I used to feel sorry for children who had cochlear implants. I did. When I saw them it broke my heart because I really believed that their parents just didn’t understand deafness. I judged those parents. I assumed that the parents were looking for a quick fix to something that in my opinion didn’t require fixing. I…
Category: Technology
ASL Literature, Reborn on the iPad
In addition to being a first-grade teacher, I’m also the geekminister for 15 brand-new iPad 2s at P.S. 347 The ASL and English Lower School in Manhattan. This is the first in what I hope will be a regular series on how my students and I are using the iPad to learn, read, create, and watch. Last…
Cued Speech and ASL—Why I Use Both
When we first confirmed my son was deaf, I had several communication choices presented to me by his Early Intervention coordinator. I had never heard of cued speech, and at first I was ready to dismiss it solely because it was not the dominant form of communication among Deaf people. But when an advocate of…
Netflix, the iPad, and the Deaf Consumer
So I just subscribed to Netflix again, after years of turning my head every time I passed a red package on the street. It’s not just the iPad app that convinced me, though. See, I believe in financial activism. When Netflix ignored Deaf customers and their calls for online access-when their top officer made discriminating,…
Raising a Deaf Child
I once asked my toddler’s teacher for help: “how do you discipline a deaf child?” Her answer? “The same as any other child.” The simplicity of this answer shows just how little some people know of the hardships of being a hearing parent of a deaf child. Certainly I understand her point that you treat…
Why I Almost Didn’t Sign The Dailykos Petition
Thu Dec 02, 2010 at 12:14:12 PM PST I was reluctant to sign the Dailykos petition in support of Netflix and asking the FCC to reign in Comcast’s abuse of corporate power. Why was I reluctant to do so? Because of the history of Netflix’s hostile business practices towards the deaf community, in refusing to caption streaming videos. Dana…
Is Honesty Always the Best Policy?
“Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.” ~William Shakespeare As a child, my parents taught me to always be honest. As a child, I would try and get away with lying—and always got caught. Disappointed Mother: “Why did you lie?” Me as a Child Testing My Boundaries: “Um……” Eventually,…
Thoughts on Social Media and “Common Sense”
Over the last few months, I’ve been paying attention a lot more to Facebook. Or rather, paying attention to the kind of information and comments that are published via Facebook. In many ways, Facebook is micro-blogging, and it provides easier access to a network much larger and more accessible than LiveJournal and Xanga (remember those?).…
FaceTime is the Future
I believe that the platform known as FaceTime, introduced with the iPhone 4, is the future platform of choice for all video telephony in the deaf community. I don’t say this because I’m a Mac fan, or for any technological evangelism purposes. I say this because it just makes sense. First, a little bit of…
CaptionFish iPhone App Released
Old-timers, gather for some reminiscing! Remember those captioned movie listings on DeafDC.com? They were updated every Thursday (or was it Tuesday?) and showed RWC, DTS, open-captioned, and subtitled movies playing in D.C., Maryland, and northern Virginia. By 2004 standards, it was a slick setup, programmed from scratch by Tayler Mayer, but it was also all manually entered.…