Is Teaching ASL the New Critical Mass?
When the offer came to teach American Sign Language as a world language at a high school in the Los Angeles area, I did a little background checking. I knew it was not enough just knowing the language. I went to a friend of mine, a veteran teacher who was teaching ASL at another high [...]
An Open Letter to Marlee Matlin
Dear Marlee: You did everything right the other night. I enjoyed watching you, especially when you were on the attack. You are a model for Deaf women everywhere. So forgive me for analyzing your choices during Celebrity Apprentice, as if you were some sort of laboratory specimen. I have to produce some sort of response [...]
Way to Represent!
Countless deaf people tuned in last night to watch the finale of Celebrity Apprentice for one reason: to find out if Marlee Matlin won. Ah, Marlee. If she and the deaf community declared on Facebook that they were in a relationship, the status update would read, “and it’s complicated.” On one hand, she is our [...]
Simba
I got a stuffed Simba for my fourth or fifth birthday when I lived in a school district with a large d/Deaf population. I slept with him every night, but during the day, I was too busy playing with the other deaf kids on the playground to pay him any mind. He accompanied me on [...]
Xbox Kinect Learns to Understand Sign Language
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 [...]
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, [...]
ABC’s Switched At Birth
ABC FAMILY’S GROUNDBREAKING NEW ORIGINAL SERIES “SWITCHED AT BIRTH” PREMIERES MONDAY, JUNE 6 AT 9:00 ET/PT Lea Thompson and Constance Marie Both Mark Their Return to Television As Mothers Who Learn Their Daughters Were Switched in the Hospital after Birth Academy Award ® Winner Marlee Matlin Will Appear in a Guest-Starring Role Burbank, CA (May [...]
Netflix adds captioning to iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
Netflix has added captioning support, finally, to the iPhone, iPad, and the iPod Touch. Read this MacNN article for more details and directions on how to use the feature. Comment below and let us know how you like the feature, and if it works for you!
In DC, Poor and Bored? Travel You May! (Part II in a Series of IV)
This is part two of a four – part series, focusing on Virginia. Saving money and gas due to the rising cost of living and oil prices? Live in the Greater DC Metro area and “been there/done that” everything the travel websites and books recommend to do in the area? Don’t want to go where the tourists [...]
Six Ring Ring: Random Thoughts on Metaphor and Music in Signed Language
I was saddened by reading a post a while ago that someone made on her own blog. This person is an intelligent woman, and someone I care about deeply. She wrote about her frustration in creating song translations in ASL. While I do decry the lack of models out there, surely any intelligent person in [...]