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Apr 28, 2004 Deaf and hearing-impaired people have had a vibrant and extensive culture throughout the history of the United States, culminating in Deaf History Month, which runs from March 13-April 15. Here are a few aspects of it: Did you know that for a long time, up until the 1970s, deaf people were often misdianosed as retarded? By the time the corrections were made, many, who grew up in mental institutions, were not able to learn deaf language skills. (and unfortunately, many were also mistreated.) Mattie Hoge, for example, was misdianosed in 1930, and was institutionalized for at least 57 years! But there were some who DID persevere, go on to college, and became prominent citizens. The book, DUMMY, by Ernest Tidyman, is an excellent example of one deaf man's journey from misdiagnosis (and a murder charge!)to triumph. (There was an excellent late 1970s TV movie starring Levar Burton in the title role. For those who haven't seen it, you simply must. Perhaps it's available at video stores and on DVD.) Probably the best known is Helen Keller, who was quite remarkable: She learned to read and write in French, German, Greek, and Latin in braille, played chess, could remember people's handshakes years after meeting them, could identify hundreds of plants by their smell alone, and was even presented with an Academy Award in 1955 because her life was such an inspiration, worldwide. (Her autobiography "The Story Of My Life" was eventually translated into 50 languages!) Other deaf people of note include Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, actor C.J. Jones, Christy Smith, from "Survivor: The Amazon", baseball player Curtis Pride, Gallaudet University president I. King Jordan, football player Kenny Walker, Lou Ferrigno(The Incredible Hulk"), actresses Terrylene, Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin, Phyllis Frelich, and Linda Bove, and the "father of the Internet", Vinton Cerf. He helped to found the Arpanet in the early 1970s, a forerunner of the Internet. There are many opportunities open to hearing people who learn sign language. One can be: An Interpreter An ASL Teacher A Deaf School Teacher A Special Education Teacher A Social Worker A Counselor And one can be a tour guide, travel agent, medical professional, or any field that involves the deaf. An unfortunate aspect of deaf history was the segregaton of its schools. For over a hundred years, black deaf children were required to attend separate educatonal programs, lived on separate campus grounds or in separate buildings on the same campus. (And the practice was endorsed by the Association Of The Deaf in 1904.) This enforced separation led to the development of a black sign dialect similar to black English slang. When the schools became intergrated, the black sign dialect died out as things progressed. The experience is preserved in various books such as Sounds Like Home. ONE benefit of this experience was the production of the first black deaf teachers. The early days of TV captioning meant open captioning where the words were printed directly on the screen. "The French Chef" with Julia Child on PBS (1972) was the first open caption TV program. Other programs that soon followed were: "Zoom" and "ABC World News Tonight." But open captioning wasn't well accepted by the hearing , and this led to closed captioning. The non-profit National Captioning Institute was established by the U.S. government, and in 1980, closed captioning offically begun. (The WGBH Caption Center already existed, but the Institute was set up to avoid any potential conflict or monopoly.) Closed captioning grew, but slowly. CBS initially wanted to use teletext technology captioning, not line 21 captioning. This resulted in a protest by the deaf community. By 1984, CBS surrendered and agreed to broadcast line 21 captioning. (Teletext soon became obsolete.) Captions started to appear on home videotapes, but the deaf community found the selection too limiting. Once again, a protest was launched, particularly at Blockbustr Video. And this was also successful; Republic Pictures Home Videos and others began captioning. Cable television had experienced tremendous growth by the late 1980s, but many programs were still not captioned. Government legislation was finally passed to speed things up; the result was the historic Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990. ------------ Email Patricia Jacobs: Patj25@yahoo.com ------------ |
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