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NewsOK: Technology broadens deaf woman's world
he wedge was gone. Finally, after decades, Candy Tumblson came to really know her mother.
Why? Why so long? Tumblson is completely deaf, but electronics, such as text messaging and instant messaging and video phones, have bridged some of those frustrating gaps.
Things the hearing often take for granted she considers true riches. Recently, she and some students at the Oklahoma School for the Deaf in Sulphur took time to explain what those devices have meant to their ability to communicate.
For instance, consider the fact that Tumblson didn't get her first computer and thus start e-mailing her mom until she was 32 years old.
Consider that she hadn't called for take-out food until February, when the 44-year-old used her video phone to order zucchini sticks.
She could have done so before with relay systems, but those were cumbersome, Tumblson said. The video phone made it much easier.
The day I went to the school, I heard the lawnmower along the fence, the crickets and the buzz of the air conditioning unit on my way to see Tumblson.
She heard none of that, but if you think that hearing is only a matter of the ears, as I did, you should sit down with Tumblson and some of the students of the Oklahoma School for the Deaf and you'll soon realize that it's so much more about the heart.
I met some really great people who are now instant messaging and using video phones and other forms of electronics to live a "real time” rather than delayed or silent life.
Let me share with you a little bit about those lives and how they represent not only the teachers and 155 students at the Oklahoma School for the Deaf, but so many great people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Connecting with Mom
With the help of interpreter Sue Cole, I asked Tumblson, who is in her 20th year as a teacher at the school, why she couldn't communicate before with her mother.
"I couldn't lip-read her,” she said. "Some people I can, but some people, like you, I can't.”
Only about 30 percent of the English language is visible on the lips, added Traci Prince, director of the student assessment center at the school.
So Tumblson and her mother weren't real close to start with. Then the daughter moved away to go to college at Gallaudet University in Washington, 800 miles from home. The gap grew. She can't hear on the phone, and her mother didn't have a telecommunication device for the deaf.
"She sent me letters, and I'd answer her once in awhile, (while) I was in college,” she said.
Maybe things were going to improve. Her mom moved to Oklahoma City in 1995, which placed her closer to her daughter in Sulphur, but then something happened. She found out her mother and stepfather were moving to Albuquerque, N.M.
All was not lost, though. Her stepfather assured her it would work out, and then he gave her a computer.
"It was old and slow, but it was awesome,” she said. "My mother and I would IM on MSN every day, and basically I got to know my mother for the first time.”
Now Tumblson's favorite day of the week is Sunday.
Why? Because that's the day she'll sit down with a cup of coffee in Sulphur and her mother will do the same in Albuquerque and they will instant message each other. Sometimes her sisters will join in.
That's not all. This year she was provided a video phone. She uses this to contact her father, who is 75 and living in Chicago.
"My dad's favorite day is Sunday because he can hear my voice, and I can see in American Sign Language what he says,” she said.
Freedom to communicate faster
Unlike Tumblson, most of the students sitting around her had grown up with some forms of electronic communication. But most of those were slow, cumbersome and always delayed, which doesn't fit in too well in a fast-everything world.
Wendi O'Connor, a senior from Sulphur who describes herself as an on-the-go person, is also an on-the-text messaging person.
"I probably send and receive 200 to 300 texts a day,” said O'Connor, who is hard of hearing. "Some are just me talking to people or I text if I need to meet my brother or see what we are going to do tonight or see where we're going to eat tonight.”
Cambria Kennedy, a junior from Caney, is hard of hearing and said she checks her e-mail three times a day between classes.
Kailob Miller, a junior from Ardmore, waits until the end of the day and then messages friends for about an hour starting at 11 p.m.
"Usually we use e-mail for something like telling a story, but we use instant messaging if we're just talking with someone,” he said.
Plus, the Oklahoma School for the Deaf competes against some other schools for the deaf such as those in Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas in academic and athletic activities. Therefore, the students get to know each other, even if for a short time. But it doesn't have to end with face-to-face contact twice a year or occasional regular mail.
"Before, we'd write letters and maybe get them twice a month,” he said. "Now I have friends in Arkansas I talk to all the time.”
Miller lives in the honors dorm at the school and has access to a video phone.
With the relays he used for a long time, there were delays between himself the relay person and the person he was contacting.
Or he would have to ask a hearing friend to make a call for him.
"My mom felt that was weird, having someone else involved in a personal family conversation,” he said.
Now with the video phone, he signs to an operator who relays his message to his mother. And then whatever his mother says is signed back to Miller instantly, with no lag time such as on the traditional relay on the telecommunication device for the deaf.
Some of the same problems plagued Whitle Jackson, a junior from Lawton who is totally deaf.
When she was growing up, her sister or an interpreter would have to talk on the phone for her.
How frustrating was that?
"Very,” she said, "because my sister couldn't sign that much. She had to write it down.”
Unlimited or not?
Remember, with anything new comes some snags — some unforeseen.
With this technology of text messaging in hand, the students were eager to communicate with their hearing friends — a lot, but that's where the problem came in.
Kennedy said she was on a five-hour road trip and bored so she started text messaging her boyfriend.
She continued and continued for most of the five-hour trip. A sibling had told her she had unlimited text messaging, she said.
"I didn't,” she said. "My dad walked in, and he had the phone bill in his hand. He said ‘How much do you think this is for?' I said ‘I don't want to know.'”
Austin McKenzie, a freshman from Tulsa, got a cell phone for Christmas, as did his brother.
Suddenly they were talking, or rather text messaging, like never before.
"We thought we had signed up for unlimited text messaging,” he said, "and then we got the bill for $1,300.”
Not so good, but then think about it. Think about living with and around loved ones, who maybe didn't know American Sign Language so well or those whom you couldn't read their lips. And then think about finally being able to communicate, quickly and without many hitches.
"Hearing people pick up the phone and never think about it,” Tumblson said. "Not me.
"Now I feel like a rich girl.”
he wedge was gone. Finally, after decades, Candy Tumblson came to really know her mother.
Why? Why so long? Tumblson is completely deaf, but electronics, such as text messaging and instant messaging and video phones, have bridged some of those frustrating gaps.
Things the hearing often take for granted she considers true riches. Recently, she and some students at the Oklahoma School for the Deaf in Sulphur took time to explain what those devices have meant to their ability to communicate.
For instance, consider the fact that Tumblson didn't get her first computer and thus start e-mailing her mom until she was 32 years old.
Consider that she hadn't called for take-out food until February, when the 44-year-old used her video phone to order zucchini sticks.
She could have done so before with relay systems, but those were cumbersome, Tumblson said. The video phone made it much easier.
The day I went to the school, I heard the lawnmower along the fence, the crickets and the buzz of the air conditioning unit on my way to see Tumblson.
She heard none of that, but if you think that hearing is only a matter of the ears, as I did, you should sit down with Tumblson and some of the students of the Oklahoma School for the Deaf and you'll soon realize that it's so much more about the heart.
I met some really great people who are now instant messaging and using video phones and other forms of electronics to live a "real time” rather than delayed or silent life.
Let me share with you a little bit about those lives and how they represent not only the teachers and 155 students at the Oklahoma School for the Deaf, but so many great people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Connecting with Mom
With the help of interpreter Sue Cole, I asked Tumblson, who is in her 20th year as a teacher at the school, why she couldn't communicate before with her mother.
"I couldn't lip-read her,” she said. "Some people I can, but some people, like you, I can't.”
Only about 30 percent of the English language is visible on the lips, added Traci Prince, director of the student assessment center at the school.
So Tumblson and her mother weren't real close to start with. Then the daughter moved away to go to college at Gallaudet University in Washington, 800 miles from home. The gap grew. She can't hear on the phone, and her mother didn't have a telecommunication device for the deaf.
"She sent me letters, and I'd answer her once in awhile, (while) I was in college,” she said.
Maybe things were going to improve. Her mom moved to Oklahoma City in 1995, which placed her closer to her daughter in Sulphur, but then something happened. She found out her mother and stepfather were moving to Albuquerque, N.M.
All was not lost, though. Her stepfather assured her it would work out, and then he gave her a computer.
"It was old and slow, but it was awesome,” she said. "My mother and I would IM on MSN every day, and basically I got to know my mother for the first time.”
Now Tumblson's favorite day of the week is Sunday.
Why? Because that's the day she'll sit down with a cup of coffee in Sulphur and her mother will do the same in Albuquerque and they will instant message each other. Sometimes her sisters will join in.
That's not all. This year she was provided a video phone. She uses this to contact her father, who is 75 and living in Chicago.
"My dad's favorite day is Sunday because he can hear my voice, and I can see in American Sign Language what he says,” she said.
Freedom to communicate faster
Unlike Tumblson, most of the students sitting around her had grown up with some forms of electronic communication. But most of those were slow, cumbersome and always delayed, which doesn't fit in too well in a fast-everything world.
Wendi O'Connor, a senior from Sulphur who describes herself as an on-the-go person, is also an on-the-text messaging person.
"I probably send and receive 200 to 300 texts a day,” said O'Connor, who is hard of hearing. "Some are just me talking to people or I text if I need to meet my brother or see what we are going to do tonight or see where we're going to eat tonight.”
Cambria Kennedy, a junior from Caney, is hard of hearing and said she checks her e-mail three times a day between classes.
Kailob Miller, a junior from Ardmore, waits until the end of the day and then messages friends for about an hour starting at 11 p.m.
"Usually we use e-mail for something like telling a story, but we use instant messaging if we're just talking with someone,” he said.
Plus, the Oklahoma School for the Deaf competes against some other schools for the deaf such as those in Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas in academic and athletic activities. Therefore, the students get to know each other, even if for a short time. But it doesn't have to end with face-to-face contact twice a year or occasional regular mail.
"Before, we'd write letters and maybe get them twice a month,” he said. "Now I have friends in Arkansas I talk to all the time.”
Miller lives in the honors dorm at the school and has access to a video phone.
With the relays he used for a long time, there were delays between himself the relay person and the person he was contacting.
Or he would have to ask a hearing friend to make a call for him.
"My mom felt that was weird, having someone else involved in a personal family conversation,” he said.
Now with the video phone, he signs to an operator who relays his message to his mother. And then whatever his mother says is signed back to Miller instantly, with no lag time such as on the traditional relay on the telecommunication device for the deaf.
Some of the same problems plagued Whitle Jackson, a junior from Lawton who is totally deaf.
When she was growing up, her sister or an interpreter would have to talk on the phone for her.
How frustrating was that?
"Very,” she said, "because my sister couldn't sign that much. She had to write it down.”
Unlimited or not?
Remember, with anything new comes some snags — some unforeseen.
With this technology of text messaging in hand, the students were eager to communicate with their hearing friends — a lot, but that's where the problem came in.
Kennedy said she was on a five-hour road trip and bored so she started text messaging her boyfriend.
She continued and continued for most of the five-hour trip. A sibling had told her she had unlimited text messaging, she said.
"I didn't,” she said. "My dad walked in, and he had the phone bill in his hand. He said ‘How much do you think this is for?' I said ‘I don't want to know.'”
Austin McKenzie, a freshman from Tulsa, got a cell phone for Christmas, as did his brother.
Suddenly they were talking, or rather text messaging, like never before.
"We thought we had signed up for unlimited text messaging,” he said, "and then we got the bill for $1,300.”
Not so good, but then think about it. Think about living with and around loved ones, who maybe didn't know American Sign Language so well or those whom you couldn't read their lips. And then think about finally being able to communicate, quickly and without many hitches.
"Hearing people pick up the phone and never think about it,” Tumblson said. "Not me.
"Now I feel like a rich girl.”
