Bridging the Gap Between the Hearing & Deaf Worlds
I have noticed a few articles talking about the popular U.S program ‘What Would You Do?’ (WWYD) where in this particular episode, a waiter is being rude to a deaf customer.
And we ask: “what would you do” if you witnessed this at a restaurant?
So I decided to watch the episode and record myself reacting to watching it the first time so that I can provide unbiased thoughts and opinions about the programme and the scenarios that’s being played out.
Welcome to The Hear Me Out! [CC] Podcast, an audio show (with transcripts included) where we listen to stories from fascinating individuals in and around the d/Deaf community and from your host, yours truly, Ahmed Khalifa.
In this episode, I got chatting with Henry Warren who is running a campaign called ‘Turn on the Subtitles’ where he is encouraging broadcasters and technology platforms to turn on the subtitles as research has shown that it can help improve children’s literacy rate.
Listen to podcast or read transcript of interview with Henry Warren
I’ve read a few tweets a while back where there is a common trend where the hearing person in question either walks away because they can’t be bothered, are scared or they stands still and ignores the d/Deaf individual.
You’d think that it can’t get worse or more ridiculous than that, but it can. If only they learnt some simple tips on how to get over that.
In this episode, I got chatting Kimberly Sanzo of Language First who has an incredible insight in the world of language deprivation that d/Deaf children can go through and the importance of having the right environment to encourage language acquisition.
Like all interviews on this podcast, I come away with a different on a topic that I don’t have lot of knowledge about but after chatting to Kimberly, it has opened up my mind about the power of sign languages, and I’m sure it will do the same to you too.
It seems that many people are confused on what deaf can do and can’t do. A simple Google search starting with “can deaf people…” will bring up a list of search suggestions that seems very…interesting (which you can see in the shownote).
So I thought this would be a good time to talk about what d/Deaf people can do and dispel any myths that anyone may have about us.
As someone who is creating videos and audios on consistent basis, there is a huge challenge for me as a deaf content creator to deal with the audio aspects of it.
I mean, how do you deal with audio if you are deaf?
In this episode, I talk to Kate Llewellyn-Waters, a businesswoman who has lost her hearing after getting pregnant. She opens up and shares her own story on how that happened, why it happened, her on-going challenges as a mother and shares advice to any other parents going through something similar.
There are so many idioms like “fit as a fiddle”, “strong as an ox”, “cute as a button” and “cool as a cucumber”.
The same applies to anything that starts with “deaf as…” and I’ve encountered quite a few of the the common phrases below and their origins too.
Instead of talking about the benefits of learning sign languages and why you should learn it, I want to talk about my own personal reasons on why I want to learn sign language.
Because as much as everyone has their own reasons and there are many benefits to learning any languages in general let alone sign language, I have my reasons which I explain in this podcast.
