Videos about Deaf Life: Central Arican Republic, Philippines, Venezuela, Mexico, Austria

Four on-line videos give an overview of deaf communities around the world; all can be viewed at:

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/09/24/deaf-awareness-week-striving-for-quality-education/

The first video on this page shares the story of a school for deaf children in the Central African Republic that has been struggling for funding. Several teachers have quit because they have not been paid consistently for the past four years; only two teachers remain struggling on. Unfortunately, this type of story is common in many schools in developing countries–not only in deaf schools. This video is in the signed language of the Central African Republic with English subtitles. As a deaf person, I can’t tell if this video has English voice over for blind people.

The second video was made by deaf students in the Philippines. This video, in Philippines sign language and English subtitles, portrays the difficulties many deaf people in their country confront when they look for jobs after graduation. Unemployment is another challenge that is common to deaf people and disabled people all around the world–not only in developing countries but also in industrialized countries. I don’t know if this video has voice over.

In Venezuela, teachers for the deaf explain the importance of a bilingual and bi-cultural education. Some Venezuelan Sign Language is seen on the screen in the background scenes, and there are some occasional Spanish words on the screen in between visual shots of children in the classroom, etc. Unfortunately there are no subtitles in any language to help deaf people understand what the teachers say in this video. But hearing people who understand Spanish could give this one a try.

The last video has a deaf woman from Mexico and a deaf man from Austria simultaneously demonstrate the Mexican and Austrian fingerspelled alphabets; the cardinal numbers in Mexican and Austrian signed languages; and the names of the months. I’m guessing there is probably no audio description.

Sighted people will note that the Mexican and Austrian signed languages are dramatically different from each other. I can tell you that they are both also very different from American Sign Language–and all three languages are different from the signed language used in the San Jose area of Costa Rica.

In addition to the four videos, the following web page also has links that give more information about the programs described in the videos:

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/09/24/deaf-awareness-week-striving-for-quality-education/



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