Welcome to the brand new Hear Me Out! [CC] Podcast, a show where you will hear from inspiring people who are in and around the d/Deaf community, as well as your host Ahmed Khalifa.
Episode 0 is an opportunity for me to explain to you the purpose of this podcast (and the website), what is its purpose and why it was created. This is also I explain more about how can those who are deaf engage with the podcast and how I will also interview those who are profoundly deaf.
And of course, transcripts are included in every single episodes.
Sources
Transcripts
Announcer: Welcome to The Hear Me Out! [CC] Podcast, a show where you’ll hear from inspiring people in and around the d/Deaf community, and from your host Ahmed Khalifa.
Ahmed: Hey, what’s up everyone? Yes, this is your host, Ahmed Khalifa of the podcast, The Hear Me Out! [CC] Podcast, and the founder of hearmeoutcc.com, the website and welcome to episode zero.
That’s right. Zero! It’s not a typo.
And there’s a reason why it’s episode zero, it’s kind of a common thing to do in the podcast world and it’s like a place for me to kind of introduce you to a brand new podcast, and I thought what better way to introduce you all than to do episode zero before we kind of dive in to what’s really going to happen on the podcast.
So, let me tell you a little story of why I have started the website and also the podcast as well, so I have put in the show note a link to a bit more detail about my story.
But long story short, I am hard of hearing. I’m kind of mildly deaf and wear hearing aids wherever I can, or when I should really. If I don’t then it gets a bit tricky, so I have been hiding it for a long time.
But then I started being a bit more open about it and I’ve started sharing YouTube video and about the hearing struggle and thing that you should say or not say and what you should be aware of.
That kind of stuff and they were really well received, even to the hearing world, they were really well received and people actually enjoyed it, they engaged with it.
Some of them can understand, some of them didn’t know about this and the people who know me personally as well and the, you know, these videos had been a really good thing for me and I put the link in the show notes so you can watch it yourself.
So this is where I thought, you know what I’m going to kind of share more stories, and not just about me, but this is a place for me, this podcast and also the website, to share stories from other people as well.
And just understand from their perspectives, their journey, how you can learn from them, how you can help them and kind of spread that awareness as well.
It’s a really great place for me to interview those, not just in the deaf community, but kind of linked with the deaf community in some sense. So for example, if you have a child who is deaf but you are not, then you kind of involved in that.
If you’re working in the industry, for example, a charity worker, that’s also involved in the deaf community, but you’re most likely maybe you’re hearing as well.
So there’s a mix of people that I would like to interview and you know, this is a great place for me to do that.
Of course, it’s all audio-based and you might be thinking how are people who are deaf are supposed to listen to the podcast and I hear you.
This is something that I’ve struggled with in some podcasts as well that I listened to. So there’s a reason why it’s called ‘CC’. ‘CC’ means “closed-caption”.
That’s why I called Hear Me Out! [CC]. And yes, closed-caption does not apply to podcast, but it will be “transcripted” (I know, I should have said transcribed) and it will be on every single episode, in the show note there will be a link to the transcript and also links to the sources and stuff like that.
So I’ve always been an advocate of closed captions or subtitles or transcriptions, whatever it is, but you know, it’s, uh, it’s my duty to make sure that this podcast is open to everyone and just because you can’t hear it, doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the content as well.
And the same thing with me or my videos. It’s important to me that I have put the captions on them as well.
Like I said, I’m going to be interviewing different people, there’ll be a mix of guests, but I will also be doing some kind of solo shows featuring yours truly. What you’re going to expect is, apart from that, is also, you’re going to learn from others on how you can cope with being deaf, how you can help others.
You might be entertained by some of the things that we’re talking about. There might be something in the news that need to be aware of and to share it.
Of course, I’ve mentioned you’re going to be learning more about the community and it’s important to improve accessibility wherever I can.
So I’m going to be doing that with the podcast, but I’m also going to be doing that with the website. That’s where I’m going to be doing some blogging and also put videos up on YouTube, which will also be on the website as well.
You might be thinking, well, how am I going to interview people who are deaf? You know, they can’t hear me. I totally get you and I agree with you. It’s going to be quite difficult at certain times, but not impossible.
So it all depends on how severe it is and the environment that they’re in, how good is the Wi-Fi connection and the quality of the audio, you know, using the microphone for example. And you know, that plays a part.
But also really important for me to make sure that the quality of the audio is high.
And I’ve listened to hundreds of podcasts where the sound quality is so bad that I’ve given up on them and use my way for, for making sure that you know what, and I’ll make sure it’s quality and easier to understand.
But as I said, as well as transcripts for every post, for those who can listen to it, for those who I’m interviewing, there are several ways where I’m going to be interviewing them, especially for those who are more profoundly deaf and you know it’s not going to be that easy to lip read sometimes dependent on the quality of the video.
And if there’s no video, then you can’t lip read it all.
So there’s several options that I’m going to offer them. If they’re happy to have the standard video call over Skype or Zoom or whatever that would be offered and they can take that. If it’s, you know, something that they’re happy to do.
There’s also an option for me to send him a list of questions that I’m going to ask them. They can record themselves answering that, they send it back to me and then I’ll put it together with my own voice to make it an episode. That’s also a possibility as well.
And of course for those who are a bit more profoundly deaf or maybe they have a speech impediment and they can’t communicate, then I will send him questions.
They can write it out or they can get someone to interpret it if it that is available for them and I will read it out to you. I’ll read out the answers that they have given me as well, just to make sure that everyone is included regardless of how mild or severe your hearing loss.
So just to round it up, this is episode zero. I really appreciate that, you know you’re here, and listening to this. Make sure you check out the link within the show notes for every single interview and every single episode that I do because there are some interesting stuff you’re going to hear from interesting people.
I would also really appreciate it if you could leave a review on iTunes. That will really help me to get that message across and also to help those who have been interviewed to get their message across as well.
Again, thank you for listening. I really appreciate it and I hope you will hear me again in the next episode of Hear Me Out! [CC] podcast.
Take care!
- What is ‘audism’? Plus my personal experiences of facing audism - October 27, 2021
- ‘CODA’ movie review: my thoughts on the latest deaf movie to be released - October 13, 2021
- Deafness as a ‘hidden/invisible disability’ - October 6, 2021
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