Hello.
jetsetter said:
The element of technology ruining deaf culture is an interesting comment. I'm interested in more information on why some feel this is the case and how you feel it can be preserved in spite of technology being everywhere.
I know the original commentator made this in jest, but there is some element of truth to this line of thinking. Please forgive the length of my reply.
Pre-1960's, Deaf people didn't have technology and laws designed for them. As a result, facing heavy and individous discrimination and zero technology solutions, Deaf people tended to congregate with each other heavily and be cut off from the rest of the world. When I attended GMAD (Greater Miami Association of the Deaf) 50th Anniversary celebration, I was genuinely shocked to see group photos from the 1940's & 1950's. GMAD's membership was
huge.
Enter 1964; Robert Weitbrecht successfully built the TTY (TeleTypewriter) and demoed it in Salt Lake City, ironically, at an Alexander Graham Bell (AGB) convention. AGB's introduction of the telephone revolutionized the world and exacerbated the isolation surrounding the Deaf community. Robert's TTY invention was a similiar revolution, jarring the Deaf community into the 20th century.
1964 was a popular year for the Deaf community, as things were happening in Muncie, Indiana. More on this later.
Gradually, the TTY's were distributed to Deaf people in increasing numbers. For the first time, Deaf people didn't have to congregate at the Deaf club to find the latest news, events and just socialize. Deaf people now could call and find out latest news, events and just plain gossip, and can decide whether to show up in person or not.
Moreover, the Deaf community also got a whole lot smaller. Deaf people now could reconnect with their old friends & family members pretty much everywhere in the United States, instead of just the communities they live in. For some Deaf people, they began to prefer the company of far away friends and family and frequented their local clubs less often, and started planning for larger nationwide gatherings.
For the first time, the Deaf community became fractured and fragmented. Still, despite the innovations the TTY engendered, the Deaf communities everywhere continued to thrive and adjust to the new technologies as they came out. Then came 1980, when the first closed-captioned television programming came out.
Popular culture defines us to an extent. Historicially, Deaf people were excluded from this gelling process that binds communities to each other. We could not engage in water cooler talk with co-workers about the latest movie, television or music hit now sweeping our nation. The advent of closed-captioning pretty much has levelled the field for Deaf people.
Now, with more Deaf people becoming more knowledgeable about popular culture and preferring some company with their hearing brethren, and conversely, the hearing people becoming more accepting, the Deaf Community became more fractured.
In the late 1980's, privately funded relay services started to make their mark and impact the Deaf & Hearing communities. The 1991 ADA legislation only served to legitimize and fund the relay service companies, ensuring their continued presence. No other technology, save the Internet, has pierced the core of the Deaf community, bringing it within mainstream hearing society.
With the relay system, Deaf people now could talk to hearing people on the phone. AGB would have been proud; His invention, long the bane of Deaf people everywhere, now is bringing Deaf people together with Hearing people. With this in mind, Deaf people could not at least find jobs and maintain them as the relay service ensures equality when it came to using the telephone.
The Internet merely only accellerated the rapid disintegration of the cohesion and togetherness the Deaf communities had so enjoyed in decades past. Email, communicating via the WWW, instant messaging, etc. all contributed to stunning convenience and ease of which information was transmitted among Deaf people. Deaf people rarely went to their local Deaf clubs, and if inclined, went to larger nationwide Deaf gatherings instead.
By the time the ubiquitous SideKick arrived, the damage levied upon the Deaf communities by technological advances was pretty much done. All the SideKick now does is to easily enable its users to communicate with other Deaf people from pretty much anywhere and anytime. A quantum leap from the TTY, indeed, and has contributed to fragmentation, where only cliquish groups cling to each other instead of congregating at the local community's Deaf center.
The VP-100 unit only brought incremental advances in Deaf technology, but is revolutionary as Deaf people now can converse with each other in ASL and not through English, a considerable barrier of entry for many Deaf people. It also brings true equality in using the telephone as Deaf people can use it in conjunction with Video Relay Services (VRS) at their places of employ and in the home. (ordering a pizza, etc.)
Two non-technologicial advances contributed to the overall fragmentation of the Deaf communities everywhere; ASL interpreters and the ADA. Remember my passing mention about Muncie, Indiana? That was where ASL interpreters decided to organize themselves and legitimize their profession.
For the first time, Deaf people could now interact with mainstream members in their immediate communities, such as doctors, lawyers, government, businesses, etc. The more ASL interpreters were used, the more Deaf people became integrated in their mainstream communities and patronized their Deaf clubs & interacted with their Deaf peers less and less.
The ADA also came in the forefront, prohibiting discrimination in nearly all phases of mainstream society, such as employment, restaurants, businesses, agencies & state/local governments. Thanks to the guarantees afforded by the ADA, Deaf people became more and more integrated within mainstream society, holding jobs, securing homes and generally living the American Dream.
I do have mixed feelings as I am well aware how strong the Deaf Communities used to be prior to 1964. GMAD today is lucky to even draw 5 members for a non-social function, in a city of well over 5 million plus people. I rarely attend local functions involving Deaf people and even statewide functions. Thankfully, the national Deaf events are well attended and represented.
However, I am very proud of how well the Deaf people everywhere have pretty much integrated themselves into mainstream society. We still have quite a bit to go, but we're pretty much almost there. That is the trade-off derived from advanced technologies and life-altering legislation, and believe me, it has been very much worth it.
Undoubtedly, I realize this has been a whole lot more than you asked for! At least, hopefully I have given you a few starting points for you to undertake some research and better decision-making when it comes to the final composition of your article.
So we need to be contact.