Signing Gloves

Someone has invented signing gloves - again. While I understand the thought process behind sharing news such as this - these gloves really aren't as useful as they would seem. 

There are a lot of non-manual markers used in ASL that can't be relayed on the hands. (Facial expressions, queries, emotion, etc). It would take less time learning how to finger spell, at the very least to get your point across than it would to develop & market these things.

Write What You Know

In the last year, I decided to resurrect my Blogger site & renamed it "Hard Of Hearing Problems".

Afterwards, I thought maybe I should have named it something else, perhaps a more general type of blog; then I realized no - I think I did it right this time.

I often hear people say, "Write what you know". I am writing from a place I know intimately - as a disabled person trying to make their way in an ableist world. It may not be great prose, but it's honest.

The Bad Old Days

 

When someone says they want "to bring the old ways back"; that's your warning. They have nothing new to offer. Now is not the time to be complacent, or scared.

We must SPEAK UP against the entitled few who deem themselves qualified to dictate to the common people what is right and wrong. They are scared of becoming extinct, so they create artificial conditions & lament their gilded place in society as insufficient, then enact legislation to ensure their survival. It doesn't have to be this way.

Choices

 

"Happy Holidays"

If somebody gives you guff for offering "Happy Holidays", then say "Fine, have a terrible one," because I can't assume to know everything about everybody.

Progress!

I woke up to a new dark theme for my HA remote app. Nice! It's an app to control volume and equalization settings on a pair of digital hearing aids. The theme is dark/black and the highlight color is chartreuse. The current audio profile is labeled "morning coffee".

Disability Pride Month

 

Why is this happening? It is to ensure we won't be erased.
1) Corporations either completely ignore us, or discriminate against us. If they can't do either of those, they exploit us with menial labour and bad jobs.
2) The government barely acknowledges that we exist.
3) Mainstream society is ignorant, if not intolerant.
Now you know why Disability Pride Month exists.

Inspiration

This was the start-up screen when one switched on the TRS-80 Color Computer 2. "DISK EXTENDED COLOR BASIC 1.1 COPYRIGHT (C) 1982 BY TANDY UNDER LICENSE FROM MICROSOFT". It ran in 4K  of RAM or more. The entire screen is a bright green - there were limits to the available colors at the time. Text was black and the cursor was a rainbow of varying colors. Hence, color computer.

 In case you were wondering where the colour scheme came from. I'm this old. I started learning about computers with a Radio Shack Coco 2. That bright, green screen greeted you each time you switched it on unless there was a program pack plugged into the provided slot on the right of the unit. I cut my teeth on BASIC back in the day. Now I'm comfortable just about anywhere I land, I suppose.

Bluetooth Issues

I tried THREE TIMES unsuccessfully to place a phone call yesterday while in the Bluetooth enabled car and wearing my Bluetooth hearing aids.

I'm not ungrateful for the technology. But others' expectations for the technology being reliable is unrealistic. If I can't even handle a phone call, am I supposed to feel liberated in our society, much less for work? Bluetooth streaming isn't foolproof.

Holograms at Gallaudet

#Gallaudet University is studying the use of hologram technology for remote learning in ASL.

Bill C-22

Job Hunting

I hate job hunting. I don't want to do customer service anymore because people are mouthy or rude, which is far too often for my tastes.

Ducking hell, being hard of hearing sucks in this society.

Compliance

I wish I was a disability compliance officer, so I could audit employers & businesses operating in Canada.

However, we need to get folks with #disabilities recognized as "people" first, instead of as a burden.

The CERB

If the Canadian government can decide that $2000 is sufficient to live on, then why not the Deaf? Why not the disabled? Doesn't seem fair.

 

ASL Communicator

My college diploma reads "Sign Language Communicator". That's the extent of my formally completed education. I have been ruminating for years on what to do with this thing. I'm not a formally trained interpreter; I'm also not a teacher - however, I've worked as a TA in education, for whatever that is worth. That was some decades ago, and I enjoyed those years.

This still leaves me with now. What to do with it? Interpret? Teach sign? Don't have the qualifications for the former, don't have the experience for the latter. I did myself no career favours staying in returning to my hometown, but my Family is important to me, they're all I have, really.

To be continued...