#deaf = does not participate in Deaf culture; more likely to use hearing aids or try to get rid of their deafness if possible; etc

[cheap-jumpscare]

Meulin isn't deaf she's Deaf. learn the difference pls xoxo

[sincerelyreidburke]

On Quinn, his childhood, and mainstreaming

TW: this post will contain ramblings about Quinn’s childhood, which, for those who may not know, was a pretty rough one. Specifically, I want to talk about his “mainstreaming,” or the process by which caretakers and guardians forced him at a young age into hearing culture.

Gather round, my friends, because we’re going to take a trip to Tragic Backstory town to talk about Quinn’s childhood. I’ve been thinking a lot about why Quinn is the way he is, and how he manages to stay so resilient despite, to be blunt, all the trauma he’s been through.

I believe, if you go way back in the recesses of the Quinn tag, you will find two different posts which talk about his childhood. This one was the first instance of someone asking for more specific info about Quinn after his first appearance in fic, and though it contains some outdated information about his theatre career, it’s otherwise reliable for learning. The same goes for this one.

What we know: Quinn spent his formative years in foster care after the abandonment/neglect of his biological parents. By approximately age 12, he and his sister were placed under the reluctant guardianship of their paternal grandparents. Quinn’s grandparents really didn’t want to spend their 70s looking after the products of their son’s bad choices, but I imagine it goes down in a way where the state leaves them without much of a choice.

So Quinn and his sister move in with them, and that’s where he’s living at the time he starts college. I think it’s necessary for Quinn to have at least some of a scholarship in order for his grandparents to even consider financing his higher education. As I’ve said, they’re not jazzed about being guardians. But they also have money— and they get checked up on every so often— so Quinn and Tess are never exactly neglected from a monetary standpoint. I imagine there’s a lot of financial guilt-tripping when they do have to invest in them, but...... okay.

Anyway. The actual thing I wanted to talk about in this post is the fact that Quinn is mainstreamed.

Reading my writing, it’s incredibly obvious that he’s mainstreamed, and has been for a long time. If you don’t know what mainstreaming is, I will now define it for you. Mainstreaming is the process by which, from a young age, a deaf or hard of hearing child is “integrated” into hearing environments. This is mostly done for the purpose of attempting to get them used to going to schools that aren’t necessarily acceptable.

I’ve said before and will say again that I’m hearing, and therefore I’m not and never will be fully able to understand Quinn’s experience. But from reading a lot online and speaking to people who are better acquainted with Deaf culture, what I gather is that mainstreaming is considered to be an unfavorable practice from the Deaf perspective. The tried and true saying is that d/Deaf people can do anything a hearing person can do..... except hear. So the idea is that if possible, you very much want to raise a d/Deaf child in their own culture rather than attempting to have them assimilate into hearing culture.

Which leads me to this: the reason Quinn is mainstreamed is because, when he was young, he didn’t have anyone to advocate for him who knew enough about Deaf culture or wanted to put in the effort to help him create his own experience, one that wasn’t catered to hearing culture.

Quinn gets his first hearing aids early. I don’t know exactly what age he is, and I think I’ll stick to not slapping an age on there. It’s somewhere between the ages of 4 and 7, depending on how quickly his hearing gets bad. A big part of the reason he gets tossed around between foster families so much is because they see his hearing as a burden. He has a counselor from the state who teaches him ASL, and also participates in his mainstreaming.

By the time he gets to his grandparents..... Quinn hates those hearing aids. He’s incredibly sensitive to sound, and he just vastly prefers not to wear them. But he’s spent the past little while in the care of foster parents and state workers who insist that he mainstream. Put simply and bluntly, people consider Quinn’s Deafness too much of a burden when the possibility of mainstreaming exists.

Quinn’s grandparents are adamant that he continue mainstreaming. We saw briefly in this ficlet that Quinn does eventually manage to convince them to let him participate in Deaf community events around Grand Rapids, but a.) that takes several years of convincing, and b.) events like the one you see in that ficlet are pretty much the only time they let him embrace his culture.

Is this messed-up? Yeah, absolutely. But these are the same people who wind up cutting all contact with him when they find out he’s gay, so they’re really not the standard of good guardianship or behavior.

I don’t think Quinn sees his grandparents as abusive, at least not until he gets out and gets to college. He definitely recognizes that he doesn’t live in a totally safe environment, given the amount of lying to them that he does, but he doesn’t fully recognize the level of messed-up that his situation is until he’s a young adult.

One might ask, why was Quinn mainstreamed before he got to his grandparents? And the answer is this...... Quinn was already using hearing aids when he got to them, but he was really not doing a whole lot of verbal speaking. ASL was (and still is) his preferred method of communication, and he probably had an aide at school, even though he was going to public, non-specialized school. He was sort of halfway mainstreamed.

Quinn should have had a Deaf advocate while he was in foster care, but he just didn’t. His case was never handled well, and he didn’t have the support he needed. When his grandparents came along, they pretty much just drove the process home. And that is how Quinn winds up going to a mainstream college.

Would Quinn change it, if he could?........ Ahhh... hard to say, because when you think about Quinn’s life, a lot of things happen to him because he is mainstreamed that otherwise wouldn’t happen. He and Nando are the biggest thing, I think, because it’s pretty unlikely he would have wound up going to Kiersey had he not been mainstreamed. Yes, Nando absolutely does take very significant steps (even pretty early on in their relationship) in order to learn about Quinn’s culture and the way he best prefers to communicate.... but I think if Quinn weren’t mainstreamed, their first meeting would have gone a lot different.

Also, theatre. We know that Quinn eventually participates in Deaf theatre, but he gets his start in hearing theatre. I don’t think he would want to give that up, because yes, he hates his hearing aids and all that jazz, but I think one of the very few things he’s grateful for is that they let him act. Not that he wouldn’t be able to act without them; he just would have a lot more difficulty finding theatre companies where they would welcome him in.

And by the way, why did Quinn ever start theatre in the first place if it’s (for the most part) so oriented towards hearing people? Well, good question. For him, it began on social media. Reading about shows, watching clips and stuff, listening to soundtracks. Music— particularly Broadway music— is something Quinn loves even in his pre-hearing aids stage. He likes to “feel” it, and he learns to like to listen to it as well.

So by the time Quinn gets to high school, he’s well acquainted with online theatre kid culture. He sees that they’re putting on a musical, walks onto the audition stage, and.... is a natural. The rest, with regard to his acting career, is history.

Anyway. I’ve gotten on a bit of a tangent, but please know that by no means do I intend to say with this post that “oh, Quinn was mainstreamed and that sucks, but actually it was a good thing because he gets Nando and his acting career because of it.” Yes, Quinn’s life would look a lot different if he weren’t mainstreamed. But it happens to him, and that’s how his life goes, and he manages to hold onto his culture pretty well, all things considered.

So Quinn wouldn’t change his life. I bet he would have liked to have an aide in high school, but he likes theatre and he likes his college, and he likes being himself, in all the nuanced and unique ways he is himself.

And yeah, he hates those hearing aids. When he doesn’t have to be listening, he’s never listening. As an adult in Arizona, he’s a lot more immersed in Deaf culture again than he was able to be when he was living with his grandparents or going to college.

But anyway. I basically wanted to share this post to explain in a little more detail exactly how Quinn winds up where he is when you first meet him at Kiersey. I know literally nobody asked for this, but I hope at least somebody learned something about him from it.

[deafaq]

Cranky Anon here: Sorry, I may have let my temper get a hold of me. I didn't consider that you might not have ever seen my first ask. it was long so I'm not going to repeat it at length but my main point was that I feel isolated enough not being able to communicate the way the rest of the world does and we should please show some more sensitivity to each other. it seems that sometimes you commit the same faux pas that you warn against: treating HoH/deaf like less then full autonomous people

Hello,

happens.

Feeling isolated is a common problem for most of hard of hearing people. Its being stuck between two worlds, the hearing and the Deaf one. 

Deaf culture is mostly made up of people who were born without hearing or lost it at young age and their experiences and view of world are completely different compared to someone who was born hearing and lost it during life or who has a smaller hearing loss and is brought up in the hearing society. So, if you are hoh, you never feel like you quite fit in there, both with the way of communication and their mindset. And hearing society... well, they just don’t bother to take into account any hearing loss and its too often to struggle to understand anything they are saying and to be able to participate in same things they do.

I think majority of hard of hearing people have felt isolated in this way. 

...

But I am kind of... lost as to why you think I consider hoh less then full autonomous, since I am hard of hearing/deaf myself. I am not Deaf - the capital D is important distinction, since its a name for only a part of deaf community. While I do have lot of contact with Deaf culture, I am not a member myself, since sign language is not my native language or even my main way of communicating. *I* have felt that isolation.

Have you actually read this blog? First of all, we are not meant to be a resource for deaf/hoh/Deaf people themselves, there are other sites for that. We originated because *those* sites were constantly getting asks from hearing people who derailed our own conversations. So, this blog is mostly for hearing people to ask questions and gain more understanding into deaf issues. While we do sometimes answer questions from deaf/hoh/Deaf people themselves, it isn’t our main purpose and we certainly don’t claim to be arbitrers on all issues deaf.

In all our asks, we put emphasis on the fact we can’t tell anyone how to identify. That all deaf people are different, that communities all over the world are different. We do promote (if you can call it such) both use of sign language and hearing aids and many other ways of communication - in our opinion, every deaf person should communicate in the way that fits them.

Yes, there is always room for improvement, but I admit I feel kinda miffed to be told I don’t handle my own disability “correctly”.

Mod T

[tigermckinnon]

[ & ; * - kj apa / (closeted) homosexual / he/him ] isn’t it weird how close { JJ “Tiger” McKinnon } resembles { kj apa }? damn, i heard they are a { twenty-one } year old { undergraduate } and a member of { zeta lambda epsilon } studying { pre-med }. outside of class { tiger } participates in { football, boxing & water polo } and their party anthem is { West Coast Smoker } by { Fall Out Boy }. — j / 21+ / they/them / pst 

TW: War, military, PTSD, gun implication

TLDR; JJ’s a Navy brat with a father with PTSD and it rattled their whole family when he blew out JJ’s ear drum and left him deaf on one side. As a result of living with his father, JJ has adopted a few symptoms of PTSD which he is fixing with copious amounts of partying. He is an alcoholic golden boy. Nice guy. Loves dogs. Naturally red-headed. Gay but he doesn’t know that.

BIOGRAPHY

Eight schools within four years is what Jason considers ‘not horrible’ considering that he’d gone through five houses before he was eight years old. Born into a Naval family, there were plenty of perks to having parents in the military including the cool stories and a never-ending rotation of addresses but the novelty of trying new food and exploring cultures all over the world lost its luster quickly when Jason could never quite answer the simple question of where he belonged. He wasn’t white, nor was he Samoan. He didn’t live here nor there.

Always the odd one out, school wasn’t the only place he felt out of place when home itself became a war zone. Jason always heard stories about how his father was a hero but all he knew were the bullets and shrapnel Baghdad spat out by the time he was old enough to understand that something about Dad wasn’t right. Night terrors, avoidance, hyper-vigilance were all part of the untreated symptoms Jason’s dad suffered and by proxy, so did the rest of the McKinnons.

Family life went from uneventful to turbulent as Dom grew aggressive and angry, leaving Sarah and Jason to manage the nuclear structure of their family for as long as they could for the sake of antiquated social values. To everyone looking in, The McKinnons were picture perfect patriots. Icons of the good ol’ American.

It wasn’t until an incident during a Christmas eve that left Jason deaf in one ear did things finally fall apart. Sarah applied for divorce and demanded space for herself and her son who’d lost enough already without a reckless father whose denial took a part of his future too. 

Jason’s dream of enlisting was shattered in a single bang and he was left to scrounge up the pieces. Luckily for him, Yale had accepted his application and with his recent loss moving the admittance committee enough to grant him a scholarship and a spot on the football team. 

What Jason lacked in stability at home, he made up for in an excellent academic career when puberty seemed to make rampant apologies for taking away more of his hearing every year by making him a contestable athlete. He was fast, strong and handsome which easily made him popular with just about everyone who had a pair of eyes. Sweet, compassionate and loving, Jason had all the make of becoming an exemplary model of a human being– except that he took to alcohol like a fish to water and would occasionally (often) make bad choices for reasons no one could seem to make sense of.

No one looked at his degeneration as anything more than average teenage behaviour and they certainly didn’t look at him as a beacon of anxiety when he was hidden behind a studly golden veneer that seemed to have it all.

After all, he did make it to Yale.

HEADCANONS

Unilaterally deaf and has some hearing loss in the remaining ear. Wears a biCROS hearing aid. He has a tough time at parties and in the pool but generally can hear just fine.

Everyone calls him Tiger because of an incident at the beginning of freshman year where he begged his mom to dye his hair black so he could blend in with the other kids. He was unveiled as a ginger by his teammates after the guys saw him in the locker room and the carpet didn’t match the drapes. He’s never dyed his hair again, but often wears a cap to hide all his red.

He’s naturally red-headed even though he’s not entirely white. Listen, it’s a recessive gene.

He’s a good Samaritan so he does volunteer work and all that goodie-two shoes nonsense and probably goes to Church on Sunday too. He’s a really busy guy between football and school, doing his best to get a degree that’ll ensure him a future after throwing balls.

He is really good at throwing balls, though.

People pleasing yes man, says yes to everything.

Incapable of saying no, even if it’s in his best interest to.

Says he’s straight but he’s gay and frankly, in a bit of denial about it. JJ has no measuring stick of what being gay is supposed to be like when he grew up shrouded in military culture that liberally uses the f-word and is generally, pretty homophobic.

He plays the guitar, to no one’s surprise

Very romantic love sick moron

Loves alcohol more than he should (It’s the trauma)

Should probably be in pi tau alpha with how fast he can crush Four Lokos but he likes community service too much for that.

He has 3 dogs at home with his mom and he loves them a lot.

He can in fact read.

[consciouskingdom]

Surviving R. Kelly....

This was hard to watch. Since the six part series premiered on Lifetime it has created a firestorm and we as a people have got to unpack all of this! To begin: I believe Every. Single.One. Of. These. WOMEN! And we ALL should.......BUT we don’t..... because the painful cries of Black Women fall on deaf ears. The series featured personal accounts from everyone including his security guards, back up dancers, his own brothers and most importantly, the survivors of his abuse. Their vivid and descriptive depictions of what they endured set social media on fire and everyone had an opinion to share. For everyone writing post, sharing memes blaming young black girls or still in support of Robert Kelly in any way - please read the following bullet points and get your life!

· Young Black Girls are not “FAST”, They are prematurely overly-sexualized, manipulated and preyed upon.

We can not attack young black girls for “seducing” older men. I’ve seen the memes shared with captions demeaning teenage girls that had older “boyfriends” picking them up from the high school parking lot...everyone is laughing & sharing their memories of this but ignoring the fact that these same men are aware of their power over a younger woman and exploiting it for benefit. A dominant dynamic is established when someone such as a young girl in poverty/lack thereof to basic necessities encounters a manipulator who will target that and use it to their advantage. Most of these young girls were thinking with a scarcity perspective fueled by desperation, craving more out of life and unfortunately predators were the respondents to their pleas as opposed to someone who could help.  These type of men willingly and strategically use their age, money and perceived power to manipulate a younger naive mind. Preying on their need for emotional attention, financial support and validation; young girls are met with psychological brain washing tactics that they are in no way prepared to fight against.   As early as I can remember - my body changed as I matured and older adult men were the first to comment and notice it. “Oh girl, you really starting to fill out”.....”You getting some hips and legs on you”...”You grown up now”.....”Come on over here and give me a hug, let me look at you”...comments like these occurred at family events, school and even my church growing up. Young black girls are objectified and violated in plain sight! And unfortunately because of that mindset that translates to our bodies are disposable and serve as an object of pleasure - no one acknowledges the pain endured when our innocence is stolen before we can even fully comprehend the full implications of the actions that are transpiring. Ask any black woman you know, she has a story in her childhood where this or something similar has occurred. The common misconception is that because it happens so often, the young girl is to blame because she is being “fast” or “frisky” and pursuing an older man but we ignore what the older man is doing to persuade and manipulate her to be there in the first place! Stop labeling her a whore, slut, fast or frisky! A young girl could be as "fast" as Sonic the Hedgehog but no child is promiscuous enough to entice an older person into being intimate with him/her if that older person did not have an attraction to children initially. We never question the motives of the predator but question the actions of those being preyed upon. In victim blaming, we blatantly ignore the psychological damage that young girls and women are suffering through daily. Predators are stealing their innocence resulting in damage to their self esteem and their ability to have agency over one's own body and life. That type of damage will literally permeate every aspect of her life until she is able to heal. Many who endure sexual traumas hide their hurt in the nearest bottle or whatever substance will numb the pain as they spend their lives drowning in shame. 60% of young black girls have been sexually violated before the age of 18 and the Black community can not just keep dismissing it as  “Oh, She just acting grown.”

·  “Consent” received from coercion and manipulation of a naive underage mind makes it null & void!

Many opinions argue that the women involved all participated willingly - I Call Bullshit! Within the black family that type of ideology runs rampant. By definition, consent is to give permission for something to happen or an agreement to do something. If someone is granting their permission for a sexual act to occur but it’s prompted by emotional manipulation, promises to aid in career advancement, physical abuse and fear: That’s. Not. Consent! Young black girls in under-served and inner cities are in circumstances in which older men are preying on their naïve nature, immaturity and survival needs. Living in poverty creates a scarcity mindset that forces you to result to desperate measures for basic necessities and financial support. Aside from being under the influence of substances I believe there is nothing stronger than being under the influence of mind manipulation. R. Kelly used vulnerability, power, money and persuasion to ultimately create their dynamic; just as an older family member or someone’s boyfriend will offer money and attention in the midst of their abuse of a young girl. Molestation followed by providing money and/or physical abuse is a form of control, NOT CONSENT! A known pimp & womanizer once said “Any boy can control a girl’s body but a Grown Man can control her mind” To see the parents of Joycelyn Savege and Domonique Gardner crying out for their daughters, popping up on Kelly's residences seeking their children was heartbreaking. They wouldn't speak to their families because that's how deep psychological manipulation is, its classic "Pimp" culture and was  heartbreaking to watch. The survivors are not to blame here! (Yes I'm saying it AGAIN just in case you missed it in the last paragraph)

· R Kelly’s personal experience with sexual abuse is a deflection tactic & does not justify him repeating the cycle.

During the series, R Kelly’s brother admitted that he and his brother were both molested as children. My heart mourns for all black children who endure sexual, physical, emotional abuse. We NEED to discuss the sexual abuse Black boys go through as well! Black boys are sexualized as early and often as young girls.  Calling a young black boy “sexy” or your “boyfriend” or stating you’ll be waiting for him when he turns 18 is predatory behavior. Unfortunately society encourages it when it’s revealed that a teenage boy has slept with an older woman but it’s still perverted! A real discussion about sexual abuse with black boys and the trauma they endure must occur BUT not at the expense of Black girls. During the series his own brother, Bruce Kelly, stated Kelly's attraction to young girls were a “preference”. Pedophilia isn't a preference, its a choice! Truly examine the amount of time, effort, money and energy put into creating the "pimp" dynamic of power that Kelly enforced; that's intentional, calculated and strategic. Being a victim to sexual trauma and knowing the damage it caused, could lead to a mindset of NOT repeating those same heinous activities....R Kelly didn't make that choice. He is wealthy, he could have pursued counseling/therapy and he didn't. To use his own abuse as an excuse is a defense tactic, his predatory ways cannot be justified because of a traumatic upbringing. This is precisely why I constantly stress the importance of therapy and counseling. The entire Kelly family needs help to not perpetuate this cycle.

· You can not separate the artist from the “art” when the art is a detailed description of his perverse actions and predatory lifestyle.

Seeing the comments online still crowning him as the “King Of R&B” literally sickened me. I personally recall being taught “I Believe I Can Fly” in elementary school, flapping my arms to scream the empowering lyrics. I recall my Mom cleaning our entire house with his songs crooning as we all sang along as I washed the baseboards. R Kelly provided a soundtrack for our lives. As much as we love “Step In the Name of Love” We absolutely must step away from this nigga! We can’t turn a blind eye to his actions because we love his musical genius. His security guards, producers who have worked with him, background vocalist and dancers ALL confirmed he had multiple bedrooms intentionally installed in his musical production studios. Read that again… he had multiple bedrooms *IN* the music studio…meaning he was sexually engaging and abusing young girls in between song takes. One of the survivors revealed that Kelly penned “You Are Not Alone” for Michael Jackson detailing her miscarriage of Kelly’s child while she was 17. Analyzing the lyrics he had Aaliyah sing for her debut single: “Boy be brave, don't be afraid, Cause tonight we're gonna, go all the way. Don't mean to be bold, gotta let you know, I gotta thing for you, and I can't let go my.. Age ain't nothing but a number, throwing down ain't nothing but a thang, This loving I have for you it'll never change”......

I know the music is catchy but don't compartmentalize just to serve what benefits you and undermines the severity of damage these women endured.

There is absolutely no way we can continue to separate the art from the artist when his art depicts the life he manifest and the young girls who are a part of it!

· Everyone surrounding Aaliyah during her time with him had concerns but no one took action!

A stage manager, his body guards, his entourage, his family, producers who created music for her, friends of Liyah who were also background dancers and toured with her all witnessed her relationship with Kelly. Per the docuseries, they all stated they had concerns but no action occurred to protect her. The bodyguard openly admitted he forged documents to aid in their marriage; at the time Aaliyah was only 15 years old. After Aaliyah's mother heard the background dancer Jovante Cunningham openly stated she saw Kelly having sex with Aaliyah she immediately denied it in a statement stating she and her husband were always with Aaliyah as she toured. With all respect to the Haughton family and the legacy of Aaliyah, her family failed her and everyone around her failed her. It seems her mother is afraid to admit the truth of this situation, not every parent can be around their teenagers 24/7 and that's okay. BUT don't shame others for speaking their TRUTH. It dawned on me after watching the details be described that perhaps he likely married Aaliyah so that she could get an abortion without having to get parental consent. If a murder is committed and someone witnesses it - they are an accessory to the crime. I'm demanding a legal reform that applies the same logic to everyone who enabled R Kelly!

After we've watched the episodes and read the countless memes, status post and tweets let us remember: Listen to Black WOMEN! Tears don't flow that easily nor does pain resonate in someone's voice like that without reason. Even if you deny the claims, we have legal documents that show Robert Sylvester Kelly married Aaliyah when she was 15. You can be pro-black and still hold Black men and women accountable for their wrongdoings.  A black girl’s life is more important than some hit songs. I commend dream hampton and the superb cinematic efforts she executed in creating this docu-series! It highlights a truth so basic it pains me that I even have to state it: Anything that harms Black Women harms black PEOPLE in our entirety....and R Kelly must be added to that list.

Bye Robert, Get some help!

(Note: If this was triggering for you or you need someone to talk to, please email us at ConsciousKingdomCK@gmail.com, confidentiality guaranteed...I love you)

ShopConsciousKingdom.com

[herohelps]

thoughts on hoh/disability rep in the rpc

deafness !! is not !! a sob story !!

i’m a hoh person, and i started to lose my hearing at 17. that was difficult, because i had a loss of identity of being hearing. i had to adapt. but i found that there’s a whole deaf community !! deaf history !! and deaf culture !! a lot of people who are losing their hearing do suffer, but not all of them do, and not all of them suffer greatly. it depends on a lot of factors. some deaf people don’t participate in deaf culture, because being Deaf and being deaf are two different things, depending on whether or not they align themselves with the Deaf community or just experience deafness. it often depends on parents, who sometimes raise their child almost as if they are hearing ( i.e., the child does not learn sign language, but has a hearing aid of some sort ), but this does not always happen amongst hearing families. also, interestingly, 90% of deaf/hoh people come from hearing families, so there’s often a loss of communication between child and parent. 

deaf/hoh people are just as capable as hearing people in doing very many jobs. they have been queens. they can win oscars. they can play professional baseball or professional ice hockey. they have been on broadway. thomas edison was hard of hearing. beethoven was deaf !!

consider the medical side of deafness – if you want to play a deaf character, look into how deaf they are. is it moderate ? severe ? profound ? is it in one ear ? how well do they handle background noise ? were they born deaf, experience an illness or head trauma, or is it industrial deafness ? not everybody becomes deaf the same way, and not everybody ‘sounds deaf’, either; rob lowe is completely deaf in his right ear. i couldn’t tell, not until i googled it. not everyone needs an interpreter ( not a ‘translator’ ) either !! don’t forget that not everybody benefits from hearing aids, and people might have two different types of hearing aids – one ear might be moderately deaf, and another might be severely deaf. some hearing aids don’t work for all types of hearing loss, and hearing can return or get worse, depending on the situation. make sure to research !!

edit: deafness is not just a loss of volume – sounds become different for some people, as if auditory processing as changed. loud noises, like laughter, shouting, or music may sound different, as if you can recognise what it is, but it no longer makes sense in your brain. 

edit 2: in a classroom/learning environment, deaf/hoh students are better visual learners, benefit from tables that are U-shaped or a in a circle so they can see each person talking during a discussion, and will lose things teachers say if they speak with their back to the student. but there are educational resources for hearing educators teaching deaf students, and research papers on deaf/hoh students when compared to their hearing peers. consider also that not every deaf/hoh student goes to a deaf school, but some more general education/hearing schools do have deaf facilities, whether they be government funded or not.

why do people write signing in italics? it’s language. put it in speech marks. damn. also, on language, there’s many different types of sign language !! so people who sign can have accents !! lip reading is an important skill for deaf/hoh individuals, but it can be difficult. also, if a person has a sign language as their first language, they will think in that language, the same way i think in english. language develops over time, so a young signer may use a different sign for something compared to an older signer of the same language !! 

sign names are also important parts of deaf culture. they must be given to you by a deaf person, and until you have a sign that represents your name, your name must be fingerspelled – but this also depends on the culture your character comes from !! 

also, don’t refer to your character as hearing impaired. they are hard of hearing. we do not experience the world in an impaired way, it is simply different.

i’d love to see more deaf/hoh characters in the rpc, but i have seen people play their characters as sad or as if it is the only interesting thing about them, as if they feel nothing but the experience of being deaf. this is not realistic and it’s unfair. please don’t do this – deaf/hoh individuals are people too !! we like things !! we can joke about deafness the same way others might joke about sexual identity !! but we exist outside of the decibels we can or can’t hear ( interestingly, the closeted queer experience is often very similar to the deaf experience ).

as for fc use, i recognise that it’s very difficult to find an fc that is the right age and look whilst also being deaf. i don’t necessarily like seeing hearing fcs as deaf characters, but ultimately i don’t think it’s the biggest issue, because anybody can become deaf/hoh at any given time. i definitely prefer it, but it’s not the be-all-and-end-all.

most importantly, if you’re ever unsure, try and find a deaf/hoh person to ask. nobody shares the same experience, but lots of things are a google search away !! if you’re looking for why there’s a stigma around sign language, search for the milan conference. if you’re wondering how deaf people were treated during eugenics and wwii, just have a google. there’s also a britannica page on the history of the deaf !!

i also think these links are really helpful !! [ x ] [ x ] [ x ]

[peopleofmechonis]

What the...

As a deaf person, this is painful to watch.

I'm on mobile, so I apologize for the long post in advance.

It isn't stuff I usually share, but I relate to it to a personal level, so a reblog it is!

---

A school for CHILDREN, which are vulnerable little humans, thinks its OK to completely ignore their deafness and everything else thats tied to them to pursue what they think is gonna "fix" them?

Because hearing aiding tools somehow magically fixes their ears despite the name saying AIDING and therefore those kids gotta use their ears, which don't work in the first place, and get their butts moving and participate in society?

Look, speech therapy can be great. Its useful for those who want to/are able to. Bringing interpreters everywhere can become a hassle or get awkward even.

Pap smears anyone?

But what this school is doing is blatant ableism and discrimination. It sets the children up for failure in the future, despite pretty words like "gotta make them learn to hear".

Because, news flash, deaf people will always be deaf. Regardless of tool used.

Hearing aids and cochlear implants are electronics.

What happens if it is a pool day?

What if the dog gets them?

What if the batteries run out at the worst possible moment?

At these times, lip reading is a fallback for many, but not everyone. Not every deaf person can lip read, nor should they be expected to.

But this school is also taking that away.

What happens to those kids in these situations then?

It makes me sick to imagine all these things that can happen.

And that school is justifying setting these kids up for situations like that and patting themselves on the shoulder for doing such a great deed of fixing something that doesn't exactly need... fixing.

Sign language is there to help the deaf in education.

Interpreters are there to help the deaf in participating in classrooms, events and the like.

I feel efforts are better put in further developing tools for the deaf, increasing visibility and spreading awareness.

So we can one day work to a global society that includes everyone and then I mean EVERYONE.

Regardless of religion, culture, disability and the like.

I know for sure an inclusive society DOES NOT work through forcing people to adapt to ridiculous standards, especially people who literally cannot help it.

Again, I apologize for the long post. Stuff like this makes my blood boil.

Kudos to this lady for spreading awareness about it though!

With more people knowing, the bigger the chance to shut that shit down, or at least raise voices of criticism.

Deafness may be a disability that can cause problems in life, but it does not mean deaf people cannot lead happy lives without oralistic people intervening.

After all, a teacher of mine once said "Us deafies can do everything except... hear."

[khalilhumam]

How COVID-19 affects education for people with disabilities in Ghana

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How COVID-19 affects education for people with disabilities in Ghana

Students with special needs had to shift unexpectedly to e-learning

When COVID-19 hit Ghana, many students with special needs shifted to online learning and had to use digital platforms not designed for people with disabilities. Photo of a person using a mobile phone in Ghana by Amuzujoe, July 22, 2019, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0.

< p class="p1">In Ghana, education has undergone a series of reforms, but the educational experiences of people with disabilities (PWDs) are often neglected.

As the coronavirus hit Ghana, researchers have looked at its impact on working-class students and students in rural areas, but not specifically on students with special needs — especially when it comes to online learning.

Hearing-impaired and visually-impaired students faced several technical, economic, and social challenges when COVID-19 hit and they shifted their learning online.

Currently, hearing-impaired and visually-impaired students at many higher education institutions use Zoom, Telegram and WhatsApp for learning — digital platforms that were neither built for virtual learning nor for people with visual and hearing disabilities.

Many hearing-impaired students were separated from their sign language interpreters and lacked assistive devices like hearing aids. This especially impacted hearing-impaired students with limited knowledge of sign language. Visually-impaired students were separated from their sighted friends who usually assist them.

In a WhatsApp conversation with Global Voices, Esinam Aleawobu, a hearing-impaired student at the Presbyterian College of Education in Akropong, shared her experiences with e-learning:

Sometimes some tutors will use audio instead of caption. But I am deaf, I can’t hear on audio. That means an interpreter is supposed to translate it for deaf people. I have to meet the interpreter through the Zoom app. But unfortunately, we can’t meet often due to network connection problems and some phone problems.

When tutors realized that audiovisual lectures in video formats burdened students with internet data costs, they explored lesson delivery methods like audio PowerPoint lectures which still used audio and visual elements but reduced the internet data costs. In Ghana, on average, 1 gigabyte of internet data costs 10 Ghana cedis ($1.72).

According to Julius Yaw Klu, a visually impaired student at the Presbyterian College of Education in Akropong, his 4-year-old phone is outdated and does not fully support easy access to online lectures:

The problem that I faced with audiovisual is the same problem I have with the PowerPoint. Sometimes it takes about 30 minutes for me to be able to access the lecture. Sometimes I have to wait for the class to end so that I can borrow a computer and use it to access the lecture.

Daniel Kwarko, a visually-impaired student at the Presbyterian College of Education in Akropong, shared a similar concern with using his phone to participate in e-learning:

Most of the documents we get, the phone can open it, but it cannot read it. And it is difficult for those of us who are visually-impaired. And sometimes you cannot find someone to read it for you. You cannot find someone to always be there to read your notes for you. The phones cannot read the PowerPoint and the slides but the laptop does all those functions. You can even use the laptop to convert documents so that they can be accessible for JAWS [a screen reader program].

These hearing-impaired and visually-impaired students say that providing up-to-date laptop technology could tremendously facilitate online learning.

Read more: People with disabilities left stranded during national lockdown in Uganda

Toward inclusivity in education

Ghana’s 2015 inclusive education policy “guarantees a learning environment which is barrier-free and enables all learners, including those with disabilities, to move about safely and freely, use facilities and participate in learning and all aspects of school life.”

But research shows that one in five children ages 6-24 with a disability “has never attended school and those who are in school are often stigmatized and face discrimination.”

Despite efforts to make education more inclusive, visually-impaired and hearing-impaired students face a digital divide when it comes to e-learning. This divide not only marginalizes students with disabilities but also exacerbates inequalities in Ghana’s teacher education system.

Mohammed Salifu, a professor and executive secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), told Global Voices in a phone interview that stakeholders are implementing measures to address the e-learning needs of students with special needs:

We need to make sure that all the interventions we are making are actually tailored to their needs. So the college principals have been proactive in communicating to us. We are partnering with various organizations to address these interventions. These days there are global partners coming in to make submissions regarding how they can help. Even UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization] is trying to provide these funds to support special needs students. I wouldn’t say that we have comprehensively addressed all the issues, but we are working toward them.

Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL) is also working in Ghana to ensure e-learning inclusivity for hearing- or visually-impaired students. For example, they allocate funds for Braille curricula material, provide smartphones for digital access, and make text-to-speech converters available.

Expanding education access

The 2006 Persons with Disability Act stipulates that public buildings must be made accessible, but a study found that most public buildings in Ghana are not disability-friendly.

Mainstream educational spaces are not conducive for PWDs, and the few existing special needs schools in Ghana are grossly underfunded and under-resourced.

At the Akropong School for the Blind, three students share one set of Braille learning materials because of limited funding, according to a Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) report. The head of the primary department, Simon Adedeme, described this situation as a hindrance to teaching and learning.

In many higher education institutions, faculty, administrators and students tend to have very limited knowledge and lack the resources to deal with the structural marginalization of students with disabilities.

Many PWDs are encouraged to pursue vocational training and other types of physical labor work while generally being discouraged from intellectual pursuits in various areas of higher education.

Only three of Ghana’s 46 colleges of education have been designated as centers for inclusive education where PWDs can gain a bachelor’s degree in education and train to become basic school teachers.

Enrollment of visually-impaired and hearing-impaired students across these three institutions remains low despite recent efforts to improve facilities and attract more people with disabilities into the teaching profession.

It is imperative to work closely with students with special needs to ensure that genuine inclusion and access are actualized and sustained. This requires working actively to implement all relevant policies so that PWDs are not left at the margins of education in Ghana — during the pandemic or after.

Written by Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

[creativitytoexplore]

Pandemic Advertising Got Weird Fast

A few weeks ago, as millions of Americans settled into home confinement in a desperate effort to stymie an era-defining pandemic, Little Caesars invited them to step up to its Pizza Portal, a virus-hostile pie locker that circumvents the need for human interaction. Little Caesars was not the only brand—or, for that matter, the only pizza company—that wanted people to know their lockdown options. Commercials by Domino’s and Papa John’s reminded viewers that the heat of pizza ovens annihilates germs. Others had different ideas: Become a Burger King Couch Potatriot with a socially distant burger delivery. Buy a face mask from Forever 21 and it will donate a mask to a person in need. Take up to 25 percent off kitchen-organizing essentials at the Container Store. Buy a whole Hyundai on the internet.

Even in a culture numbed to viral stunt marketing, these abrupt pivots to the pandemic in television commercials, social-media posts, and marketing emails have been hard to ignore. It’s jarring to see advertisers, usually so optimistic about their products as a means to improve lives or grant happiness, forced to acknowledge that things in America are broadly terrible. Some viewers have noted an unsettlingly similar solemnity across brands’ pledges to protect and serve their clientele. Others have found comfort in the commercials’ shoddy earnestness; if America’s salespeople have no choice but to share in everyone’s uncertainty, then maybe the country is mostly united after all.

Together, these ads reveal a pandemic dystopia with a particularly American twist. With unpredictable government-aid coffers, most companies that want to remain solvent through an extended catastrophe will have to master the precarious, high-stakes art of disastertising. To do it, they’ll need to persuade you that giving them your money is an act of solidarity.

[Read: Don’t spit! Pandemic posters through the years]

By most accounts, the coronavirus catastrophe became real to advertisers around the same time it did for lots of Americans: when the NBA suspended its season. “That’s when we were like, ‘Oh, this is going to be big, and it’s going to change consumer behavior and affect people’s lives for real,’” says Fernando Machado, the chief marketing officer for Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Hortons. The company shut down all its offices in the country and threw out its existing advertising plans. Its new ads spotlight low-contact payment and the plan to scoot bags of food out the drive-through window on a tray. If the company’s restaurants were going to pay employees and order supplies, it wanted people to know they could still come buy food.

At Domino’s, the situation was similar, according to Kate Trumbull, a vice president of advertising at the company. The pizza giant scrapped an ad campaign that showed customers standing close to one another, rolled out information about its hands-free food-packaging practices, and repurposed a Risky Business–themed ad to address social distancing. (Sliding around at home in your socks and underwear is all too relevant to many viewers now.)

Chain restaurants like these have an edge when it comes to disastertising. Most small restaurants have had to close during the pandemic because they have no delivery infrastructure or can’t sustain themselves on takeout alone. Grocery stores force people into close contact, sometimes run short on staple goods, and have few or no delivery options in many parts of the country. Pizza delivery and drive-through, meanwhile, are convenient enough to be recast as public services. On top of that, chains can advertise that they're offering thousands of low-wage food-service jobs to Americans who have lost their income in the past few weeks. “We are open, and we are hiring,” Trumbull says. “If there’s one way that Domino’s could actually help right now, that’s the way.”

Both Machado and Trumbull say that Americans have greeted their companies’ efforts with near-uniform positivity. Customers, they say, are grateful for the information about pandemic-related services and safety procedures. Marketing executives of course have a vested interest in the perceived success of their work, but some evidence exists that people actually do appreciate companies that disseminate this information, even if the ads themselves are a little corny. A recent survey by the data company Morning Consult asked participants what they’d prefer to see in ads during the pandemic, and among the eight options, by far the most popular choice was ads that explain how companies have changed their services. Explicit information about safety procedures was also among the top requests.

There are many reasons Americans might embrace this performance of coronavirus care, including the simple comfort of knowing that companies that sell your favorite french fries or service your car have given at least a passing thought to your safety. But there might also be a certain appeal in hearing clear, useful information from whatever powerful American institutions are willing to supply it right now, when guidance from the U.S. government—the institution ostensibly most responsible for providing it—has been slow, inconsistent, and confusing. Plus, advertising gives businesses far broader and easier access to people’s attention than other sources of solid safety information have, such as public-health experts or epidemiologists, who offer sound guidance in far less profitable ways.

[Read: Brands are not our friends]

In the past decade or so, deepening cultural and political divisions in America have frequently led to perceived leadership vacuums, in which broad consensus is difficult to rally for any particular institution or person. Those vacuums have often been filled by brands that see social issues as an opportunity to connect with customers—especially younger ones, who want to believe that there’s a right way to spend their money. “That comes from a mix of deep cynicism and heady idealism” on the part of young people, says Jessica Greenwood, the global chief marketing officer at the advertising agency R/GA, which works with brands such as Nike, Airbnb, and Verizon. “They want to believe that these companies can change the world, but also they’re very cynical about being sold to.” In the Morning Consult survey, people under 40 were more likely than their older counterparts to think advertising should cease entirely during the pandemic, but they also generally responded more positively than older people to recent ads that struck a useful, empathetic tone.

Today’s disastertising does merit plenty of cynicism. Beyond the plausibly useful ads, quarantine TV is flooded with messages of vague support from soda brands, insurance companies, or tech firms, set to sensitive melodies. Many of those ads feature the voices of executives insisting that we’re all in this together, while those executives might be self-isolating in sunny vacation compounds. This worst kind of messaging flies beyond the bounds of simple uselessness and lands at full-on smarm; there’s no value except to the company itself, reminding you that it’s still around to accept whatever money you have left.

The canniest disastertisers, meanwhile, aren’t relying on tone-deaf ads to rally people to their cause. Instead of traditional avenues, many companies have turned to conspicuous acts of charity. AB InBev, which owns Budweiser, has donated $5 million and some of its advertising airtime to the Red Cross, and the company is using some of its facilities to manufacture hand sanitizer. Apple has donated millions of masks and other protective gear to health-care workers. The shoe brand Crocs donated thousands of pairs of rubber clogs to health-care workers, then paid Priyanka Chopra to post about its good works on her Instagram account. Machado says that Burger King has donated more than 1 million meals to hungry kids through a charity partner. “Yes, it’s marketing, but it takes into account the context that people are in and the impact on their lives,” he says.

Read: The four rules of pandemic economics

Small local businesses pioneered many of these most popular pandemic charity ideas. But local companies largely lack the public-relations muscle or name recognition necessary to receive national media attention and public support, which R/GA’s Greenwood says is crucial for companies hoping to survive. “Everybody is watching Netflix and listening to Spotify premium and spending a lot of time in places that don’t have ads,” she notes. “In that environment, the tools that you have available to you as an advertiser are PR and social media—things that respond really well to newsworthy actions.” For big companies, an act doesn’t even have to be all that grand: Coors Light recently won press appreciation for delivering 150 cans of its product to an elderly woman who had put a sign in her window bemoaning her lack of beer.

But charity doesn’t guarantee plaudits for major companies, Greenwood cautions. When a brand courts positive attention, “people immediately look at your corporate practices and say, ‘Well, you’re expressing solidarity, but you’re not paying your workers,’ or ‘You’re expressing solidarity but refusing to shut down your warehouses,’” she says. “It’s super, super important right now to have all your ducks in a row, because if you want to say anything that’s meaningfully human at this time, you have to be operating in very human ways, and that’s not true of every company.”

This blowback has been particularly swift for the employers of low-wage service workers, who have been drafted into duty as de facto first responders in jobs with few benefits and an elevated risk of contracting COVID-19. Amazon and Instacart workers have gone on strike for better working conditions. Walmart is running ads in which its CEO expresses solemn appreciation for the company’s store employees while those employees work in dangerous conditions and receive meager sick leave. At least two Walmart store employees have died from coronavirus complications so far. (Walmart did not respond to a request for comment.) Many retailers have responded to these complaints with hazard pay, which usually amounts to a few extra bucks an hour, as well as paid sick leave. Accessing sick leave at some companies requires a positive coronavirus test or an official quarantine order, which can be extremely difficult to get until a person is severely ill.

Many fast-food workers experience similar issues with low pay and paltry sick leave, but they face a different set of challenges during the workday. Their restaurants’ dining rooms are largely closed, but commercial kitchens are close quarters, even when run with a skeleton crew. In-store employees for Domino’s have raised concerns about inconsistent safety procedures and the availability of masks and gloves, and Burger King employees fear that they’re still in too much contact with customers. Both Domino’s and Burger King say that they’re doing what’s possible to provide safety gear and sanitizing equipment for employees amid shortages, and that all workers in corporate-owned stores are eligible for paid sick leave.

In spite of disastertising’s pitfalls for brands and how much people may loathe it at times, it’s too late for the country to save itself from the necessity of some kind of advertising during COVID-19. Marketing is tied up in almost all parts of the modern American economy. The sale of goods and services is necessary to keep workers everywhere from factory floors to corporate headquarters fed. Advertising is also the economic engine of much of media, including journalism. If advertisers simply were to go idle, the harm could radiate out to lots of working- and middle-class people with little or no direct connection with advertising itself. In past recessions, companies that maintained their communications presence had an easier time recovering when the economy stabilized, enabling them to retain employees they might have otherwise laid off.

Just how necessary it is to disastertise—to contort a simple message about drive-through lanes or beer delivery to paint a company as public servants during an extraordinary moment—isn’t as clear. Americans seem eager for practical information and opportunities to help, not solemn vows of corporate togetherness. It’s also a choice, not a foregone conclusion, that the American economy is held together by advertising and low-wage workers during a crisis. Overseas, some governments have helped coordinate the distribution of necessary supplies to their homebound citizens, instead of forcing fast-food-delivery people and Walmart cashiers to shoulder the burden with little oversight. For companies whose income has dwindled, many governments are paying the majority of workers’ wages to prevent layoffs and allow more people to stay home.

If disasters have any silver lining, it’s that they give people a rare opportunity to reimagine society. When the pandemic ends, America might try to create a future that’s less reliant on broad public knowledge of virus-killing pizza ovens.

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[sincerelyreidburke]

Would Nando ever try to learn sign language? And how would that go?

Okay, anon, you’re one of two people to inquire about this, and I want to answer the question in two parts for that reason, because I have the two different questions. I’ve had this thought since these characters were just baby concepts, underdeveloped but finding shape, and to this day it’s one of the softest things I can think of.

The short answer: yes.

Part of the long answer:

I’d say it starts pretty early. Quinn makes an offhanded comment in the cricket winter screw fic about how he doesn’t really know that many other people who know ASL. In this post about Deaf culture in Michigan (thanks, Brenna, my personal Michigan liason!!!), I introduced y’all briefly to Quinn’s one HOH friend from home, the old lady with the cat who invites him over for tea. He goes to community meetups every now and then, but the fact remains: Quinn does not get to use ASL that often, because his hearing aids make it so he doesn’t necessarily have to.

However. Quinn has mixed feelings about this. He’s grateful for what his hearing aids do for him, especially in terms of the extent to which they let him participate in theatre. (He has a special place in his heart for Deaf theatre once he starts, but the Samwell drama club isn’t accessible like that.) He wishes he were able to just be the unmodified version of himself in his daily life more often.

Why am I doing this digression into Quinn’s inner psyche with regard to HOH culture? Well, because... he expresses these feelings to Nando even when they’re first dating. And Nando feels bad.

For Nando, he understands— Spanish is his first language, and he doesn’t get to use it much at all at Samwell, so even though it’s not exactly the same, he feels he can empathize with him. As his boyfriend, he wants to understand this first level of Quinn’s communication, and it’s important to him that he at least make an effort.

So: he checks out a book from Founders, looks up a bunch of YouTube videos, and starts to try.

Part 2 coming soon!!!! Ask me anything about the crickets.

[lauraramargosian]

Positive Celebrity Exclusive: Dezi Barr raising awareness with her film VAL! 

Positive Celebrity Exclusive: Dezi Barr raising awareness with her film VAL!

VAL a Dezi Barr Film

The short film, VAL, is a powerful inside look into the life of a young, essentially single-mother, during incredibly trying times. The film, written and produced by Dezi Barr, is easy to get sucked into. It’s raw and brutally honest, as it explores difficult topics that are not discussed nearly enough. Based on her own experiences, Dezi hopes for the film to raise awareness of the reality of rape, abuse, and mental illness.

VAL stars some of Utah’s best including, Brandon Grundy, Avery Pizzuto, Frits Tessers and more!

It takes a lot of courage and creativity to broach these sensitive topics well, but VAL does an excellent job of addressing them. We asked Dezi what drove her to write VAL.

“Good question. Being somebody that always talks about self-expression and being courageous, I knew that when it came time to write VAL, it had better be a film dedicated to using film as means to rip some band-aids off old wounds, in exchange, to hopefully encourage others to do the same. It doesn’t matter whether you are as raw and unfiltered as VAL is. What’s important is you tell your story, in your own way, for others to hear. Because your story will resonate with someone, and to be understood and heard is a catalyst for healing.”

Beautifully put. Many face some or all of the struggles VAL touches on. Even I can connect in a way with my past. Writing a script, and especially a script covering such tough subjects can be intense. We asked how Dezi approached writing VAL.

“Whenever (for me) I am writing something emotionally taxing, it takes a lot out of me. How was the writing process for me on such an intense and meaningful film? It was a unique experience that probably won’t happen again. Being honest, open and vulnerable with all eyes on you is scary. It felt like everyone who’s been a victim was watching me type – delete – retype. It was both energizing and exhausting. Everything written needed to speak my truth and honor victims as well as the cast and crew involved. The pressure I put on myself and the project was taxing, but worth it. 100%.”

After the screening we were invited to participate in, during a short panel with Dezi, someone in the audience brought up the question of what happened in the life of the abuser in the story that made him who he was, and influenced his vicious and abusive behavior. What in his past drove him into rape and violence?! This explores another side of the film. We were curious about Dezi’s thoughts.

“Mmmmm. Yeah. The man who asked that question was a scary man to me until that moment. It took everything I had not to cry and go hug him. It was very important to validate that, and openly so. He is right, and I think I’ve always had some sympathy for the perpetrator. That sympathy never excuses the behavior. They’re humans who were maybe once a victim themselves. Studies have shown that victims most likely victimize in some way (not always, and not always in the same way). The answer is: What Happens To A Person To Make Them Abusive, In Anyway? We need to start there. Entitlement? Environment? Privilege? Anger? Revenge? Victimization? What??? YES! Let’s ask these questions AND meet them head-on with an open heart and mind while not forgetting the victims. My hat is off to that man who asked. He shed a wound that evening. Proud of you, B.”

We also asked what Dezi hopes viewers are learning from watching VAL.

“As to your second question, understanding. People need to be heard and understood. The ONLY way that happens is if WE are listening to understand.”

Listening is such an important part of good communication. It’s vital. It’s all too common for people to pour their heart out, only for it to fall on seemingly deaf, or unempathetic ears. This makes healing difficult, if not impossible. By starting a conversation and spreading awareness of the suffering and abuse many silently face, we can help share the burden, and begin healing as a society and as victims.

Many women (and men) who are in abusive relationships stay with their abuser because of their fear of the unknown, and because they don’t realize that help and a better life exist beyond their abuse. We asked Dezi her thoughts and feelings on his subject.

“Boy. That hits me hard, as I’m sure it does others. How does that make me feel? Honestly? Sick. It’s a vicious cycle until the victim decides to no longer participate. I get it though. I would have, in the past, rather been with an asshole and KNOW his demons, than have been with someone who seems nice, but turns on you without notice. As for now, I would rather be alone than be with the devil. I know where he lurks, I know his signs. That is all I need to know.”

According to The National Domestic Violence Hotline, it’s not easy to leave an abusive relationship.

“Leaving is often the most dangerous time for a victim of abuse, because abuse is about power and control. When a victim leaves, they are taking control and threatening the abusive partner’s power, which could cause the abusive partner to retaliate in very destructive ways.”

And there are plenty of reasons people don’t leave, That may include a belief that abuse is normal, fear of being outed, embarrassment or shamed, cultural or religious reasons, lack of money or even disability.

Positive Celebrity Exclusive: Joseph O’Brien talks about AGT, music and his childhood! 

Dezi shared with us a little about the success and goals of VAL.

“At first, it was to be seen by as many people as possible. I submitted to many, many festivals, but it hasn’t been accepted into any but two. I didn’t care about winning an award. The goal was to get eyes on it. So, now the goal is to get eyes on it

Once the festival run is through, I’ll submit the script and trailer to other fests to hopefully gain interest and get feedback. Someone mentioned that I should tour with VAL, to ignite conversations much like that at Channel 801. Not sure what I think about that idea yet in terms of timing.”

We think that’s a great goal. Getting eyes on such an important film matters. It will help spark a conversation that will bring about change.

During the Q&A for the screening, one member of the audience mentioned how, even having never been in such a situation, VAL helped him better understand and feel “very empathetic and open to people’s hearts.” Dezi shared how it made her feel to hear that.

“Relieved. Validated. Cathartic. Moved. It’s working.”

Actors and actresses have to translate what they see on the script into an emotional and grabbing performance. There are times an actor or actress has a hard time going through with emotional scenes because when you act, you commit. You become that character for a short period of time. We wanted to know how the cast did on VAL during emotional and difficult scenes.

“The actors were phenomenal! It was far from easy on anyone that was on set. It took a lot out of everyone emotionally and physically. I had two child welfare crew members on set, one for the actress playing VAL and one for the baby, and another on standby for Avery (VAL). I set aside funds to pay for therapy to ensure everyone stayed intact during and afterwards. The offer will remain indefinitely.”

That’s great! It’s not easy to assume those roles, even for a moment. Right now, in the world, there are many people struggling with similar situations. Whether it be emotional abuse, physical abuse or mental illness, it’s happening. We wanted to know what Dezi would tell someone going through these struggles.

“Talk. Talk to anyone who will listen. Leave. The scariest thing to a perpetrator is someone who won’t back down, because that means they have no control over you. Try to put the protections you can in place and leave without delay. Lastly, get. It. OUT! Express it in ANY healthy way possible. Therapists work! The more you hold it in, the harder life is.”

We then asked if there are any specific charities Dezi would recommend for those dealing with rape, abuse or mental health struggles.

“Several. UCASA, RAIIN, Joyful Heart, PAVE and SO many more. There’s a Women’s Conference in Dallas in April each year. You can get sponsored to participate, and it would be of great benefit. If you are local to Utah, UCASA has active events around the clock.”

The film was very powerful and brilliantly shot. We asked what camera was used.

“We shot on a Blackmagic Pocket and Cinema camera with Veydra lenses. We love Veydras!”

We asked what Dezi thought was the most “cathartic” moment in VAL.

“Someone asked me that once, and it isn’t a simple answer. It comes in waves. It was cathartic while writing, then producing, then dicerting and now while screening it with Q&A. The most? Mmm. Q&A sessions when I get others’ perspectives, and when people ‘get it’.”

We then asked if Dezi felt any degree of healing from her past while writing VAL.

“I feel like when I write, it’s pretty therapeutic. Especially when you turn your past struggles into art. Not sure? It felt like I held my breath until after the cast and crew screening. It’s triggering to me, and find I giggle at little mistakes. It helps to keep the river of emotions at bay, because if I’m not together, others won’t feel like they can talk about it and ask questions. Everyone needs to feel comfortable and be able to share.”

We followed that up by asking if Dezi is working on other projects we can look forward to.

“What a nice transitional question!! YES! Just finished producing and directing a cooking show. Packaging a few features, one of which is mine. Producing/directing a documentary, and we just opened up a small film studio for our local community. Lots of schtuff is cooking. We’ll see what begins to smoke first ;)”

To conclude, we asked what Dezi would like to share with you, our readers.

“It’s ok to not be ok. Tell your story. Don’t let anyone determine your future, especially if one of those people is you, getting in your own way. Don’t stop learning and growing. Love, because you deserve the absence of bitterness.”

  Meet Dezi Barr:

Meet Dezi Barr

Dezi Barr is a producer in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. She is motivated to help talented filmmakers give voice to their stories. She has worked on several films, most of which went on to win awards. Dezi was born and raised in Missouri, family brought her to Salt Lake and that is when she became interested in Film.

Be sure to check out her Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

        The post Positive Celebrity Exclusive: Dezi Barr raising awareness with her film VAL!  appeared first on Positive Celebrity News and Gossip.

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Disability - Medical Fact or Social Construct?

Disability is a term widely used for the social condition recognised as resulting from any type of physical or mental impairment mainly identified through medical procedures. Some are present at birth while other impairments occur at various stages of an individual's life either as manifestations of genetic conditions or as the result of conflicts (e.g. war), and accidents. Examples are varying degrees of blindness, deafness, speech impairments (dumbness) and loss of limbs. Chronic illnesses too should be added to this list. Usually prosthetic devices such as magnifying glasses, Braille, hearing aids, sign language, crutches, wheelchairs and other similar aids have been designed to ameliorate handicaps in living, experienced by disabled people.

Constitution of Disabled Peoples' International (1981) defines Impairment as 'the loss or limitation of physical, mental or sensory function on a long-term or permanent basis', with Disablement defined as 'the loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the normal life of the community on an equal level with others due to physical and social barriers'

Since all serious impairments giving rise to disability appear to stem from a recognised medical condition, historically, disability in Kingston studies relied on a medical model centred almost solely on the individual. Following the medical model the disabled were segregated from 'normal' people and seen as deficient, lacking in self-efficacy, needing care. The disabled were defined by their deficiencies, in what they could not do, and not by what they could do. Society at large made no attempt to adjust to the requirements of the disabled, to integrate them, instead tending to isolate them in institutions or at home. Impairment was seen as the problem, and the disabled were restricted to being passive receivers of medication, care, and targeted assistance through state intervention or charity. Even today, as befitting the medical model, disabled people are regarded as requiring rehabilitation. They are subject to negative stereotyping and prejudice by the rest of society. Further, the ubiquitous built environment imposes restrictions on their mobility, access to employment and recreation.

Mike Oliver (1996), an academic with first-hand experience of disability and what it entails, calls the medical model an 'individual model' making a binary distinction between it and the social models which followed the Disabled People's Movement in the 1970s. Vic Finkelstein, another academic and Paul Hunt, an activist, were also involved in helping to form the Union of the Physically Impaired against Segregation (UPIAS). Oliver fought against the 'medicalisation' of disability denying that there never was a 'medical model' of disability. Oliver believed that problems attendant on disability should not be regarded exclusively as the responsibility of the medical profession and other similar 'experts' who, from a position of power, see the problem as entirely located within the individual. For Oliver and others working in the disability field around the 1970s disability was a social state and not a medical condition. These pioneers were influenced by Marxist rhetoric much in evidence at the time.

The individual discourse on disability is allied to World Health Organisation pronouncements, as for example, by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. It owed its existence to advances in science and medicine which placed disabled individuals into medical categories for the convenience of medical practitioners and other health professionals. This, though eminently practical and appropriate at the time, was later experienced by the disabled population as an oppressive situation. They felt themselves labelled, manipulated, and powerless vis-a-vis their own bodies and personhood.

There is inherently nothing wrong with impairments being initially identified and treated as a medical condition. Indeed, this is a necessary first step, especially when individuals require continuing, lifetime medical care. It is when such treatment excludes or disregards the social environment, which to a large extent defines the parameters within which the disabled are expected to function, that problems arise. It inevitably invites social exclusion and disadvantage, segregation and stigmatisation, which is the fundamental criticism against the narrow medical model.

Still, there are apologists for the medical model of disability. They regard as questionable Mike Oliver's denial that impairment has any causal correlation with the societal notion of disability. For them this is an 'oversocialized' and overly politicized view. Although he accepts that disability is both biologically and socially caused, he places 'more significant causal weight' on the former. They recognise the sociological significance of the body, but complain hat the social model suffers from 'somatophobia' due to an over-emphasis on the social context. Other researchers are keen to emphaise that there is social oppression at play in the field of disability.

Shakespeare and Watson (2002) stress that 'embodied states are relevant to being disabled'. They believe that social model advocates 'over-egg the pudding' by stating that disability is entirely a creation of society instead of accepting that 'disability is a complex dialectic of biological, psychological, cultural and socio-political factors, which cannot be extricated' to any great extent. However, Carol Thomas (2004) is critical of anyone not recognising the importance of disabilism in their discussion of disability. She thinks they confine themselves to a 'commonplace meaning of disability' ignoring the much larger significance allied to similar concepts like racism, sexism and homophobia.

Vic Finkelstein, a pioneering academic and activist in the field of disability, himself disabled, was a refugee from apartheid South Africa where he had been in prison for five years. Having been active in the civil and human rights movement in South Africa, he was immediately sensitised to the ghetto-like experience of the disabled in the UK. He saw that they were denied participation in the mainstream social and political life of the country. One of Finkelstein's collaborators Paul Hunt, had been living in residential institutions (Cheshire Homes) from childhood and campaigned with other residents for a role in the management of such Homes. Following the medical model Cheshire Homes believed it had provided compensatory measures to meet the needs of the disabled, but disabled activists like Finkelstein and Hunt saw it as oppression of a minority by society at large.

These activists saw the medical model as the default position of the disability 'industry' staffed by care managers, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists and doctors. Disabled persons' powerless and socially inferior position was reinforced in such circumstances, however sympathetic and dedicated these professionals were in carrying out their duties. It was only after the establishment of UPIAS that the political landscape changed. UPIAS (1976) concluded that '... it is society which disables physically impaired people. Disability is something imposed on top of our impairments by the way we are unnecessarily isolated and exclude from full participation in society. Disabled people are therefore an oppressed group in society'.

Apart from the horrors of the Holocaust which enabled doctors to experiment on disabled victims, there is at least one documented case of clinical abuse of disabled children in the USA. Referred to as the Willowbrook Experiment, in 1956 disabled children were deliberately infected with viral hepatitis to monitor progress of the disease over a lengthy period of 14 years. Parents had been under pressure to accede to it. It was also approved by the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene. To a large extent such extreme measures are no longer evident, but one can see how disability had been a custodial discourse.

A good example of a drastic change in the medical model is that only about four decades ago, the universally acclaimed and used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) listed homosexuality as a mental illness. Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists practised aversion therapy (among others) to 'cure' these 'unfortunates'. In spite of objections from a few extreme right politicians and religious fanatics, it is now accepted as a normal and positive variation of human sexuality. Indeed equal opportunity and human rights legislation have recognised the 'gay' community as a minority group. Some states even allow civil union and even marriage between same sex couples.

How the society's views and treatment of the disabled have changed over the years is demonstrated by the example of Lord Nelson and President Roosevelt. With an arm amputated and blind in one eye, 'the statue of Horatio Nelson defies modern infatuation with physical perfection by flouting his impairments.' He contrasts Admiral Nelson with the wheel-chair using wartime US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Unlike Nelson, he was born into a modern culture where having an 'impairment' was supposed to directly 'disable' a person. Therefore, a 'public statue of Roosevelt sitting in a wheel chair was unthinkable' So now we are presented with a statue to a major USA public figure that takes care to hide any evidence of his impairment. There may not be a call to erect a statue to an even more modern celebrity like Prof. Stephen Hawking, but one must grant that without the medical advances that recognise his impairments making it possible for him to receive the right medical treatment and continue living and working as he does, there would not be a social or academic role for him to fill with such distinction.

In Australia, a variation of the social model was referred to as the rights-based model of disability. As in the UK, disabled people as a group there sought a political voice. Such activism and advocacy has brought gains, but they admit that there are also limitations. Although as a political strategy it helped to bring about needed changes through legislation, it locks people into an identity defined as being members of a minority community. This way the conceptual barrier between 'normal' and 'abnormal' is maintained. There are also new challenges when the latest genetic and reproductive technologies include a larger proportion of the population as carriers of 'bad' genes and unwittingly placed in the disabled category inviting discrimination and avoidance.

Four decades after the Cheshire Homes incident, we now have the spectre of Remploy Ltd. a government owned factory network across the UK established in 1945 offering both employment, and employment placement services, to the disabled, being dismantled. Remploy had been producing or assembling a vast range of products in its 54 factories spread across the country. Towards the end of the last century it even moved into service sector work. In 2009/10 Remploy placed 10,500 disabled people in jobs in a range of sectors. This year the Coalition government has decided to close 36 Remploy factories making 1700 workers redundant (press reports). It is unlikely that UPIAS would accuse Remploy as being in the business of segregating the disabled, but at some early point in a disabled person's life that type of provision was always likely to have been necessary.

On doctrinaire grounds alone neither the medical model nor the social model would be privileged in explaining changes in circumstances such as those occurring now in the UK as exemplified by the fate of Remploy Ltd.

Others in the field take somewhat of a middle ground. For them disability is a 'post-modern concept, because it is so complex, so variable, so contingent, so situated. It is at the intersection of biology and of agency and structure. Disability cannot be reduced to a singular identity: it is a multiplicity a plurality.' They assert that any social theory ought to include 'all the dimensions of disabled people's experiences: bodily, psychological, cultural, social, political, rather than claiming disability is either medical or social'. They found people unwilling to identify themselves as disabled. They wanted to see themselves as normal though different. Many people with learning difficulties refuse to be referred to as disabled.

People have many different identities. Those who do not accept being labelled disabled may own up to various other identities as more salient. For example, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, class or marital status. The social model developed in the 1970s is no longer useful or valid. There needs to be a paradigm shift.

Today's academics argue against a 'crude determinism' in favour of a more sophisticated approach to disability. For them, disability is not just a medical condition. Neither should it be reduced to being the result of social oppression, 'overlaid with negative cultural meanings'. The disability literature has been plagued with overgeneralisations and it is now time to admit that it cannot speak for over six million people with impairments in Britain alone, and over half a billion across the planet. On the other hand, researchers in the field have accepted the notion that all human beings are impaired in one way or another. Disability is the normal condition of all humanity; it is not limited to a small minority of people.

The refusal to acknowledge that disablement or impairment is not just limited to those very obviously disabled but is a 'normal condition of all humanity' is clearly the reason for the historical oppression and exclusion of ostensibly impaired people by the majority of so-called normal people. This is said to be due to a need for denial of their own vulnerability, frailty and mortality, projecting them on to others less able to defend themselves. The far-reaching insight that we are all impaired should alert us to the fact that simplistic models may serve their purpose, but in a time-limited and contingent manner.

The above is a wide ranging exploration of academic discourse comparing and contrasting the concepts of the medical model and the social model of disability. Exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of either model as situated in historical context gave rise to the notion of disability as a universal human condition that neither model could explain comprehensively. Researchers and commentators today need to acknowledge that no one model could comprehensively encompass such a continually shifting paradigm.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6960958

[sincerelyreidburke]

Hey hey loving your crickets series soooo much!! I saw you posted a little about Quinn’s singing so I was just curious when he lost his hearing, is he hard of hearing or deaf? And i think you said his first language is asl so was he born deaf? Love learning about your characters!!

Hi, anon! Thank you so much for the ask(s)!! With your questions in mind, let’s talk in a little more detail about Quinn’s Deafness, because I’ve mentioned it in a few different places but haven’t really given the full picture. Quinn is my precious sometimes grouchy child, and I’m so excited for your curiosity!

(Ask me anything about the crickets!)

- Quinn would use Deaf rather than the term hard of hearing to describe himself personally, but I’ve said before that he wasn’t born completely medically deaf. In other words, Quinn was born with significant hearing loss but was not entirely unable to hear right from birth.

- I did say ASL is his first language, and although I know ‘first language’ implies that it’s the very first language a person learned, I think Quinn was probably taught spoken English first. I apologize because my phrasing was a bit misleading, but what I will say is that because he has always been medically hard of hearing, Quinn was taught to sign very early on. This is why he’d consider it his first language— because learning spoken English was incredibly difficult growing up (due to his hearing), and ASL is the native language of his Deaf culture. If that makes sense?

- By the way, who taught Quinn to sign? Because it wasn’t either of his biological parents. I would say it was some kind of a medical counseling program, possibly directed by social services, to teach him to communicate. As we’ve talked about, Quinn had a rough go of it in his childhood.

- Quinn got his first pair of hearing aids around age eight or so, and yes, they’re hearing aids— he’s never had cochlear implant surgery, and he wouldn’t want it even if he were given the opportunity. He’s gradually had to get stronger/more expensive hearing aids because his hearing loss has gotten worse as he’s gotten older.

- He learned to sing and verbalize speech during his early years, when he could still at least faintly hear himself, and he got the hearing aids right around the time it got so severe that he could no longer make sense of sound or conversation. So his singing is a product of a.) the fact that his hearing hasn’t always been what it is at 18, and b.) the fact that he was wearing hearing aids from a young age.

- All this is to say that now, as in in college, Quinn is totally medically deaf. He can read lips (and has been able to all his life), but he has what a doctor would call ‘profound hearing loss’. Even incredibly loud noise— which he used to be able to pick up as a young kid— doesn’t register anymore.

- I’ve also never really talked about this, but Quinn’s relationship with his hearing aids as accessibility devices is interesting. They were sort of forced upon him when he was too young to make a decision about it, and now he’s well accustomed to a life with them. They enable him to fully participate in parts of society that aren’t designed with Deaf culture in mind, and that sits weirdly with him, because he knows he’s a full person who can do anything without them (except, well, hear, but that’s implied). The thing is he just might not do things the way that hearing people do them, and he’s completely okay with that, but understands that it means his world would look different if he didn’t use his hearing aids.

- Basically, this is a very long-winded way of saying that Quinn wouldn’t be at Samwell, or participating in hearing-organized theatre, without them. These are rather large parts of his personal story, and he wouldn’t change the way he’s chosen to live his life and map out his future. He just wishes, in general, that the world was more accessible to his culture, and that people were more understanding and willing to learn.

- I’ll step in here and say that I’m a hearing person, and I obviously can’t fully understand Quinn’s experience for that reason. But Quinn’s Deafness is a huge part of his character, and to an extent does define him in some senses, and he’s very proud of that.

- Also, to answer your last question, yes, Quinn is the only Deaf person in his family! That he knows of. He maybe has a distant relative on his mom’s side (like a great-aunt or something) with hearing loss, but it’s likely age-related, not from birth, and he doesn’t know that relative personally if they exist.

- By the way, because I’m still going, apparently, let’s maybe talk a bit about some of the ways Quinn strives to make his world a more inclusive and accessible place. I said somewhere, and maintain, that whenever he meets a person for the first time, he signs hello at the same time that he says it, just in case they know ASL. If he meets someone who knows ASL, by the way, he will jump at the chance to communicate that way, even if the person is hearing, because he just really does not get to use his own language as much as he wishes he could.

- As a pediatrician, I think Quinn would request that all patients with hearing loss in his hospital be directed to him (if that’s a thing that doctors can actually do; I think it is). He maybe specializes, actually, in treating kids like himself. (I wouldn’t say he only treats Deaf patients, just that he takes care to seek them out.) Quinn getting to sign with his patients is prime soft content.

- I don’t think this really affects other people so much as it just is part of his own experience, but Quinn turns his hearing aids off/doesn’t wear them as much as is humanly possible. If there isn’t a reason he needs to be listening, he isn’t listening. I’m talking walking across campus, or eating a meal by himself, or, his favorite, sitting in his room doing homework/decompressing/doing nothing. Quinn doesn’t like to watch TV/movies/YouTube with sound; he just turns on the subtitles and tunes out. The exception is when he finds a bootleg or a musical film; he wants to hear the songs.

- In public, like when he’s at a store alone or taking public transit, he’ll also shut them off. He is known to do the entire trip from his last hug with Nando at the airport gate to his grandparents’ front door in Michigan without turning them on once.

Flight attendants: here are the safety features of this aircraft

Quinn, watching but not listening: if we die, I guess we die

- He, in general, is really sensitive to noise, because it’s not part of his natural experience of life. He gets startled by sudden noises very easily, and doesn’t do well in very loud environments. It’s why he turns his ear volume down so much at kegsters.

I hope this answers your questions, but if you have more, you know where to find me! Thank you for the ask.🤍🤍🤍