• Red • Blue (sorry, I hesitated after this sign, I was going to sign ‘green’ – my hand movements there are not a proper sign!) • Yellow • Green • Orange (this is also the sign for the fruit, ‘orange’) • Purple • Pink • Black • White • Grey • Gold • Silver
This post is part of my free online Auslan course. See the rest of the course here.
To learn more about what it is really like to be Deaf, details about the Deaf community and how Auslan is used by Deaf people, read my book, Future Girl.
When the pandemic started, I began to watch ABC news, via Apple TV. Although the news has closed captions, which I set to be switched on, there are numerous problems with this technology, and these are problems that occur across many streaming and live television platforms. Streaming and television services may feel that in providing captions, they have ticked ‘access for Deaf people’, but more needs to be done to truly provide access. In this article I describe some of the issues and measures that can be taken to fix this.
For news, live captions are often used, which means that a person sits there typing what is said, and the words appear on the screen a little later. With live captions, there can be a significant lag time between the two, which means that when we see a picture on the screen, we don’t understand what that picture is about, until a few seconds later when the captions appear. Meanwhile, the picture changes, so that when the captions do appear, we are looking at totally different content. In order to relate the captions to the picture, we need to mentally recall what was on the screen a few seconds ago, and simultaneously we need to be collecting the current images shown ready for when the captions appear. This is an exhausting process.
To make it even more challenging, it is common for errors to occur in the captioning – that is natural since it is a human sitting there typing. But even so, the errors are sometimes ludicrous. I recall seeing ‘cupboard 19’ instead of ‘covid 19’ and ‘palla shan’ instead of ‘Palaszczuk’ (the Queensland premier). Surely a person captioning the news has an obligation to become familiar with the words used in the topics of the day? Mentally correcting the numerous errors while coping with the time lag adds another level of stress to the experience.
A further problem that frequently occurs is that it is common for live news to be shown with scrolling text at the bottom of the screen, summarising breaking news and the main news items of the day. When the subtitles are overlaid on top of this scrolling text, it is challenging for the brain to filter out the background scrolling text and only read the subtitles. It is a chaotic image to process.
Combine these three issues together and watching the news becomes a form of mental gymnastics.
On Apple TV, the ABC news has some further problems. First is that when I watch the live-stream news, the captions only sometimes work. I have noticed that if I wait until an hour after the news segment, it will be published as a standalone episode, and the subtitles are more likely to work then. This means waiting a whole hour, rather than watching it live, which is frustrating.
Further to this, when episodes are published with captions, those captions were generated as live captions, and are not corrected. In order to benefit from watching the news live, I accept that there are some technical issues involved that I need to put up with. But in the instance where I do not get to watch the news live, I would appreciate the captions to be done properly, synced up with the image and errors corrected. It would only take a small amount of time for an editor to go through the captions, sync and correct them. But this is not done, so regardless of when I watch the news, I have to do the stressful mental gymnastics involved in processing live captions.
I emailed ABC to raise these issues with them but they never got back to me. Likewise, other Deaf people have complained and had no response.
Since the start of the pandemic, many government officials have an interpreter with them when they present to the press, which is a welcome improvement when it comes to access. However, news services which then present the press releases do not edit with the interpreter in mind. For example, they will show a brief snippet of the premier making a specific statement, but because the Auslan interpreting is slightly behind, the image will show the interpreter signing the end of the previous topic, then the start of what the premier says, and then will be cut off as they have not yet finished relaying when the premier stops talking. Thus, attempting to watch interpreters on the news is a disjointed and frustrating experience. The only Deaf people who benefit are those who actually attend the press event in person, which of course is a small proportion of those who would like to access the news. Just as captions need to be synced, news segments need to be edited with Auslan interpreters in mind, so that the interpreters say complete sentences that make sense.
In general, on streaming platforms, there are some common problems that frequently occur when it comes to captions:
While some platforms allow you to turn on captions and then they remain on for everything you watch, many platforms require you to turn on the captions afresh for every episode. This is annoying.
On some platforms, within a single series, there may be captions for some episodes but not others. This is very disappointing when we get drawn into a series and then discover it is only partially captioned.
For overseas movies and television series that are shown in another language, frequently the overseas language component is captioned, but when the actors speak English for some scenes (as frequently happens in foreign shows), the captions for the English scenes are often forgotten. Thus we miss part of the story.
If you are involved with a news or streaming platform, I encourage you to take on board these issues and create processes to resolve them. It would not take a great deal of effort to:
Correct and sync live captions before publishing an episode;
Double-check the captions are actually streaming during live news segments;
Double-check the captions are actually present before publishing an episode;
Remove the scrolling breaking news text or place it in a different part of the screen than where captions routinely appear, such as at the top of the screen;
Edit with Auslan interpreters in mind so that segments make sense to Deaf audiences too.
If you are a Deaf person frustrated by these issues and want to do something about it, please copy this entire post and send to your preferred television platforms, asking them to take action.
• Sandwich • Pasta • Apple • Banana • Onion • Garlic • Tomato • Potato • Carrot
This post is part of my free online Auslan course. See the rest of the course here.
To learn more about what it is really like to be Deaf, details about the Deaf community and how Auslan is used by Deaf people, read my book, Future Girl.
I was disappointed by your email. Do you know what it’s like for me, as a Deaf person, to repeatedly ask to join courses, retreats, programmes, seminars, conferences, and schools, only to be told, ‘We do not have a programme to suit your particular needs’?
Of course you don’t have a programme to suit my needs! Our society is not encouraged to think about access. Organisations don’t routinely think about how they can ensure their programme will be accessible to everyone. No. It’s up to us to ask. That’s why I emailed you instead of just enrolling and showing up like others have the privilege of doing. Although the law specifies that you are obliged to provide me with access, at your own cost, in reality, that rarely happens. I understand this. So instead of asking you to provide access, I made up some solutions for you.
I suggested that I bring along a friend who would interpret for me (at my own cost, not yours – the only inconvenience to you would be that she’d be standing in the room waving her arms about), and that to ensure the trip was worth her while, I’d miss out on half the sessions being interpreted. For these sessions I asked you for a print-out of the guided meditations. I figured you’d probably already have a script for this so it might not be too hard for you.
Knowing that you have probably never considered how to accomodate a Deaf person before, I made it easy for you. The single thing you needed to do to accomodate me was provide a print-out. Other than that, you would need to tolerate the annoyingness of me and my Deafness.
However, even that was too much for you. You graciously conceded that I might come for ONE NIGHT (you will be kind enough to put up with me for that long), and pay $95 for the privilege of doing so, unlike the rate that my friend Rose pays you when she attends, which she tells me is $35 per night.
I’m glad to hear that you are happy to ‘assist in any way that we can’. How about assisting in the very way that I asked you to? By tolerating the inconvenience of my Deafness (which is somewhat more inconvenient to me than to you, I might point out), and providing a print-out? Oh, and welcoming me for as long as I would like to stay, at the rate others pay?
Yours sincerely, Asphyxia
(Thank you for your blessings of peace, joy and inspiration. Right now I’m not feeling especially blessed, peaceful, joyful nor inspired, as I write yet another email to yet another person who has routinely excluded me because I am Deaf.)
Auslan is a language that needs to make sense, visually. In the last lesson, ‘egg’ is an example of a sign that is altered depending on context, in order to make sense, visually.
Auslan signs tend to be based on what things look like, rather than how they sound. In English, some words have multiple meanings, such as the word “cross”. It can refer to the shape of a cross, to feeling cross, to crossing the road. Each of these contexts is signed differently in Auslan.
Consider the following words in different contexts:
Train (can mean to practise, or to catch a train)
Seesaw (you need to show this visually – don’t sign the word for ‘see’ followed by ‘saw’/’see in-the-past’)
Park (this can be a playground or a place to park your car)
Can of drink (don’t sign the word ‘can’ (the opposite of ‘can’t’) – instead use the specific sign for soft drink)
Wake up (with this, you show your eyes opening – there is no need to add the sign for ‘up’)
When you are signing, stop regularly and ask yourself if your signs make sense, visually. A lot of English words and phrases don’t make sense visually, and they need to be altered when you are signing.
Jokes in English that are funny because of a play on words often don’t make sense in Auslan. Jokes in Auslan often rely on visual ideas and facial expression to convey humour.
This post is part of my free online Auslan course. See the rest of the course here.
To learn more about what it is really like to be Deaf, details about the Deaf community and how Auslan is used by Deaf people, read my book, Future Girl.
While the threats we face from climate change have become well known and understood, the twin challenge of peak oil is not. And yet, it’s just as great a threat to our lifestyle as is climate change. So what is peak oil?
This video from Transition Towns Totnes gives a pretty succinct overview:
There’s more to it than that – to truly understand, you might like to look up some of the films, books and websites mentioned on this page here.
The moment I truly understood peak oil and how it could potentially affect me and my lifestyle was quite shocking. Also the fact that it’s not just some far distant idea, but a reality that is likely to happen in my lifetime. Apparently it’s normal for people to have this ‘moment’, and to feel quite horrified and shocked, before being propelled to do something about it.
Image: Sculpture created from an old book, where the cover and pages have been cut out to create an alcove. A city drawn in the background of this alcove with the words ‘When the food is too expensive and the cars are gathering rust, when all the water is dirty, what skills will we need?’ A small frozen Charlotte doll stands in the alcove in front of the city.
That’s when I created this artwork. It was a part of my processing and understanding how dire things could potentially become. Sitting on my desk as a daily reminder, it helped to springboard me to a better place. I decided to change my lifestyle to become less dependent on fossil fuels. To learn the skills I would need in order to live without them.
These are skills that were once passed from generation to generation, but which we are disgarding and casting off as unnecessary. These skills – think darning, think preservation of food to eat out of season, think making shoes and fabric and producing our own food, all without fossil fuels – are the ones that will help us not only survive peak oil, but live a good life.
Once upon a time, our parents and grandparents would have taught us all we needed to know, but my parents and grandparents don’t have the knowledge themselves. It has been a huge journey for me to source people who can teach me skills in all the basic areas of survival. I now know how to produce serious amounts of food from my backyard – both plant and animal-based. I can make baskets and string from plants. I can make shoes and clothing from the fur of a rabbit raised on weeds. I can preserve food to eat it out of season. I’ve learnt to live locally, to get around on my bike and to use the car far less. My life is so much better for it, even though I don’ t use every one of these skills every day. I know what to do now.
When we are faced with the real challenges of peak oil, I hope I’ll be one of those who share my skills, to help others get them when they need them. The artwork I made is about gathering, learning, knowing and passing on the old skills, the skills that will help us live and thrive without petroleum.
If you’d like to read more about peak oil, you might like my book, Future Girl(in Australia) / The Words in My Hands (in North America).
• Bread • Milk • Cheese • Fruit • Vegetables (fingerspell VEG) • Meat • Fish • Egg • Butter
‘Vegetables’ is one of those signs that is routinely fingerspelled, albeit in a shortened version: VEG.
The sign I showed you for ‘egg’ refers to cracking the top off a boiled egg with a spoon. It’s also often used for raw egg, though technically that’s incorrect (people don’t use a spoon to take the top off a raw egg!) – for that reason, many people will fingerspell ‘egg’ if they are talking about a raw egg. There are different signs for scrambled egg and fried egg, which mime the cooking process.
This post is part of my free online Auslan course. See the rest of the course here.
To learn more about what it is really like to be Deaf, details about the Deaf community and how Auslan is used by Deaf people, read my book, Future Girl.
Breakfast (this is like eating a bowl of cereal with a spoon – I should have just fed myself two spoonful in the video, not three)
Lunch (this is like eating a sandwich)
Dinner
Dessert (this sign is also used for ‘pudding’ and ‘porridge’ and sometimes for ‘breakfast’ too)
Hungry (note: in some states this sign means ‘sexy’! this is the Melbourne version)
Thirsty
Tea
Coffee (I should have done just two shakes of the ‘c’ in the video)
Sugar
Honey
Note: you already learnt the words for food and drink in the lesson for baby signs. The sign for ‘eat’ is the same as the sign for food.
This post is part of my free online Auslan course. See the rest of the course here.
To learn more about what it is really like to be Deaf, details about the Deaf community and how Auslan is used by Deaf people, read my book, Future Girl.
Image: A wooden framed art image of a girl with black hair cut in a bob, standing with black lace curtain hanging in front of her, just right on her forehead. She is wearing a long sleeved pink dress with a white collar. Text on her chest says, ‘don’t make me SOCIALISE, ok?’. She has a little blush on her cheeks and has a smoky make up smeared under her eyes.
This is one of my favourite artworks. It hangs above my bed. It’s not that I don’t like socialising. There is nothing I love more than an intense, in-depth catch up with a good friend. But what I hate with a vengeance is going to events filled with hearing people who can’t sign, and being expected to somehow enjoy myself, while forbidden from doing any activity that is actually enjoyable.
Don Grushkin captured the problem exactly in his blog post about how boring it is for us.
‘Don’t dare bring a book or watch tv instead. That’s “rude” (but it’s not rude to basically exclude a person who is supposed to be there?). Don’t bring a Deaf friend to chat with and have the temerity to not use your voices to chat with them, thereby depriving the hearing people of knowing what you two were talking about (even though we have been sitting there among you, and nobody checks to make sure we know what they’re talking about).’
Countless times I have brought along a book, only to be told how rude it is for me to sit at the table in a restaurant reading. Tired of dealing with this accusation, I have branched out. I bring knitting, hand-sewing, or drawing instead. Then I am branded (somewhat unkindly) as weird or nanna-like. I try to wear the badge of weirdness proudly and just stick at it. But wouldn’t it be nice if it was socially acceptable instead?
One time, after spending all day with a group of hearing people, and wandering off for a cry, I was fetched back by someone who noticed I wasn’t handling things too well. We set up my phone and keyboard at the table and she typed for me some of the jokes people were sharing. I started to understand why they were all having such a rollicking ball while I was swallowing back tears. I felt a bit guilty about the effort this woman was making on my behalf, so to make it more worth her while, I typed back witty little quips in response to the things various people were saying. She laughed. Everyone stopped and stared at her. ‘You two are sharing secrets! That’s rude!’ The person mimed us huddled together, typing away wickedly. I didn’t want to make my typist feel awkward, so I just laughed it off. But what I wanted to say was, ‘How can you possibly accuse us of sharing secrets when you have spent ALL DAY laughing over jokes you wouldn’t share with me?!’
Faced with the pressure to attend family events, I tried bringing along a signing friend. Sure enough, I was later accused of being ‘anti-social’ when she was there, because we tended to sit together and chat with each other in Auslan, and didn’t mix with others much. They didn’t want me to bring her in future. It’s far less anti-social for me to sit there wondering what they are all talking and laughing about and whether they will take a pot-shot at me if I whip out my book or knitting.
If you are inviting a deaf person to a social event, stop and think about how they are going to access it. Perhaps you could book an interpreter (pay for it yourself – don’t ask the deaf person to – our interpreting bills are already high!) or invite some other deaf/signing people too. If there’s a movie involved, ensure it has subtitles. If there will be speeches, ask for a print out. Make sure the deaf person you invite knows the efforts you are going to to ensure their inclusion, so they know they don’t need to ask or try to figure it out themselves.
Have you ever heard of a lectin-free diet? I hadn’t and neither had most of my friends. But I have been strangely impressed by it – especially how it has dramatically reduced my arthritis pain.
Several of my friends have been intrigued and decided to try it out for themselves, and all those who have done so have been enthusiastic, reporting more regularity on the toilet, a sharper, clearer mind, improved mood, more energy and weight loss.
It seems the diet may actually assist with treatment and prevention of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and digestive issues too, and even assist with starving cancer tumours.
I wrote an article about it. If you are interested to read more or know someone who suffers from any of the above conditions who might benefit, please share this with them.
Asphyxia 