Deaf Culture and Magical Lipreading

[shmeep]

What the show gets right about Deaf Culture. What it gets wrong. Just anything people notice that they wonder about as they're watching.

Edited May 9, 2014 by shmeep

[FormerMod-a1]

I do laugh sometimes at the Magical Lipreading, but I also understand why they do it sometimes.  But if they could at least have the deaf character in line of view of the talking person's mouth, it would help.  

[Scarlett45]

I'm glad Daphne asked Angelo to sign. Also, is there really not a sign in ASL for broccoli?

[shmeep]

There really isn't a sign for broccoli.

It was cute watching Angelo trying to sign.

[Scarlett45]

There really isn't a sign for broccoli.

It was cute watching Angelo trying to sign.

That's so interesting!! I love broccoli!

Also good to see you shmeep.

Edited June 18, 2014 by Scarlett45

[Athena]

Now that Bay is back with Emmett, I've been wondering if her signing has improved in the last few years. I hope the actress doesn't get whatever happened to Constance Marie.

@shmeep it's great to see you around here. I always liked your posts about ASL and Deaf culture.

[joanne3482]

I loved in the last episode that Bay said something about the sign for 'junk shot' and it looked like she just combined 2 signs. I totally cracked up at her frustration about that sign. 

[CleoCaesar]

Now that Bay is back with Emmett, I've been wondering if her signing has improved in the last few years.

 

I admittedly don't know any sign language, so from a layman's perspective, it seems as if Vanessa Marano is still saying half a dozen words for every sign she makes. It's actually a little distracting.

[paulvdb]

I also don't know any sign language, but I just remembered that video phone conversation in last week's episode because it was showed again in the previouslies this week. The focus was so close on Bay that her hands were outside the screen half the time, so I wonder how much Emmett could actually understand of what she said.

[Eri]

From what I've seen and my own experiences, Bay talks a lot more than she signs. She understands people signing to her but responds by speaking in complete sentences while only signing every other or a particular word. Looking at the hearing/deaf conversations to the deaf/deaf conversations on the show, Bay and most of the hearing characters seem to communicate in Pidgin Signed English, which gears a greater emphasis on the grammatical structure of the English language.

 

On the other hand, when Travis, Emmett, Matthew, Natalie, Daphne and Melody sign amongst themselves their ASL has a different format that ventures more toward verb directionality (i.e. pointing at everything) and grammatical ASL when they sign and is more true to the actual language. I've seen this a fair amount with the deaf people I have interacted with, so I can imagine this is why signing and talking in English simultaneously is extremely hard to do (it certainly is for me).

Edited June 26, 2014 by Eri

[shmeep]

Bay's signing is a bit better, but she definitely saves all her wit and complete sentences for English. Still, she's now at a point where much of what she is saying could be understood by a Deaf person, but it's not exactly smooth or pleasing to watch and a lot is missing. Eri is right about how difficult it is to sign and speak at the same time. That is a big part of what makes it seem so unnatural. Whenever there is a scene with Bay just signing without speaking, she does much much better. 

 

I'm not sure that Bay actually had a sign for "junk shot." Just looked like she was expressing surprise over having need of one. That was pretty funny. 

 

I agree about the video chat and how difficult it would be for them to be understood that way. I do video relay interpreting and it's shocking how many Deaf people have no concept of how far away they should be from the videophone for me to be able to understand them. Sometimes they are so close I can't see the hands at all or the camera is adjusted so I just see their heads. Or they're walking or--seriously, this happens!--driving while making a call. Or the connection is terrible and I see blurs whenever they move their hands. It's not surprising that Bay wouldn't instinctively know how to position herself, but you'd think it would occur to her to make sure he could see her hands. 

 

Emmett's signing is very slow. It's a little distracting because it doesn't look that natural to me. Melody and Travis and Natalie all have a more natural style--or maybe Emmett is just bugging me lately with that moody look on his face all the time. I like the character and am hoping his fun side comes out again soon. 

 

I still find it terribly disappointing that Daphne and her mother no longer sign together. That leaves a huge hole in the show for me. I know it's about the actress and her condition, but no signing mother of a Deaf child could go from full signed communication to oral communication without it going against every instinct she has. It would be more realistic for the actress to at least do rough sign-like movements designed to make what she's saying easier to understand. The habit would be too strong to just start talking without so much as a gesture. True signers have certain words in English they can't even say without doing the sign along with it. I can't say "expression," for example, without also signing it. Weird little quirk. That Regina never even busts out with an accidental sign makes it all seem so fake and takes me out of the story. Of course Daphne understands everything hearing people say anyway so I guess it really doesn't matter. I wish she misunderstood more of what her mother was saying. As it is now, people watching the show who don't know better would wonder why it's even important for hearing family members to learn to sign for their Deaf relatives, since lipreading is clearly so easy. 

[bettername2come]

What's funny about the "magical lip reading" is that both Daphne and Emmett have brought up how difficult it is for them to follow along when lip reading, but even so they continue to have no trouble unless they want to make it a plot point - i.e, Daphne asking Angelo to learn ASL, 

[shmeep]

I can't imagine it's that difficult to get into Gallaudet. It's a great school, but Deaf education is so iffy in general that many students start off there as remedial students and spend the first year just trying to catch up to where they should be as freshmen. There's also a very high drop-out rate. They almost lost their accreditation a few years ago because they were being held to the same standard as other schools without it being taken into consideration that a huge number of Deaf people have serious deficits when it comes to learning English due to not having had any language at all during their early childhoods. My husband transferred over as a junior so his classes were challenging and he got a great education, but a lot of people I know have told me that the first couple of years are extremely easy because of the level of many of the students. Another issue is that there have been cuts in what Vocational Rehab has been able to pay to assist Deaf students so they can attend Gallaudet. Depending on which state one is from, they may or may not get enough support to be able to afford it so attendance has been down. They have started allowing (gasp!) hearing students who are majoring in interpreting to attend and they also allow hearing students who sign to attend as "visiting" students for a semester at a time--probably to get their numbers up. It's a great school with a rich history and one can get a great education there, but I think they would love to have to turn qualified students away.

 

This article explains much of what I just said, only better. Looks like things were already improving when this was written a few years ago so I hope it's better now. I still doubt very seriously that Travis wouldn't be accepted.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/gallaudet-university-adjusts-to-a-culture-that-includes-more-hearing-students/2011/09/23/gIQAC3W9tK_story.html

[tereya]

Hi everyone,

I came to this site because I wanted to see if there is anyone else besides me who thinks about some aspects of the show (or find them irritating as I do) :D

Please don't get me wrong, I really like the show.. but... I really hate all the lip-reading parts and maybe even more the constant signing and talking at the same time.

I have been learning Czech Sign Language for 4 years now (I am from the Czech Republic) and I don't understand it, but I want to..

 

Is it normal for some people who learn ASL to use it this way? I don't want to seem dumb or disrespectful, I just do not understand.

I think it is so disrespectful to communicate with a Deaf this way when I can sign even slightly and also to say that I use sign language when I use the spoken language and just put signs in... :/ I don't know how they can understand each other - I mean sometimes it is impossible since it is a different language and it is not possible to use collocations and expressions of the spoken language or the grammar - they use no space, it is English grammar...

I would understand it if there was a group of 3 people - 1 Deaf, 1 hearing using SL and 1 hearing who cannot sign. I would be okay with that. But when Bay and e.g. Toby talk with Emmett, or Bay with Daphne..

 

Or is it just for the viewers who do not sign and the authors are afraid they would stop watching the show if they had to read subtitles? Because I am hearing and I find it so annoying because as I said I find it disrespectful, and also the way how they speak while signing is unnatural, weird and annoying to listen to. I just had one lesson of ASL so far (so I don't understand ASL at all as some of the viewers), but I would enjoy the show a lot more if there were subtitles...

The episode in just ASL, oh that was beautiful, I would love more of those..

 

Once again, please do not think ill of me.. I am just curious and I needed to get it off my chest :))

[Eri]

Depending on which characters are communicating, the show seems to use ASL for the deaf actors while Pidgin Sign Language transitions more into English than ASL for the hearing characters. In my experience, it is extremely difficult to sign and talk simultaneously as it results in the dialogue between hearing and deaf people signing every other/3rd/4th word of a complete sentence, which you see a lot of in the show. The subtitles are grammatically structured in English for the benefit of the viewing audience but literal translations are a lot shorter if you are familiar with ASL already.

 

From going to silent meals, I found that communication may vary on the deaf person. Some won't mind if you sign orally, while others prefer if you sign with "voice off." The majority of the time, I was told that "voice off" would help me learn better and it did help me practice my finger spelling over time.

[shmeep]

Those are great observations, Tereya. You're not wrong about any of it and Eri's response matches up with what has been my experience as well.

I wouldn't say it's disrespectful to speak while signing, but it does annoy some Deaf people. Others don't mind it at all. Like Eri, I find that it depends on the situation and on the person I'm interacting with. I tend to try to match the signing style of the Deaf person because I'm an interpreter and thats what we're trained to do. If they mouth a lot of words or even simcom (use simultlaneous communication), I find myself doing it as well but it's usually much more natural for everyone for me to turn my voice off.

I agree that the writers tend to have the hearing person speak aloud to cut down on subtitles, but that really isn't giving the audience enough credit. At this point, for example, Bay would be having voice-off conversations with her boyfriend. Making her simcom all the time makes her signing look a lot worse than it is because it's really hard to do what she's doing in a way that looks and sounds natural and her ASL suffers as a result.

For me, simcom is used when I'm both participating in and interpreting a conversation between hearing and Deaf who don't all speak the same language. My simcom isn't perfect, but I've been doing it for twenty years so it's a lot better than what you see on the show.

[Biosynth]

Most of the time I sign with voice off, but sometimes I find myself speaking a little.  My husband will voice a lot of times while signing, but if he's signing with other deafies, it's voice off and at warp speed. 

 

I'm getting better in those situations and usually can keep up, but I have to admit, sometimes I'm left in the dust, and I've been signing over 10 years!

 

Haha, a lot of times he tells me that if I see a sign I don't know to ask him and then when I ask him after the conversation he looks at me as if he has no clue what sign I'm using!  It always makes me laugh.

[Lady Exila]

Hi, I see this topic is a bit old but still I hope someone will answer, about this "magic lipreading" I still haven't fully gotten it, how realistic is it? Because lots of times when someone is talking and not gesturing, he/she also turns around for a second, or is sitting next to the deaf person, or is partial light, or even says brands, names, slang expressions, and I always ask myself if it's really that easy to understand the difference between similar words by how the lips move, most of all when someone is also talking fast. I'm not deaf and I don't know ASL (I'm trying to learn the basics of it because I find it interesting and I'd like to be able to comunicate with a deaf person if I ever got to meet one) so I really have no idea, but to me it seems almost impossible to be able to understand more than a few words by lipreading, even when someone is saying just one word, really slow, like "I'm sorry" or "I got it" I barely understand it, now I get that deaf people have a lot more practice, but still I'd think they often misunderstand similar words, first one that pops into my mind "cane" and "came", if the sentence doesn't clarify which word is it, wouldn't there be a lot more incomprehension? I'd understand if the writers don't want to bore the viewers by having the deaf asking all the time "did you say xxx or yyy?" but I'm curious about how it really is. By what I've read here so far I got that it's unrealistic, but I'd like to know how much, like if someone says a sentence talking normal speed, no signs, how much is it really possible to understand? I've also read someone who said "if they can read lips so well then why should the hearing even learn ASL" and that is also something I've asked myself, like Emmett or Travis don't even speak and they seem to have more difficulties with lipreading, but Daphne talks so good you can hardly tell she has a pronunciation "problem" (I don't wanna be offensive, I just don't know how else to call it, english is not my first language), and she seems to understand everything, like I was just watching the scene were she's in the car with the wheelchair boy from the clinic (I'm behind with the tv schedule) and the car's kinda dark inside, and he's sitting next to her and not facing her and he said names of famous skateboarders and brands of boards, and Daphne seemed to have no problem, that looked really unrealistic to me! So to wrap it up, if someone speaks, not making any signs, not slow but not too fast, not using slang but saying names and brands, what's the average percentage of what a deaf person can understand by just watching the lips? Thank you for the answer, I'm really curious and I hope I didn't offend the deaf community in any way, and if I did I'm really sorry, it was never my intention, but please tell me so I can avoid making the same mistake in the future. Thx :)

[shmeep]

Those a are all really good questions and not at all offensive. You're absolutely right about which things a real Deaf person would struggle to understand.

Every Deaf person is different, of course, but what you see on the show isn't even a little bit realistic. It's estimated that thirty percent of the English language is visible on the lips. The rest is guesswork and context. Some Deaf people are very skilled at filling in the blanks and getting the gist of a conversation while others couldn't even begin to follow a spoken conversation. My husband is a wonderful lip reader, but he is at his best when he is guiding the conversation--asking questions and anticipating the responses and then recognizing them on the lips. When the subject is changed or when there is a group conversation, he is completely lost.

It's realistic that Daphne would be good at reading lips, but not while walking or in the dark a or when the head is turned the other way or when unfamiliar terms are being thrown at her. Emmett, being Deaf of Deaf, would likely not be able to catch as much, since he was raised and schooled among signers. He would have good language in general, but reading lips wouldn't come naturally to him. Travis strikes me as a lower-functioning Deaf person, meaning he isn't as book-smart as the others and possibly didn't have much language of any kind growing up. He probably wouldn't be a great lip reader in real life. Just speculation based on what I have encountered over the years.

My husband has good speech and decent English but he doesn't speak to strangers very often. He would rather write back and forth if he has a question because he has no idea in advance of how well he will be able to understand the person he's approaching and he knows his speech is so good that the person would likely not understand right away that he can't hear them. Writing makes everything clear immediately.

[heythere]

What shmeep said.

My boyfriend is deaf and relies on lipreading (was never taught to sign).  He has some hearing (not 100% deaf) and I think that is key to how well he can lip-read. Daphne implied that she is almost 100% deaf (I'm guessing not totally since she wears hearing aids although sometimes she seems to imply that she is totally deaf) so she'd have a harder time than my boyfriend and she gets everything. 

 

You're exactly right on the similar words Lady Exile.  Here's a perfect example of what we never see with Daphne: Just the other day my boyfriend and I were talking about the new cameras we are thinking about buying. He wants a Canon 7D and I want a Canon 70D. Say that outloud. It's almost exactly the same and when lipreading there is even less of a difference.  My boyfriend and I ended up having a conversation where I thought we were talking about my 70D and he though we were talking about his 7D. Ha, we both were getting a little defensive until finally I realize what was happening and said "I think we're talking about two totally separate things."  We've never seen Daphne have an issue like that. She usually seems to just have trouble if someone isn't facing her or they are talking to fast.  You can be talking at a normal rate, facing someone in a well lit room and have issues.

 

She also seems to have no issues in group conversations or when there are long conversations. It's draining and exhausting to lipread and near impossible once you get in a group larger than 3 or 4 people. When my boyfriend and I first started dating he explained how each additional person exponentially increases the number of places he needs to be looking. If there are three of us I could be talking to you, I could be talking to him. You could be talking to me or you could be talking to him. That's four directions.  If there are 4 of us there are nine potential directions the conversation could be going, 5 of us would be 20 directions. I think I'm doing the math correctly. Regardless, you can see how quickly it can become exhausting and overwhelming.

Edited January 9, 2015 by heythere

[Ziz]

I think what annoys me the most is how even when there is a group of hearing people who all ostensibly sign fluently, they still speak. Example was in this week's episode. When Daphne, Iris, and Iris's cousin (?) were talking and Daphne wanted him to interpret for her class, why were they speaking? Daphne is deaf, Iris is in the interpreter program so fluent, and the cousin is a CODA who is clearly fluent enough to be interpreting. Didn't make sense to me. 

[Bellalisa]

Why was the interpreter next to her and not next to the teacher so she could see the blackboard? It seemed weird she was looking at him and not seeing any of the forumulas being written on the board. Don't usually the interpreter stand in front next to who is talking?

What shmeep said.

My boyfriend is deaf and relies on lipreading (was never taught to sign).  He has some hearing (not 100% deaf) and I think that is key to how well he can lip-read. Daphne implied that she is almost 100% deaf (I'm guessing not totally since she wears hearing aids although sometimes she seems to imply that she is totally deaf) so she'd have a harder time than my boyfriend and she gets everything. 

 

You're exactly right on the similar words Lady Exile.  Here's a perfect example of what we never see with Daphne: Just the other day my boyfriend and I were talking about the new cameras we are thinking about buying. He wants a Canon 7D and I want a Canon 70D. Say that outloud. It's almost exactly the same and when lipreading there is even less of a difference.  My boyfriend and I ended up having a conversation where I thought we were talking about my 70D and he though we were talking about his 7D. Ha, we both were getting a little defensive until finally I realize what was happening and said "I think we're talking about two totally separate things."  We've never seen Daphne have an issue like that. She usually seems to just have trouble if someone isn't facing her or they are talking to fast.  You can be talking at a normal rate, facing someone in a well lit room and have issues.

 

She also seems to have no issues in group conversations or when there are long conversations. It's draining and exhausting to lipread and near impossible once you get in a group larger than 3 or 4 people. When my boyfriend and I first started dating he explained how each additional person exponentially increases the number of places he needs to be looking. If there are three of us I could be talking to you, I could be talking to him. You could be talking to me or you could be talking to him. That's four directions.  If there are 4 of us there are nine potential directions the conversation could be going, 5 of us would be 20 directions. I think I'm doing the math correctly. Regardless, you can see how quickly it can become exhausting and overwhelming.

I just bought a 70D and my hearing friend kept thinking I was saying 7D...so funny that you brought this up as it just happened to me the other day. I finally said NO sevent-tee D not seven -Dee

[shmeep]

Yep. The interpreter should always be in a position so the Deaf consumer can see the speaker, the board, and the interpreter as much as possible. Some set ups are tricky, but sitting off to the side like that is a huge no no. Makes no sense.

[purplemonkey]

When Bay and the other Kennishes sign and speak at the same time, I assume it's because they're new to ASL and it helps them to do both. Is this true? If I were trying to learn to sign I imagine I'd do the same thing.

[Eri]

From the interactions I have had, I don't find it to be true. Signing and speaking is extremely difficult to do because the ASL format of communicating is not a complete standard English sentence. Bay, the Kennishes, and most of the hearing characters  seem to use Pidgin Signed English (PSE), which gears a greater emphasis on the grammatical structure of the English language rather than the actual ASL language. I think reading a word aloud and signing that word helps with vocabulary but I found it impossible to sign and talk, because my hands are trying to sign ASL but my mind is reverting to English sentences (think of text speak on autocorrect). As a result, you only end up signing every 3rd/4th/5th word of a sentence - something Bay does quite often.

 

Plus, depending on whether the person is deaf or Deaf, they may prefer non-oral communication or "voice off." The president of the ASL club at my university was Deaf and every interaction with her was in "voice off" because she wanted to teach me how to let my hands do all the "talking." I didn't know a lot of vocabulary at the time, but she was very patient in having to finger-spell words I did not know or if she signed too quickly. Mentally, it is draining having to focus only on hands rather than mouths but eventually you grow accustomed to it, and the person you're signing to will appreciate your efforts.

 

Now that Bay has had 4 seasons to become fluent in ASL, I am not sure why she still communicates orally to Emmett or the other characters since she knows what they're saying. If you observe Emmett/Travis, Emmett/Melody, Emmett/Daphne scenes, I always suspected that the signing structure is different and is more in tune with ASL than when they interact with the hearing actors.

Edited February 5, 2015 by Eri

[maraleia]

I think the reason why Constance Marie damaged her hands is because she committed to learning how to properly sign without speaking and it took a toll on her hands. Compare that to Vanessa, Lea, D.W. and Lucas who are still learning how to sign and are using spoken language as a crutch in those scenes.

[purplemonkey]

Thanks, this is enlightening. Then there's the fact that everything Bay doesn't speak would have to be captioned. But, I like the silent captioned scenes we've had with Travis, Melody, Emmett, and the other Carlton kids.

[shmeep]

Eri explained it very well. When a hearing person talks while signing, their brain gets the message that their thoughts are being fully communicated, but actually the English makes the ASL suffer. I've been interpreting for 18 years and have been married to a Deaf man for 15 years and I still find that my simcom (simultlaneous communication) always makes my ASL less clear and more difficult for the Deaf person to follow. I generally only simcom when I'm both a participant and an informal interpreter at the same time, like at family events I want my husband to be included in. It's pretty cheesy for a fluent signer to speak aloud while conversing with a non-oral Deaf person. I always feel that Bay does it so she can hear her own witty phrases, even if they don't ever translate into ASL.

It's different when the Deaf person is also simcomming. I tend to match the style of the signer. If they go more English, so do I. If they go more ASL, so do I. If they use their voice, so do I. It's just an interpreter thing, I guess. I always try to be a good language match.

Talking and signing is not a good idea while learning. All it does is to firmly establish a very English way of signing that will never look natural or fluent. It's natural for English speakers to want to do this, but it ruins the structure of ASL. That said, I'm certain the show does it for the reason Purplemonkey said. It saves on captioning to have all the hearing folks simcom. Still, some of the best scenes on the show are when everyone is signing. I wish it happened more often.

[Perfect Xero]

I've seen someone with the show say that even when they do have all sign language scenes/arguments they have to get the actors to slow down their signing for the sake of the captioning.

[shmeep]

I've said that in the past. Sometimes even the all-signing scenes seem unnatural and slow. I suspect the signers are trying to remember how their ASL consultant told them how to sign all their lines. Much of the conversation among the Deaf characters is a bit odd because it's clearly written by hearing people who don't know how Deaf people express themselves and then the lines are interpreted into ASL so Deaf people are being depicted as having very hearing conversations in sign language. I wish the interpreting on the show went the other way. I wish the Deaf conversations could be written first in ASL (or even just improvised into ASL) and then captioned into English for the hearing audience. As it is now, we see Deaf people struggling to make their language fit (often awkwardly) into very specific English wording. They're all signing like interpreters instead of like Deaf people.

[Eri]

 

All it does is to firmly establish a very English way of signing that will never look natural or fluent. It's natural for English speakers to want to do this, but it ruins the structure of ASL. That said, I'm certain the show does it for the reason Purplemonkey said. It saves on captioning to have all the hearing folks simcom. Still, some of the best scenes on the show are when everyone is signing. I wish it happened more often

 

I believe that!

 

I've also read that many Deaf fans complain that the actors are getting lazy and sloppy with their signing. To top this, according to several of the "extras" who saw behind the stage, there is an ASL specialist, and yet some of the main actors refuse to heed their advice and continue to sign in their increasingly grammatically-incorrect way. With Emmett now at film school, I'd really like Sean Berdy to direct an episode to give his own spin to the show (Lea Thompson and DW Moffet have). It may save the show time not to have all captions but I'd prefer a silent all-captioned show with background noise to a hearing drama that is now only incorporating 15% ASL/85% simcom. They received positive reviews from the silent episodes, take the hint!

[Perfect Xero]

I believe that!

 

I've also read that many Deaf fans complain that the actors are getting lazy and sloppy with their signing. To top this, according to several of the "extras" who saw behind the stage, there is an ASL specialist, and yet some of the main actors refuse to heed their advice and continue to sign in their increasingly grammatically-incorrect way. With Emmett now at film school, I'd really like Sean Berdy to direct an episode to give his own spin to the show (Lea Thompson and DW Moffet have). It may save the show time not to have all captions but I'd prefer a silent all-captioned show with background noise to a hearing drama that is now only incorporating 15% ASL/85% simcom. They received positive reviews from the silent episodes, take the hint!

 

You're not going to get to spin too much directing an episode of a TV show.

 

TV isn't like film where the director reigns supreme, television is ultimately the writer's vision and the director is there to facilitating that, they're going to be working closely from the script. Which isn't to say that it's an unimportant job, but it's not like Moffet or Thompson's episodes were much different in terms of content than they would have been if someone else had directed them.

[bybrandy]

In the skype session with Bay and Emmett it seemed like his hands were often below the view on Bay's screen.

[dmmetler]

I'm binge watching on Netflix, and I'm wondering-is it reasonable for hearing students to attend a deaf school where classes are taught in ASL without significant ASL experience (like being a CODA where ASL was the home language)? It seems like a lot of the season 2 early conflict could have been prevented by an admissions exam, just like international students have to pass the TOEFL to attend college in the U.S.

[learningasl]

What REALLY gets under my skin is Emmet's VERY LAZY signing. I have no clue how Bay keeps up with trying to follow along. If it weren't for subtitles I'd have no clue what he's saying. It is enough to make me fast forward parts with him on.

[shmeep]

I've said it in other threads, but the thing that bugs me is the way Emmett's signing is clearly hearing dialogue interpreted and performed by a Deaf actor instead of dialogue a Deaf person would naturally use expressed in a Deaf way. Even the characters who are very good signers sign more like interpreters than Deaf people because the show obviously figures they can just have everything written the way they want because everything will just be translated to match the captions later on. It makes them all seem a bit unnatural. I used to enjoy Emmett's character, but now he seems sullen and shrugs a lot and seems devoid of personality. It's disappointing.

[Katy M]

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2014 at 0:07 AM, shmeep said:

They have started allowing (gasp!) hearing students who are majoring in interpreting to attend and they also allow hearing students who sign to attend as "visiting" students for a semester at a time--probably to get their numbers up. It's a great school with a rich history and one can get a great education there, but I think they would love to have to turn qualified students away.

Just out of curiosity, how can Galludet legally not allow hearing students simply because they are hearing.  As long as they are fluent in ASL and no special considerations need to be made, wouldn't it be discrimination to not allow them to attend.

[dmmetler]

Dp they get funding specifically to serve the Deaf community? My parents are involved with an REU for chemistry undergrads that also trains interpreters, and their funding requires that at least 50% of the students be legally classified as hearing impaired. 

[Melgaypet]

On 2/22/2017 at 3:57 PM, Katy M said:

Just out of curiosity, how can Galludet legally not allow hearing students simply because they are hearing.  As long as they are fluent in ASL and no special considerations need to be made, wouldn't it be discrimination to not allow them to attend.

Gallaudet is a private university, so I think they're allowed to set different admission standards.

[possibilities]

Hearing people are not a protected class, so it may not matter. But if they are designed to educate the Deaf, they might argue that prioritizing Deaf admissions makes sense. Hearing people can go anywhere, but Deaf students have only one place to go for a normalized experience where they won't be second class.

[Fjdj]

I have a question. Why does daphne wear hearing aids yet she still has to read lips? I'm what everyone is called a hearing person so i dpnt really understand hearing aids and all that

[Perfect Xero]

On 9/12/2017 at 2:22 PM, Fjdj said:

I have a question. Why does daphne wear hearing aids yet she still has to read lips? I'm what everyone is called a hearing person so i dpnt really understand hearing aids and all that

I believe that even with the hearing aids she doesn't hear well enough to pick up and distinguish speech. They can help her pick up particularly loud noises and vibrations. Like the bass beat in loud music or Regina slamming her hand on the counter to get her attention.