Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
Youtube intersections: Deaf Muslim women and black gay men - The Scavenger
Deaf Not Dumb is a rap video in British Sign Language, dealing with issues of communication, isolation and prejudice. Captions in bold coloured text make it accessible for audiences who don't comprehend BSL.
While the message is simple, the idea is beautifully executed. The performers are confident and engaging; the design sharp and vibrant. About 10 seconds in, a sound icon appears, as though the volume is being turned down, and the remainder of the video is silent.
For me, a hearing person who doesn't understand any sign languages, this was a very effective technique. I've seen songs performed in sign language before, but they were translations or covers with the original audio playing simultaneously, so they seemed more like an accompaniment (or even like choreography). To see an original composition in sign, with no sound, was a new experience, and a powerful one.
The creative Deaf youth group behind the video are supported by Deaffinity, a British organisation which aims to “help break barriers and improve the quality of life for the BME [black and minority ethnic] D/deaf community”.
Their YouTube channel includes other videos about the Deaf Not Dumb project as well as other initiatives. Apart from the Deaf Not Dumb video, all the others are in BSL without translation integrated, so you need to turn on Closed Captions if you want a text translation.
This centres a Deaf (British) audience, and again gave me an uncommon experience as a normatively-abled person: the experience of needing assistive technology, of finding my accessibility needs optional and peripheral, of feeling like I might be missing out on something. Of course, the fact that Closed Captions are an option at all makes it more inclusive than so many things that are designed without considering Deaf accessibility at all.
There is nothing on their website which suggests that the group is specifically or intentionally Muslim, but the young women in the video (Samira Mohammed, Maab Adam and Khayrun Nessa) all wear hijab and the comments on the website and YouTube account suggest that the project is at least informally linked in with Muslim communities. The focus is on Deafness, but as Diana at Muslimah Media Watch says,
it is extremely refreshing to see Muslim women, who often construct their individuality at the intersection of multidimensional identities, advocating for themselves in a way that isn’t exclusionary to any particular facet of their identity. That is, it is refreshing to see these women speaking as members of the BME Deaf community about issues that are unrelated to their being Muslim women, without necessarily shrouding that part of their identity.
Deaf Not Dumb is a rap video in British Sign Language, dealing with issues of communication, isolation and prejudice. Captions in bold coloured text make it accessible for audiences who don't comprehend BSL.
While the message is simple, the idea is beautifully executed. The performers are confident and engaging; the design sharp and vibrant. About 10 seconds in, a sound icon appears, as though the volume is being turned down, and the remainder of the video is silent.
For me, a hearing person who doesn't understand any sign languages, this was a very effective technique. I've seen songs performed in sign language before, but they were translations or covers with the original audio playing simultaneously, so they seemed more like an accompaniment (or even like choreography). To see an original composition in sign, with no sound, was a new experience, and a powerful one.
The creative Deaf youth group behind the video are supported by Deaffinity, a British organisation which aims to “help break barriers and improve the quality of life for the BME [black and minority ethnic] D/deaf community”.
Their YouTube channel includes other videos about the Deaf Not Dumb project as well as other initiatives. Apart from the Deaf Not Dumb video, all the others are in BSL without translation integrated, so you need to turn on Closed Captions if you want a text translation.
This centres a Deaf (British) audience, and again gave me an uncommon experience as a normatively-abled person: the experience of needing assistive technology, of finding my accessibility needs optional and peripheral, of feeling like I might be missing out on something. Of course, the fact that Closed Captions are an option at all makes it more inclusive than so many things that are designed without considering Deaf accessibility at all.
There is nothing on their website which suggests that the group is specifically or intentionally Muslim, but the young women in the video (Samira Mohammed, Maab Adam and Khayrun Nessa) all wear hijab and the comments on the website and YouTube account suggest that the project is at least informally linked in with Muslim communities. The focus is on Deafness, but as Diana at Muslimah Media Watch says,
it is extremely refreshing to see Muslim women, who often construct their individuality at the intersection of multidimensional identities, advocating for themselves in a way that isn’t exclusionary to any particular facet of their identity. That is, it is refreshing to see these women speaking as members of the BME Deaf community about issues that are unrelated to their being Muslim women, without necessarily shrouding that part of their identity.
