Becoming Deaf

A place to share the awkward moments of being deaf, and interesting things I find along the way.

[decodering]

Dos and don'ts on designing for accessibility

Karwai Pun, GOV.UK:

The dos and don’ts of designing for accessibility are general guidelines, best design practices for making services accessible in government. Currently, there are six different posters in the series that cater to users from these areas: low vision, D/deaf and hard of hearing, dyslexia, motor disabilities, users on the autistic spectrum and users of screen readers.

[…] Another aim of the posters is that they’re meant to be general guidance as opposed to being overly prescriptive. Using bright contrast was advised for some (such as those with low vision) although some users on the autistic spectrum would prefer differently. Where advice seems contradictory, it’s always worth testing your designs with users to find the right balance, making compromises that best suit the users’ needs.

[github]

[groovybisexual]

reblog if you're deaf or hard of hearing !!!

[becomingdeaf]

[becomingdeaf]

Watch the debate live tonight in ASL http://eepurl.com/cjfhRf

[becomingdeaf]

When HR spends half of the job interview questioning you about the “expense of interpreters”

[becomingdeaf]

Community Post: What Does It Mean To Have #HearingPrivilege?

On Monday of this week, the hashtag #HearingPrivilege took over Twitter. Thanks to Professor Joseph Hill and assistant professor Jason Listman from National Technical Institute for the Deaf, along ...

[becomingdeaf]

Huge thanks to DPAN for providing live streamed presidential debates with ASL interpreters!! 

You can watch the second presidential debate on October 9th on their website or Facebook. (Personal note: I found the Facebook stream to be entirely too distracting with all the reactions and “so and so is watching with you”.  I found out after the fact that you can swipe to mute the reactions, but I will be watching on the web for sure this time around!)

[becomingdeaf]

[becomingdeaf]

[becomingdeaf]

If you haven't checked out the #HearingPrivilege stream on Twitter, you should do it now. Share your stories. And for those who carry the hearing privilege - open your mind, and learn. We can all make the world a kinder place by being aware of others' stories, and learning from them.

[becomingdeaf]

Deaf Civilization. 57,814 likes · 11,509 talking about this. Deaf Culture, Deaf Pride and Deaf Language! We are a trusted one-stop center for deaf and...

This is awesome! I so want to go to one of these concerts.  I love feeling the music vibrate my bones. 

[becomingdeaf]

Parents of Deaf Children, Stuck in the Middle of an Argument

Should children be fitted for hearing aids and taught to speak, or should they use sign language? Or a combination of both?

I agree, there needs to be more support across the board for parents.  Really, across the board, the Deaf community could do with a lot less infighting and arguing as if there’s only one right answer.  

[becomingdeaf]

My sweetie made a vlog in response to Nyle Dimarco winning DWTS (yay, Nyle!!), and I wanted to share it with you.  You can see the original post here.

I am so happy for Nyle - in my humble opinion, he absolutely deserved the win, and it’s fantastic to see so many good things happening for him, and I love the way he uses the opportunity to spread awareness and positivity about Deaf culture.  So, question is, how do we, as the Deaf community, make the most of the attention and awareness of mainstream America? What are your thoughts? 

Transcript: Hello! this is my first vlog since... well EVER. first, my name is Maks. I live in Portland, Oregon. I'm deaf. I grew up with hearing family. I was born hearing and became deaf due to sickness. I learned sign language. I also learned speech. At home, I speak with little sign. At school. i sign and talk at the same time, Simultaneous-communication (SimCom).

This vlog is about Nyle!

I have not watched one show of DWTS but i do keep tabs on the newsfeed on Facebook, Twitter, etc about its competition. As the end result, it's pretty awesome that Nyle DiMarco won. In this sense, the Deaf Community won too.

my first thought: We're gonna be the national darlings in the view of the media and the people. Everyone will be jumping on the ASL train, learning the language and such.

However, I feel that with the national attention turned on to the Deaf Community, we need to reap the opportunity. We need to use this platform to achieve equal access: (ad libs) fire alarms, closed captioning on all TVs, Deaf services in all cities, interpreter access in hospitals and schools, etc. We need to make waves the RIGHT way, not coercing or taking advantage of the attention.

So let all of us stand together and get the access we all deserve.

[becomingdeaf]

It started on a tiny island off the coast of Massachusetts.

[becomingdeaf]

Deaf People Don't Need New Communication Tools—Everyone Else Does - The Establishment

New technology that turns sign language into speech misses the point.

Well said! 

[deaflepuff]

John Walker: 10 things deaf children learn at mainstream school

Did you go to a mainstream school? I did. This type of education is called ‘inclusive education’, and it is anything but. Here are 10 things I really learnt, when I went to mainstream secondary sch…

All of this so true if you attended Mainstream schooling. I sure did and every single thing, checked off that list, happened. My escape was books, and still are (less now). Did I wish I attended a Deaf school as a kid? Absolutely, or even just having Sign Language with me would’ve been beneficial. One thing, though, I proved my teachers so damn wrong that yes, deaf people can succeed in school.  Being in mainstream schooling isn’t easy, at all. 

[smalltownboytm]

Nyle and DWTS

I’m really bothered with how every conversation with Nyle on “Dancing with the Stars” revolves around how he performs the dances despite his Deafness.

Every time they talk to him and his partner all they ask is, “How do you do that?” “How do you dance without hearing the music?” “How hard is it?” And then they ask his partner, every week, “How hard is this for you?” Like, bitch, this ain’t about you!

And THEN, what really grinds my gears, is that they talk ABOUT Nyle like he’s not even there. They don’t talk TO him. They never ask him questions - even though they ask the other contestants questions - and when he tries to speak they ignore him. They funnel all of their conversations with him through his partner, which is an incredibly shitty thing to do - especially when he is trying to speak for himself.

They continually treat Deafness like a disability and can’t seem to believe that he is able to dance.

So, all of that to say, DWTS is showing how unprepared they were for a Deaf contestant.

[missblythe]

This is especially annoying because he isn’t even the first deaf contestant on the show! They had time to figure this out.

[thedeafzebra]

I’ve also noticed that Nyle will go to move his hands, people may or my not notice it, but I’m convinced that he wants to say something but THEY HAVE TO GO GET THE SCORES. Like, I can see him start to move his hands up to sign, but it goes to commercial or scoring before he can say something. LET NYLE SAY SOMETHING!