Market Hope or Truth?

More specifically, should we market for hope or nothing but the truth involving ASL for parents of a Deaf child? Should we lead on the parents down the yellow brick road like many non-ASL proponents tend to do?

Marketing ASL to parents are constantly changing especially through more available Internet access that provides for more convenient and exploratory access of pertaining information for their Deaf child upon discovery in their family.

Recent vlogs from Eyepoetically ("Perspective of AG Bell exhibits...") and Deaf Chipmunk ("DBC: Resources and Opportunities!!!!") shared current marketing tactics at the recent AGB conference in Milwaukee and the urgent need to set up a center of resources to provide for the parents on bilingual or I'd like to say, dual language education, that incorporate ASL and English for a healthy life development for a Deaf child and family members.

Eyepoetically portrayed booths at the AGB conference in their vlog that market various methods, products, and of course, hope for the parent's Deaf child. Typical and potentially misleading catch phrases are often promoted like "Your child can talk!" or "Your child can hear!" may be appealing to the vulnerable parents who may want such outcomes for their profoundly-deaf child to come to fruition. However, when it concerns ASL, the propoents tend to market the science of early language development in a more realistic approach. "Your child can sign!" may not be appealing to new parents who have no concept of ASL or Deaf culture to begin with. This is something that needs exploring in terms of promoting ASL more effectively.

Earlier this year, "Deaf World As Eye See It" vlogged about the importance of marketing ASL to the mass audience (“Time is of the Essence! Market ASL Now!”) and marketing ASL through media format such as TV commercials after being inspired by a successful showing of the Pepsi Super bowl Ad that involved a Deaf culture joke and ASL ("Commercials in American Sign Language").

At the first DeafRead Conference last February, several presenters talked about marketing v/blogs through search engines and benefits of web documentations of Deaf v/blogs now available for the masses in cyberspace. Jared Evans talked about “Leveraging your v/blog: Build your online reputation and become a search engine darling!” and Dr. Charles Katz declared that "ASL is written!" in the form of the increasing archives of Deaf/HoH vlogs and blogs available in the grid.

So today, I want to talk about if we market hope or for truth? For the most, I'd say ASL proponents tend to market the truth. But, isn't it time to incorporate hope too? Can we go both ways? For example, Deaf babies with cochlear implants can improve speech development through inclusion of ASL. Also, ASL can provide early language acquisition and development for babies. The truth cannot be denied after realizing origins of hope in this modern era that are found to be actually effective.

In the Eyepoetically vlog, commenter Dianrez suggested, "If we marketed ASL like they do their instruments of hope, perhaps more people would believe in it and for much better reasons." From this perspective, we have to ask ourselves, "Are we really that desperate to resort to deceptive measures or should we promote ASL even better?"

Setting up a ASL center of resources at a blog is a feat in itself. Numerous literature must be screened and selected to provide impact of clarity for the parents regarding the benefits of ASL. Simplistic titles and keywords should be listed in v/blogs in order for the search engines to pick them up after basic random word searches. Links and backups may constantly need to be updated.

Several things here I'd like to explore for ASL promotions:

1) Journals

Some parents want to read scientific journals with hard data involving studies with results of high probabilities that suggest such findings are probably true. There are many journals out there and we need more relevant studies that benefit the promotion of ASL into one place. As a graduate student in Counseling, I often vlogged about good and bad journals that I come across in my classes and we need more people to talk about literature and science that recognize the importance of inclusion of ASL in a Deaf child and even adults.

2) Stories

Some parents want to read or listen to real people, to see or hear from themselves how they grew up Deaf or raised a Deaf child. With selected stories and videos, parents can see a Deaf child who is signing creatively and excitably because the child has access to language. For a Deaf child to be empowered to express self effectively is a pure joy. Parents of Deaf children can produce videos and show their interactions with the child and how they communicate with each other and the non-verbal cues involved. A smiling child in the videos can warm many hearts and it is of importance for parents to understand that a Deaf child can obtain a thriving personality once has access to languages set up by ASL! They can see that early development of reciprocity between the parent and child is very important. Seeing is believing.

3) Magic

Some parents want "magical outcomes" for their Deaf child. Strong emphasis on "ASL baby signs" encourages signing early can let their child have a head start in language acquisition and development. For an infant to let the parents know if they are "hungry," "wet," "tired," or want "milk," that is magical in itself!!! There is nothing deceptive about this and science are currently available.

4) Entertainment

Some parents may stumble into entertaining videos by Deaf people, for example, at youtube. Storytelling, poems, jokes, skits, movies, and even song interpretations may lead interest in learning ASL. I cannot tell you how many times ASL students or teachers or youtube subscribers contacted me to use my song signing videos for their classes or learn more about myself and my language. Several people told me that they were inspired to learn ASL apart from other methods they partaked into. You just never know! We all can contribute in our own ways to promote ASL and make it more appealing to many people in cyberspace.

5) Equal communication access

For the promotion of essential educational videos or vlogs, new parents often do not understand signing completely so sound and captions are recommended to be included in the videos. Taking advantage of available personnel or resources in the Internet can provide v/bloggers this type of accommodations. Transcripts are often the preferred mode of providing alternate access to the content of the signed vlogs and are found to be extremely helpful for search engines.

6) Mental Health

Set up listings of local and statewide agencies and services for further assistance for parents whether it will be with education, coping strategies, or family counseling for the Deaf child are needed. Such listings should encourage parents meeting Deaf counselors or those who are familiar with ASL and Deaf culture. Most importantly, promote the fact that inclusion of ASL within a Deaf child and in an environment leads to healthy life development. We should strive for more inclusion of qualified ASL personnel in infant medical wards that can act as early intervenors rather than unqualified medical personnel that often gives out discriminatory non-verbal cues to new parents that often leads to hysteria or misjudgment of choices. Make your local, state, and federal governments accountable by conveniently indulging into special interest groups that promote auditory-speech industries and for them to make an effort to seek fair inclusion of ASL parties in modern systems for the parents.

As you can see, there is nothing deceptive here in marketing ASL. We just have to be more creative. Information on ASL has been abundant and has been available all along. How to make the truth more appealing when it comes to ASL is an ongoing challenge toward a population that has no comprehension of the Deaf experience. Resorting to attacks or deception shows no class and honesty at all and we're better people without such tactics in the long run.