Hilary Franklin
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: [...]
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?). [...]
Embracing Diversity in Communication
Communication is not just an exchange of ideas between two or more people. It is how we learn about each other. It is also a means of including people in or excluding people from a community. We are all aware of the difficulties we can face in communicating with hearing people. But what I want [...]
What Makes an Interpreter Satisfactory or Acceptable?
So, I recently had a couple conversations with a pretty cool person, Robin*, who is just really starting to really dive into the field of sign language interpreting. We had some conversations about expectations of interpreters, etc. Robin admitted wanting to work on his/her [guess Robin's gender!] interpreting skills so that one day I might consider hiring Robin. I found [...]
Teaching Hearing People Cued Speech…
…it’s not just about mechanics and understanding which “th” words are voiced and which are voiceless. (Yes, the “th” is different depending on the word!) It’s about collaboration, understanding, and communication. Oh, and motivation. Not mine. Theirs. But, first… a bit about me. I’m a native cuer. I’m also deaf—profoundly deaf. And I don’t exactly [...]
Noisy Media Capitalizes on Silence
In this golden age of visual media, where we all communicate with one another (silently) via instant messaging, e-mail, blogs and vlogs, videophone, paper and pencil, and yes, even TTYs sometimes, Why, oh WHY does the emphasis still have to be on silence whenever the news media picks up on an issue that relates somehow [...]
Cued Speech: Your Unasked Questions Answered
Lately, there has been discussion about Cued Speech in the deaf blogosphere. I have refrained from commenting mostly because trying to explain the facts and correct the misinformation being perpetuated would have resulted in a blog-lengthy post. So, instead, I’m here to explain some major myths and facts. Before I delve into this blog, let [...]
Suicide: A Permanent Solution to a Temporary Problem
Suicide. One death every 16 minutes in the U.S. Swallowing a bottle of pills. Mixing drugs with alcohol. Driving a car into a tree. One attempt approximately every minute. Hanging yourself from the ceiling. Putting a gun to your head. Cutting wrists with razors. More Americans have depression than coronary heart disease, cancer, and AIDS [...]
A Non-Gallaudetian Speaks Out
I was 10 years old during DPN. I have vague recollections of “the week the world heard Gallaudet.” I remember knowing that it was something important and something to be proud of, even though I didn’t fully understand what was happening. A deaf university president? Great! That’s a pretty nice “hero” to have when you [...]