this is so true. Like Harry Potter says “Hogwarts is my home” same goes for Deaf when saying “Going to Deaf events, meeting/seeing Deaf people is my home. Gallaudet is my home.” 

Found this earlier.

Watch: Their interaction is enough to turn even the grinchiest Grinch into a total holiday believer.

MY HEART

@eusamie can you tell what they’re saying?

The trouble with this is, it took place in the UK so they ate probably using BSL. I don’t know those signs at all. Some of them look similar that I can guess, so below is

The gifs here are out of order compared to how it happens in the video, but I’m pretty sure the guy opens with “Santa read give you baby”, as in baby doll I’m guessing. After that it’s touch and go. I looked up what I thought some of the signs are in BSL and they don’t match what I had guessed they were. I did a search to see if anyone reported what was said, and supposedly the girl asked for a scooter.

Does anyone know any tumblrs run by those who know BSL?

Funnily enough, a lot of the signs match up to ASL signs.

“Congratulations Nyle DiMarco ❤️” Nyle DiMarco by Marco Ovando (via Marco Ovando on Instagram)

So I’ve waited some time to reblog anything that states who the winner of the last season of ANTM is, mostly because I sit want to be a spoil sport. But YEAH, NYLE WON! To be honest, I had been wondering how his app, Sign That, came to be since he lost the innovation challenge to Mikey. But basically, Nyle said he was going to use wrong funds to create or and he did. I am ridiculously happy that he did. Tyra felt compelled to state that he won, not because he was deaf, but because he earned the win. I’m afraid haters out there are going to think that’s the reason anyway. But WHO CARES? Nyle is WORKING IT!

For many in the deaf community, video relay services and video conferencing are essential tools of communication. But to use them, a deaf individual must have an Internet collection and lots of data — which makes Comcast’s new fees extremely troubling.

Why aren’t there any freaking outrage over this? I found out yesterday and apparently people knew about this for almost a year.. maybe more and the trial started in October and is effective in 15 states already.

Let’s put this in perspective. Comcast wants to limit our data plan to 300 gb monthly right? Ok, I live in a household filled with Deaf people. Three adults (four during the holidays) and one child. Our average Internet usage is approximately 550 gb. If we had that 300 gb cap, we would be paying 50 to 60 dollars more monthly. All because we use the Internet to make videophone calls in addition to using Netflix, FaceTime (because there’s data cap on our damn phones too…), playing video games on live, and for some, working from home. I and many of my Deaf friends WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO AFFORD ADDITIONAL COSTS. We barely get by with the current cost and it’s slowing increasing. The cap will just make it worse. I was outraged when AT&T first started the data cap and many cell phone carrier companies followed suit. Now we have to deal with Comcast too? Enough is enough. Stop creating additional barriers. Internet nowadays is a necessity. Stop trying to make a profit out of it. Especially when it impacts Deaf people the most. Make some noise guys! Say something. I can’t be the only one who is upset about this.

this is FUCKING bullshit

look at that pup smile

Being told “Never mind, I will tell you later” is number one annoying pet peeve of mine. Every D/deaf and hard of hearing’s mind blowing and annoying phase.

Hearing people, please grasp this.  Maybe to you, “Never mind” or “It wasn’t important, forget it” is an ordinary thing that hearing people actually say to each other on occasion without it being a big deal.  For hearing people.  (I mean, when said in response to someone saying, “I missed what you said, please say that again.”)  Personally I have a hard time conceiving of how this behavior can be seen as okay by anyone, but this is what I’ve been told, so fine, I’ll buy it.

But what you need to understand is this: deaf people always have to deal with hearing people, all the time, every single day, who just don’t want to have to deal with us and our communication access needs.  We encounter hearing people who act hostile when we ask them to please repeat themselves or write things down.  We encounter hearing people who seem pathologically incapable of grasping the concept that sometimes lip reading just isn’t going to work and yes they really will need to write it down before I have any hope of understanding it.  We encounter hearing people who avoid us like the plague at social events because they don’t want the nuisance of having to repeat themselves all the time or write things down.  This means that 99 percent of the time when we are told, “Never mind”, what it really means is, “Eff you, I don’t want to have to deal with you.”

So when you say, “Never mind,” or “I’ll tell you later” (Will you really remember? Most hearing people don’t.) or, “Forget it”?  We have absolutely no way to tell apart a hearing person who says this because they can’t be bothered with us and a hearing person who has other motivations.  

If you want us to recognize that you’re really, truly not intending to give us the brush off, then the solution is simple.  Don’t give us the brush off.  Just repeat what you said, or just write it down.  Because anything else is giving us the brush off whether that’s what you intended or not.  Even if it would never be seen as a “brush off” by other hearing people.  Saying “never mind” doesn’t have the same meaning to deaf people as it does to hearing people and no amount of trying to explain the perspective of hearing people is going to erase the long and painful history that every deaf and hard of hearing person (and probably also, people with auditory processing disorder) has with that awful phrase, “Never mind.”

Also?  It can be scary to have to ask hearing people to repeat themselves, precisely because we so often encounter negative reactions.  Even when I’m not scared, per se, it is still exhausting every time I ask because I still have to fight really hard to suppress the natural and instinctive tendency to “social bluff” my way through the interaction.  When hearing people keep saying, “Never mind”, even if you think you didn’t mean anything by it, it just makes it harder to ask people to repeat the next time I need to do it.  So, just please don’t.

Watch: Their interaction is enough to turn even the grinchiest Grinch into a total holiday believer.

Not termed hearing impaired but still cute

Hearing impaired is an offensive term within the Deaf community - most ASL users are a part of this community.

Also, the term "hearing impaired" actually was brought into existence by a hearing person who thought it would be politcally correct, even though d/Deaf/HOH did not want to be called that.

Watch: Their interaction is enough to turn even the grinchiest Grinch into a total holiday believer.

Sign language: Philadelphia vs. well...pretty much everyone else

Deaf Philadelphians have their own particular version of American Sign Language, with some of its own words or slight differences in the orientation and configurations of the hands when compared to regular ASL.

And the difference between the two dialects? One is more…French? Listen to the whole story on our World in Words podcast:  here.

Tweet from Marlee Matlin (@MarleeMatlin)

Marlee Matlin (@MarleeMatlin) tweeted: “This is where I MAKE NOISE. Stuff on TV is captioned but when it moves to Internet captions go away. WHY? We deserve NO LESS. #captiontheNet”

I agree. YouTube has already given the option for closed captioning on their videos, but very little of them actually work even if you turn it on. Then there are all of those videos not on YouTube. We already have closed captioning on television, now let’s work on closed captioning for they internet! I mean, why shouldn’t it offer closed captioning? Reblog and spread they message!

auditory processing (probably also hard of hearing too but im hearing so idk) issues like

Them: *says a thing* Me: What? Them: *repeats* Me: I didn’t catch that Them: *repeats again* Me: I’m really sorry, one more time? Them: *repeats yet again* Me: *pretends I have a clue what they said*

This is called “social bluffing”, probably every person who is deaf, or hard of hearing, or has auditory processing issues is an expert.

*just smiles and nods head like I know what the hell they’re talking about*

I hate the phrase, “deaf people can do everything hearing people can do!” Because, no, we can’t. 

Before you get upset over what I just said, bear with me here and listen to what I have to say. 

I feel like the term was coined by a hearing person who, I believe, meant well and felt like they were helping us receive better treatment in life by our peers.. BUT. Somewhere along the line, someone used it against us. And then, that turned out to be damn near every hearing person who is not educated or refuses to be educated on deaf culture, using that term against us constantly. 

While I believe that we all can do amazing things and even the most tedious things that seems to be, oh, so amazing to hearing people, because a deaf person is doing it. I believe in all of us. I think all deafies are great. So, why do I hate that phrase? Because it’s not really accurate. We need accommodations for some things that we do, even if that one something seems so simple to hearing people, we still need it. I’m not saying that we can’t do it without accommodations; it’d just be so much harder than it should be and we always wind up exhausting ourselves. 

What pisses me off the most about this damn phrase, is how it’s used against us. Let’s say you say you can do something simple as in baking cookies, and you use that phrase. They seem amazed that you can do that, but then you pull out a special vibrating timer to help you know when those cookies are done. 

“I thought you said deaf people can do everything hearing people can do? I guess not.” 

Or how about when you’re driving. There’s no point in you having the radio on or talking to your passenger because some of us can’t understand it, or it’s too much of a distraction for us that we need it to be off so we can focus.

“I thought you said deaf people can do everything hearing people can do?”

Or you’re in school and you need an interpreter or a notetaker or CART. 

“You’re cheating!! You said deaf people can do everything hearing people can, but you have all of that. You don’t need it!” 

Deaf people are CONSTANTLY fucking watched and compared, every fucking day.

Twenty. Four. Seven. Three Hundred and sixty five days.

We’re not allowed to make mistakes. Because the exact fucking second we do, we are frowned upon. There is always that one person that says that you can’t do a damn thing because you’re deaf, and because you have trouble doing it, that must mean it’s because you’re deaf, and, yes, ultimately, all deaf people have trouble with it too. Everyone is different. People can’t seem to fucking get that. 

THAT’S why I hate that god damn phrase. It’s used against us too much. I feel like it was coined to give us a confidence boost so that we could go for our dreams or doing that one thing we were always scared to do or speak up to. But if you ask for an accommodation of some form? “You clearly can’t do anything because you’re deaf!”

It makes me angry to know how often deafies are compared to not only hearing people, but to every deafie in the world. Every deafie is different. One may excel at writing a ten page essay in an hour, but struggle to come up with a fanfic. Another may do the opposite. 

All deafies are different. All deafies have different accommodations. All deafies are able to do this, but in their own way, not the way hearing people do. One deafie may hear low pitch better, another may hear high, and another may not hear either at all or is able to tell the difference. I feel like the phrase started off as a good deed, but then turned out to be something used against us and then putting us back in that box that we just came out of. 

Stop comparing us to each other.