Category: Deaf

Interpreting a dead language

American Sign Language (ASL) is not, in and of itself, a dead language. But, it seems to be for me. I am doing much better getting back to my roots today than I was yesterday. I had to do some voice work today, which is in some ways better than signing. I did quite a bit of talking with ASL speakers which helped re-familiarize me with the language.

The reason I am in California is for a large conference for the Deaf. I got to do some ASL to spoken Spanish today. That was not as hard as I thought it would be.

I am scheduled to speak twice while I am here. Of course, I was not told that until today. At noon the director came to me and asked if I could speak at 6:00 this evening. I hemmed and hawed until he put me off to Thursday night. That should give me time to have my signs return to me.

Be careful little hands what you say

I just got back from a discipleship class that I teach each Saturday with one of the Deaf teens in our church.

At church we take prayer requests each Sunday and a couple of weeks ago we had mentioned several young people who needed prayer concerning a particular exam coming up. On the list I put all the names of those who were taking the exam and who also attend our church. Others were mentioned who were also taking the exam. So that the list would not be too long, I joked that we were only going to pray for those who come to church.

This teen’s mother told me today that they were praying through the list and came to the request about the exam. She started praying for those on the list and for the others who were in the class. Her son stopped her and told her that she could not pray for those who don’t come to church because I said so. He took quite literally that I meant that only those who come to church were allowed to be prayed for.

Oops. Maybe some things are best left unsaid.

Looking for a TDD/TTY?

While looking through the website for The Phone Resource, I saw that they have TDD machines. A TDD is a “Telecommunications Device for the Deaf.” They have replaced the older TTY machines which were TeleTYpe machines. So all TTYs are TDDs, but not vice versa. But the two terms are used interchangeably.

The way they usually work is the caller puts a regular phone handset into a cradle and you can send text messages over the phone. Kinda like instant messaging today, but you just call from phone to phone using a normal phone line. So people without a computer can use one of these.

If you are hearing and want to call a Deaf friend, you can use a relay service. Most states have a state funded relay where you call a number and an operator will type for you and voice what your Deaf friend says. Fancier relay services now also offer video relay. Deaf can call into the relay service using a web cam and then the operator will call your home number. You will talk on the phone like you are talking to anyone else while the operator is signing to the Deaf caller. Then the caller can sign to the operator back to you.

But, if you want to say sweet nothings to your Deaf friend, get your own TDD. You don’t want to have to work through an operator for that.

Interestingly, here in México with the Deaf we work with, they do not have TDDs. Nor do they have IM or web cams. They just use text messaging on cell phones. Text messages are relatively cheap here. Far cheaper than a $400 TDD. I doubt they have a relay service to work with. So your friend would also have to have a TDD for you to call them.

If you are looking to buy one, check out the offerings at The Phone Resource. They also have Polycom conference phones.

[This is a sponsored post]

Missionary Talks 22: David and Crystal Houghton

In this interview I spoke with David and Crystal Houghton. They are missionaries in Tampico, Mexico. Like me, they too work with the Deaf.

As you will probably be able to tell in the interview, we were not “perky.” That is a word that left our vocabulary a few days before recording. It was a very long and tiring week.

I told you I would get it out today. Whew!

Photo scavenger hunt

Ever done one of those? When I was a teen it meant looking for Polaroid cameras to take with you as immediate proof that you took the pictures. In the day in which we live now, digital cameras help with these kinds of activities.

We took our Deaf church down town tonight on the main square. We had two teams and each had a list of items that they needed to photograph. But, of course, they were not things like “a flower” or “a bird.” It was more in line with “Take a photo of the group with a soldier.”Six way telephone call

Some of the more interesting:
Ask a policeman to sign the paper. My team got the signature of the Commandant of the Governor’s Palace Guard. Another item that we asked him for was to be able to take a picture of one of our people wearing one of their helmets. He was very gracious with the signature. He even wrote out a nice little note to the group. But when asked about the helmet, it was obvious that we had over stepped our limits. We left the palace quickly.

Trade shoes with a total stranger. We were running out of time by the time we got to that one. We tried convincing one young man to help us out. He was not to be persuaded. The next fellow we approached seemed a bit more willing. We spent 5 minutes with him trying to convince him to do it. We finally did.

Kiss a horse. My team did not get this one, but the other team did.

There were several items on the list that my team accomplished, but the other team did not. However, the other team looked for high point items. When it was all tallied in the end, we won by 200 points, though we took many more pictures than the other team, they purposefully sought out the more difficult tasks.

After we took the pictures we returned to the church where I gave a short devotional while my wife was putting the pictures from the cameras onto the computer. We then projected the pictures onto the wall while eating pizza. It was a great activity.