Recently, many people in the signing community have pushed hard for more captioning on internet video — from Netflix to YouTube, Amazon to Hulu; and I want to share with you a success story! When a friend tipped me off to a Kickstarter campaign for a web series of shows about a fantastical arcade where video games are discussed, reviewed, and occasionally poked fun at, I immediately went to the campaign [...]

Through my experience at being involved in the DYUSA petition to CSD Fremont to move The Bear Hunt statue, I have experienced many reactions from other people — from the beautiful to the ugly. One thing I have taken away from all of that is the extreme importance of safe spaces. Quite often I felt uncomfortable, unwelcome, and/or unsafe where I was. And when I discussed this with others, especially [...]

This is the first in a series of articles about technology, culture, and the Deaf.  If you have any good tips about new technology that is beneficial to Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, please let me know. Word Lens is a iPhone application that does one thing, and one thing well — it is an augmented reality application that uses the built-in iPhone camera to translate languages on the fly. [...]

Many in the signing community feel strongly that the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) philosophy of focusing on auditory and oral approaches when teaching deaf and hard of children is wrong.  The auditory and oral approaches use the weakest point of a deaf or hard of hearing individual to teach language; which is ridiculous, especially when there’s a perfectly serviceable organ ready [...]

As a child, my favorite holiday was Halloween.  I loved the mystery and dark; the anticipation of being scared, of running through the streets collecting candy.  Each year was a race see how much candy we could get. I remember this now only during Halloween as an adult, and only when I see kids clad in costumes, racing from house to house.  From little eyes the world seems big, full [...]

The Washington Times has a great article here about how the H Street corridor in Washington, DC near Gallaudet University is now a hot spot for deaf friendly bars, restaurants, and clubs.  As much as 10 percent of any given establishments’ revenue comes from deaf patrons from the area. The amazing thing is that this has taken place during a development boom on the H Street corridor; many new businesses have [...]

Kitchens are a very special place to deaf people. It is the only room in a house that is important. If you want to find a deaf person, go check your kitchen. There are probably one or fifty in there. Check all the corners, sometimes they are hiding in there chatting up a storm. If deaf people could, they would build a house with only kitchens. It would be paradise [...]

A concept clouds the minds of mankind, the concept of the importance of human speech.  This pernicious idea has caused suffering to deaf people around the world. Human speech is unique in that it requires the organ of the ear to function.  It doesn’t matter if you are a Bushman of the Kalahari desert or an urbane Londoner, a Thai masseuse or fat Eskimo.  Human speech, via various spoken languages, [...]

In one minute at San Francisco gay pride, I saw… Studly men Cigarettes Cat mustache Glow in the dark jewelry Swaying hips Pink furred boots Penis Thump thump balls Black Porta-potties Glasses Camera flashes Beautiful girls Warm jackets White Hot dogs Drunk Shamble Skateboarding Blue hair Naked Plaque “When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” ~Epitaph [...]

A group of French hackers and developers have put together a cool demo of the Xbox Kinect understanding French sign language.  Right now, it only supports two words (bonjour and desole, hello and sorry respectively). Read more at Popular Science. I was waiting for this to happen, after seeing so many hacks and cool tricks being done with the Kinect.  As the article says though, the Kinect’s camera is probably [...]