Where does one get such a clock? (Honestly I have always wondered where blind people get their special gadgets too.)
Nowadays, I am betting on Amazon.
Also how good are the implants nowadays?
Implants are getting decent. They’re a far cry from the original single-channel implants people had to suffer with back in the day.
Ranchoth:
If it’s not too rude to ask…does your cochlear implant need an actual sound jack implanted in your skull, or are they all wireless these days? And if it’s the former, do you have to cover it up or something if you go swimming, or you’re in a bathtub?
Here’s my best stab at answering.
Cochlear implants consist of an internal and external component.
The internal component has coils to receive RF signals from the external component. That’s how they communicate.
The internal component has a wire that is threaded through the cochlea. It consists of sequentially spaced electrodes which emit electricial signals which take the place of the destroyed hair cells (which produce mild electricial charges in response to sound waves). The electricial charges are instead emitted from the electrodes, giving the impression of sound.
The external component can be body worn, or it can be ear worn like an hearing aid. It consists of a microphone, obviously, and a sound processor which receives the sounds from the microphones and processes them into x amount of sine waves. Mine, for instance, has 16 electrodes, so the speech processor separates the sound it picks up into 16 separate sine waves, one for each electrode.
Does that make rough sense?
If I’m swimming or whatever, I merely remove the external component.
First, Welcome to the Dope! I hope you stay!
…
My other questions for you are:
Are there any childrens/chapter books out there that tell the story of these two gentlemen who started it all? I’ve never found one on my own. For blindness and leader dog/braille, yes. But I haven’t seen anything for the start of sign language.
And two, is there a different kind of sign language for english speaking countries; ie, do Aussies sign a little different or mostly different? Is it called the same thing.
Three, and it just popped into my head so forgive me if it is jumbled, the chinese alphabet is what, 3000 characters or so…how do they figure out how to sign it all?
Fourthly, since you are deaf, and a guy…you must be pretty good with your hands she says knowingly.
Fiftly, do you have balance issues?
I’ll shut up now.
Shirley ‘verbal’ Ujest
Thanks for the welcome.
To answer your questions in order,
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are books about them. Perhaps someone with better knowledge of children’s books could jump in.
There are definitely different kinds of sign language for different countries. I would assume Aussies speak British Sign Language. From my experience, it’s awfully difficult to talk to deaf British because the languages are vastly different.
For instance, their sign for “politics” is our sign for “court.” Makes things interesting when trying to compare political systems.
I haven’t the foggiest how the Chinese do it.
Fastest fingers in my office (not that we’ve compared finger speed in the bedroom).
You betcha I do. Especially when it’s dark–I walk around like a drunk even if I’m sober.
exastris:
The s.o. and I have often wondered about the following situation. A deaf person is communicating via speaking, the listener assumes the deaf person is actually mentally handicapped (or whatever the PC term is), or makes some sort of subconscous association, then treats the deaf person accordingly. We’ve mused about the ensuing frustration, and, though I hesitate to admit this outloud, would find it hilarious on a kids in the hall type show. Now don’t get me wrong, people treating other people like they are stupid or mentally handicapped (yes, i know there are differences, dont jump on me for that) is irritating in real life (it happens to me all the time), but the thought of the deaf person trying say that they are NOT mentally handicapped in any way to someone who firmly believes they are (and thus demonstrates their mental handicap) is just a bit funny.
So my question is this: has that ever happened to you? Do people ever treat you like you are mentally incapable? I’m sure it would be more common with strangers, especially if they have had no experience with a deaf person before.
And thanks for the thread, this is educational and interesting!
This definitely happens, but it’s hard for me to take the people belittling me seriously when they’re using “your” instead of “you’re” or when they put their apostrophes in the wrong place and misspell basic words.
I find that the more educated someone is, the less likely they are to belittle someone they assume may not be as smart as they are.
DMark:
OK, this is an off the wall question:
Are there more Gay deaf men than hearing deaf men?
Before you think I am crazy for asking, I used to go to a Gay bar in Berlin where a lot of Gay deaf men would meet once a week. At that time, there was a study going on within the group to determine why it seemed that a larger percentage of deaf men were Gay than in the hearing community. One theory was that deaf men did not have to hear homophobic slurs all their life, so when it came time to act upon their sexual prefernces, they had less inhibitions and were more likely to simply go with their feelings.
Your humble opinion on the subject would be appreciated.
BTW, I once lived in a five bedroom house with some Gay guys and the guy who had the room next to mine was deaf. I quickly learned that two deaf people having sex in the next room is LOUD!
TMI.
I can’t speak as to why the frequence of men being gay seems to be higher if they’re also deaf. Maybe it’d make for a good social experiment.
Snakescatlady:
My youngest cousin was born deaf, and eventually married a deaf girl. His son and his (hearing) sister’s two children were about the same age (2-4yrs) the first time I saw the. All three children were able to communicate much more clearly using sign language. And I cracked up the first time I saw one of the kids ask her mother in sign language what the “hearing” word was for a certain concept. They were well in advance of their age groups (according to their grandmother, who was a teacher) in language comprehesion. I was also impressed by the fact that they were able to tell someone when something was wrong much younger, instead of getting frustrated and screaming.
Oh, I definitely agree–using sign language early on is a huge help for both parent and child. Finding out exactly what’s wrong, rather than suffering through a tantrum or crying session is better by an order of magnitude.
Today’s Brain Fart Question for Ask the Deaf Person is:
Can/do deaf people play ‘charades’?
There are so many elements for cheating involved…I told you it was a brainfart.
They are horrible cheats. Horrible!
In college they informed me that I would have to take some language credits in order to graduate. So, seeing as I had no desire what so ever to learn French, or Spanish, signed up for ASL. (Signed up? Hehe! I’m so punny!)
I fell in love. I ended taking two years of classes. Because UND (University of North Dakota) is just down the way from the North Dakota school of the Deaf in Devils Lake (State run) we had a huge deaf culture and teaching base.
After the first semester, we were not allowed to use voice in class. It was consitered rude to our teachers. Class was team taught by a husband and wife, and they put a lot of emphasis on culture. We had parties all the time for local deaf people to come and “Speak” to us. And yes, it was always loud!
Some of the best classes were the “talk story” classes. For example, my teacher explained how when she left the care of the deaf school, she didn’t understand that there were some “unaceptable” noises to make in public. Like farting. She said the first time she “pooted” in public she was confused at all the looks she was getting. A freind explained the whole “Fart noises are private, burping is alright with an excuse me, and sneezing is always ok.”
The time all the students went into the hallway on break and exchanged swear word signs was really fun. Especially after our teachers caught us, and then corrected our signs! (No no, you sign asshole like this…)
I always feel awkward in public though. I know I sign with a hearing accent, so I’m reluctant to join in conversations with native speakers. I was once told that as long as try my best, and take corrections well, no deaf people would mind my stumbling signs. Is this true? If so, how do I start a converstaion? I was taught that asking were you went to school is always good, because then you can establish who you know in common.
I’m even thinking of joining another ALS class, just to meet some other people who enjoy sign. Would this be a good way to introduce myself to other like minded people?
Thanks for this post!!! I miss the people I met during school, and am eager to widen my world.
Wait for them to make eye contact with you, then go ahead and say whatever. Maybe something like, wud up homie?
Starting conversations in sign language isn’t much different than starting them in English…or French…or Kiswahili.
ZipperJJ:
What do you think about closed captioning?
I watch alot of CC on television (so as not to wake the roommates when I watch late at night). I find some shows have brilliant CC (Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Antiques Roadshow) and some have crappy CC (whoever’s typing it can’t seem to understand) but ALOT of shows don’t have CC at all - especially older shows in syndication.
Most movies on DVD have CC but I have found many that don’t.
How do you deal with this? Does it make you mad or do you just give up on trying to watch some shows? Are there many deaf people who feel strongly about captioning or do people just not care?
I’m a hearing person and it drives me up the wall
It drives me up the wall also. Too bad I can’t stab the TV.
WhyNot:
Do you have a website (preferred) or book recomendation on ASL grammar? I like the baby sign books I’ve found, but they leave out combining signs to make simple sentences. If I want to sign “Please don’t touch that hot stove.” I can find signs for it (No, Touch, Stove, Hot) but what word order do I follow?
I know I could make it up and as long as my baby and I understand it, that’s the important thing for us, but if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it right so she can speak with deaf people later in life. The sites that I’ve found have good dictionaries, but nothing on grammar.
Usually you can leave out the formalities.
“Please don’t touch that hot stove.”
“HOT! TOUCH NOT!”
Stoid:
Do you and your deaf friends think I’m completely lame because I try to communicate using the alphabet, (which I happen to know because my sister played Helen Keller on stage when I was a child and she taught me)?
And may I say that I find sign language utterly beautiful and fascinating to look upon. I could watch deaf people talk for hours.
Good god, no. Spell away!
GraphicsGal:
This is a wonderful thread!
I was wondering if your experience was the same as a classmate of mine in graduate school. This gal was deaf and was the art therapist at a school for deaf and hearing impaired children.
One thing she told us is that when hearing parents have a child who is deaf, often the Mom is the only one who learns sign, so the child ends up really having no relationship with the Dad. Is this still true? (I graduated in 1993). I was appalled to think that a parent couldn’t be bothered to learn how to ciommunicate with his child. The other thing she told us is that hearing families will often stress lip reading, vocalizing, and other means of communication easier for the hearing to understand, as opposed to ASL for their child who is deaf, and resist placement in a school for the deaf. Have you found this to be true?
Another thing that came up over and over in the art therapy portion of my association with my classmate is that folks who are deal are much more likely to write words on their artwork…this is not usual for hearing people. She said she thought it had to do with these children’s need to communicate and their focus on expressing themselves.
This gal was married to a man who was deaf and had a daughter who could hear. Sometimes the daughter would come to class to interpret. She was a delight. The other professional interpreters we had were also just wonderful. That whole experience helped each of us in class understand better how to communicate to someone who is deaf. I will never forget it.
I can’t disagree with your friend. My mother learned sign language while my father didn’t. Of course, he was still learning English at the time.
Well, I’ve known a few people who have Usher’s Syndrome, which often leaves people with little or no hearing along with severe tunnel vision. You communicate with them (assuming they have some knowledge of tactical sign) just like you would another person, except they “feel” your signs instead of seeing them.
And I’d say it depends on the person when talking about which community they gravitate towards.
Washoe
May 24, 2005, 11:47pm
114
First of all Wasafiri, thanks for starting this thread, and I hope you can find enough spare change underneath the sofa cushions to stay around for awhile.
Washoe:
First of all Wasafiri, thanks for starting this thread, and I hope you can find enough spare change underneath the sofa cushions to stay around for awhile.
Haha, yeah, I’m trying to answer as many questions as possible because my guest membership expires tomorrow. We’ll see if I can dig up enough change.
I actually didn’t (and don’t) go to Gally. I went to GWU for graduate school, and while I know several people who go to school at Gallaudet, I highly doubt they would carry SEE material in the bookstore.
I can, however, ask around, starting with the teacher who taught both my mom and I SEE. Sound good?
Since you’re at Gally right now, I was wondering if you could give me your opinion on something. My wife and I would like to learn SEE. Can you recommend a good source for instructional materials? I’ve already looked at the Gally bookstore and DawnSign Press—they don’t seem to have anything. Could you ask around for me and find out who publishes quality instructional materials in this subject?