Germany

hi i love your account!! ♥️🤟

do you know of any ways to make group voice calls more accessible? i so badly want to participate in Discord vcs with my friends more often, but i get hearing fatigue almost instantly and struggle to keep track of multiple voices at once, especially when there’s a movie/game going on in the background. (i have mild to moderate hearing loss + auditory processing issues.)

thanks in advance!

Hi!

I don't use Discord or group voice calls so I don't have much advice unfortunately. You could talk to the group or start with one friend to figure out how to make things less chaotic. Maybe ask to have games muted? Truckers talking to each other on the radio will start with their handle to identify themselves. Maybe emulating that will make it easier to know who's talking in a way that's fun.

If anyone has experience with this please share!

Everyone needs to learn sign language pls. Like whatever version is used in your country I encourage you to learn.

Not only will you be learning another language, but you'll be able to talk to other signers, D(d)eaf or not, and two people can communicate in loud places without needing to hear the other.

I'm hard of hearing and have such a difficult time with trying to hear others. I stopped wearing hearing aids because I got annoyed that even after about 18 years I still had a hard time distinguishing what hearies were saying.

I'm learning my country's sign language (ASL) but don't have any experienced signers to practice with. I really hope more people learn these languages (and the history of said languages).

And sign is also helpful with neurodivergent people and babies aswell!

Issues | The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education | Oxford Academic

https://academic.oup.com/jdsde/issue/29/3

Sharing interesting information for those looking for Deaf studies and educational peer reviews.

Source: The Journal of Deaf Studies on Facebook

Outsiders are not not saving a language by learning it.

While I’m personally grateful services like Tribalingual exist, creating some academic access to Indigenous languages, particularly for Indigenous diaspora (if they can afford it), I’m extremely dubious of the notion that a outsiders learning an Indigenous language is somehow “saving” it. There was a testimonial from some white American girl learning Ainu itak, and she spoke of it as if she were collecting some rare Pokemon card before it went out of print or something, framing it in typical dying Native rhetoric. What is she going to do with Ainu itak, except as some obscure lingual trophy?

If you want to save a language, save the people.

Language means nothing without history and culture breathing life into it, and in turn we are disconnected from our history and ancestors without it. Support Indigenous quality of life, ACCESS to quality education, quality health services (mental and physical), land and subsistence rights, CLEAN DRINKING WATER, advocate against police brutality and state violence, DEMAND ACTION FOR MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN.

Damn, if you really want to “save the language” pay for an Indigenous person’s classes for them to reconnect to their mother tongues. I’m not saying outsiders shouldn’t learn languages they’re invited to learn, but don’t pretend like you learning conversational Ainu itak is saving it from extinction.

Loud

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Loud in American Sign Language. 1 handshape points at ear then hands in S handshape palms out shake back and forth on either side of the head. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green, blue and purple in different stages of the sign.

End ID]

Ace

Sources: Rogan Shannon

[Image ID:

Ace in American Sign Language. The hands are translucent, overlapping, and the colors of the asexual flag.

End ID]

a sign of affection media review: Deaf representation (under cut long lots of points to discuss)

a sign of affection is anime about a Deaf college student yuki.

they showed the sign language on screen most of the time characters were signing. (apparently creator worked with Deaf friend to make sure signs were accurate. don't know japanese or signed japanese so can't say if signing was correct.)

good depiction of hearing aids & auditory processing. when yuki wears her hearing aids she can hear some sounds but she can't tell where they are coming from & she has trouble identifying sounds (& sounds don't form words).

good respectful about yuki's voice. yuki character have voice actor narrate her thoughts & signs out loud but yuki doesn't speak. she explains one point she copy people's mouth shape learn to speak but she has deaf accent. she only uses voice with her family.

okay with lip reading depiction. don't know if japanese is easier to lipread than english. but yuki mainly understands others with lipreading only no sound cues. is only shown make mistakes or misunderstand few times. good job she can't lip read when character wears masks or mouth not in her sight line.

sad there is not more sign. for having multiple Deaf & signing characters, not much sign language presence. even when talk to yuki characters know sign language not always sign to her. also usually talk to her instead of write . burden is on yuki for communication. also even yuki not sign very much usually type on phone or gesture.

which relate to next point: not good Deaf community representation. yuki went to Deaf school & has Deaf friends but hardly ever see her Deaf friends & her interact with Deaf community.

she in mainstream college setting no interpreter . all hearing friends now & again communicate way is most convenient for them. yuki not participate in conversations a lot & nearly always hear from yuki is just internal monologue. Deaf character is isolated.

one more thing yuki infantilized. she is shorter than most other characters include other girl characters (on its own not problem just how fit into whole character). have a signing character say Deaf people should not go out into college/hearing world & should be kept safe, & same character intervenes in situations involving Deaf characters without their permission. (think that character overall shown as be negative behavior though.)

last point: captions. maybe just version i watch but subtitles only translation of the spoken japanese. no caption for sound effects/music which ironic given is show about Deaf character. think would be accessible to Deaf audience especially when sounds sometimes important to scene.

overall: cute story, okay representation. probably made for hearing audience. definite things would like to see handle better but pretty good overall.

I'm learning how to do websites in my Ed Tech class, so I made The Sign - Resource. It's a bunch of reasources for learning ASL and Deaf culture.

Mushroom

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Mushroom in American Sign Language. Clawed 5 handshape with palm down taps the fingertip of base hand in 1 handshape with the palm. Movement is illustrated by hands that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign.

End ID]