Bridging the Gap Between the Hearing & Deaf Worlds
It’s not a surprise that going to the theatres, art galleries, museums and other similar events are challenge for those who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing.
But thankfully, there are companies like Stagetext who provides live captioning for anyone who wants to experience arts and culture like theatre, art gallery and other live events.
Listen or read the interview with Stagetext CEO, Melanie Sharpe
I had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Robinson aka DeafGamersTV who is a passionate about video games, regularly streams live on Twitch/Mixer to his audience and is advocating gaming accessibility for deaf/hoh gamers out there.
As Chris is more comfortable communicating via ASL (and I don’t know any ASL), we have decided to do the interview via emails. And it was so much fun to learn more about what goes on behind-the-scene and also learn more about the deaf gaming accessibility world.
In this episode, I talk to Liam O’Dell – one of the main deaf journalist in the UK who shares thoughtful and insightful pieces on major publications such as Metro, The Independent and the popular deaf blog ‘The Limping Chicken’.
Liam shares his background story on how he got into it, why he feels it’s important to talk about deafness in publications, what are the general reactions from hearing and d/Deaf & hard of hearing people alike and more.
Listen or read transcript of the interview with Liam O’Dell here
Erin Perkin from Mabely Q was tired of being told what she can’t do, being written off from jobs or offered lower salary than her experience level, just because she was born deaf.
So she decided to start her own graphic design business.
Being a deaf entrepreneur comes with challenges, but after chatting with Erin, you will learn that everyone has their own challenges but it doesn’t have to stop you from progressing in your career.
Listen or read the interview with Erin about her experienes here
In this episode, Annie Tulkin from Accessible College helps to smooth that transition for disabled students, and in this episode, we specifically focus on deaf students journey, the difficulty that could arise when they don’t have access to certain services that can help to smooth that process.
But that the transition is not always a smooth one and the consequences can be very difficult for any students let alone those who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing.
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.
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.
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
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.
