Deaf people and technology

There are a number of Deaf people who do not welcome cochlear implant because they fear it will change the face of the Deaf Community. Whether it means Deaf people will be a new kind of “hearing” people or sign language will be eradicate. I do not think it ever will, things will change, but we will still be here. I prefer to see technology as evolution of the Deaf Culture.

However, change is a part of life. We cannot stop it. I see cochlear implant one aspect of change. I look back and I can see how Deaf people lives have changed due to technology.

As examples.

Once upon a time Deaf people would meet up in Deaf clubs, maybe one a month. Nobody had any means to let their friends know if they could not make it for that night. It was something you had to take a chance. Now, thanks to text phones/mincoms, mobile phones with text function, it is possible to alert a Deaf friend a change of plan.

Deaf Clubs are all but dead. (There may be one or two around.) Now it is replace with things like “Deaf Night” in the mainstreams pubs, where Deaf People meet up on specific nights.

When I was growing up in the 1970s, I watched TV but never understood what was being said. I liked “Doctor Who” but only because I found looking at the aliens, very attractive due to the visual aspect. I used to love to watch “Bagpuss”. I was wide eyed to see a still black and white picture of Bagpuss and watched him changed into colour as he came alive. (I still have a soft spot for “silly old Bagpuss”!)

By the early 1980s, my taste in films changed. I went for silence films, such as Chaplin, Keaton, etc. It was only because there was no talking. In the mid 1980s, I went for foreign films, only because it had open subtitles as I could follow it. In 1986 the television my family had broke and my family kindly paid extra money for a television that had subtitles, when I asked for it.

At first there was only about two or three hours of subtitles, at the peak hours from say seven to nine o’clock in the evenings. There wasn’t that many programmes subtitled. The news was. So I got to enjoy watching the news. Nowadays subtitles are on nearly all the programmes. So now, my taste in programmes is wide ranging.

The only thing where I am back to square one is the website such as “You Tube” there are no subtitles so I cannot watch my current craze for modern comedy, such as “Have I Got News For You?” or “Would I Lie To You?”, unless I watch it via the BBC I player to catch up.

(You Tube take note!)