#ActionProject

Hi all, My name is Rowdy, I'm minoring in ASL at Boise State. For our last semester we had to put together some sort of project to take what we've learned about Deaf culture or ASL and share it with everybody. This page blog is set up for that reason.

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My friend's personal story about her intro into the Deaf world.

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We've all seen those "hears for the first time" videos, here's a rare glimpse behind the curtain. This woman shares openly and hostelry about her experience and choice to get a CI as an adult. It's worth a read.

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Explore the Silent World of Deaf America

“Lately it seems like American Sign Language is everywhere! It’s been making appearances at musical performances and sporting events. It can be seen in news stories, comic books, movies and TV shows. Pop stars are using it, sports mascots are using it, even the Obamas know a little ASL. With so many people finally embracing this second American language, there has never been a better time to learn to sign.”

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A while back I posted something (to my facebook) about why Alexander Graham Bell is such a controversial figure in Deaf history. This article by a Ph.D. from Gallaudet explains it better than I can.

Side note: I once did a paper about linguistic change in ASL, in my research I stumbled across an article discussing swearing in ASL (which I, of course, was fascinated by). In said article, there was a sign for A.G.B. which essentially translated to A**HOLE, JERK, BASTARD. Man, I wish I could remember the title.     

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Understanding Deafness: Not Everyone Wants to Be 'Fixed'

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Hearing people often assume that Deaf people would naturally want to take advantage of any method that could lead them to the hearing world — especially cochlear implants, the most advanced hearing technology we have. In reality, that assumption is far from true.

Great article from 2013 with so many great links to other great articles. With in he deaf community deafness isn’t considered a disability. If you’ve ever wondered why that is, this article might shed some light on it. 

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Every time. Every goddamn time

Youtuber: Feminism and intersectionalism are super important to me.

Youtuber: I post videos on social justice, racism, sexism, homophobia, sizeism, and the problems with representation in today's media.

Youtuber: There's also lots of lighthearted stuff!

Youtuber: It's so important that we make the Internet and the world more accessible to everyone.

Youtuber: I want to create a better world where everyone can safely take part and have a voice!

Youtuber: I love all of you and I want to spread my videos to anyone who could possibly enjoy it.

Youtuber: I'm even translating the videos for fans in other countries! Comment if you want to help!

Youtuber: it's so nice to see how diverse my viewership has become :)

Youtuber: you guys, my viewers, you mean the world to me and I want to do all I can to reach out to you. I don't want anyone to feel left out!

Deaf/Hard of Hearing community: that's great! Are you going to provide captions so we can watch your videos too?

Youtuber:

Youtuber:

Youtuber: you know, in an ideal world I'd be able to provide accommodations for absolutely everyone, but I'm just so busy and there's just no time and I just am not sure if it would be worthwhile because no one really needs those and YouTube does provide automatic captions so that's fine, I mean I WANT to but there's just so much inconvenience involved and you understand right? I knew you would :))))

[thatdiva]

INNOCENT!!! Accused of stealing an iPad — an iPad whose owner later found it. He spent six weeks in jail, unable to communicate with his jailers because he is deaf, and NO ONE got an interpreter for him. Full Article.

How fast would they have gotten an interpreter if he were white? And be sure to read the excuses they give, “…if the discrimination were intentional…”

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This kind of crap makes me sick. Unlike the op though, I don’t feel race has as much to do with it. This is as much a Deaf problem as it is a race issue. Plenty of caucasians Deaf are treated exactly the same. That doesn’t make it better, just discriminated against for different reasons. 

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ASL Action Project part 3

I take my Action Project on the road to ECCC in Seattle to see how different things might be in a bigger city.

For this segment I traveled to Seattle to the Emerald City Comicon to see how things may be different. By and large it was good experience, I did run in to the same sort of thing I’ve experienced before where vendors were hesitant or just refused to engage with me, annoying but what do you do? I can’t (won’t) be indignant because I’m choosing to not talk, if I had a real barrier I might be more upset. So I guess in reality I was the jerk because I created the barrier. 

Given that there were about one hundred thousand people in attendance and several of them in costume an overweight middle-aged white-guy standing in the middle of a show floor signing to a camera didn’t draw any attention. In Boise, when my wife and I sign in public (noisy areas or just for practice) it earns us weird looks from curious spectators. A city like Seattle is just more naturally diverse so not much stands out there, of course that’s just my experience of one day of not talking, by no means do I assume it’s the same for everyone.

One thing I did notice that was shocking to me, was other people signing! I can’t remember the last time I saw somebody in Boise using Sign when I didn’t already know them. There was one lady I met who was surprised to see me signing so maybe it’s not all the common in Seattle either, although if memory serves she was from a smaller area outside of Seattle proper.

Oh and I guess I forget my vocab when I’m not actually signing to somebody, the lack of receiver feedback means I don’t know I’ve misspoken until it’s too late. 

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Pulled Away

My first attempt at composing ASL poetry. Reposted for my new tumblr account.

Let’s be honest I’m using the term “poetry” loosely. I do feel that I am capable of poetic expression, and have written a couple of poems I’m not altogether disgusted by, but I don’t feel my grasp of ASL is sufficient enough to really be able to play with the language in this way. This was just my first attempt at composing poetry in a language other my own, I didn’t write in English first then translate, I signed first then transcribed it. As exercises go it was pretty fun, but I have a ton more studying. If anybody wants point me in the right direction for poets to study I’d love to learn more. Also if anybody wants to help me workshop this I’d be happy to hear your thoughts.

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ASL Action Project part 2

The night before I shot this I woke up in a panic. I was legitimately scared about how it would go down. I was worried that I couldn’t communicate my desires effectively and had, for a moment, decided to postpone my appointment. I came to the realization that I had the luxury of being able to decide whether or not I wanted to speak, and unlike anybody with an actual communication barrier I was also able to understand anything they said to me so the barrier was only one way. I then began to feel pretty stupid, realizing that I was putting myself in this a moderately uncomfortable situation on purpose.

The whole point of this exercise was to see how it felt not being able to communicate effectively across language barriers. I feel a pretty dickish, because not being able to get my beard groomed exactly the way I wanted it is just not that important in scheme of things. If I was having this much anxiety about a beard trimming, how much more would I have if I really needed help?

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Little bit about me

Where to start? Well, I guess a little about me and my connection to ASL. My family started learning ASL back in the late 90s. We started because my mother was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease and as a result had the auditory nerve surgically severed as a last resort to correct the vertigo she was experiencing. She had been hard of hearing in her right ear prior to that, but we hadn’t really known what was causing her hearing loss.

Eventually the Meniere’s went bilaterally and she began to lose her hearing in her unaffected ear. Fearing that we would no longer be able to communicate my father began taking classes; followed by my mother, then myself and the woman I ended up marrying, my little sister began too but that was a few years after the rest of us.

At the time my family was fairly competent in ASL and we could converse for hours without speech; I suppose in reality we signed (and still do) in PSE not ASL but it was still sign. At the time my mother’s hearing loss leveled out and we found ourselves using less and less sign to communicate. My mom is great at speech reading, or at least fakes it well enough that none of really noticed the change.

Cut to today where Mom has about 10-20% of hearing remaining and less than that understandable, I found myself having forgotten most of what I knew now that I actually need it. The timing worked out for me since I was already back to school after a 14 year hiatus, I decided to take ASL again, but as a minor this time.

Now that you’re up to date, let me discuss my project. I had intended to try this experiment and rely more heavily on social media in an attempt to maybe gain some traction and “go viral.” I quickly realized that I had bitten off far more than I could chew and my project evolved into me blogging/vlogging about the experiences I had while socializing/interacting  without using my voice.  I have done this sort of thing before, but I was never required to share openly about my experience and open myself up to criticism. Bear in mind when you watch my videos that I’m just a dude, trying to learn a second language so that I can still talk with my mom. My motivation to learn ASL is strictly inclusion and the point of this project is simply to see things from a different point of view, not to take something that isn’t mine (ASL and/or Deaf culture) and  make a claim on it.

As you watch through these video you will undoubtedly find many errors. I recorded the videos as soon after my experience as possible to capture a more genuine experience, but since I’m by no means skilled in the area of vlogging I never gave myself enough time to properly edit, so what you see is the raw stumbling and slip-of-the-hands of someone who isn’t at home in front of a camera. Feedback is welcome and appreciated and dialogue is encouraged.

Enjoy,

Rowdy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BLLfcJPXZI