A more silent world

Switched at Birth - lazy signing?
A more silent world I watched the premiere of Switched at Birth last night, and although people on the show are improving on their signing skill, it seems like even the Deaf characters are using some lazy signing (but mostly the Hearing characters). Unlike most newbie signers, the Hearing characters have a really decent "flow", but still, I see a lot of lazy signing all around. Ob...
Thu, Jan 05 2012

Teaching Deaf kids ASL - fingerspelling?
A more silent world So my 3-year-old son is rapidly learning ASL from me. It's nothing short of amazing how he is accelerating. One thing I haven't done much around him though is fingerspelling. As he learns more, it becomes more difficult for me since I don't know signs for everything under the sun. There are only two cases, though. Some thing have no signs, and...
Thu, Jan 05 2012

No free VP through ZVRS?
A more silent world I do not currently have a VP. If I go to ZVRS, it looks like everything is free if I trade in my Sorenson VP, but if I do not have a VP, then I need to pay??Sorenson VP is free for me. It seems like if ZVRS wants business of new customers, they should offer the same deal as porting customers from Sorenson. Otherwise, I might just choose Sorenson for ...
Mon, Dec 05 2011

ASL class over - again
A more silent world The first trimester of my 5th year ASL class is over. With only two short classes left, I find myself wondering what's next. It has been really enriching to go so deep into a few topics this year, but I feel like I need to have more "general" conversations with people, or I'm never going to be even close to truly fluent.I'm hoping maybe to start, or help s...
Sat, Nov 19 2011

Rexton Cobalt 16 - added a new program
A more silent world So I decided to switch up my programs a couple months back when I went in to get a replacement bluetooth receiver. Program 1 is still "auto", but I changed program 2 to be "music". The music program has basically no compression, and no noise cancellation. Ironically, I don't use this program for music, but rather for meetings and really quiet, or rea...
Sat, Nov 12 2011

Lecture on Eugenics at Swarthmore - what a great night!
A more silent world Last night I got to see two, one-hour lectures from Dr. Brian Greenwald and Dr. Ben Bahan. The first was about eugenics in American/Deaf history, focused somewhat on AGB and his role in this whole thing. The second was a very funny story leading to the conclusion that Deaf people hold the key to the future by preserving ASL.The eugenics lecture was very ey...
Wed, Nov 09 2011

Are cochlear implant users deaf?
A more silent world John Lee Clark's post titled "Cochlear Implants: A Thought Experiment" hit on one topic I have given a bit of thought to myself: If you cannot hear without your CI or hearing aids, are you deaf?This may seem like a simple question, but I think outside the Deaf community, so little thought is given to deafness in general that it becomes unclear ...
Thu, Oct 27 2011

Switched at Birth - clearing up some things, distorting...
A more silent world First, I applaud the creators/writers of Switched at Birth for bringing common Deaf issues into the mainstream light. Most people never think about any of these things. People mumbling, taking too fast, turning away while talking, talking behind someone, "curing" Deaf with CI, the troubles of mainstreaming, etc.One problem I have with the show is Daphne's ...
Wed, Sep 21 2011

Captioning ASL vlogs
A more silent world This topic seems to always come up, but I have a fairly strong opinion about it, so I want to write a little blurb.It's true, the Hearing world seems to make very little effort to provide D/HoH with quality captions. So why in the world should we caption ASL vlogs? If the Hearing want access, let them learn ASL, right??? Here are the reasons I think ...
Sun, Sep 18 2011

Stigma of Hearing Loss
A more silent world After reading the article posted on Jamie Berke's blog about hearing loss stigma, I felt the need to add my own experience.I think being late-deaf is a little like coping with finding out you have a life-long disease. There's a process that needs to happen. The beginning for me was marked by anger and self-pity. That evolved to understanding and fina...
Sun, Sep 11 2011

Best way to tell people you're Deaf?
A more silent world I'm curious about the different ways people indicate to hearing folks the you're Deaf. I also found myself wondering why, in a nation where a huge number of people understand the phrase "no habla ingles", nobody understands the sign for "deaf". Seems like it would be worthwhile to teach everyone this basic sign in school at some point.
Thu, Sep 08 2011

Switched at Birth - no captions on Netflix!!
A more silent world Of all the ironies, only the first couple episodes of Switched at Birth have captions on Netflix. A show that has the power to increase awareness about the Deaf world, inaccessible to Deaf. So stupid!
Fri, Sep 02 2011

NTID and Gallaudet dictionaries broken in Apple OS X "Lion"
A more silent world Just an FYI to all of you out there who may have these two dictionaries. Do NOT upgrade to Lion if you use these dictionaries regularly, as they are not (yet) compatible with Lion. Apple made the decision to end Rosetta emulation for support of PowerPC binaries with the release of Lion, and thus only Universal Binaries are supported. NTID has been in...
Fri, Aug 26 2011

Comcast charging for captions?!
A more silent world I subscribe to every movie channel, which means full, free access to all OnDemand movies for those channels.The other night I tried to watch Matchstick Men (made in 2003) in HD and it had no captions. This wasn't a technical problem because the info actually was missing the "CC" icon which denotes movies that include captions.Not to fear, there was another listi...
Sun, Jul 10 2011

Tips for traveling in London and the UK with an iPhone
A more silent world I've learned a few new things that make travel in London a lot easier and thought I would share a few. I use an iPhone on AT&T and it is a huge help to be able to fully use it in London--of course this means getting creative, or forking over a kidney to AT&T.For DataObviously many plans are limited to UK citizens who want a contract. This clearly d...
Wed, Jul 06 2011

DirecTV on Continental Airlines - NO captions!?
A more silent world I was pleasantly surprised to find that Continental Airlines has LCD screens in all seat backs this last week. Wow, how this will make my 6-hour flights pass by more quickly. EPIC FAIL!There is no way to enable CC on their systems. Isn't there some law against this? Seriously unbelievable that in 2011 we can stream whole movies on computers smaller than our hands ...
Wed, Jun 22 2011

Affordable Remote CART? Web CAPTEL?
A more silent world I was recently checking into prices for Remote CART for myself, so I can use it during a couple large meetings per week. I was astonished when I saw the price quotes come in at around $100/hour.I have previously used Sprint Web CAPTEL for meetings that I can dial into via phone, but I found that participation in these meetings is nearly impossible. The captions get ...
Sat, Apr 09 2011

xfinity iPad app - no captions!?
A more silent world So I just downloaded the xfinity iPad app, and I am able to watch shows right there on the iPad.  Great, right?  WRONG!xfinity has joined the ranks of companies who apparently don't care about accessibility for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people who rely on subtitles to watch TV and movies.  It used to be if you wanted captions, you have to miss it at the movie theater a...
Wed, Mar 30 2011

Beauty and the Beast play - INTERPRETED!
A more silent world One of my fellow classmates in my 4th year ASL class is involved with the theatre program at the high school he teaches. He makes sure that they do a matinee with interpreters each year, with a dedicated ASL seating section right up front by the interpreters! Next weekend is Beauty and the Beast.I took my daughter last year to Wizard of Oz and it was great! Two int...
Mon, Mar 14 2011

London - HoH paradise?
A more silent world Having recently visited London for the first time, I couldn't help but notice all the signs in various places marking telecoil access. Supermarkets, public transportation, etc. My aids don't have a telecoil, but this just seems like such a great step in the right direction. The best we seem to get in the USA is "press this button to make something louder and full o...
Thu, Jan 06 2011

Answers for raising Deaf kids are anything but common
A more silent world My wife and I recently attended a seminar for parents of D/HoH kids. Having been HoH my entire life and now late-Deaf, I found this seminar more like a rehash of all my worst experiences as a school-age kid. This is actually a compliment to the presenters, since they clearly understand the challenges present when D/HoH kids are mainstreamed.One thing, though. I ask...
Tue, Nov 23 2010

No Captions for Commercials??
A more silent world Companies spend millions of dollars creating and airing commercials. With 10% of the population being Deaf/HoH, why in the world would they not spend a tiny bit more money adding captions? Do they think that we don't shop in their stores, buy their products, etc? It's very disconcerting sometimes how we are silently ignored as a minority group.
Sun, Nov 07 2010

County Commissioner proposes hearing test before...
A more silent world I have to admit, I am fairly shocked to find that this is an actual news story in my area. Charles Martin, Chairman of the Bucks County Pennsylvania Board of Commissioners was apparently taken aback by the huge amount of money spent on interpreters for people who don't speak English or cannot hear in the county courtrooms. He suggested that maybe our state represent...
Wed, Oct 06 2010

Rexton Cobalt hearing aids - 18 month followup review
A more silent world So it has been about 18 months since I got my Rexton Cobalt 16 hearing aids, and I figured I would write a followup review in hopes that it may help people weigh the options.Overall opinion: I have very little to complain about with these. They perform admirably in almost every situation, and fail where I imagine every hearing aid will fail. My experience with Rext...
Sat, Oct 02 2010

Martha's Vineyard and "impairment"
A more silent world Funny, reading a post yesterday about the historical Martha's Vineyard population and ensuing mass bilingualism on the island reminded me of a quote a read a while back: "I am not impaired by my hearing loss. I am impaired by my environment."It rings so true. If everyone were bilingual, there would be no thoughts of "impairments" and "disabilities".
Mon, Jul 05 2010

The nice thing about BTE aids
A more silent world I have always had ITE type hearing aids up until I got my Cobalts last year around this time. A couple weeks ago I really got to enjoy perhaps the biggest benefit of BTE aids. My left aid was on the blink, so I sent it back to be repaired. Since my left ear has much higher speech discrimination, I was able to simply put my left receiver on my right aid and wear it ...
Mon, Jun 07 2010

Pissed off at Phonak.
A more silent world My last set of hearing aids were from Phonak. I will say that when they worked, they worked great. The problem is, I had one that frequently didn't work, and like all things that fail intermittently, it was nearly impossible to figure out why it wasn't working correctly. After a few times sending it back for 1-2 weeks at a time, I got pissed off and told my Audiolo...
Wed, Aug 12 2009

Universal Signs - good movie
A more silent world I saw this movie yesterday at the Keswick in Philadelphia and was very impressed. I went to the 1pm show and there was a pretty good turnout, although I'm sure lots more went to the 7pm show. The movie had a good plot, nice directing, and a few good laughs. It was great to see such a varied audience, too. Lots of Deaf, HoH, and Hearing all enjoying the film. It w...
Sun, May 31 2009

Rexton Cobalt - Retuned, WOW
A more silent world I went in today for a followup tuning of my new hearing aids. My main issues that I needed addressed:1) There was heavy distortion on the main programs in loud environments, making speech very difficult to interpret2) Certain types of loud sounds were overwhelming me in my normal programs3) We forgot to add the programs for Bluetooth phone and Direct audio connection...
Sat, May 02 2009

Followup Opinion - Rexton Cobalts
A more silent world So I've worn my new hearing aids a few full days now. They are nice, but they definitely need a re-tuning badly. I am going back in a week from today.Biggest complaints so far:-Music sounds like total crap while I'm driving. Maybe it's all the compression, but it just sounds like it runs through a tiny AM radio first and then through my speakers. The "Music" progra...
Sat, Apr 25 2009

Pictures of my Rexton Cobalts
A more silent world I ordered my new aids in Silver and also ordered a kit to convert them to blue, so I could use half and half. Here is what they look like now:
Sun, Apr 19 2009

New hearing aids - Rexton Cobalt
A more silent world I got my new hearing aids today and thought I would post my thoughts.I got my first set of ears 10 years ago now, and they were Widex Senso+ CIC. They were very tiny and functioned fairly well, but after 4 years they were no longer powerful enough to keep up with my progressive loss, so I got a new set. The new set were Phonak Claro ITE models, and were far more tec...
Sat, Apr 18 2009

DVD Captions - what is going on??
A more silent world I tend to watch a lot of movies and not so much TV. Why does it seem as though captions are getting worse as time goes on, even though technology is clearly getting better?In the last couple weeks, I have rented a couple DVDs that do not give the option to turn on English captions in the menus, even though they are CC movies. I have a very new Blu-Ray player, hooked...
Sat, Mar 28 2009

Genetics - the final frontier
A more silent world It's so funny how sometimes a medical professional can peer into your life and immediately put together pieces that you would have never seen. We went to see a geneticist yesterday, among other doctors, and he was able to quickly identify a highly likely cause of my and my son's hearing loss. Turns out Waardenburg Syndrome almost certainly runs in my family, but bec...
Tue, Jan 13 2009

Merry Christmas!
A more silent world I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!I am really looking forward to my class, which starts again January 12th. A few of us met at the local bookstore between semesters to practice our signing skills, and I think it was relatively successful. Conversations that don't correspond with any particular area of vocabulary present a unique challenge when...
Mon, Dec 22 2008

Couple good books (Deaf-related)
A more silent world Oliver Sacks is a noted neurologist, and has published some interesting books in the past. One became the movie "Awakenings" with Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro, and another I have read was "The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat" which is a collection of interesting case studies of various pathologies. I recently became aware that he also has a couple books deali...
Tue, Oct 28 2008

Audiologist toneburst results
A more silent world The first ABR tests were done entirely with broadband frequency "clicks" that range from 1000-4000 Hz, roughly the entire speech range. Those showed that our son could hear down to about 35dB. But when a slope is present, that response is going to be "best case scenario".We went yesterday for pure-tone tests called "toneburst" and we got 500Hz, 2000Hz, and 4000Hz do...
Wed, Sep 24 2008

ASL class starts today - Level TWO!!
A more silent world I am really excited about taking the level 2 class this year. We were all really worried that it wasn't going to happen since we needed a minimum number of people and a couple people from level 1 moved away over the summer. So it is very welcome news that the class is happening, and I am really looking forward to taking my ASL to the next level!!
Mon, Sep 15 2008

update on audiologist
A more silent world So we went to NYU for an EOAE test and he promptly failed. So we went directly to ABR, bone conduction, and tympanogram. Basically, he can hear with a threshold of about 35dB as far as we can tell, and any loss is almost certainly sensorineural like mine. We have a few other tests and ENT appointment, but that's really the information we needed to make choices with...
Wed, Sep 03 2008

Deaf child + Hearing parents -- options?
A more silent world So, having had to deal with the real possibility that our newborn son is deaf, all sorts of new questions have run through my head, and I don't have answers to all of them. Firstly, I think my wife and I are in a much better position to make an informed decision than most hearing parents of deaf children because I am already learning ASL and teaching my wife and daug...
Sat, Aug 02 2008

It's a Boy!
A more silent world So last week we had our baby and it's a boy! So very exciting. I didn't care if it was a boy or girl, but it will be nice having one of each around the house. He is doing very well, and is very happy for the most part. We are going in Monday for his 2-week-old hearing test because he failed both tests in the hospital after he was born. We haven't had any deaf in ...
Wed, Jul 30 2008

First vlog
A more silent world I decided to do an introduction vlog now that my first year of classes are done. I took three 8-week classes at a local Deaf association. The classes met for 2 hours per week and we finished the blue "Signing Naturally" book. We are meeting once a week during the summer to "just chat" so we don't lose too much before the next class starts in Septembertranscript:Hi,...
Mon, Jun 30 2008

Charity starts in the.... desert?
A more silent world Something RLM said to me in another blog made me think. Some organizations/states/whatever cover the costs of CI and hearing aids while they don't cover the cost of equally useful tools for Deaf like Sidekicks, etc.This brings up a much larger point, though. I read that the worldwide demand for CI is about $200 million. And if 1 of every 10 people in HoH in the US,...
Sat, May 03 2008

ASL class ending next week--boo
A more silent world I have really enjoyed learning ASL every week for the last 8 months. It has been truly helpful, and now I can see how far I've come, and see just how far I must go. My teacher was wonderfully patient for our class, and really helpful. I think we started with about 20 people, and now we end with 9. Sad, but I believe the remaining 9 will all take the 2nd level clas...
Wed, Apr 30 2008

My world got a little quieter
A more silent world So time flies, and my current hearing aids are 4 years old when it seems like I got them yesterday. The aid from my better ear quit working well, so I sent it in yesterday. I will enroll for a 2009 flexible spending account to get a new set of ears next year. It's pretty amazing how far things have come since I got my first set in 1999. I had the Widex Senso+ CIC ...
Wed, Apr 30 2008

ASL Journey - Equal Footing
A more silent world My ASL class has been going almost 7 months now and I feel really encouraged. The class is much smaller now than when it began, but I think we are all doing pretty well. Something occurred to me while I was watching tonight, though. It is now nearly as easy for me to understand ASL as it is for me to understand spoken English.In everyday conversations with stranger...
Mon, Apr 07 2008

My daughter's first sign
A more silent world My daughter knows a couple signs now, but it is still hard because she often doesn't realize I am identifying something. It should get easier soon, as her spoken language is taking off like a rocket now.
Sun, Feb 17 2008

The use of AND and OR in ASL?
A more silent world Can someone help me out with a curiosity I have please? My ASL class has been going now for about 4 weeks and I am thoroughly enjoying it, but I don't understand the use of AND and OR in ASL (or if they are omitted).Are they used, or is the meaning conveyed otherwise using non-manual markers or different syntax? For example, in English I would say something like "Wo...
Tue, Oct 16 2007

How to oppose CI in infants?
A more silent world I was watching Seek Geo's vlog about this topic, and it occurred to me that yes, someone needs to provide the crucial information to parents and doctors who don't know that they and their child do have a choice. Yeah, it makes sense to have Deafies fulfill this role in a sense, but where are all the people who have been implanted without their desire or consent? [...]
Tue, Sep 04 2007

ASL and SEE - a continuum?
A more silent world In the past couple months, I have been watching an increasing number of vlogs with variable hit rate on comprehension. At the same time I am studying a couple books, one which delves heavily into ASL syntax.One thing I notice is that there SEEMS to be quite a bit of acceptable syntax variability between signers. Do signers all fall somewhere on a continuum between [...]
Mon, Aug 06 2007