AGBell: Feeling Threatened?

Come on out and rise to the challenge! AGBell used the hotel management to remove the demonstration from the hotel premises which led to some ugly confrontations thanks to an unbecoming hotel manager. Management used as a shield.

Was The Hotel Manager Part Of AGBell's Grand Plan?

Did AGBell send the manager as a part of their grand plan to demonstrate to their conference registrants that ASL causes communication barriers and causes problems?

X-Men: Analogies of Deaf Children Of Hearing Parents To Mutants

Late at night one night, I tucked in bed and channel-surfed the TV for a decent program to watch. I came across the channel showing the second installment of X-Men movie and I opted for it since I had not seen that movie in a while.

I came in at the part where Xavier's group was in the house of one of the mutants to confront the parents about their son. Wolverine was battling with Magneto's group outside. One of the mutants whose parents' house was made a battleground sat down with his parents and told them that the school where he was attending was in fact not a school for gifted children but for mutants. He proceeded to demonstrate by touching a hot cup of coffee in which turned to ice.

Amidst Wolverine's shenanigans with Magneto's guys, mutant's mother asked her son, "Have you tried not to be a mutant?"

This statement hit home with me. That statement represents the parents of deaf children. The mother did not want her son to be a mutant but to be a copy of herself. She did not say, "Oh cool. You could freeze a lake with just a touch of your finger. That's a gift." Instead, she implored him to try to refrain from actions of a mutant. Just as parents of hearing children who say, "Have you tried to be hearing?" They try their best to do just that by implanting them, sending them for auditory training, speech therapy, enroll them in a program that use oralism as instructional tool, and refrain both parent and child from using their natural language, ASL. They don't say, "Oh cool. You are deaf. You can become bilingual. You can speak ASL and write English. "

Then I thought about how the third installment of the movie went...Yes, the mutant with the wings. This mutant had a father who was a U.S. senator, upon discovering his son a mutant, pushed for a cure for mutants and to pass into law requiring mutants to be vaccinated. Just like AGBAD. Alexander G. Bell did not like that his mother and wife were deaf and his life was spent seeking a cure for their deafness.

The son, the mutant with the wings, reassured his father he did not want to remain a mutant and would take the vaccine. The father was pleased. At the end of the movie, the vaccine was ready for administration. Mutants lined to receive their vaccinations. The senator called his mutant son into his office. Doubt visibly crept into the mutant by his eyes and body language. He willed himself to enter his father's office. He must please his father. Just like thousands deaf children striving themselves to please their parents.

The father knew his son might change his mind. He had at ready a restraining vertical bed. Just like hearing parents obstructing their deaf children's exploration of other options besides oralism, CI, and auditory/speech training. Hearing parents are terrified that their children might change their minds and decide to take that route. The mutant son was grabbed by his father's assistants and restrained to the vertical bed. The son tried to reason with his father upon deaf ears - excuse the pun. Just like deaf children trying to explain to their parents why they want to explore the options of which they tried so hard to obstruct their children from.

The wings burst out of their restraints on his back and spreaded out to their full spans. He broke out of the restraints as if they were made of seaweed. He turned to his father with a face saying "sorry, Dad. I gotta do what I want to do, not what you want me to do." He ran straight for the wall-to-wall windows on the exterior of the building. The father screamed - he never tried to fly before. The son went through the window glass, dropped below, the father ran to the window edge, expecting to find his son on the concrete below. The son plunged downward and picked up the wind. He gained altitude, swooped the ground level and flew away into the horizon. The father stood at the broken window, witnessing his son's defection from him. His son chose to sever relationship with his father because his father wouldn't accept him for who he was. Just like thousands of deaf children leaving their families to escape the pressure to mime them. It seems like a betrayal when they defect. The mutant and deaf children alike say, "I don't think there's anything wrong with me. It is your who think that way therefore it is YOUR problem, not ours."

The mutant knew the vaccine would not change anything. It will take away his flying ability but inside, he would always be a mutant. Just like a deaf child - the CI, hearing aids, ability to speak and hear do not change who s/he is. S/he is still deaf.

It is ok to be different. In a sense we ARE mutants. Our genes mutated by DNA or outside illnesses which caused us to be deaf. It makes the world a more interesting place.

Amy: Mother of CI Children

There has been a huge discussion on Deafread between Amy, a mother of two CI children and the readers and b/vloggers. It sparked on John Egbert's blog and spilled into Barb DiGiovanni and Moi's v/blog. Amy has been locking horns with many ASL advocates. Amy is a mother who is against using ASL for her two CI sons. She cited that ASL would delay their English acquisition and that they are not visual learners as evidenced by some kind of evaluation conducted on the children which determined that ASL would not benefit her children because her sons do not maintain eye contact?? Anyone know such thing?

Many CI/ASL users challenged her claims that ASL is not beneficial. Amy failed to listen to the REAL LIVE CI individuals and rather listen to the professionals who promote oralism, CI, auditory training, speech therapy, and English acquisition through spoken language. She failed to realize the authenticity of the real guinea pigs in the adult CI users. They offered the true testimonials of what the professionals are trying to sell to her.

The tragedy is there are many parents out there like Amy. We are not questioning her parenting but the lure tossed to her by the professionals that she bit and hooked.

I had said on John Egbert's blog that she sounded like a CI rep masquerading as a mother of CI children. Why I said that? She wrote her rebuttals in a fashion that appeared too professional including the jargon used by such people. Corporations have professional writers in their employ to write their advertisements, brochures, websites, etc. I wrote that Amy appeared like a walking advertisement for CI industry.

What amazes me the most is that she failed to see one critical testimony of the success of ASL; many of us have good command of English. I read many comments whose writers expressed eloquently in English and they are ASL users. Amy failed to take that into consideration. We are the living and walking testimonials that ASL does NOT delay English acquisition but enhance it.

I am one such testimony. Granted, I don't have CI and never will, but I am profoundly deaf, stone-deaf if you like, and have used ASL since infancy. I've always written well and always scored in the 91th percentile on SATs in the era when they did not have adapted versions for ESL students distributed to deaf students nowadays. My parents were deaf and ASL users. There was zero oralism in my family. I grew up in deaf community and attended Gallaudet. Did that delay my English acquisition? No way. There are thousands out there just like me. I am not unique.

Why do people like me succeed? Because my education did not revolve around auditory training or speech therapy. I had a real, authentic, substantial, and well- rounded education. Simple as that.

Professional organizations sweep people like me under a rug. They don't want new parents of deaf children to know people like me are out there - those who do not need auditory or speech training, hearing aids, CI, oral education to succeed in life, to be a productive member of the society, and remain part of the family. The latter is often the single motivator of hearing parents to push their deaf children to mime them - they are loathe to "lose them to the deaf community."

This does happen when parents are too stubborn to listen to their deaf children, refuse to learn ASL, keep their stances that their decisions were the right one, and that their children are ungrateful because they strayed. Yes, these are good recipe for damaging relationships with their adult deaf children. Amy would be wise to realize that.

AGBAD is a Goliath compared to NAD. What NAD needs to do is find AGBAD's Achilles' Heel. Or rather a stone with which to bring down AGBAD if we want to follow the legend of Goliath and David.

NAD also needs to re-prioritize. It seems their focus is elsewhere these days, not upon Deaf Education, advocacy, and bridging the gap with medical professionals. You can see how AGBAD is able to maintain its grip on the medical field - NAD hasn't been looking close enough which is why they have long since lost ground. Because of AGBAD's tight grasp upon the medical field, NAD has been losing parents like Amy to them.

I've said this before and I will say this again - I truly wish we can adopt Sweden's model of mentorship program into law. The mentorship program would be inclusive but would maintain that ASL to be the official language of the Deaf and has to be part of language acquisition.

CODA-Owned ASL

Garthicism. My son's ASL linguisticism.

Update: Upon reading comments, I wanted to insert something on the front page...My son STILL signs these signs. He is 15 and has signed the "dead" sign since he was 2 or 3. He never bothered to self-correct. He feels comfortable and right about signing them that way. My husband saw my vlog, walked into our son's bedroom and asked him to sign "dead" and you guessed it - he still signs the same sign. Dollar sign? He signs that everyday - he is a teenager and is always asking for money! Brother? Still signs that SEE sign almost everyday - after all, he does have a younger brother! Friends? Of course, same - he talks about them all the time.

Reasons For Non-Signing CODAs

Are the explanations for their CODAs not signing justified?

Which Type Is Your CODA?

Which type of CODA is your child? Each type is shaped by several facets of familial and relationship dynamics of the deaf parent-hearing child.

Paper and Pen

Carrying a pad of paper and a pen solve our communication dilemmas when we go out in the public without resorting to using our KODAs.

Misperception: Superiority Of The Hearing

Some deaf adults become perpetual victims due to their own misperceptions that the hearing are superior to them.