that. But seeing the 30% result (so far as of this writing) is enough to suck air out of anybody's lungs when one realizes there are Deaf/deaf/hh people out there willing to quash freedom of expression solely over an opinion or viewpoint over deaf-related issues. It simply boggles the mind. Are they thinking that way? Of course, assuming those who responded to my survey poll are actually Deaf, deaf or hard of hearing which is more likely than not in this case. And assuming they understood my question and responded honestly. Then those 30% who would undoubtedly or most likely without a second thought take away somebody else's freedom of expression if they were given that power? Is this a part of the Deaf culture of what? Do people not understand what the 1st Amendment is all about when it comes to freedom of expression?

Of course, emotions vary from person to person. Not everybody will react negatively. They may react by shrugging it off and not worry too much about it. They may even agree on some points. Some may in fact will simply agree to disagree and leave it at that. Or at the very least contribute to a debate without losing one's head over it and get into an insult slugfest. Or heaven forbid, actually whine.

Not cool.

In the blogosphere world it can be a double-edged sword when it comes to writing your own blogpost. Of course, depending on the topic and opinions expressed people will respond differently. However, I don't entirely agree that other people reactions to, for example, my blogposts are my responsibilities. I'd say that's going a bit too far. If they lose their cool, then it's completely all my fault and I should be held accountable and responsible for their own reactions and actions toward me?

Uh, sure. That idea borders on ludicrousness in my mind (ie. I simply disagree).

Just humor me on this since I'm almost done.

I believe the ultimate responsibility sits squarely and mostly on the readers' shoulders on how they respond to a blogpost rather than to blame the author/blogger for their own reactions. Believing otherwise defies the human imagination and that people are incapable of accepting their own responsibilities and controls over their own emotions and responses. Of course there is a caveat to what I'm saying here and and that there are exceptions to the rule when bloggers do have to carry certain responsibilities when it comes to blogging like avoiding libel or defamation, for example. Aside from that this "ethics" idea gets dangerously close to the idea that bloggers ought to be afraid of one's own shadow for the fear of offending someone else's sensibilities and that readers must be handled with kids gloves at all times.

Now, how many readers would rather be handled with kids gloves for fear of offending their sensibilities?

This is America.

And not China.

A Survey Poll: If You Had the Power to Remove Blogsites Would You Do It?

In a Deaf world, if you had unrestricted power to censor any Deaf/HH blogs or blogsites because they may have “ethically violated” certain Deaf “protocols," “rules,” or even "standards" whenever deaf-related issues or viewpoints presented are not accepted by the majority of Deaf people’s opinions, would you go ahead and remove that blogpost or blogsite completely from the internet leaving no trace of its existence? In short, if you had the power to remove blogposts and/or blogsites from the internet would you do it?

UPDATE: Please read carefully what I wrote. The question pertains to deaf-related issues or viewpoints by Deaf/HH bloggers and their blogsites and whether you would practice censorship if you had unrestricted power to do so. Think through this before you press that poll button.

If you had the power to remove blogposts or blogsites would you do it?
	Yes
	I might do that
	I do not know
	No
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