What matters deafness of the ears, when the mind hears?

Poster girl and ex-Singapore Idol contestant Lily Goh speaks up on deafness, prejudice and her vision for the deaf in an interview with TODAY. (Click on the news clipping below for the full-sized  and readable version.)

 

Read her blog. 

Misty (who sounds like some lass out of some trashy romance novel), a volunteer interpreter, has kindly agreed to share her thoughts and feelings with regard to the art of interpreting (no easy task, mind you) and on how upset she is by insensitive souls who call nice people like me "deaf and dumb". (*Sniff!* I am soooo touched!)

Yes, contributors are welcome, very much so. Do write in and share!

Something Personal

"…Sure, sign language, song signing, storytelling using sign and so on can be Art (with a capital A), but let’s also remember that it is not invented to satisfy hearing people’s aesthetic yearnings; it is there to serve a very real need for the deaf. This is something some hearing people who work with the deaf, such as the staff, volunteers, etc, tend to forget."

Having reached the association early for my terp (Lingo for interpreter) assignment on Saturday, I settled down at a certain terp coordinator’s desk to mull over my volunteering and interpreting issues when I noticed (after some time) the above-mentioned quote pasted on the coordinator’s pc.

The words struck a chord in me deeply, and something in me stirred.

How true, I thought to myself, even I forget it sometimes.

And at that very moment, I felt so ashamed.

Because having been all caught up in my love for Christmas carol-signing, song signing, performing and whatnots, I did forget, or rather, make less of, the purpose of sign language sometimes.

Aesthetic yearnings. Urgh, the guilt.

It’s not that I do not sign in the presence of the hearing-impaired, or that I never mouth my words when communicating; I do try my darnest to use total communication. Nor do I use sign language simply to ’show off’ to other people that, hey, I know something you don’t. But somehow the sole purpose of sign language was relegated to the back of my mind.

The quote serves as a gentle reminder to me.

Addendum: Ohhhh, the quote originated from le petite prince! Ahem. Erm, let me use it here k? It’s a really good one.

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These days, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about terping and whether I should continue being a terp. It all started with a casual conversation with a friend on Friday about terping, the conversation ending with me musing aloud: "Sometimes I wonder why I’m still an interpreter."

I wonder…

Because every time I accept an assignment, it stresses me up so much – sometimes to the point where I suffer from bouts of insomnia. I worry over whether I could catch up with the speakers, whether I could provide accurate information to my clients, whether I could hear the speakers themselves, whether my clients understand my signs and so on and so forth.

I worry so much because despite trying so hard to sign faster, my speed has settled into this natural pace which is, IMHO, slow for a terp. Also, the mild hearing loss sees me struggling to hear what the speakers are saying sometimes, especially in settings such as lecture theatres and school halls. The combination of not being able to catch with the speakers and missing out chunks of information is so lethal that I feel I would be doing a disservice, rather than a service, to the clients if I am to terp for them.

The demons ate me up, bit by bit. I was paralyzed by my fears; my fingers refused to finger-spell properly, my hands signed all the wrong things. I lost confidence in my skills and started backing off assignments. I began to dislike terping and that, in turn, caused me to compromise my commitment as a terp (sorry, terp coordinator).

So for the last few days, I was in grim contemplation over whether I should continue or quit being a terp.

And then I tidied my files and I saw, neatly written on this piece of paper when I first learnt sign language, one of my long-term goals: ‘to be a sign language interpreter in 2-5 years’ time’. And then during the recent terp meeting, I gathered my courage and voiced out my fears, resulting in 3 senior terps encouraging me and giving me advice. And I thought about the HI friends I’ve made and the difficulties they told me they encountered when communication broke down between them and others. And I recalled the times I terped for clients and they thanked me for my help at the end of their classes. And I remembered the time when I went for the terp interviews, feeling sure that I would never pass them because my hearing isn’t good, but still I did…

Everything came rushing back to me. The love, my passion, my wanting to help, my wanting to contribute whatever I can to the society. I want to continue being a terp. I was lost in the darkness and the swirl of confusion for a while, but I’m trying to get out of it. The paralyzing fear will still strike me every now and then, but I will force my way out of it. The demons taunt me still, but I’m stepping forward, one small step at a time but a step nonetheless. I’m not ready to take up certain assignments now, but maybe in time to come, I will. Perhaps I can never be as good as I want to be because of certain limitations, but still… I’m not given a chance to live this small dream of mine for nothing.

Far be it for me to start hawking my own stuff here, but thanks to Joc for reminding me I did have 2 letters published in the Straits Times Forum before. Both, of course, touched on deaf-related issues, specifically, governmental policy and social perception of deafness and the deaf.

Reproduced here for everyone to throw bricks at.

I would also like to point out that despite my subtle criticism of the current system regarding special education and people with special needs, the government did not respond to my letters at all, in any form. Which is puzzling - we all know how quickly and sharply it tends to defend its policies whenever they are subjected to the slightest dissent.

19 Jan 2004, ST Forum
Don’t make the deaf feel cut-off

I refer to Mr Malcolm Lim’s letter, ‘Hearing impaired need more help in school’ and Assoc Prof Low’s letter "Many issues need addressing in helping the hearing impaired".

I wish to applaud them for bringing these issues to light. In the same spirit, I would like to raise public awareness and appeal for public understanding of the problems of the deaf by recounting my own experiences. I was a hearing-impaired child who was mainstreamed throughout my schooling years, and am now a special education teacher with the Singapore School for the Deaf.

Deafness is one of the most misunderstood, isolating disabilities and the seriousness of its impact–social, psychological, educational–often underrated. As Helen Keller succinctly and poignantly put it: "Blindness cuts you off from things, deafness cuts you off from people." Hearing loss is irreversible and incurable, and technological devices like hearing aids and cochlear implants are partial solutions at best; a hearing-impaired person will never be able to hear as well as one with normal hearing.

My hearing loss was diagnosed when I was in primary 2 and I was later fitted with hearing aids. It would be no exaggeration to say those years as a deaf student in mainstream schools were, for the most part, the most miserable of my life. I could not understand lessons as I could not make out teachers’ speech; group activities and discussions were impossible to follow for the same reason; teasing and mocking of my disability by peers (as they say, children can be the most cruel) and even a few insensitive teachers was a feature of daily life; teachers had no idea how to handle a hearing-impaired student like me or already had too much on their plates to give special attention to me. The sense of being ‘different’ and abnormal, and of exclusion, was overwhelming. Being deaf is also physically draining due to the intense level of concentration needed when using hearing aids to even have the remotest chance of following others’ speech.

Of course, there were kind-hearted classmates, friends and teachers who made the time and effort to help me, but they were the rare exceptions. So I can easily empathise with those in similar situations; it is too easy for them to simply give up on themselves and their studies because of the pressures they face so young and so early in life.

As I grew older, I was fortunate enough to learn, gradually, to cope with my condition and take things in my stride. I also got to know other hearing-impaired individuals and found that what I went through was not unique, that their school and social experiences largely mirrored mine.

My account here is not to evoke sympathy or pity. Neither is it to ask for charity or special privileges for the deaf. Rather, it is to give the hearing majority an idea of the very real difficulties deaf students face in school, as well as to ask for that bit of patience, understanding and decency when communicating and interacting with those with deafness and other disabilities.

My students still have a long way to go, and I often find myself worrying and wondering about their future. Will they find a more receptive, more understanding and a kinder world awaiting them after they leave their sheltered deaf environment in the school? Or will they encounter more of the same ignorant, indifferent, intolerant masses outside?

Yes, more can be done on the part of the ministries, the hospitals and VWOs. But each of us–the person-in-the-street–can make a difference too. Ultimately, the human touch does count. How we treat the most vulnerable among us–the disabled children who are blind, deaf, spastic, intellectually disabled–says much about us as a society, and as individuals.

I hope to see the day when the wheelchair-bound are a common sight on our streets and buses, our blind graduates find jobs worthy of their hard-earned degrees, the news on television have subtitles for the deaf and people no longer stare or cringe at the sight of a Down Syndrome child in public.

That, more than soaring GNP per capita figures, will show that we have finally arrived as a society.

 

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Saturday, October 02, 2004, ST Forum
Do more for special-needs education

IT WAS with great pleasure and not a little surprise that I learnt that the issue of the education of special-needs children has been in the spotlight (’$220m school aid for disabled kids’; ST, Sept 19, and ‘Teachers get special needs training’; ST, Sept 24).

This is indeed welcome and long-awaited news to the special-education (Sped) community as well as families with special-needs members. I am very heartened to know that, in keeping with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s pledge, the Government is now giving more attention and aid to students with special needs.

As a special-education teacher and person with disability (deafness) myself, I would like to offer my views on this issue.

I am concerned that in the afterglow of the announcement of such generous measures for special-needs children, both the Government and the man in the street would conclude that the issue of insufficient support for them is now a non-issue, which is not so.

We face some crucial, unresolved issues with regard to educational policies which impact adversely on special-needs children.

Firstly, special-needs children are still exempted from compulsory education. The decision as to whether to enrol these children in school lies solely with their parents, which is in glaring contrast to legislation providing for compulsory education for ‘normal’ children.

I would like to point out that most children with disabilities, however severe, have the capability and potential to learn academic or vocational skills, and contribute to society and the economy. But this is possible only if they are given the chance to.

Failing to ensure that all children with disabilities get a quality education would only lead to them wallowing in a state of dependency and helplessness and, in the long run, becoming a greater economic burden to society as uneducated, untrained, unemployable adults.

Secondly, Sped schools are still managed and run by voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) instead of the Ministry of Education (MOE). This is clearly not ideal as most VWOs are perpetually struggling for funds and resources to run their programmes. The current woeful state of facilities in some Sped schools says it all. Sped teachers also lag far behind their mainstream counterparts in terms of training and upgrading opportunities, professional status and, last but not least, pay.

However, the Government seems very resistant to the notion of putting Sped schools under MOE, which is rather puzzling. Education for special-needs children is an educational issue, not a ‘charity’ or ‘community development’ or ‘voluntary work’ issue. (Of course, the VWOs will still have a role to play in working with MOE in providing social, financial and job-matching support for individual clients).

Making MOE responsible for running Sped schools should not be seen as diverting funds from mainstream schools and a misallocation of resources, as seems to be the perception of the authorities.

Neither is giving Sped schools a status on par with mainstream schools a case of going down the slippery slope to welfarism.

True, the cost of running an average Sped school (based on expenditure per student) would be higher than for an average mainstream school, due to the need for specialised staff, equipment and facilities.

However, we need to keep in mind that these are not luxuries, but essential expenditure on educational services which Sped children should be entitled to, being every bit as Singaporean as their mainstream peers, not second-class citizens.

In view of the above and at the risk of sounding ungracious and ungrateful, I would like to say I feel that an additional $55 million annually for four years is but a short-term measure. What happens after that?

On the other hand, enforcing compulsory education for special-needs children and putting special education in its rightful place - under MOE where it will be guaranteed sufficient funding, teaching expertise, institutional support and resources year after year, over the long run - will make the real and lasting difference.

Is your child deaf? No, you say, because he responds to sound. Aha! Here’s why.

This is for hearing parents of young deaf children. Especially if you have a bright child. As a parent, you have the understandable mindset that your child is hearing because that is the only kind you know. Then you wonder, did he hear you? Even though by now you know he has a hearing impairment, hope still recurs.

Read on…

Like any decent site which hopes to retain eyeballs and repeat visits, this one also has stuff on luv, lomance and BGR aka boy-girl relationships. Woohoo!

A Deaf-hearing relationship can refer to a number of possible scenarios. It could be a signing, culturally Deaf person partnered with a fluent-signing CODA or hearing interpreter, or the same Deaf person partnered with a moderately fluent hearing person or with a nonsigning hearing person. It might be an oral Deaf person with a nonsigning hearing person, or any other combination of partner backgrounds.

Read on…

On a related note, how CIs can benefit deaf children and the possible impact on the future of the culturally Deaf.

The night before Karol Danielsson’s deaf son would have a cochlear implant surgically inserted in his inner ear, she and her husband wrote a letter to the then 2-year-old boy.

John, now 4, won’t be able to open it until his 16th birthday.

The Seattle couple wrote the letter because they knew the surgery would be life-changing, no matter what the outcome. "This was a most difficult decision your father and I made, but we feel that, by doing this, we were just opening doors for you," they said.

Today, John can hear clearly and speaks distinctly.

Read on…

Joseph Rainmound, a deaf blogger, has a few choice words to say about the less than ethical marketing of hearing aids (HAs) and cochlear implants (CIs).

My own take on it is, those who opt for CIs - an irreversible process - should go into it with eyes and mind open. If children are involved, all the more so should parents be aware of the pros and cons of CIs. All too often, only the potential benefits are highlighted and the possible pitfalls glossed over, and which results is a deaf child with a useless (and extremely expensive) CI.

I’ve often reflected that I’m disturbed by certain techniques used by people who sell hearing aids and cochlear implants. One specific technique is to invoke sentimentality, the extreme sort. "Get this device and you’ll hear your baby’s first word!" "Get this device and you’ll be able to talk to your family!" "Music," people say, rapturously, eyes rolling to the ceilings as they clutch iPods with sweaty hands.  

Read on…

I can testify as to how technology has helped in keeping touch with my nearest and dearest. (Thanks, iChat and iSight!)

And I simply don’t know how I coped pre-email, handphones, IM and webcams. In fact, I only got my first handphone in my final year in university, and the years before that were a time of missed opportunities, crossed lines and garbled communication.

Oh, I remember now - struggling with the telephone, saying ’sorry, can you repeat that?’ endlessly, and finally hearing the "toot.. tooot" on the line which told me the other party had given up. Those were the days, my friend; I don’t look back on this particular aspect of my growing up years with any nostalgia.

March of technology opens doors to deaf 
From: Baltimore Sun, United States - Jun 4, 2006

By Pat Bernstein
Special to the Sun

June 4, 2006

Sign language is entering cyberspace, as a plethora of new technologies are expanding the abilities of deaf people to communicate - and not just by whipping out a handheld computer to type messages or flipping on the Internet to receive e-mails.

Instead, broadband and video technologies are enabling the deaf for the first time to "convey the information in their own language instead of relying on the written word," said Janet Harkins, director of technology access at Gallaudet University in Washington, the country’s premier school for the deaf.

Harkins points out that technology had already given the deaf a strong sense of independence, allowing them to have "closer relationships with hearing family and friends because they can get in touch with them in a variety of ways." But new technologies have gone beyond that, reinforcing the deaf culture built on American Sign Language.

Before the widespread use of e-mail and text-pagers for distant communications, deaf people relied on ASL interpreters or TTY machines, an adaptation of the teletype machine.

With the arrival of Web cameras, their interactions changed drastically, a significance not necessarily appreciated by a hearing world that often assumes someone signing conveys the exact words with hands alone.

Not so.

Signers integrate facial expressions, arm movements and body language along with the fingers to deliver the message in a language with its own sophisticated grammar. That is why seeing a person signing is critical for full comprehension.

"The deaf use vocal tone and pitch … called facial grammar," explained Denise Perdue, assistant director of the Maryland Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Whereas the hearing world relies on vocal intonation to convey meaning, deaf people, for example, raise their eyebrows to indicate questions or emphasize points by puffing their cheeks or pursing their lips.

Hayley Jeeter, the hearing daughter of a deaf parent, describes ASL as a "very dynamic language" and confesses that "it seems that spoken English is sometimes boring in comparison."

Nationally and in Maryland - where more than 200,000 people are believed to have serious hearing problems - the numbers of the deaf have been growing as people are exposed to an increasingly noisy environment and lose hearing earlier in life. Others experience such loss either as part of the aging process or from damage during military service.

Five years ago, with the marketing of video phones to the deaf community, a new business emerged. Video Relay Service allows the deaf to easily engage in telephone conversations through trained ASL interpreters.

After a toll-free number is dialed, a picture appears on the home television screen showing an interpreter, who subsequently completes the connection to a hearing person. That operator then acts as a conduit between the two parties, signing and speaking in a rhythm similar to regular telephone calls. The service is free to the deaf, with expenses underwritten by the universal access surcharge on telephone bills.

"Technological advances have been a tremendous impact," said Phil Aiello, one of two deaf owners of TCS Associates in Wheaton, which specializes in advanced technology and systems integration.

When communications depended on using teletype-based TTY, it resulted in occasional misinterpretations by relay operators. And "many times the hearing person didn’t want to take the relay call at all because it was very, very time-consuming," Aiello said. "With video relay, it’s much faster. … It eliminates misperceptions, misunderstandings and frustration."

Louis Schwarz, a deaf financial adviser in Bethesda whose office is filled with electronic gadgets adapted with signal lights, celebrates video phones for personal reasons.

"My three daughters are all hearing," said Schwarz, who was communicating through a Video Relay Service connection. "And they absolutely hated when I needed to call through the traditional - or what they call IT - relay."

Their impatience evaporated when VRS came along, and now, he says, "My daughters are so happy that we talk all the time."

Last month, a new relay center opened in Columbia, adding to Maryland’s high concentration of VRS centers. Companies offering the service in the state include Sprint, AT&T, Verizon/MCI, Hamilton.net and Sorenson Communications Inc., which is generally recognized as the leading provider.

Presently, only customers with broadband capability can access this service. However, in the next few months Sorenson plans to introduce "lower-bandwidth connections, serving a broader audience," said its president and CEO, Pat Nola.

Though this advance is widely accepted, it does have detractors. A number of the senior citizens attending activities at Baltimore’s League for People with Disabilities expressed regret at the disappearance of the once-popular weekly meetings called deaf clubs, as they have been overtaken by the technology.

"Because of the Sidekicks [handheld computers similar to the BlackBerry] and the video phones … there’s less human contact," said Laura Sanderling, the league’s service coordinator.

What video phones did for the deaf, caption telephones accomplished for the hard of hearing. A person dials a regular telephone number rather than a toll-free number and is automatically connected to a relay center, where a trained operator completes the call.

After the hearing person answers, the operator re-voices the conversation using a customized voice-recognition computer that transcribes the message into captions displayed on a screen on the user’s telephone. This allows the caller to read the words while listening to the voice on the other end, ensuring a more natural conversation and avoiding misunderstandings. The caption phones are "very transparent to the user and very easy to use," said Gallaudet’s Harkins.

A peek down the pipeline reveals promising ideas for deaf communication being tested at Georgia Tech Research Institute. Recognizing that movie theaters often lack captioning for the deaf, scientists developed and recently signed a leasing agreement to produce a wearable captioning system that transmits text either onto handheld electronic devices or onto micro-displays attached to eyeglasses. Additionally, teams are working on CopyCat, an interactive game intended to aid schoolchildren with their signing skills, and a program called Telesign that will translate when an interpreter isn’t available.

But a large advance may rise next year off a design board in Laurent, S.D. "A New Town for Signers" blazes across the Web site of the nonprofit Laurent Institute, which is underwriting the initial design phase for building a small town for the deaf.

Architects are charged with incorporating the "width of a sidewalk, the orientation of the streets to where the sun is so you can walk down the street and sign a conversation, with glass elevators or wire cages," according to the institute’s chief executive officer, M.E. Barwacz.

With about 160 signed housing reservations so far, the intention is to eventually attract 2,500 residents and become a tourist destination so "people can experience another culture without leaving the U.S.," Barwacz said.

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun

More on the controversial election of the new president of Gallaudet University.

Eighteen years ago, Gallaudet students pulled fire alarms and passed alerts person to person for the Deaf President Now protest, which became a civil rights slogan and brought I. King Jordan into the president’s office. It was the first time, many said, that the world had heard them.

Now, as Fernandes prepares to replace Jordan in a role that has become for many the voice of deaf culture, there are more ways than ever to communicate.

It’s a watershed moment, said Jared Evans of San Diego, because deaf people can broadcast information widely and instantly. Like so many in the deaf community, he tracked events at Gallaudet almost in real time. That spurred rallies at other deaf schools and letters from national groups, and compelled alumni to travel to Washington.

Read on…

Our deaf neighbours across the causeway have much to teach us country bumpkins about the concepts of self-help, organisation and, not least, implementing a system for keeping the deaf informed of current affairs.

This is especially crucial here where news programs on TV are not subtitled or closed captioned (CC) - and where the government resolutely refuses to legislate it on grounds of cost-effectiveness. (It’ll probably relent sometime in the far future when the population greys sufficiently to make CC economically viable - like what is now happening, very very slowly, with the provision of wheelchair-friendly buses.)

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ICT for the silent minority
New Straits Times - Persekutuan,Malaysia - Jun 18, 2006

SARBAN SINGH

In the silent world, life in certain situations can be rather difficult. Here’s how the deaf are trying to help themselves in the world of ICT.

THE drama was unfolding on television right before his eyes on Sept 11 in 2001, where two aircraft, one after another, crashed into the World Trade Center buildings in New York.

But it was only hours later that Mohammad Sazali Shaari could actually understand what had happened.

He could not hear the commentary that accompanied the dramatic footages of the crashes and the horrific aftermath.

There was nothing wrong with the sound system of his television. It’s just that Sazali is deaf.

"Can you imagine how I felt when I could see the 9/11 episode unfold on television but was only told of what actually transpired hours later," said Sazali, president of the Malaysian Federation of the Deaf (MFD), through an interpreter.

From using the phone to reporting an emergency to having to notify their employer that they are on medical leave is a challenge to the country’s estimated 24,000 deaf people.

"If I am on the highway and my car breaks down, I can’t use the highway’s emergency phone to call for help," said Sazali.

Instead of just sitting around moaning about their plight and complaining that no one is looking into their welfare, Sazali and his members decided that one way of helping themselves was to use information technology (IT).

With a RM750,000 grant from Mimos under the Demonstrator Application Grant Scheme, the federation set up e-pekak in 2000, an online programme for the community to keep themselves informed.

The programme, by the deaf for the deaf, was launched in five special schools in the Klang Valley.

The project was divided into two components — the D-School (Deaf School) and D-Administration (Deaf Administration).

The D-School receives support from the Special Education Department, who gave approval to the schools to be involved in the project.

There are tips for deaf students on how to excel in the Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah, Penilaian Menengah Rendah and Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examinations.

e-pekak also has forums where the deaf communicate with others by written mode instead of having to use sign language, and it also provides online counselling, information on sign language as well as job vacancies.

It was not a revolutionary programme but it exposed the deaf students to ICT.

After the DAGS grant was exhausted, the federation received a grant from the Swiss-based Global Knowledge Partner, and with assistance from Microsoft Malaysia, it expanded e-pekak.

By January 2004, the e-pekak project had covered Kedah, Perlis, Penang, Terengganu, Kelantan, Malacca, Perak and Johor.

Sazali said the federation also used the project funds to produce a book on ICT sign language because some students couldn’t understand certain ICT terms like ‘port’ in sign language.

© 2006 NST Online.

Interesting story with an offensive heading. At least it offends me.

Somehow, the mainstream world sees it fit to publish this equation.

Deaf = Mute

I am sure any one of those ‘deaf-mute’ kids can scream as loudly as any hearing person. Mute, indeed!

Read on…

Trouble a-brewing at the bastion of Deaf culture and the symbol of Deaf pride - Gallaudet University, which is the world’s only university catering to the deaf/Deaf.

Signing Exact English vs. ASL - the new battleground?

Having been profoundly deaf since birth as well as a parent of a deaf child, I am familiar with issues of unintentional and intentional discrimination that are unique to a group of Americans and international citizens who are deaf. My peers and I are used to being treated a little bit differently.

The recent protests at Gallaudet University have brought these underlying issues to the forefront. The very same antagonistic attitudes about a particular group of deaf people demonstrated by administrators of Gallaudet University are vividly present in the American mainstream as well as the world.

Read on…