American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual language used by many members of the Deaf community in the United States and Canada. While ASL is a language in its own right, it is not a universal language. American Sign Language is also specific to the Deaf community. As the National Association of [...]
As someone who is deaf, I’ve heard (pun) my fair share of ridiculous statements about deaf people. One of them that keeps coming up, deaf people cannot enjoy music. As a music lover myself, I am here to set the record straight: deaf people CAN enjoy music. Music is not just an [...]
With the holidays around the corner, customer service sometimes changes for the worst. How does that bode for deaf and hard of hearing customers who are trying to survive the most credit-disrupting, nerve-wracking, and elbow-jostling season of the year? This holiday, are you prepared to provide deaf-friendly customer service? We already discussed [...]
Think “museum,” and the first things that come to mind are iconic T-Rex displays of your childhood, or heist and adventure movies (think: The Mummy Returns, Thomas Crown Affair, and National Treasure). But unlike the relics inside, museums are evolving - just like the humans who create and visit them. Gone are [...]
After its first virtual conference in 2020, the National Association of the Deaf is back with another milestone: hosting its biennial #NAD2022 conference in Orlando, FL for the very first time. Long-time NAD members may remember New York, NY, Washington, D.C, Chicago, IL, and Cincinnati, OH as frequent host cities (prior to [...]
A great conversation is like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in action: dance partners in sync with each other, aware of and anticipating next steps, and quickly adapting from start to end. No matter what “language” they used - vaudeville, ballroom dancing, tap dancing, soft shoe, or ballet - this legendary pair [...]
All businesses are hungry for the expertise that takes them to the next level. But what, exactly, is expertise? Acronyms like “SME” (Subject Matter Expert), “ninja,” and “rock star” have long been standard in job descriptions. Everyone always wants a rock star. But it’s not limited to an MBA, university prestige, or [...]
In 2012, Melissa “echo” Greenlee had an ambitious idea - to crowdsource all deaf consumer experiences on a public review platform. This month, we celebrate the 10-year mark of this entrepreneurial journey. The spark? An Indian restaurant hung up on her video relay call before she could even finish signing “naan”. The [...]
Norman Rockwell’s iconic Thanksgiving dinner painting is a picture of joy and connection. But for most deaf people, dinner hurts. There’s even a name for it: Dinner Table Syndrome, a phenomenon in which deaf people are cut out of conversations while surrounded by hearing people they can’t understand during meals. In pop [...]