I am a zealot! My life is so meaningless, so pathetic, so without action that I need to read the newspapers in every detail to add meaning to my life. You see to be entertained and to go to the movies, I check the newspapers religiously. My family are not enough. My work is just a drag, my love life can be put on hold because THERE IS A CAPTIONED MOVIE ON SOMEWHERE …. ANY WHERE … and I simply MUST see it.
GASSSSSPPPP a French movie made in 1873 is on at the Cinema in Gympie on Friday at 5.30am. If I leave Ballarat in an hour I will just make it. I pack the kids clothes. I send the wife to fill up the car and get munchies for the journey, I ring Ellen to come and feed the dogs and the cats while we are gone. We are leaving in an hour. I simply must get there on time or my life will be a cesspool of nothing and not worth living.
I am having an anxiety attack. If I don’t leave soon I will miss the first five minutes of the movie. I need to plan my journey. Thank god for Wotif. Sydney overnight for just $475 for all the family is a steal. If I set off early next morning I will make Brisbane and my friend Bobbie will look after us overnight … and then its just 8 hours or so til Gympie … It can be done. My wife and kids are just as excited I can tell you. The poor dogs are looking sad though. They are fed up of us just leaving them at a whim to chase captioned movies all over the countryside. God my life is so good its unbelievable!!!
No I havn’t gone stark raving mad. You see this is apparently what people like me or people who have disabilities do to access the movies. Mark Sarfaty, who is CEO of the Independent Cinema Association of Australia, believes this is exactly what people with a disability do. Apparently we just seek out movies that we can access, like we have noting better to do, and travel to wherever they may be screened. You think I am joking? Well check out what he had to say about us and accessible movies:
“People with disabilities will find a screening, schedule it, and travel – just as film enthusiasts do to chase minority films”. (Screen Hub, 4 December 2009).
We are zealots you see .. completely obsessed and stark raving mad!
Please email Mr Sarfaty and let him know how grateful you are that he is sharing his wisdom.
Mark can be emailed on: mark@screenassociates.com.au
I am positive he will be happy to hear from you all !!
It has been a really heavy week this week. An all out war has erupted between Deaf Australia and Deafness Forum. On this Forum it got personal and nasty, even silly. Basically it was a territorial argument. Two bodies wanting the same thing and one wanting to be the body that says it rather than the other, quite farcical really. BUT enough heaviness. It’s time to LTFU … and yes the F is an obscenity. This opposed to HTFU. Deafness isn’t all heavy and nasty. In fact it can often be quite funny so I am going to LTFU and have a little giggle.
Yesterday I was in Brisbane having breakfast. I was staying at a hotel and I love hotel breakfasts. Bacon, poached eggs, fruit and NESCAFE coffee … the Nescafe was a bit of a downer. Nevertheless it was a yummy breakfast. In the restaurant they had a large rear projection television. Kochie and Mel were on. I am a fan and I wanted to know what they were talking about today. There were no captions though. BUT I spotted a digital set top box on the top of the TV AND the remote was there. Being the assertive guy that I am, I wandered over to click on the captions on the remote. As I picked up the remote I spotted the waiter out of the corner of my eye. She was clearly telling me to leave the TV alone. I, of course, ignored her.
Of course I didn’t hear what she was saying but I imagine it was something along the lines of “PUT THAT DOWN” Anyway I found the captions and turned them on. I turned round to the waiter who was giving me deathly and dirty looks. She was side on so could not see the TV screen. Anyway I beamed her a lovely smile and beckoned her over to have a look. She took one look at the captions and moved to turn them off. Apparently she thought something was wrong with the screen. I imagine she said something like, “I WILL TRY TO FIX THAT BUT PLEASE ASK NEXT TIME. ” But anyway I took the time to educate her about captioning and how to turn them on. She looked at me, still unimpressed, but thankfully left the captions on. As I left the restaurant for a taxi to the airport I thought to let her know how to turn the captions off .. but didn’t. Hopefully they will still be on this morning and I hope the waiter didn’t stress too much trying to work out how to turn them off.
I love the mistakes that hearing people make about deafness. You know the people that ask the deaf if they use braille and the like. One time I had an argument with a training provider who would not provide me with interpreters for his training. I pointed out to him that if he was going to provide training he had to make sure I could participate. After all, my work was paying him good money for me to be involved. For about a week we argued about who was responsible. ( all by email) He would not budge. His argument was a classic; “LOOK!” he typed in bold, thinking dramatics would have effect, “ When a guy in a wheelchair does my training he brings his own wheelchair, therefore you should bring your own interpreter.” I emailed back asking if he thought I should take the interpreter to the grave as well – the joke went right over his head. He replied, “I am sure their will be people at your funeral that will appreciate it.” Or perhaps the joke was on me?
Many years ago I actually went to University. It’s such a distant memory now. Spending most of my time in the University bar most likely is responsible for University being nothing but a haze now. I used to go to University with massive hang-overs. They were often so bad I would put my hearing aids in my pocket so as to avoid any unnecessary noise. I often took a short cut across the University car-park.
One cold morning I sauntered across the University car-park. I was wearing the mandatory overcoat of the University student, purchased from the Salvos for $5.00. My hearing aids were deep in the pockets. As I sauntered, trying hard to ignore the pounding in my head, a car pulled in in front of me. A lady got out and proceeded to hurl abuse my way. It was very clear that she had been driving behind me and I was in the way. She probably had been honking her horn but I was oblivious to it all. She called me an “Idiot” among other things. Screamed at me to pay attention to what was happening around me, called me arrogant and a few other choice words that I was unable to lipread.
Anyway I was having none of this. I looked at her directly narrowing my eyes to slits. I reached slowly into my pockets. She looked at my eyes and she looked at my hands reaching into my pocket, she looked mildly frightened. Slowly and deliberately I took my aids out of my pocket and slipped them into my ears, making a play of switching them on and adjusting the volume. Once all was to my liking I asked if she could repeat what she had said. She went bright red. I expected her to apologise. Instead she called my an, “Irresponsible arse-hole.” and stormed off. Nevertheless it was a very sagtisfying moment and perked me up no end.
Sometimes I think we take ourselves far far to seriously. As the war rages between Deaf Australia and Deafness Forum I urge you all to look on the bright side of life. The bickering and the pure petty mindedness of events this week has left a sour taste in many of our mouths. BUT we are supposed to LTFU and LTFU we will. I end this jolly little piece with the immortal words of Eric Idle from Always look on the Bright Side of Life:
Some things in life are bad,
They can really make you mad,
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle.
And this'll help things turn out for the best.
And....
Always look on the bright side of life, (whistle)
Always look on the bright side of life, (whistle)
If life seems jolly rotten,
There's something you've forgotten,
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps,
Don't be silly chumps.
Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing.
And...
Always look on the bright side of life. (whistle)
Come on...
What I am about to write, I probably should not. I am a Board member of Deafness Forum Australia. Protocol dictates that I should not comment on this issue. However, I am so saddened and frustrated by what has occurred I feel that I must comment. In commenting I wish to make it very clear. These views are my own. They do not represent those of Deafness Forum Australia. For any embarrassment I am about to cause them I apologise now. I am prepared to accept any consequences that come my way.
Members and organisations that serve the Deaf community received a media release from Deaf Australia yesterday. In no uncertain terms they requested that Deafness Forum Australia butt out. Deafness Forum Australia had released a policy paper supporting and arguing for Australia to recognise Auslan (Australian Sign Language) as one of Australia’s official languages. One would have thought that Deaf Australia would have been supportive of such an idea. To be fair, they are, but they feel that Deafness Forum Australia should not comment on anything to do with Auslan. This, they feel, is the sole domain of Deaf Australia.
Australia currently recognises Auslan as a community language but not an official one. Currently Australia has a national language, which is English, but in recognition of its cultural diversity does not acknowledge English as an official language, in fact it has no official languages. There is a lot of debate occurring about what should and should not be an official language in Australia. The benefits of Auslan, or any language, as an official language is that it provides it with legal status. In terms of education, access to employment or even the courts this, potentially, could provide better access for Auslan using Australians. Auslan is currently recognised as the language of the Deaf community. While this is powerful it does not offer the same legal status as recognition as an official language, potentially, can
As Australia is debating the issue of official languages, it currently has none, Deafness Forum have decided to strategically open discussion about the need for Australia to consider Auslan as an official language. That is what it is at the moment – a discussion in which Deafness Forum Australia have invited Deaf people and the organisations that represent it to contribute to so that while the debate on official languages is under consideration in Australia, Auslan is at the forefront.
It is all quite complicated. Alex Jones, the president of Deafness Forum Australia has developed a comprehensive discussion paper for the Deaf community and its representatives to consider. I had a role in making suggested changes but the work is mainly that of Alex and he should get full credit. This paper, a valuable contribution to the official languages debate, has been distributed widely for discussion.
It is about here that Deaf Australia jumped in. Yesterday they sent out a media release. The release requested that Deafness Forum Australia withdraw the discussion paper. Why? Because. in their words, the discussion is already out there. Deaf Australia claim that they already have a policy paper on their website that requests, “The Australian Government and state governments to abolish any remaining obstacles to the use of Auslan as the primary and everyday language of Deaf people, e.g., as a language of education’
Deaf Australia recognise that they have never considered or presented a case for the recognition of Auslan as an official language but they feel anything that they have presented previously suggests pretty much the same thing. In short Deaf Australia has told Deafness Forum that comment on Auslan is the sole domain of Deaf Australia alone.
Deaf Australia, in there media release, make the astonishing claim that Deafness Forum are being disrespectful of them by releasing a discussion paper that focuses on recognition of Auslan as an official language. They claim that they were not consulted. That Deafness Forum has so few Deaf members that it has no right to comment on Auslan at all.
Let me make one thing clear. Deafness Forum have, on numerous occasions, tried to collaborate with Deaf Australia on issues relevant to Auslan and have been told in no uncertain terms NO! Deafness Forum, as part of their funding contract with the Federal Government, must represent issues relevant to Deaf people. The discussion paper on Auslan as an official language has to be submitted to the Government AND before submitting it they have sought feedback from Deaf people and Deaf organizations.
The major author of the paper, Alex Jones, is an Auslan user, has a child who is an Auslan user AND the mother of his child is an Auslan user. Alex has chosen to represent this discussion paper through Deafness Forum and has extensive contacts with the Deaf community. It is entirely within his rights to advocate as he sees fit and through whatever organization he chooses. It is not Deafness Forum who is being disrespectful. It is Deaf Australia!
I recognize that Deaf Australia are the primary organisation that represents Auslan in Australia. I recognize the work of people like Colin Allan, Robert Adam. Dot Shaw and the like who worked so hard to have Auslan promoted, taught and recognized. This discussion paper released by Deafness Form recognizes this work, supports it and gives Deaf Australia a platform to continue to lobby for the legal representation of Auslan.
How much easier it would have been for Deaf Australia to be politically smart. Why could they not have welcomed the Deafness Forum discussion paper. The smart response would have been to congratulate Deafness Forum on their discussion paper, point out the previous work and recognition that was achieved by Deaf Australia in the past in relation to Auslan and invite Deafness Forum to work collaboratively on the issue. They could even have respectfully requested that Deafness Forum allow Deaf Australia to lead the discussion from now on.
If they felt aggrieved at being left out of the loop, what is wrong with a simple private email stating the fact. Did they really need to send out this ridiculous press release? The press release only succeeded in making Deaf Australia look like an organization that wishes to go it alone, an organization with no political smarts and one that is either unwilling or unable to collaborate with others.
The parliamentary Secretary for Disability, Bill Shorten, has stated on several occasions this year that the Government is fed up with the disability sector. In fact I believe he described it as a “Rabble”. He has expressed his frustration that disability advocacy organisations are constantly sending conflicting messages to the Government and as such it is often easier for the Government to ignore them completely. Here was an issue, Auslan as an official language, that Deaf Australia could have used and built on to keep it firmly under the Governments noses. It had an opportunity to build and support the energy created by the discussion paper. In doing so it could have demonstrated the spirit of collaboration that the government is seeking. The message that Bill Shorten is really giving disability advocacy representatives is – collaborate or DIE.
Instead of collaboration Deaf Australia have acted like a petulant child. A child that has spat the dummy, taken his ball and gone to a corner to play on their own. If I were a member of Deaf Australia, which I am not – and the media release reminded me why, I would be questioning the leaders of Deaf Australia in a big way. The narrow mindedness shown in this instant, the lack of political smarts and the astounding lack of vision is just unbelievable.
I am all for Deaf Australia owning and leading debate on Auslan and Deaf community issues. With this discussion paper they had an opportunity to grasp something that would help them in their objectives. Instead they have created more friction and come out of the whole sorry saga looking like an organisation that has yet to move with the times. At the next Deaf Australia AGM I hope its members ask some tough questions of its leadership. The simple fact of the matter is that Deaf Australia needs to collaborate and mature or end up on the scrap heap!
Cultural Intelligence Workshop Part II – Presented by: Della Goswell How deaf and hearing people have different expectations about how to talk to each other: face to face and via telephone. Della will describe some of the pitfalls that happen when deaf and hearing people use an interpreter to introduce each other or make a […]
Sencity is a multi-sensory, multi-faceted, special and unique event that brings deaf, hard of hearing and hearing people together. Sencity started in Holland in 2003, and had many successful events in Europe and Africa, with the Deaf communities there. Now, Sencity has come to Australia. Deaf people do not hear the melody of the music […]
I am a zealot! My life is so meaningless, so pathetic, so without action that I need to read the newspapers in every detail to add meaning to my life. You see to be entertained and to go to the movies, I check the newspapers religiously. My family are not enough. My work is just a drag, my love life can be put on hold because THERE IS A CAPTIONED MOVIE ON SOMEWHERE …. ANY WHERE … and I simply MUST see it.
