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In my mind's eye: Deaf awareness - Harwich, MA - Harwich Oracle
Many have never heard of Deaf Awareness Month.
SO, NOW HEAR THIS!
September has been designated as the Deaf Awareness month here in the United States of America, with the last full week in September as Deaf Awareness Week’by various organizations and agencies.
This past September, the documentary film “See What I’m Saying,” about four deaf performers, had its Cape Cod Premiere at the Cotuit Center For The Arts.
The movie is an ear-opener. Director-producer Hilari Scarl kept me riveted to the screen, as she captured the talent and heartfelt performances of a comic, singer, drummer and actor doing their art, signing and vocalizing about being deaf in a hearing world.
Scarl’s film is a benchmark in the film industry; it’s the first feature produced with open-captioning – that is, word captions of dialogue, which also include audio descriptions, such as notating when a phone is ringing, or musical notes when the music is present, burned into the film, explained Scarl on stage during a Q & A.
And the film opens your mind and eyes about “deafhood,” an internal identity. It’s like a brotherhood or neighborhood. It’s community.
Scarl is articulate and has dynamic stage presence. A hearing person trained as an actor, fluent in sign language, she has spent the last 18 years working with the deaf community as director, performer and educator with the National Theater of The Deaf.
The house was jam-packed with an audience of all ages, a majority of teens and their teachers from Nauset Regional High School.
All around me they were talking, but I couldn’t hear a word. They were signing; their fingers moved fast in sync with their body language and facial expressions. The 70 or so high school students were part of the American Sign Language program offered ninth through twelfth grades.
ASL at Nauset is an accredited foreign language such as Spanish or French.
The students’ signing and Scarl’s film brought to mind my meeting Joyce Lynch in San Francisco years ago when I was first introduced to ASL.
Lynch anchored this country’s first newscast for the deaf in 1971. “Newsign 4” was aired each morning by local affiliate KRON-TV for five minutes during NBC’s Today Show. Categorized as a news program and not a public service message, it was eligible for a television Emmy Award, which it won two years later.
Lynch, born deaf and mute, delivered the national, local and community news, including weather and sports in ASL, while an interpreter spoke in voiceover.
Personable and attractive, Joyce was hired from Galileo Community College where she taught sign language. She had no television experience, but she had an aura about her. She was self-confident. She believed that by accepting this television position she could give deaf people a better image of themselves and instill confidence by reaching out to the deaf community.
She made me think about how I communicate with others.
She told me that English is a difficult language for the deaf. It is her second language. Signing is the first. “Hearing children learn English by sound. We learn it by sight,” said Lynch, married to a deaf man. They have three hearing children.
“Hearing children are bombarded by vocabulary before they even enter school, while deaf kids hardly know any vocabulary at all. It’s a struggle,” she explained.
She spoke to me in sign language through her deaf interpreter at the television station. I vividly remember our meeting. Joyce signed facing her colleague, who translated without looking at me; and I sat there not knowing whom to look at really, but alternated looking at Joyce, then the translator.
It was an insight for me then, more than 30 years ago, to understand deaf culture and its hurdles that confront the hearing impaired, which in itself incorporates various labels – deaf and dumb, hard-of-hearing, deaf-mute, hearing-disabled – that an individual may choose to identify him or herself.
One out of every 10 people in this country has hearing loss. “Deaf culture is a thriving culture with its own language, customs, and history. It’s invisible among us,” says Scarl.
“See What I’m Saying” is a film about the universal experience of wanting to belong, be recognized for your talents, according to its filmmaker.”
It speaks loudly.
Editors Note: Learn more at See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary | Official Movie Site.
President Obama signed into law the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act authored by Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., This legislation requires smart phones, television programs and other modern communications technologies to be accessible to people with vision or hearing loss.
Many have never heard of Deaf Awareness Month.
SO, NOW HEAR THIS!
September has been designated as the Deaf Awareness month here in the United States of America, with the last full week in September as Deaf Awareness Week’by various organizations and agencies.
This past September, the documentary film “See What I’m Saying,” about four deaf performers, had its Cape Cod Premiere at the Cotuit Center For The Arts.
The movie is an ear-opener. Director-producer Hilari Scarl kept me riveted to the screen, as she captured the talent and heartfelt performances of a comic, singer, drummer and actor doing their art, signing and vocalizing about being deaf in a hearing world.
Scarl’s film is a benchmark in the film industry; it’s the first feature produced with open-captioning – that is, word captions of dialogue, which also include audio descriptions, such as notating when a phone is ringing, or musical notes when the music is present, burned into the film, explained Scarl on stage during a Q & A.
And the film opens your mind and eyes about “deafhood,” an internal identity. It’s like a brotherhood or neighborhood. It’s community.
Scarl is articulate and has dynamic stage presence. A hearing person trained as an actor, fluent in sign language, she has spent the last 18 years working with the deaf community as director, performer and educator with the National Theater of The Deaf.
The house was jam-packed with an audience of all ages, a majority of teens and their teachers from Nauset Regional High School.
All around me they were talking, but I couldn’t hear a word. They were signing; their fingers moved fast in sync with their body language and facial expressions. The 70 or so high school students were part of the American Sign Language program offered ninth through twelfth grades.
ASL at Nauset is an accredited foreign language such as Spanish or French.
The students’ signing and Scarl’s film brought to mind my meeting Joyce Lynch in San Francisco years ago when I was first introduced to ASL.
Lynch anchored this country’s first newscast for the deaf in 1971. “Newsign 4” was aired each morning by local affiliate KRON-TV for five minutes during NBC’s Today Show. Categorized as a news program and not a public service message, it was eligible for a television Emmy Award, which it won two years later.
Lynch, born deaf and mute, delivered the national, local and community news, including weather and sports in ASL, while an interpreter spoke in voiceover.
Personable and attractive, Joyce was hired from Galileo Community College where she taught sign language. She had no television experience, but she had an aura about her. She was self-confident. She believed that by accepting this television position she could give deaf people a better image of themselves and instill confidence by reaching out to the deaf community.
She made me think about how I communicate with others.
She told me that English is a difficult language for the deaf. It is her second language. Signing is the first. “Hearing children learn English by sound. We learn it by sight,” said Lynch, married to a deaf man. They have three hearing children.
“Hearing children are bombarded by vocabulary before they even enter school, while deaf kids hardly know any vocabulary at all. It’s a struggle,” she explained.
She spoke to me in sign language through her deaf interpreter at the television station. I vividly remember our meeting. Joyce signed facing her colleague, who translated without looking at me; and I sat there not knowing whom to look at really, but alternated looking at Joyce, then the translator.
It was an insight for me then, more than 30 years ago, to understand deaf culture and its hurdles that confront the hearing impaired, which in itself incorporates various labels – deaf and dumb, hard-of-hearing, deaf-mute, hearing-disabled – that an individual may choose to identify him or herself.
One out of every 10 people in this country has hearing loss. “Deaf culture is a thriving culture with its own language, customs, and history. It’s invisible among us,” says Scarl.
“See What I’m Saying” is a film about the universal experience of wanting to belong, be recognized for your talents, according to its filmmaker.”
It speaks loudly.
Editors Note: Learn more at See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary | Official Movie Site.
President Obama signed into law the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act authored by Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., This legislation requires smart phones, television programs and other modern communications technologies to be accessible to people with vision or hearing loss.