Deafandumb
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- Jan 7, 2007
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I remember when I was a young kid (about 20 years ago) when I was introduced to the TTY/TDD, enabling me to hold conversations with the hearing friends, fellow Deafies, it held inspiration, anticipation of a great world to come.
Fast-forward to today: Has anything progressed for the deaf/hard-of-hearing in the last 20 years, as far as technology and accessibility goes? Yes, we have closed-captioning, but since I mentioned it, I'll start with that. After a long day, I like to relax in the evening, and often with comedy/documentaries on television. Jay Leno, for an example, has the live-captioning format for the CC, and I honestly don't remember the last time a full show ran the captioning flawlessly. It seems that every single episode, there's always a hiccup of some sort, perhaps the captioner missed a few words... That'll ruin my night.
The audience will crack up laughing, some people will jeer, others will give the shocked "oooooh"... And I missed the joke, not because I wasn't pay attention, but because of the caption being something from the stone ages of technology. Sports are the same thing, there comes a time or two when you may wonder why that penalty was called, but for whatever magical reason the caption missed a few of the words the announcer used to explain, therefore you're left hanging in the dark. This angers me, not so much of the missed sports comment, or the comedian's joke -- It's about accessibility that should be provided as whole.
Let's put it in perspective of a hearing person, it's like having your worst enemy sit behind the couch, a remote in hand to mute the T.V. just when the important facts or cuing of a joke is to begin. News stations often times boast the fact that they offer CC, but it's just a link from the teleprompter the anchor is reading from, which doesn't include additional words said, or live field reporting. It'll start of with something like "tonight, there was an accident at etc. etc. etc. Lets go live to John with details" -- Then no caption is available. Back to the anchor: "Thanks John for all those great details, next... A house fire displaced a family today, lets go to Jane for details" --.... NOTHING! I WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! Did a candle fall over? Was it arson? If a news station is going to offer captioning, they need to offer it 100% of the time, or none at all.
Now, multiply that a couple times per hour of T.V. you watch. I know it's not just my T.V., this happens at my family's, friends, in the cafe's, everywhere! There are times when I'll just have absolutely no faith in television or movie-theater accessibility for the deaf in the near future. :rl:
Moving on. The question I asked was, what kind of advancement have we -- as society -- made to accommodate the deaf? Think of it like the ADA compliance for the mobility-disabled, and blind. Every building has accessible ramps, braille directories, motorized doors, etc. About the only thing I can think of for the deaf, are flashing strobes for the fire alarms, nothing else.
What if I need to ask a question at the grocery store? Do we need to revert to the stone ages by trying to find a pen and paper to write our question down on? Maybe a lot of the accommodations and technology advancement was already taken care of with computers, two people could communicate at the grocery store using the present-day mobile phones with keyboards, such as the sidekick. I just feel that there is something missing, perhaps being ignored due to limited demand...
Maybe it's the invisibility that's an issue, because hearing people cannot immediately tell if the person's deaf until further interaction proves it. A blind man is recognized by its sunglasses and cane, therefore is immediately accommodated. A person who has difficulty moving is identified as one with a walker or wheelchair, again immediately accommodated. For Deafies, there's nothing that physically identifies he/she's deaf, and can confuse a lot of people.
One day a few years ago, I was standing on a sidewalk looking towards a building of great architecture, when a jeep drove by. I made eye contact with the driver in the jeep, we gave the usual friendly expressions as the general public does, and I went out with my day. About a minute later, I thought I heard faint noises, perhaps pressure building up on my ears, turned to find the driver of the jeep had stepped out of his vehicle, stood behind me yelling.
Wondering what the commotion was, in case anything was wrong, I put on my hearing aid and asked what was up. He and his friends amused themselves by screaming as loud as they could to see if they could get my attention, like waving your hand in front of a blind man's face. I could see the humor that they were giggling at, but as a victim I felt disturbed. They just wanted to know how to get to someplace, and stopped as they casually asked, realizing I wasn't responding, and decided to have fun by yelling. What do I gotta do, screw a hook in my ear to hang a "out-of-order" sign?
Fast-forward to today: Has anything progressed for the deaf/hard-of-hearing in the last 20 years, as far as technology and accessibility goes? Yes, we have closed-captioning, but since I mentioned it, I'll start with that. After a long day, I like to relax in the evening, and often with comedy/documentaries on television. Jay Leno, for an example, has the live-captioning format for the CC, and I honestly don't remember the last time a full show ran the captioning flawlessly. It seems that every single episode, there's always a hiccup of some sort, perhaps the captioner missed a few words... That'll ruin my night.
The audience will crack up laughing, some people will jeer, others will give the shocked "oooooh"... And I missed the joke, not because I wasn't pay attention, but because of the caption being something from the stone ages of technology. Sports are the same thing, there comes a time or two when you may wonder why that penalty was called, but for whatever magical reason the caption missed a few of the words the announcer used to explain, therefore you're left hanging in the dark. This angers me, not so much of the missed sports comment, or the comedian's joke -- It's about accessibility that should be provided as whole.
Let's put it in perspective of a hearing person, it's like having your worst enemy sit behind the couch, a remote in hand to mute the T.V. just when the important facts or cuing of a joke is to begin. News stations often times boast the fact that they offer CC, but it's just a link from the teleprompter the anchor is reading from, which doesn't include additional words said, or live field reporting. It'll start of with something like "tonight, there was an accident at etc. etc. etc. Lets go live to John with details" -- Then no caption is available. Back to the anchor: "Thanks John for all those great details, next... A house fire displaced a family today, lets go to Jane for details" --.... NOTHING! I WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! Did a candle fall over? Was it arson? If a news station is going to offer captioning, they need to offer it 100% of the time, or none at all.
Now, multiply that a couple times per hour of T.V. you watch. I know it's not just my T.V., this happens at my family's, friends, in the cafe's, everywhere! There are times when I'll just have absolutely no faith in television or movie-theater accessibility for the deaf in the near future. :rl:
Moving on. The question I asked was, what kind of advancement have we -- as society -- made to accommodate the deaf? Think of it like the ADA compliance for the mobility-disabled, and blind. Every building has accessible ramps, braille directories, motorized doors, etc. About the only thing I can think of for the deaf, are flashing strobes for the fire alarms, nothing else.
What if I need to ask a question at the grocery store? Do we need to revert to the stone ages by trying to find a pen and paper to write our question down on? Maybe a lot of the accommodations and technology advancement was already taken care of with computers, two people could communicate at the grocery store using the present-day mobile phones with keyboards, such as the sidekick. I just feel that there is something missing, perhaps being ignored due to limited demand...
Maybe it's the invisibility that's an issue, because hearing people cannot immediately tell if the person's deaf until further interaction proves it. A blind man is recognized by its sunglasses and cane, therefore is immediately accommodated. A person who has difficulty moving is identified as one with a walker or wheelchair, again immediately accommodated. For Deafies, there's nothing that physically identifies he/she's deaf, and can confuse a lot of people.
One day a few years ago, I was standing on a sidewalk looking towards a building of great architecture, when a jeep drove by. I made eye contact with the driver in the jeep, we gave the usual friendly expressions as the general public does, and I went out with my day. About a minute later, I thought I heard faint noises, perhaps pressure building up on my ears, turned to find the driver of the jeep had stepped out of his vehicle, stood behind me yelling.
Wondering what the commotion was, in case anything was wrong, I put on my hearing aid and asked what was up. He and his friends amused themselves by screaming as loud as they could to see if they could get my attention, like waving your hand in front of a blind man's face. I could see the humor that they were giggling at, but as a victim I felt disturbed. They just wanted to know how to get to someplace, and stopped as they casually asked, realizing I wasn't responding, and decided to have fun by yelling. What do I gotta do, screw a hook in my ear to hang a "out-of-order" sign?
