Today I saw retweet from Jared Evans about the ICED (International Congress on the Education of the Deaf) “formal apology for the Milan 1880 conference which banned signed languages in deaf education.” I believe that was the first I heard of it. This evening, I looked at the DeafRead links on the right sidebar of my blog and saw a blog post by Amy Cohen Efron about the ICED apology along with an embedded vlog she posted on YouTube:
My comment:
I think this is great. And I didn’t realize that the conference of Milan was the second quinquennial conference in a whole series leading up to today. I am glad to hear of this “gesture” though I am cautious about looking at an apology as an action. Yes, it is a step in the right direction, but Continue reading →
Reflections on my recent experience at the RID Region V conference, the benefits of the policy of using ASL at all times during the conference (except in a few of the workshops that were interpreted), and the great contribution of deaf interpreters to the field. I also discuss my experience as a workshop presenter and my thoughts on how to make my discussions of interpreting less hearing-interpreter-centric, and more inclusive of all interpreters, especially deaf interpreters.
I was hoping that my colleague A Dreamer (yes, that’s his name) would be televised as he interpreted the National Anthem into ASL at the beginning of the big game. Unfortunately, this year’s coverage of the signing of the Star Spangled Banner was even less satisfying than last year’s. Last year, we at least got to watch Marlee Matlin signing “bombs bursting in air” on the big screen. This year, I was only able to see — by watching very carefully — the interpreter signing “flag was still there” (all in one nicely inflected ASL sign, by the way) on the Jumbo Tron behind Jordin Sparks’ head.
And what about that Deaf Pepsi ad that was supposed to air? I never saw it. Did you?
Here I am singing and signing the song “Pure Imagination” from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, one of my favorite songs since I was a little kid.
And here are the lyrics:
Come with me / and you’ll be / in a world of pure imagination / Take a look / and you’ll see / into your imagination
We’ll begin / with a spin / traveling in a world of my creation / What we’ll see / will defy / explanation
If you want to view paradise / simply look around and view it / anything you want to, do it / want to change the world? / there’s nothing to it
There is no / life I know / to compare with pure imagination / living there / you’ll be free / if you truly wish to be
I was excited to hear that Marlee Matlin would be signing the American National Anthem (“The Star-Spangled Banner”) at Super Bowl XLI, but was disappointed to see her on television only during the phrase “the bombs bursting in air.” Whatever happened to the “signer in the bubble”? I would think they could put an Academy Award-winning deaf actress in a picture-in-picture “bubble” so that her performance of our National Anthem could be enjoyed throughout the duration of the song. Apparently, the director of the televised broadcast underestimated ASL and its many users.
I would like to believe that in the year 2007, accessibility for deaf people and the beauty of ASL would be esteemed by American society. Sadly, the Super Bowl XLI broadcast reminds me that American Sign Language and Deaf Culture are still relegated to a momentary side show.
When I heard last week on NPR that an Italian priest who “helped the deaf” in the late 1800s had been canonized as a saint, I couldn’t help wondering: was he at the Milan Conference of 1880, a conference of “educators of deaf-mutes” who moved to forbid sign language and mandate oralism.
Filippo Smaldone lived from 1848 to 1923 in Italy, and the infamous Milan Conference was held in 1880. According to one source, he founded “institutes for deaf-mutes” (not necessarily a disparaging term back then) in 1885 and 1887, but he had already worked with “deaf-mutes” as far back as the 1870s. He might truly be worthy of sainthood if he had rebuked the Milan Conference and promoted deaf people’s preferred mode of communication, but somehow I doubt that happened, because that would have gone totally against the grain.
Just think what an irony it would be if our dear Father Smaldone had been one of the killers of sign language and “got away with murder” by being canonized as a saint!
A fellow interpreter tipped me off to a bizarre website the other day called signchido.com. The website is a sort of “infomercial” for an inspirational form of “moving prayer” that attempts to incorporate ASL into Tai Kwan Do Tai Chi. The woman who invented it says she is a doctor who designed Sign Chi Do to help patients “synchronize body, heart, and mind.” I suppose one could argue that anything that helps people heal is a good thing — and they may have a point — but there is something so “infomercial-ly” about this whole scheme, and I don’t believe anyone should profit from ASL at the expense of the American deaf community and their language.
I would not take issue with Sign Chi Do if it incorporated ASL in a way that would make sense to a person who relies on ASL for communication, if all of the videos on the website were captioned, and if even one of the three “testimonial” videos featured a deaf person!
Unfortunately, the whole scheme seems to be a concoction of someone who has co-opted the language of a people without involving the people she took the language from, and no attempt seems to have been made to reach out to the very people who created the language in the first place. It all appears to be a feel-good entertainment for hearing people who have never met a deaf person nor taken a sign language class.
For the benefit of people who cannot hear the singing on the videos, as well as for the benefit of people who don’t know ASL, I have watched and listened to the introductory video, transcribed the song lyrics, and translated (or back-translated, if you will) the “ASL” (if you can call it that).
This is my first Google video, and my first video with closed captioning. Click on the little “CC” icon to watch the captions.
I must say I’m a bit frustrated by the fact that there’s no sound in the video even though I uploaded the video with sound. I uploaded it as a QuickTime movie (.MOV). I don’t know if that made the difference or not. If anyone can help me make sure the videos I upload retain their audio track, please leave a comment. It was also a bit frustrating that the captioning did not appear as soon as Google said it was finished “processing” my video. I waited about 15-20 minutes for the captions to appear when I played the video (I kept refreshing), but it was after midnight and I really had to go to bed. In the morning, at about 6:30 AM, I watched my video again, and the captions were there.
Anyway, this was a successful experiment from the standpoint of captioning. The one mistake I made was typing one of my time codes with a period, rather than a colon, between the minutes and seconds. This made the time code show up in the captions. I corrected the captioning text and re-uploaded it.
This is my intro in ASL. I say, “Hi, I’m Daniel Greene. I am hearing. I work as an interpreter, and I also sing. I hope you enjoy my movies, whether you are hearing or deaf. Are you interested in learning more about ASL interpreting? Check out my web site, danielgreene.com!
