Bridging the Gap Between the Hearing & Deaf Worlds
As someone who is considered to be fairly multi-lingual (with English, Arabic and Spanish at various levels), I’d like to think that I understand the process and the benefits that comes with learning languages.
But as someone who is currently going through the process of learning BSL, it requires a slightly different learning process but still comes with a rich learning experience and a fantastic skill to have.
And there are many benefits that comes with it too.
After reading ‘Song for a Whale’, I had the pleasure of interviewing the author Lynne Kelly to get a detailed “behind-the-scenes” access of the book, learn more about the characters and how her day as a sign language interpreter has helped to play a part in shaping this book.
The interview contains no spoilers so if you haven’t had the chance to read ‘Song for Whale’, you must get yourself a copy of the book.
Listen to podcast or read transcript of the interview with Lynne Kelly
You may have seen via ‘My BSL Journey’, where I document my early stages of learning British Sign Language, that I actually use a form of Sign Supported English instead of a true BSL.
But what is Sign Supported English and how is it different to British Sign Language?
After recently experiencing of a listening to a podcast by a well-known person, and from years of similar experiences from a number of podcasts and videos, it’s time to call it out if you are not providing transcripts or captions to your content.
Since I have less patience about bad quality content and experience, this is an opportunity for me to call it out on people who don’t make their content accessible. But it’s not just about making it accessible because you feel like “you have to”, but you will get a lot of benefits out of it too.
Listen to the podcast or read the transcript of episode 20 here
In episode 19, I interview David Edginton who is a Deaf Personal Trainer and the co-founder of The Deaf Gym.
We discuss everything from his own personal challenges of being a PT to the issues on how d/Deaf people are restricted from the general gyms due to communication barriers and shares advice that is suitable for the general gyms and d/Deaf people alike.
I wanted to voice (or rant) the stories about how Deaf people, who are about to undergo surgery to have a cochlear implant, are apprehensive and nervous for 2 reasons.
The first is because it involves a surgery, which is a valid reason. The second is because of a potential backlash from the Deaf community, which is something that I struggle with.
What does a deaf 12-year old girl and a whale that doesn’t belong in a pod has in common?
Surprisingly quite a lot, as beautifully illustrated by by Lynne Kelly’s ‘Song for a Whale’.
12-year old Iris, who is the only d/Deaf person in her school and family, learns about a whale called ‘Blue 55’ who is unable to communicate with other whales and is known as a lonely whale. Since Iris can resonate with that, she went on a journey to see if she can find a way to “sing” with the whale herself to let him know that he is heard.
And what a beautiful journey it was.
In episode #17 of the Hear Me Out! [CC] Podcast, I wanted to answer the question that (mostly) hearing people have asked me before; is it rude to call someone d/Deaf?
Maybe it’s because of political correctness or perhaps they just want to learn. Either way, I thought of answering that question in this episode so that nobody can make their own assumptions, which is probably the worst thing to do regardless of the scenario.
In episode 16, I interviewed Professor Donald Grushkin from California State University, Scaramento who is a profoundly Deaf scholar and researcher in various aspects of Deafhood such as history, community and culture.
