June 9, 2007
Sign of the Times: Video, Email Are Boons to the Deaf
The Wall Street Journal reports on how videos, email and text messaging are a boon to the deaf and hearing impaired.
"An Idiot Boy and a Motorbike is a hit on YouTube. Dressed in a black T-shirt, the ponytailed Mr. Thompson stands in front of a blank wall, gesticulating. At one point, he leans back, pulls back his hair and creates the appearance of being whipped by the wind.
The video has been seen more than 46,000 times on YouTube and has elicited dozens of flattering comments like this one: "Lol! My favorite part is Superman underwear, sooo cute!".
Mr. Thompson is on the leading edge of a phenomenon that is transforming personal expression among the deaf.
The increasing ease of posting video online, as well as growing access to technologies like BlackBerry and Sidekick email devices and cellphone text-messaging, has "opened the fourth dimension to the deaf -- time," said Bobbie Beth Scoggins of the National Association of the Deaf. Previously, she explained, it was all but impossible for deaf people to hold a real-time conversation with one another, unless they were all present in the same room.
... Video holds particular importance to the deaf community because it lets people communicate in American Sign Language, which many consider to be their primary language. ASL doesn't have a written counterpart, and it's different from English."
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