#Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community

[joshiesworld]

The groups for the Deaf content creators!

Hello, Deaf and Hard of Hearing content creators (bloggers/journalists, vloggers, reviewers, social media, influencers, photographers, artists, musicians, videos/movie production, writers, streamers, and more - anyone who creates any form of content)! In case you haven't seen or heard, there is a group here on Facebook, Reddit, and Linkedin for Deaf/hard-of-hearing people who are content creators! Here are the links to the Deaf Content Creators group on Facebook, Reddit, and LinkedIn:

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/deafcontentcreators Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DeafContentCreators/ LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13083009/

The deaf content creators groups are a great place for deaf/hoh content creators to network, elevate/support each other, and help each other with advice, tips, feedback, strategy, and more! Also, joining the group will help the audience/fans to find the right one of us to follow instead of getting scammed by others who are impersonating us. Fans, followers, or audiences can come over to the Deaf Content Creators group on Facebook, Reddit, or LinkedIn and find us who are authentic instead of searching a list of many profiles/pages with the same name as ours to be scammed. Because the Deaf content creators' groups will NOT accept fake/scammer ones, it will be easier for people to find the real us by looking into the Deaf content creators' group on Facebook, Reddit, or LinkedIn!

I look forward to you joining the Deaf Content Creators group on Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, or all three! The Deaf Content Creators group on Facebook allows both profiles and pages. If you want to join with your page, please switch to your page and then join Deaf Content Creators! You are welcome to join using both your profile and page as well!

Please share this post. By doing that, we can reach out to more Deaf content creators and let them know about the Deaf content creators groups they can join!

Joshie.

[reasonsforhope]

"As a Deaf man, Adam Munder has long been advocating for communication rights in a world that chiefly caters to hearing people. 

The Intel software engineer and his wife — who is also Deaf — are often unable to use American Sign Language in daily interactions, instead defaulting to texting on a smartphone or passing a pen and paper back and forth with service workers, teachers, and lawyers. 

It can make simple tasks, like ordering coffee, more complicated than it should be. 

But there are life events that hold greater weight than a cup of coffee. 

Recently, Munder and his wife took their daughter in for a doctor’s appointment — and no interpreter was available. 

To their surprise, their doctor said: “It’s alright, we’ll just have your daughter interpret for you!” ...

That day at the doctor’s office came at the heels of a thousand frustrating interactions and miscommunications — and Munder is not isolated in his experience.

“Where I live in Arizona, there are more than 1.1 million individuals with a hearing loss,” Munder said, “and only about 400 licensed interpreters.”

In addition to being hard to find, interpreters are expensive. And texting and writing aren’t always practical options — they leave out the emotion, detail, and nuance of a spoken conversation. 

ASL is a rich, complex language with its own grammar and culture; a subtle change in speed, direction, facial expression, or gesture can completely change the meaning and tone of a sign. 

“Writing back and forth on paper and pen or using a smartphone to text is not equivalent to American Sign Language,” Munder emphasized. “The details and nuance that make us human are lost in both our personal and business conversations.”

His solution? An AI-powered platform called Omnibridge. 

“My team has established this bridge between the Deaf world and the hearing world, bringing these worlds together without forcing one to adapt to the other,” Munder said. 

Trained on thousands of signs, Omnibridge is engineered to transcribe spoken English and interpret sign language on screen in seconds...

“Our dream is that the technology will be available to everyone, everywhere,” Munder said. “I feel like three to four years from now, we're going to have an app on a phone. Our team has already started working on a cloud-based product, and we're hoping that will be an easy switch from cloud to mobile to an app.” ...

At its heart, Omnibridge is a testament to the positive capabilities of artificial intelligence. "

-via GoodGoodGood, October 25, 2024. More info below the cut!

To test an alpha version of his invention, Munder welcomed TED associate Hasiba Haq on stage. 

“I want to show you how this could have changed my interaction at the doctor appointment, had this been available,” Munder said. 

He went on to explain that the software would generate a bi-directional conversation, in which Munder’s signs would appear as blue text and spoken word would appear in gray. 

At first, there was a brief hiccup on the TED stage. Haq, who was standing in as the doctor’s office receptionist, spoke — but the screen remained blank. 

“I don’t believe this; this is the first time that AI has ever failed,” Munder joked, getting a big laugh from the crowd. “Thanks for your patience.”

After a quick reboot, they rolled with the punches and tried again.

Haq asked: “Hi, how’s it going?” 

Her words popped up in blue. 

Munder signed in reply: “I am good.” 

His response popped up in gray. 

Back and forth, they recreated the scene from the doctor’s office. But this time Munder retained his autonomy, and no one suggested a 7-year-old should play interpreter. 

Munder’s TED debut and tech demonstration didn’t happen overnight — the engineer has been working on Omnibridge for over a decade. 

“It takes a lot to build something like this,” Munder told Good Good Good in an exclusive interview, communicating with our team in ASL. “It couldn't just be one or two people. It takes a large team, a lot of resources, millions and millions of dollars to work on a project like this.” 

After five years of pitching and research, Intel handpicked Munder’s team for a specialty training program. It was through that backing that Omnibridge began to truly take shape...

“Our dream is that the technology will be available to everyone, everywhere,” Munder said. “I feel like three to four years from now, we're going to have an app on a phone. Our team has already started working on a cloud-based product, and we're hoping that will be an easy switch from cloud to mobile to an app.” 

In order to achieve that dream — of transposing their technology to a smartphone — Munder and his team have to play a bit of a waiting game. Today, their platform necessitates building the technology on a PC, with an AI engine. 

“A lot of things don't have those AI PC types of chips,” Munder explained. “But as the technology evolves, we expect that smartphones will start to include AI engines. They'll start to include the capability in processing within smartphones. It will take time for the technology to catch up to it, and it probably won't need the power that we're requiring right now on a PC.” 

At its heart, Omnibridge is a testament to the positive capabilities of artificial intelligence. 

But it is more than a transcription service — it allows people to have face-to-face conversations with each other. There’s a world of difference between passing around a phone or pen and paper and looking someone in the eyes when you speak to them. 

It also allows Deaf people to speak ASL directly, without doing the mental gymnastics of translating their words into English.

“For me, English is my second language,” Munder told Good Good Good. “So when I write in English, I have to think: How am I going to adjust the words? How am I going to write it just right so somebody can understand me? It takes me some time and effort, and it's hard for me to express myself actually in doing that. This technology allows someone to be able to express themselves in their native language.” 

Ultimately, Munder said that Omnibridge is about “bringing humanity back” to these conversations. 

“We’re changing the world through the power of AI, not just revolutionizing technology, but enhancing that human connection,” Munder said at the end of his TED Talk. 

“It’s two languages,” he concluded, “signed and spoken, in one seamless conversation.”"

-via GoodGoodGood, October 25, 2024

[crybaby-writings]

if you want to learn sign language of any kind your one and only reason for it should be proper person to person communication. not because it's "so beautiful", not so you can talk shit and nothing else, not so you can say swear words without other people knowing.

if you're learning sign language your one and only reason should be to communicate with people who use sign language. learning sign language means learning about an entire complicated, extremely important culture and the people who are a part of that culture.

you can not learn sign language without learning about d/Deaf culture in depth. it also means learning to stay in your lane on d/Deaf issues. learning sign language and learning about d/Deaf culture does not mean you get to speak on d/Deaf issues, and a lot of hearing people don't realize that.

this has been a notice from a d/Deaf person

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

FUNDRAISERS TO HELP DEAF PALESTINIANS

These have all been verified/vetted by Gallaudet University’s SJP.

Please check out their account if you’d like more information or to find out more ways to help!

Or you can take a look at their linktree:

THANK YOU

🧏🇵🇸🦻🍉🤟🖤🤍❤️💚

[x-brik-x]

british sign language for unity

[writing2changetheworld]

This is the most hilariously blatant example of exclusion when it comes to not auto-generated captions I've ever seen from Smosh. They're just telling on themselves at this point.

These are two screenshots of the same moment posted on different platforms. The top is YouTube. The bottom is Tiktok.

So what did Chanse actually say?

[anxious-and-in-pain]

Questions for audio and visual accommodations that bloggers can make on Tumblr:

I have absolutely no idea who to ask, so I’d appreciate people boosting this post. Is there anyone out there who can answer one or more of the following questions about accommodations I can make on posts?

1) If images are fully inaccessible without visual descriptions, what tags do you filter out? I’ve seen ‘undescribed’ and ‘uncaptioned’ used before

2) If you use text to speech and there is a sentence in all capital letters, does that mean the entire post is inaccessible to you? My understanding is that the letters are read one at a time. Is there anything I can do as a reblogger like adding it in plain text in my reblog or does that not work because you don’t know there is plain text below?

3) What tags should I use on a video on if it has no visual description and / or no audio description? Some people need one or the other so I don’t know how to warn people that the post doesn’t have all the information you may need. I don’t want to say ‘uncaptioned’ just to have people who only need visual or only need auditory descriptions left out of the post

4) If a video has the audio transcribed on the screen, how can I best tag that? My assumption is that someone with good vision but no hearing can access the video but someone who needs larger text can’t adjust it because it’s part of the original video. Like is done on TikToks

5) If there is alt text for an image, is that enough or is it better to also put the image description in the body of the post? Why?

Thank you to anyone who helps me learn! I want to make Tumblr more accessible for everyone

[feralratmax]

Why do 🏴‍☠️ movie streaming sites have better captions than paid sites like netflix, where captions often aren’t even available!! DO BETTER! They are a type of hearing aid for disabled!

[joshiesworld]

I am pleased to announce the creation of two Facebook groups for content creators: one for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community and one for the disabled community. The Deaf and hard-of-hearing community are invited to join the disabled community group, as they are also part of the disabled community.

Deaf Content Creators: https://www.facebook.com/groups/deafcontentcreators

Disabled Content Creators: https://www.facebook.com/groups/disabledcontentcreators

Feel free to share this post so that we can reach out to more Deaf/HOH and disabled community content creators to let them know that there are Facebook groups for the Deaf/HOH community and the disabled community that are content creators! Tag any of them in the comments so they can see this post.

See you there! Joshie.

[puddleslimewrites]

Communication Error

Hero frowned. They signed with their hands as they spoke. "They don't have this on record."

Villain shrugged and signed back, "I doubt they think this is something 'important'."

"Of course it's important! There's such a huge difference between everyone thinking you're an asshole or just quiet and shy when you literally can't verbalize things." Hero abandoned their signs, hands waving in the air as they expressed their frustration.

"...I can speak."

Hero was startled. They turned to face Villain again. Their voice was so low they barely caught the words.

"I can't hear myself too well, but I can speak."

Hero blinked. "Oh. Oh. Hard of hearing, not mute?"

Villain nodded.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for assuming, then. It's still ridiculous, though! Surely they should have that on file and send someone appropriate to be your nemesis. I'm just a substitute! This shouldn't happen-" Their previous rant continued and Villain appreciated the expressive signs so they could easily nod along.

[todayontumblr]

Saturday, September 23.

International Day of Sign Languages.

It is Saturday, September 23, but it is no mere Saturday, September 23. It is International Day of Sign Languages, no less. This one is for the deaf community, the hard of hearing the mute, the semi-speaking, the hearing impaired. For all those, in fact, under this wide and vibrant umbrella, we wish you a very happy IDSL, today and every day.

The day's commemoration, in a nutshell, via the United Nations:

The International Day of Sign Languages is a unique opportunity to support and protect the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of all deaf people and other sign language users. During the 2023 celebration of the International Day of Sign Languages, the world will once again highlight the unity generated by our sign languages. Deaf communities, governments, and civil society organizations maintain their collective efforts - hand in hand - in fostering, promoting, and recognizing national sign languages as part of their countries’ vibrant and diverse linguistic landscapes. 

Wishing you a happy celebration folks across Tumblr's rich and talented sign language community. Thank you, folks, and enjoy the weekend.

[nexus-nebulae]

watching a video and someone went like "she died because she 'lost the will to live'. if she had died from an ACTUAL MENTAL ILLNESS that would be fine, but instead she just 'lost the will to live'" like 1- what do you think depression is. 2- this is why focusing on the label rather than the actual state of existence will always be ableist and harmful. not everyone is given the language for that shit

[pride-stars]

Deafgenic : a term for a system, sisasystem, or headmate whose origin is related to the trauma of, or is caused by, being deaf (D) or being hard-of-hearing (HoH).

[writing2changetheworld]

This is nowhere near the only example but it's the most recent screenshot I have so I'm using it. I am not able to watch this video yet so this may not apply to this specific video but it definitely applies to others.

Scheduled videos/video premieres are so inaccessible. I've yet to ever experience one with accurate captions. Let only a portion of human beings watch the premiere right? Exclusion is seriously not okay.