Greeting fellow Kossacks! I have been a member of DKOs for over a year now, although I have lurked for a very, very long time.
Last year I finally joined up because I wanted to advocate for Hillary Clinton and to have the opportunity to chat and to get to know the really terrific folks here. As a extreme political junkie, I also needed to get my fix somewhere. :) Throughout my time here, I discovered that there are not very much in the way of strong Deaf voices.
NOTE: Why am I using the word Deaf, and not deaf?
According to Carol Padden and Tom Humphries, in Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture (1988):
……..the uppercase Deaf when referring to a particular group of deaf people who share a language – American Sign Language (ASL) – and a culture. The members of this group have inherited their sign language, use it as a primary means of communication among themselves, and hold a set of beliefs about themselves and their connection to the larger society. ……..
You can learn more here from the webpages provided by the National Association of the Deaf.
Now that’s out the way, I am indeed, a proud Deaf community member that uses American Sign Language and have strong connections to the community, which is supported through my daily life, the work I do, and the social relationships I have.
Why am I telling you this? I want to share with you the tremendous display of #deaftalent I’ve seen on display throughout this season. Deaf people have a very strong online presence in social media (once you know where to find it), and we have all been very outspoken about our preferences (the same is true for Deaf People for Bernie — they have done terrific work too!).
But like Nyle Dimarcio said in his video for Hillary Clinton, we are often ignored or overlooked, so I wanted to get up on that soapbox and use my megaphone here.
Before we proceed, I wanted to make a recommendation. While there are many independent websites, the heart of the online Deaf community is on Facebook. If you want to truly experience the Deaf online world upfront, go to Facebook. Check the Facebook pages of the organizations. You will find yourself right in one of the main streams of dialogue in our community.
First up:
DPAN is a Deaf owned, Deaf operated non-profit by Deaf persons chock full of #deaftalent. They have done brilliant work producing sign language videos and distributing information to the Deaf community in a way that is accessible, creative, and fun. They deserve a whole diary on their own, but I regret I must spotlight only their most recent effort.
I was amazed and thrilled to discover that for the first time in history, have someone undertaken the effort to provide a President Debate online with sign language interpretation. The Presidental Debate on September 26 was live streamed, with sign language interpreters. This has never happened before.
For the first time in history, millions of Deaf Americans were able to view the debates in their preferred language of choice — American Sign Language. DPAN did not take a position on who should be President — to be clear — they simply provided access in a way nobody had ever bothered to do so before. Nobody.
You may access the video here - — you will need to register, but it’s easily done by clicking through Facebook. It’s definitely worth a look! Captions are also provided with voice.
They did a fantastic job. I went to their website last night, and I ended up giggling all the way throughout. The interpreters they chose were very skilled and did an terrific job. One of the “Donald” interpreters channeled Donald just perfectly. I swear, if I’ve seen that guy at a bar, I would’ve pegged him as dimwitted, sleazy douchebag (seriously, go and check out the part where Trump claims that he has better temperament). Well done!
I cannot overestimate how wide the ripples went throughout our community. Good lord. I went to my Facebook feed the next day and it had exploded. Nearly every Deaf person I knew was talking about the debate and posting about Hillary Clinton. If you’ll check DPAN-TV’s Facebook page, you will see Deaf person after Deaf person’s effusive praise for this.
As a Hillpeep, I was beyond thrilled that most Deaf people finally had the opportunity to see this woman for the brilliant woman and excellent candidate for President she was (and what a wreck Trump is!). The impact of DPAN-TV’s broadcast cannot be underestimated! (As an aside, you should also check out DTV News — excellent work done by Deaf newcasters, and there’s also the Daily Moth, a very popular ASL news site. There are many more, I couldn’t list them all!).
This is one of multiple Facebook groups dedicated to Hillary Clinton (there were many dedicated to Bernie Sanders as well — excellent work there too!), and as a member, I enjoyed viewing their ASL videos. The founder asked Deaf people from all over the USA to submit their own video about why they support Hillary Clinton, and they put it together in a video — Reasons Why Deaf People Support Hillary. You may find the video on their Facebook page (with all the interesting comments!) or go directly to youtube.
I cannot underestimate the impact this video had on me personally. You see, it wasn’t just us thrown under the bus — it was ALL of us — Deaf supporters of Hillary Clinton were also targets of aggression and shouted down by Deaf peers as well as hearing family members and others.
I was amazed to see this video (if I had known, I would’ve submitted my own video!). There are several upstanding, well known members of the Deaf community who wield great influence in this video — It’s like finding out that your favorite celebrity is a supporter. Yay!
It made me feel more connected with others like myself, who have always been a Hillary supporter throughout the primary. I’d like to thank the Kossack member (you know who you are) who pointed me towards this video that I didn’t know of (my excuse is that I’m a mom with a small child that still doesn’t sleep through the night, okay?).
There are also multiple Facebook groups — many private and public that focus on Democratic politics, both local and national. If you’re curious just type “Deaf” with the capital D, and you’ll find a long list of multiple Facebook pages for everything under the sun. The discussions there are very much alive and kicking. I couldn’t list them all here, but I wanted to give a shout out to the people who operate those pages. Well done, all of you!
Nyle, as you may have learned about through his appearance on America’s Next Top Model, and Dancing with Stars, both of which he won first place, is a Deaf community member. He is very much beloved by our community. he is not only a supermodel, a reality TV show star, but also an advocate for deaf children learning American Sign Language (most deaf children — about 75% — do not and or are not allowed to use ASL, unfortunately). He has taken his sudden fame to heart and stepped up to be an excellent representative of our community. The Deaf community is very small and tight knit. Many of us have only one or two degree of separation from each other, and so his success is very personal to us.
I was beyond thrilled when Hillary Clinton’s campaign tapped him to star in this video for her. This was a well made video, that clearly targeted both the wider community and was supportive of Deaf culture and Deaf people.
Our Deaf community is overflowing with talent, with brilliant, creative and artistic people who do excellent outreach and community work. Their efforts are often overlooked and under appreciated. Too often, I see hearing people, people who are not deaf or Deaf, turn towards people like themselves to learn about Deaf people. This is a bad, lazy habit many people indulge in and needs to stop. Now.
In addition, there are just way too much “experts” on Deaf people who are not even Deaf themselves. Their voice has overshadowed ours, and this needs to stop. Seriously. It’s a real problem. We all cringed when Trump stood up on stage and loudly declared how bad life was for African Americans, didn’t we? Why do we perpetuate the same kind of dynamic when it comes to Deaf people?
If you want to learn about Deaf people, then go find Deaf people. We have a lot to share with you — our culture, our pride, and American Sign Language.
I wanted to give our community a voice here, on DailyKos, for the work they have done to promote Hillary Clinton (not to overlook the Deaf People for Bernie peeps — your work was fantastic, and if he had won the primary, I’d be promoting your work here.)
If you want to find those talented Deaf people online, use this hashtag:
#deaftalent
That’s the ticket.
If you want to learn more the lives of Deaf people as in our experiences with people who are not Deaf, I recommend those hashtags — last week was Deaf Awareness Week, and we started a hashtag campaign:
#hearingprivilege
#deafgain
You can read more about it here in Huffpo!
Okay, I couldn’t resist — here is one I thought was particularly relevant to this diary.
(British Deaf people have their own sign language, British Sign Language, but their struggles are very similar to ours here in the USA)
Now if you're Deaf/deaf/hard of hearing and I did not spotlight the hard work you did for Hillary Clinton, I profusely apologize and invite you to add more information in the comments. You are all such talented people, and I am very proud to be one of your fellow peers and to share our beautiful language and culture. I feel blessed every single day!
Friday, Sep 30, 2016 · 7:13:29 PM +00:00
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melaka
Congratulations to DPAN — TV! I got an email this morning:
With NO MARKETING we were able to get 250,000 people to watch the debate and engage, WE WERE WITNESSING HISTORY.
On Sunday, October 9th, at 9pm ET DPAN.TV will be hosting the second Presidential debate on our website and facebook.
You may still view the first Presidental Debate with sign language interpretation by clicking on this link —
September 28 Debate