If two years ago they had asked me to describe the world in which deaf people lived, I would have thought it was boring. As a hearing person growing up in a hearing family in a hearing-dominated society, I didn't understand how the Deaf world could be exciting without the ability to hear speech or listen to music, and I always thought that most Deaf people were simply waiting to receive hearing aids or cochlear implants. Thankfully, however, my impressions of the deaf community were completely changed through my increased exposure to deaf voices through social media and this course, and I have since formed a deeper understanding of the world according to deaf people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As previously stated, I grew up with the assumption that deaf people lived in a silent world, relying primarily on lip reading to understand the world around them. While watching the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt without audio and subtitles, I found myself understanding the general gist of everything, but I couldn't describe specific moments or directly quote the episode. Although I was able to understand some of the more easily recognized and more pronounced expressions such as "Stop", "I'll stay here" and "No" ("Kimmy go out!"), I felt mostly bored and confused throughout the course. the half-hour segment. The actors spoke at a very fast pace and constantly varied their expressions. In the end, I wasn't entirely sure how all the characters were connected to each other or how the events contributed to the plot of the show, and I kept wondering how much difference it would have made if I had simply turned up the sound. turn back on. Even if I had the chance, I would not have continued to watch the show in its silent form. In contrast, when I switched to watching The Daily Show with Trevor Noah with just subtitles, it felt less strange because I already had a childhood habit of watching movies and TV shows in their original language with English subtitles. However, I still found myself having to focus more on the subtitles than the images shown on the screen, which was a challenge in itself, but would definitely give slow readers a harder time as the subtitles were paced to stay in time with the speakers as they spoke. Furthermore, contrary to how the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt actors' ever-changing facial expressions added to my confusion, the presence of subtitles allowed me to rely on Trevor's facial expressions to determine his tone of voice and better understand his lines . However, similar to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, I started to lose interest towards the end of the show. Despite the clear layout of a news commentary segment, a comedy segment called “Where do you get the BALLS?” and an interview segment (“September 21, 2016 - Wendy Williams”), I was too used to being involved both in terms of my sight and my hearing when watching programs, so while it didn't make the show any less enjoyable, unfortunately it tarnished the overall experience. On the other hand, watching ASL vlogs presented a different kind of challenge. Since my ASL vocabulary is still very limited, the Daily Moth video was difficult to understand. I will point out, however, that I was quite familiar with some of the topics, as I had to read articles related to many of the events covered for my journalism course. Similarly toviewing of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, I had to rely on what little context I had and the images provided to piece together a rough guess of what host Abenchuchan was conveying through the signs. Perhaps it was my attempt to conceptualize The Daily Moth as something more recognizable to me, but something about Abenchuchan's dynamic signature reminded me of the specific tone of voice that news anchors use to keep their audiences aural.interest, as the His quick and abrupt movements seemed to resemble shifts between high and low vocal intonations to keep his viewers engaged. Another comparison I made between news organizations I was familiar with, or shows like The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Daily Moth was the on-screen presentation of the images and the hosts themselves. While large news outlets often use flashy scrolling text banners and semi-distracting backgrounds in their television reports, The Daily Moth kept the layout and design simple and minimalist, presumably to allow for better concentration on Abenchuchan while broadcasting the news. And while I couldn't fully understand the things that were being signed, it definitely seemed to me that Abenchuchan was trying to provide as much detail as possible for the small, concentrated number of titles he was referring to, rather than leaving his audience with just short blurbs for a large number of noteworthy events ("9-26-16"). As I watched the PBS NewsHour segment titled “Technology and Deaf Culture,” a clear picture of the struggle between the medical world and the Deaf world slowly painted itself before my eyes. While the Craigs chose to have their son, Dylan, undergo surgery to get cochlear implants, and were immensely proud of Dylan's progress after the surgery, the Bahan family, with three generations of deafness, was completely satisfied with their style of life and communicating through ASL. When asked if he would have his one-year-old daughter Juliana get cochlear implants before she turns 3, Ben Bahan said, “She gets to an age where she can make that decision if she wants to, it's up to her. I won't stop her. It is not too late for her [to acquire speech], because she already has language. She already signs. He already has it” (“Technology and Culture of the Deaf”). While many students at Gallaudet University shared Bahan's sentiments about the power of ASL as a deaf language and culture, the larger concern still looming over the deaf community was whether the rise of technology would ultimately wipe out the necessity of the ASL. Put simply, Gallaudet dean at the time, Jane Fernandez: “I believe that technology will change deaf culture just as technology is changing society as a whole. No one will escape the influence of technology. But the culture itself will remain” (“Technology and Culture of the Deaf”). The next component was certainly in line with Fernandez's vision that deaf culture would evolve along with technological advances in society: using Sorenson VRS®, a service that allows deaf people and hearing people to call each other by the help of a professional interpreter. When the idea of ​​contacting my ASL teacher by phone was first proposed to me, I had no idea how it would happen. I assumed it would be a video call process similar to Skype or FaceTime, but even then there was no guarantee that we would be able to understand each other without the help of an interpreter. I didn't realize SVRS existed until this project introduced me to this service and I was amazed at how the deaf community, just as he saidFernandez in “Deaf Technology and Culture,” was adapting to new developments in the telecommunications industry. In addition to that, the fact that this company operates 24/7/365 shows how committed it is to providing deaf people with effective means to communicate with other people at various distances and lifestyles . Whether exchanging morning greetings or conveying important work-related information, this service has certainly bridged the gap between the deaf and hearing communities and proved that communication barriers can still be overcome. In contrast, the PBS documentary “Through Deaf Eyes” described aspects of American deaf history that I had never had the opportunity to explore, including the rise, fall, and eventual resurgence of ASL as it relates to oralism and the struggle for deaf leaders.within the deaf community. To begin with, I had no idea that historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Graham Bell, both widely known in the hearing world, played such an important role in the development of ASL and deaf education within the American deaf community. While one pushed for progress, the other seemed to pull it back. Learn about the rise of oral education through Bell's beliefs in nativism and in eugenics really shocked me, knowing that that movement stifled the formation of deaf communities and the development of ASL for a long period of time, and that much of that stemmed from fear of immigrants and the assumption that people deaf were born destroyed or "defective" ("Through Deaf Eyes"). The subsequent isolation of deaf people from each other and from their shared culture was the part that hit me hardest, the way they attempted to force deaf people to acclimate to the cultures of the hearing world instead of allowing them to have that support system to fall back on. As the saying goes, “History repeats itself” and the thoughts behind these movements of segregation and separation still exist today, as illustrated by The Late Show with Trevor Noah. This idea that deaf people are something beyond the scope of what makes a human being "normal" or "functional" reminded me of how I learned about Helen Keller's story in middle school: she was left tragically deaf and blind as a result of an illness, and miraculously learned to write and speak thanks to his blind housekeeper Anne Sullivan. It was always portrayed as a joint triumph over both women's disabilities, and this solidified in me the belief that being physically disabled was undesirable. I was also very saddened to see how the transition from silent films to talkies affected the deaf community, and I found that I myself empathized with how deaf people felt about the film Johnny Belinda, which featured a deaf female protagonist, but fragile and shy. As Stan Schuchman pointed out, "The fact that this fictional character blossomed using sign language was enough: the deaf community was excited and proud of the film, even if the stereotype itself was terrible" ("Through Deaf Eyes") . When your community is so underrepresented in mainstream media, it becomes all too easy to settle for even the most stereotypical portrayal, all because the character on screen was someone you could identify with, and I completely understood why the deaf community cared about this film. in high regard despite the inaccuracies of Belinda's character. If I had to redo a specific part of this project, I would choose the world without the sound component. This, coincidentally, was also the most challenging component, in my opinion.”).