Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!wtm
From: dmimi@uncecs.edu (Mimi Clifford)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Interpreters only on TV
Message-ID: <10380@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 24 Feb 90 03:48:49 GMT
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Reply-To: dmimi@uncecs.edu (Mimi Clifford)
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Index Number: 6946

For goodness sakes, let's NOT discourage captining on TV!  Add
interpreters, by all means, if you wish, but PLEASE KEEP
CAPTIONING.

First of all, whether or not a hearing impaired person, deaf or
not, can speak, he/she certainly should be able to read!
Captioning requires READING, not SPEAKING.

Secondly, the hard of hearing but not deaf population out numbers
the deaf population approximately 4 to 1 at this point and the
disparity is probably growning.  Many of us (the former) became
hard of hearing at or after adulthood--that is in middle or later
years and expecting us all to learn sign is not realistic.  I, for
example, have no argument with the notion that sign is good to
know, but at 65 years and with virtually no contact with the deaf
community, learning sign would be a BIG project with little
return.

Thirdly, it is nice to be able to watch the picture as well as to
know what people are saying on TV.  Captioning allows both for me
and many others.  All I really need is a couple of words out of the
sentence--I can either fill in or hear the rest usually (though the
bushy faces, mumbled or fast speech, faces looking the other way,
and background music and noise sure make things tough sometimes.)