Bridging the Gap Between the Hearing & Deaf Worlds
Check out the posts below where you can listen or read the transcripts of The Hear Me Out! [CC] Podcast.
Is there such a thing as a ‘deaf privilege’?
The word ‘privilege’ has some kind of stigma attaches to it. But it doesn’t and should’t have to be.
But even for someone like me, I would say that I have “deaf privilege”; where even though I am deaf/hard of hearing, I still have some privileges linked to it so that I can acknowledge what I have, appreciate what I have and be aware of what I have, despite my deafness.
The TV and film industries rarely display deaf characters.
Which is why it’s quite exciting to see that a popular soap programme in the UK, Eastenders, on the BBC has dedicated an entire episode from the perspective of a character who has lost his hearing.
And with the help of the right people in the background, they have managed to pull-off a very good episode that perfectly demonstrates the challenges and barriers that most, if not all, d/Deaf and hard of hearing people face.
Learn about my reactions to this unique Eastenders episode here
I still get surprised on how I get asked both of these questions that are related to each other but completely contrasting at the same time by different people.
Most people assume that deaf people can’t speak (yes we can). If we do, we “speak well for a deaf person (yeah, don’t say that) or you don’t speak very well (yeah, don’t say that either).
So I share my own experiences of how come for one group of people, I do speak clearly, and for others, I don’t speak clearly.
Recently, there has been a rise in the number of video calls. It’s not just by people who are working from home, but also those are away or isolated from their friends and families (particularly as we are going through a global pandemic). So it’s natural that video calls is the next best option to connect with those you can’t meet in-person.
During this period where people are feeling exhausted from all the calls; so much so, that the term ‘Zoom fatigue’ has been coined to label this type of tiredness.
It sounds like a new thing…but for those who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing (and perhaps many others), this feeling is just a normal part of our everyday lives.
It’s hard enough to make the world around us more deaf aware during a normal day-to-day life. It’s a bigger challenge when it’s during a global pandemic.
Even though there have been calls for interpreters and captions when important information are shared, it seems that these are somewhat neglected when attempting to relay the message to as many people as possible.
Only, for those who are d/Deaf, they are ignored.
In an interview with Deaf consultant and BSL user Lynn-Stewart Taylor, I had the opportunity to talk to her about the campaign #WhereIsTheInterpreter and why she felt the need to start it.
I’ve talked about it in the previous episode but I felt it was important to learn straight from the source on why this is necessary and to understand better about the benefits of this campaign BSL users.
Learn more about why Lynn started #WhereIsTheInterpreter here
It is critical for everyone to be informed of the important guidelines that we need to follow when there is a global pandemic and it is a life and death situation.
Unfortunately, d/Deaf people are not informed as adequately as they should be.
Even though there are government guidelines to be followed when they do their live emergency broadcasting, deaf/Deaf sign language users tend to be forgotten about.
Hence why the hashtag #WhereIsTheInterpreter, originally started by Lynn Stewart-Taylor, has been trending in the UK to do something about this.
Video calls are on the rise. With more people working from home, remote working (or living in isolation because of a global pandemic) and with so many tools available to help us, more and more people are making use of video calls even for personal use too. But what about for someone like me who […]
At a time of recording, there is a global pandemic with coronavirus affecting the entire world. But with so much important to follow, it’s so important to make sure that there is equal access to those content for those who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing.
At this moment in time, it’s more important than ever to make sure there is equal access to those content. It will not just protect those who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing, but also those around them too, as I explain in this podcast.
