Now that the DBC conference is over, this vlog by Jack Barr (FDR and Obama) illustrates why it is important for all of us to “be on the same page” when we have the opportunity to inform and educate others about what Deaf people want and need.
I can’t afford to travel to Milwaukee for the DBC conference, but I wish them well in all they are doing. In the meantime, the recent news about AGB’s closing off the walkway between their hotel and the DBC’s reminds me of a similar action that was taken over 100 years ago. I look at the comparisons here and discuss the implications.
One of my favorite books was “Clan of the Cave Bear” by Jean Auel. It was about a Human girl who gets adopted by a group of Neanderthals during the Ice Age. The Neanderthals had the ability to have “genetic memory” so if one person learned or experienced something new, that information would be passed down to his or her descendants. In this vlog, I discuss our Deaf “genetic memory”.
V/blogs referenced:
Over the past week, I’ve noticed a theme running through several v/blogs. In their own ways, these different v/blogs are wrestling with the question of what it means to be “Deaf”. In some cases, even though the author may or may not identify as “Deaf”, they are showing they have elements of a Deaf identity or Deafhood. In this vlog, I use these examples, and use my own experience to show being Deaf is a negotiated concept.
V/Blogs referenced in the vlog:
This post is not about the Deaf Read (DR)/Deaf Village (DV) controversy regarding captioning. I understand DV’s viewpoint regarding those who don’t understand ASL, and I understand the DR membership’s viewpoint about individual rights, the labor and difficulty of inserting captions, etc. I’ve been captioning my vlogs since the beginning for reasons I outlined in my first vlog “Introduction to Deafhood Discourses“.Instead, this is about DV’s commitment to diversity. Tony Nicholas’ recent post, “Deaf Read – Deaf Village & Aggregators, Pt. II” in which he described having his blog rejected by Deaf Village made me wonder about Deaf Village’s commitment to diversity, which they say they have. I decided that with the creation of my ABC Story, “The Cochlear Slayer“, I would test Deaf Village’s commitment to diversity. So, like Tony, I made a request to submit the vlog to their site, stating that it was captioned and fits with their general theme. Rachel responded that I would have to submit my whole website to DV for their consideration. Ugh. I really never intended for that. But I played along. My suspicion was that they would reject it, since the strong anti-Cochlear Implant viewpoint presented in the story would be considered a violation of their Guideline #3, which states “Deaf Village operates on a basis of respect for individuals’ choices and respects each person’s individual “deaf experience.”Within an hour or two after making the submission request, I checked back into DV. Lo and behold, “The Cochlear Slayer” was up there. So, even though I have never been pro-implant, oralism, AVT, AGB, etc., they accepted my website. They’re not just paying “lip service” to diversity, I’ll give them that. So, does that mean I’m going to start checking in with DV’s contributions? Nah. Even though they accepted my vlog, DV is still by and large, overwhelmingly pro-implant, oralism, AVT, AGB, Audism, etc. I have enough to do to wade through similar content on DR. (I don’t “hide” blogs on DR, since maybe, just maybe, once in a very long while, something may catch my eye enough to pique my curiosity, and I occasionally like to see what “they” are saying so I can think of ways to confront their discourse. Personally, I’d prefer to see a truly Deaf-centered aggregator (I’d develop one myself, but I don’t have the technical skills for that — if any of you do, and are willing to help me, I’d welcome your help!). DR is far from perfect, but they at least have more of a Deaf center than DV does. DR, even with all the defections to DV, still represents more of the diversity inherent in the Deaf community than DV does. DV, while they have shown they will allow for diversity, still doesn’t truly represent it.
Last Spring, I did an ABC story for my University’s Deaf Studies Program. The interpreter at the performance also happens to interpret for my classes, and she knows my feelings and opinions about the Cochlear Implant. The performance was titled “The Vampire Slayer”, but she misinterpreted it as “The Cochlear Slayer”. She told me about her mistake later, and I laughed, but it got me to thinking how I would do an ABC story with that title. I present my ABC story, “The Cochlear Slayer” to you here.
This one is actually the simplest, but in my opinion, the hardest to achieve because of the way our society is structured. But, I think it is achievable when built upon the previous legislative actions described in #1 and #2. And if we can succeed, just imagine the possibilities!
I previously suggested that we work to get Deaf people (and as someone pointed out, this should be culturally Deaf people) on the team to help parents of newly identified Deaf children to learn ALL the options available to them and show them that Deaf people can be healthy, normal, educated citizens of society. But, it may still happen that these parents would still choose to implant their child and focus on having the child to learn speech without using sign language. What then? Here, I suggest what our next step in this legislative process should be.
I’ve been thinking about Elizabeth’s blog (http://cochlearimplantonline.com/blog/?p=197) where she says that “she is the biggest enemy of Deaf Militants”. It’s sad that she considers herself to be our biggest enemy, but I do not consider her to be mine. In this Vlog, I’ll tell you why.
As mentioned in my previous post, I will be suggesting some laws that we can work on trying to get passed in our states. If we can succeed in doing so, I visualize the effects of these laws having a positive effect on how Deaf people are treated and educated in our society. This first one is relatively easy to do, in my opinion, and this is what I think is a first step toward accomplishing our goals of achieving full linguistic, educational and social rights.
