Translated:
Greetings! I would like to suggest another alternative for those who are deaf-blind who expressed their feelings about the need for translation on vlogs by those who use American Sign Language. I want to spell out some pointers for deaf-blind people so they could become proactive with the idea and to take it in serious consideration. Deaf-blind people could then get together and discuss their options. My focus is to have the deaf-blind people get together in a committee with no outside participation by deaf or hearing people. Only the deaf-blind people can make their own decisions. It is my suggestion that the deaf-blind people establish their own non-profit organization with their own board. The board will consist of only deaf-blind people and not deaf or hearing people. Two things are necessary to establish an organization: applying for an EIN ID number and a 501-c-3 non-profit status. When you have done so, you can contact us with a petition to come to an agreement to have captions in vlogs that could be a benefit for deaf-blind people out there. I think that this is a great idea. Have you noticed movies and television shows were brought up by actors, writers, directors, and other related employees. They have certain budgets for their films. Does any of those employees work on subtitles or translation process at some extent? After a movie is filmed and edited, the studios hired professionals to work on the subtitles. The work is prepared so deaf people could watch and enjoy the show. I think it is important for the deaf-blind people to have money to make services accessible for them. In this way we could continue to produce more vlogs. The deaf-blind people, with money on hand, could request professional transcribers to help with the subtitles and still get involved with us. I think that will put all of us forward. I promise you when you set up your committee in creating a non-profit organization with a 501-c-3 status, we Aslans will contribute with money. It is a tax write-off. We always want to support you. I hope you can consider and discuss this avenue. It is imperative that bylaws and a board will be created. Vlogs can be subtitled by a paid transcriber. You can come in agreement with us vloggers to allow you to have the vlogs subtitled for the sole purpose to serve deaf-blind people only. If certain hearing people want this service, they will have to pay directly to you to make this accessible. It is to your discretion whether to accept such requests. Again, it is important to have funds necessary to meet your needs. In this way, we vloggers can continue to focus on creating vlogs and you can continue to enjoy watching the vlogs without any barriers. Thank you.
7 comments:
Interesting...
I will let people who truly identify themselves as DeafBlind analyze it :).
Now how did you make that video player include full-screen toggle? I really loved that! A lot easier than clicking on YouTube player then go on to next webpage for the YouTube video in its own page with full-screen toggle! I liked it. I never noticed that for BlipTV before. Is that new?
ASLPRIDE,
I want to commend you for your efforts to be thoughtful and conscientious of DeafBlinders. It is truly a good spirit and you are a good person.
However, I would like to point out several things.
First of all, there already is a Deaf-Blind organization. It is called the American Association of Deaf Blind (AADB.) No need to re-invent the wheel in my opinion.
Second of all, I'm a bit bothered by the theme in your statement. (I know you didn't mean anything negative by it, but there's the tone of it.) You talk about us as if we are a separate entity from the Deaf community. That we should get together on our own and develop ourselves. And in your ASL, you said "so you can be involved with us." .... You .... US... That gives alot to think about. I always thought that US was all of us, Deaf and DeafBlind. I was Deaf all my life. I didn't find out I had Ushers until I was 26 years old. Am I no longer an equal part of the Deaf Community that I was raised in?
Third, you mention that Deaf people will willingly donate money to such a cause IF the Deaf-Blind people set up such an organization for "translation" purposes. But wait, isn't it also other people who benefit from such translation? Hearing people who want to hear what the Deaf Community is saying, learners of ASL, late-deafened people, hearing relatives of Deaf people, etc., etc.?
So if it is something that can benefit a larger group of people, then why should the Deaf-Blind people be squarely responsible for this endeavor? This is something we should ALL be working on to try to find a solution.
Fourth, it doesn't resolve one key issue. Some people DO NOT WANT their videos "translated." I respect the right of everyone to have their content delivered as they see fit. How do you resolve the issues of making sure we don't "translate" the ones that don't desire translation? Remember, so far, I have only seen that we are encouraging people to translate, not demanding. I believe that is very important to emphasize.
Your point about funding to hire a professional person to do the work is valid. However, it leaves room for abuse. You used mainstream media as an example how they hire professional services to do the work for them. However, you need to look back at the history of this. There were abuses of such funding. Back in the 80's and early 90's, the Department of Education held such funds and granted to various shows. For example, Baywatch did that. At the time, Baywatch had over 1 billion viewers worldwide. They were hugely profitable, yet they applied for grants from DoE. There was a huge outcry about the abuse and taking advantage of tax dollars. This led to the eventual ending of the DoE grants program when taxpayers objected to frivolous spending.
For us to undertake such a project, we would need alot of work to ensure abuses don't occur. This isn't easy and history shows us there is already such precedent for abuses.
I do agree that a centralized group of some sort that performs such services is a great idea, with the permission of the content creator. However, this is NOT something that should rest solely on the hands of Deaf-Blind people. This is something everyone needs to come to terms with.
Let's discuss and explore further for more effective solutions. You're on the right track, ASLPRIDE. But let's all be inclusive because as I said before.... I am DEAF first, blind second.
Hello Oscar: The full-screen toggle is a feature used by blip.tv. All I have to do is upload the video then copy and paste the embed code.
Blip.tv has been around for few years, but it was primary used by geek guys. :)
bryen: Thank you for make few points on my vlog. First of all, it was Mike McConnell's blog/vlog claim that ASL vloggers who create vlog without subtitles has isolated DeafBlind and call us hypocrite for not allow DeafBlind to be part of the deaf community. That's why I suggest an alternative solution that DeafBlind can continue to be part of the deaf community in vlogger realm without feel that they are rejected because I didn't use subtitles.
Yes, AADB does exist, but they gathering funds for general reasons. This idea gives them a new organization focus on translating vlogs only. Some vloggers doesn't want to use their vlog for hearing people, but for any people who use ASL. Since some DeafBlind might have hard time to understand us. The subtitles are solution for them. Therefore, to establish new organization focus on translating vlogs is perfect for them and vloggers who limit their viewers to ASLANs.
I want you to know that I am not in any intention to dividing the group, but Mike has make it sound like any of vloggers who didn't use subtitles are divided the group between DeafBlind and ASL users on vlogs.
To respond on your third comment, Hearing people have funds let them do the job to by contact us and have our vlogs translate. Bottom line, our primary focuses on DeafBlind to keep them in the deaf community, not divides based on the subtitles controversial.
To respond on your fourth comment, I would and we can't know for sure until the organization has been established. If we remember the famous quote, "If you build, they will come." Trust me on that one. :)
Respond to your concern on abuse in using funds. That's why I encourage DeafBlind to establish bylaws to focus on using funds for and its limit.
I hope I did cover them all. If I miss something, feel free to ask me again. :)
Bright Idea!
Byrne,
With due resepct, there are several tax-funded incentives for blind people like providing the Playboy magazines in braille at the public library.
Of course, no braille dots on physiques of nude women. Just articles from the Playboy magazines.
Blind people get the special tax breaks by not paying any taxes. The taxpayers end up paying for blind people's tax waivers, etc.
I am totally agree with you that there is really not necessary to form another organization within the DB people.
Vloggers need to band themselves to discuss issues how to resolve the obscatales faced by the DB people.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog
Off point to the topic of this vlog, but I just HAD to respond to RLM.
RLM, Where did you get the idea that Blind people don't pay taxes??? Blind people do get an exemption, but it is not that much. I paid THOUSANDS last year in taxes and have every year, even though I am Legally Blind. One year recently I decided to do a comparision of using the exemption vs. not using the exemption. Ended up difference in net refund only $400. It's not that big a deal. People with children, mortgages, etc. get alot more tax break discount than the Blind exemption.
But to say that Blind people do not pay taxes... WRONG!
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