Tag: Deaf Centered
MENTAL HEALTH: Power Hunger or Power Struggle?
Of all U.S. minority groups, the Deaf community is perhaps the most invisible. The mental health sends the message of Deaf empowerment to the public. The principle of Deaf-centric or Deaf-centered mental health is always demonstrating a passion. Or, is it a recipe for power-struggle for passion where the Deaf community needs the most in the mental health field? Especially the Deaf-centered way.
In the highest standard of principle what it should be, a Deaf-centric or Deaf-centered mental health organization had revolutionized the stereotypical odds. It should be of, by, and for Deaf people. This “cultural awareness” in our Deaf community where we live continues to be a minority group thriving for awareness and social justice, which we are seeing in the mental health field that is sorely painful in the Deaf leadership.
National Deaf Therapy (NDT) under the auspices of Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD). ‘Auspices’ is from the Latin, auspicium, and auspex, which mean “one who looks at birds”.
Communication Service for the Deaf: Using the ‘flying birds’ as power-hungry; According to wiki: ‘Augury is the practice from ancient Roman religion of interpreting omens from the observed flights of birds.” (1)
Is it the wrong path where National Deaf Therapy is being heavily appropriated by Communication Service for the Deaf exercising privileges and profiting? Even in 2019. But, should we not completely surprised? Don’t we see manifestations of elitism, favouritism, and privileges every single day? Let me use those examples:
Jameson Crane III and Jonathan Soukup, both CEO and co-founder in the same business together (see link below), they have strong connections to Communication Service for the Deaf, its founder of CSD, Benjamin Soukup, and its current CEO, Christopher Soukup (Jonathan’s brother).
As for Jameson Crane III’s hearing father, Jameson Crane, Jr. was on Communication Service for the Deaf board, now is on the Gallaudet Board of Trustees (see both links below). Social Venture Fund (SVF) has awarded National Deaf Therapy because of father-in-law’s connections as a board to NDT as well. Jameson Crane III’s spouse: Amanda Sortwell Crane, one of National Deaf Therapy co-founder.
Don’t we see manifestations of elitism, favouritism, and privileges?
Power-hunger is shown by connection to Gallaudet University? A good example, ADWAS founder, Marylin Jean Smith is on Communication Service for the Deaf board (see link below), and one of the National Deaf Therapy co-founders, Megan Erasmus is working for ADWAS while running National Deaf Therapy (see link below). Is that a big conflict of interest?
I was told that it is common for people to work full time while maintaining their own practices part-time until their practice grow enough that they can support themselves with the new private practice. Still conflict of interest?
Convo Communications: the CEO, Jarrod Musano who owns the Daily Moth and Melmira, connected to Communication Service for the Deaf, yes or no? However, Jarrod and Communication Service for the Deaf board member, Danny Lacey, have strong connections between each other.
The disability framework, a negativity bias defining the Deaf community, colonizes National Deaf Therapy. Exploring core concepts what “disability” to define ‘Deaf’–especially how the polarity of disability is culturally constructed and embodied, emphasizing the “social model”–and it shows clearly that National Deaf Therapy did not aim enough for a deepened understanding of the social, economic, and political aspects of disability as perceived and embodied in literature.
Does it mean the Deaf are defined from the American society because they are not normal healthy people as long as they must live in the medical model of disability?
Although frequently used to refer to the Deaf, this label is considered highly offensive to the Deaf. It ignored cultural identity and its use among hearing is a sign of ignorance (Roach, 2002) [2]
Ryan Commerson [3], producer of “Media, Power, & Ideology: Re-defining D-E-A-F”— Supposedly, Deaf people are labeled as ‘disability’ in the name of ideology.
Commerson: “…the misrepresentation would still reside in your subconscious. What should you do about it?” that leads to ‘Contesting Stereotypes: Taking Images Apart’.
“…When a particular meaning in broadcast for a while, then it becomes common sense,closed, and resides in your subconscious. Life goes on as normal. However, we must go back to the misrepresentation residing in their subconscious…and reveal the distortion of the images. People might be rattled or accept this new reality. However, the problem with this is, by unlocking the meaning, it’s open for interpretation. Would everyone interpret it the same way?”
He used to be a scholar until Communication Service for the Deaf took him in as Social Change Strategist and exploited his views. I bet Ryan couldn’t challenge Communication Service for the Deaf because he is stuck with them.
In my previous blog post:
“The Deaf community is powerful in the human psyche. Indeed, at this level of humanity, would the Deaf community understand the painful history of what the term “disability” define Deaf people? Have the Medical Model of Disability had caused enough destruction in the Deaf community?”
‘Do Deaf People Have a Disability?‘ published by Harlan Lane [4]:
“A disability is a limitation of function because of an impairment. Deaf people are limited in some functions because of an impairment of hearing. Therefore, Deaf people have a disability.”
Justice must include human rights and compassion. It must include an appreciation of Deaf cultural uniqueness. What strikes me the most by Lane’s writing as seen in the picture:
“On the other hand, the Deaf-World is a linguistic and cultural minority quite unlike disability groups and with a distinctly different agenda. Moreover, to be Deaf is not disability in Deaf culture, and most members of the Deaf-World see no disability in their ways of being. To give up their legal rights would be self-defeating; to demand them under disability law seems like hypocrisy.”
Does that mean the Deaf community has become a pet cause for Communication Service for the Deaf and National Deaf Therapy? This is not the spirit of the Deaf community. That is the sign of power-hunger. Or, is it power-struggle?
The true leadership that steps up to the plate with the facts as they are and makes intelligent decisions on those facts only and not only on the emotionalized, oppressive of the Deaf community and the misinformed public sentiment. Why is National Deaf Therapy under the auspices of Communication Service for the Deaf pushing for a chess game?
-JT
Copyright © 2019 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
References:
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augury
(2) Roach, Amy (2002). “Which is Correct: Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, or Hearing Impaired?” Deaf Linx. 22 Feb. 2003
(3) https://vimeo.com/12817361
(4) Lane, Harlan L. “Do Deaf People Have a Disability?” Sign Language Studies, vol. 2 no. 4, 2002, p. 356-379. Project MUSE
Links:
Calling Out Sean Markel and Greg Hlibok
Pioneers of Deaf Counseling: Web-Based Therapy
The pioneers of Deaf Counseling are the most prominent change makers and activists join together to create first idea for transformative change in offering web-based therapy, eTherapy, and technological ways to heal of human reform, making all the difference to give all opportunities available for Deaf community.
Questioning LEAD-K Statement
RID got Humpriezed
Registry of the Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) already boasts the biggest hearing privileges, that would guarantee newest CEO for RID, Joey Trapani one of the biggest flops ever to walk around.
Just for kicks, Trapani had only one year or even less in interpreting experience, and yet got RID’s highest position: CEO through a shoddy reputation that often overlooks his power as a white man with red-hot hearing privileges. Oh, he’s Children of Deaf Adults (CODA)—pffft! I do not care if he is CODA. So what? Don’t get me wrong, there are some cool CODAs and there are some not very cool CODAs.
Let’s get serious here. How could RID allow hearing privileges and oppress Deaf community? The cloak dagger continues. People are allowed to help others and it does not matter who it is. If it is their own, they are comfortable in then that is it.
The major issue of Audism exists in all of us, even RID would go into complete denial and regardless of what and who we are. The regardless of language oppression is what the RID apart and what made the RID being differed from Deaf community. RID had failed to address the underlying causes of Audism and hearing privileges and leaves Deaf community without a guidance to move forward. RID refuses to identify the roots of language hegemony. Deaf community does not need to deal with status quo.
CODA and with only a year in freelance interpreting experience suffers numerous misinterpretations—deliberate confounding, irreversible misunderstanding can be very costly and burdensome for Deaf community, and Deaf people have personally experienced them somewhere in their life.
What really binds the Deaf together is their culture—the language and the ideas they have in common. Knowledge of cultural forms within the Deaf community is necessary in sociological concerns.
Since RID is essentially important for Deaf community, particularly in its history stages. Willard Willow wrote in 1932, “Schools have a culture that is definitely their own. There are, in the school, complex rituals of personal relationships, a set of folkways, mores, and irrational sanctions, a moral code based upon them.”
RID is not a world of its own. It is not even a world. But because RID is in the world, because it is affected by situations, and because it orients itself comprehensively in those situations, RID had something to teach, RID has offered something to bring Deaf community to higher learning of interpreting. Well, that is something to think about.
In the light of RID’s failure to hold community accountability, it is time to boycott RID. It is time for interpreters to get their money back and revoke their RID memberships.
CEO Joey Trapani and the board president, Melvin Walker, need to resign. CODA and hearing privileges do not belong well in Deaf community. They both ignited the golden age of Audism and the dominance of hearing privileges of their namesake of ignorance, which furnished RID toward the notion of educational proof and has been thrown into the mind of Deaf community since. Hearing privileges–not cool.
Isn’t Deaf community exactly the right place to exchange and debate differing concerns? Perhaps RID has lost its professionalism and respect. RID got Humpriezed. In reference to Tom Humphries, the coinage of Audism. Deaf community should not be oppressed in the name of Audism. Deaf community is a minority of one, they deserve better. RID should be Deaf-centered, Deaf-oriented, and Deaf-controlled.
-JT
Copyright © 2018 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
Why Mental Health Awareness Month is Important for Deaf Community
This is the making of mental health awareness month. This is the Deaf community, which aims at presenting a view of awareness of how important Deaf-centered counseling in perspective.
The theme is the making of Deaf community. The discussion will be in two parts; for instance, the tension between hearing therapists and Deaf-centered therapists: continuity and change in mental health awareness community, the principles of social respect, the society, the differences between the hearing and Deaf people.
It is important that the mental health awareness month need to be understood. Deaf centered counselors makes all the difference: how it influenced, and been influenced by, the world of Deaf-centered thinking.
Today and tomorrow we need to push and recognize higher awareness about mental health on the edge of Atlantic and Pacific Ocean to empower Deaf community in America. We need to remember that mental health awareness is representative of Deaf community.
The mental health awareness symbolizes the individual journey we each must take to find our own path. Within the mental health awareness and Deaf-centered counseling, there are two directions. Circle of life, and center of the circle, is a symbol of strength, endurance, and vision.
Can we also understand that it is important to recognize that Deaf-centered counseling signifies the renewal of life and the compassion?
Please check out the only Deaf-centered counseling:
http://www.deafcounseling.com/
-JT
Copyright © 2018 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
Should Deaf Film Festival Run By Hearing Privileges?
Do you think it is fair for hearing privileges to be in charge of Deaf film festival?
Why Should Deaf People ‘Fall’ for Disability Scholarships?
‘Do Deaf people view as Disability?’ written by Harlan Lane, “A disability is a limitation of function because of an impairment. Deaf people are limited in some functions because of an impairment of hearing. Therefore, Deaf people have a disability.” The majority of Deaf people I know do not view themselves as disability. Deaf people have their daily calendar. It was one of the greatest ideology Deaf people deals with the stigma.
“During the Middle Ages, madness and other conditions were thought to be caused by demons. They were also thought to be part of the natural order, especially during and in the fallout of the Plague, which wrought impairments throughout the general population.”
“The European Enlightenment’s emphases on knowledge derived from reason and on the value of natural science to human progress helped spawn the birth of institutions and associated knowledge systems that observed and categorized human beings; among these, the ones significant to the development of today’s concepts of disability were asylums, clinics, and prisons.”- Braddock, David, and Susan Parrish, An Institutional History of Disability, in Handbook of Disability Studies, ed. Gary Albrecht, Katherine Seelman, and Michael Bury (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2001)
Why are Deaf people still viewed as demons and prisoners of the hearing colonization? Where is their greatest human right as Deaf people and their pursuit of happiness? It is a process in the healthy Deaf mind. The good news is, Deaf people will continue to discover the root causes of happy thinking heavily practiced and projected through Deafhood framework. The bad news is, the society continues to label Deaf people as disability will not able to see those “root causes.”
When Deaf people receive scholarships or awards directly from Disability organizations, they are quickly judged without conscious thought from the society. Some say it is invisible. Some say it is good thing. Some say it is a bad thing. Some say it is denial. Some is unconscious. But, within certain demographics it has overwhelmed the old politics, and there are plenty of Deaf people in this or that minority culture for whom the old-fashioned hearing politics is more relevant.
For most people of any group, including minority communities, the specifically sociological issues are a small proportion of the actually important yet it is invisible affecting Deaf people everywhere. The Disability framework about Deaf people should be pretty much extinct by now. In that sense, Deaf-centered view is quite welcoming to anyone Deaf. Is it always true? Language, communication, and deficit thinking exists in the term of denial. The reason Disability framework continues to perceive Deaf people so often wrong in that the literature has successfully evolved the status quo to guide oppressors to speculate whatever it is.
Good example: There are some people who actually think the world is flat today. What about the stars revolve around the earth to determine fate and future?
To be Deaf-centered thinking, (not a word to think “disability”) is something that begins with us. It begins in our hearts, in that place that is never separate from the living heart of ours. Between right and wrong, between night and day, and between matter and spirit.
Deaf communities around the world for so long that they have defined themselves in opposition too how the disability framework has viewed Deaf people. Deaf people have defined themselves, and had been defined—and that is the most important thing. It is important not to accept scholarships or awards from disability organizations.
It takes one scholar to recognize another one. I’d like to share my short personal story about scholarships. I was offered several scholarships from disability organizations and groups in the past, and I had to turn them down because I did not feel right about how the society views Deaf people as disability.
Deaf people are being drawn away from the chain of ignorance that the state of being Deaf imposes. Why do Deaf people have to suffer social bias? The educational structure of the Deaf has faced many hardships in the form of disability framework—often invisible. Simply associating Deaf people, as disability is not fair or accurate, as disability is not attributed to a cultural identity.
When I received full scholarship from ASL/Deaf Studies graduate program at Gallaudet University, I felt right. At least I hope I was right. The disability framework is the basic ingredient of American intellectual history. From the eye gaze, the Deaf people build a community that relies ASL for information, knowledge, and communication. Along with the American stories and journeys, we the Deaf people ought to give our community identity and meaning away from disability framework. Receiving scholarships or awards from Deaf-centered organizations would make all the difference.
-JT
Copyright © 2018 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
ALERT! AGBell is Back in…..Oregon?
That is right. Alexander Graham Bell Association is making a come back for the state of Oregon chapter. Janet Weil, President of AGBell, Oregon Chapter writes, “Did you know that his headstone in Nova Scotia says, ‘Teacher of the Deaf’?” to make sure Oregon must be listening and speaking state champion. Rake in big money. Nothing more important than the legacy of Audism continues to bulldoze Deaf community. No headstone of AGBell is allowed in Oregon.
Ms. Weil had enthusiastically described and explained in her letter, that it is time to track and deliver the message that AGBell services could provide. With confidence in an oppressive tone, she had brought her authority to a close with in her mind, “Now we are making sure Deaf community will lose”—It took only a few seconds for her to realize that she was in for a disaster.
Just three sets of eye staring—one set at her, one set at Deaf community, and one set out to get rid of American Sign Language (ASL) and force them to listen and speak instead. As the silence walks into Deaf eyes, Janet needs to know that her confidence is slipping away. The Audist behavior. Understanding the Audist behavior. Audists in review. Coping with Audists.
There were plenty of Deaf Oregonians had been oppressed under AGBell practices according to Paulo Freire in his book: The Politics of Education:
Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”
AGBell was powerful and Deaf Oregonians were powerless. They were forced to side with the powerful dictatorship, according to Ms. Weil’s “Teacher of the Deaf” refers in to AGBell. Now they are no longer powerless. The key is to cope successfully with complainers like AGBell. We need to know what lies behind their actions and how easy it is to be sucked into their world. We need to be aware the real problems, but AGBell is doing it in a private manner that elicits defensive responses from Deaf community.
Survivors of AGBell practices, we understand as the only kind of active behavior that seems possible to those people like AGBell feels powerless to determine Deaf people’s own fate. Deaf community refuses to be powerless when they favor American Sign Language for the instruction of learning. Ms. Weil writes, “I am passionate about this organization http://www.agbell.org and even more excited about what we can all do together to make a lasting difference, while having a great time. Looking forward to hearing from you.”
Who might Janet Weil? Her uncle, Arthur Simon was a founder of the Deaf Adults Section of AGB. She was an executive director and principal for Children’s Hearing and Speech Centre of BC (British Columbia) in Vancouver, Canada and it has been supported by the Alexander Graham Bell Association in Washington, D.C. and has been frequent supporter for VOLTA VOICES. She was a teacher-trained at Central Institute for the Deaf.
Any AGBell chapters in America, including Oregon are not welcomed. Deaf community will be continue to be the protectors of ASL, and give Janet Weil the balloon known as the phony know-it-all expert, balloons seek the attention of others by acting an expert when she is not. Janet also needs to be aware that she is not speaking for us, Deaf community behind her knowledge. Janet’s balloon is often tracking and targeting Deaf people for information to make AGBell proud, and that would lead to trouble only and be aware that the balloon will face the moment of truth that AGBell will be immobilized. Inactive. Deactivate.
Notice the area code. 415. That is in San Francisco. Janet is making all the decisions while living in California and tell Oregon what to do to build more Audists. What an attitude! How much is she getting paid to do? Living in San Francisco is expensive…….
The presence of ASL will always bring awareness and the probability of Oralism loss of face, on the other hand, will reduce the balloon to the most elemental kind of knowledge. ASL will always making a lasting a difference for lifetime. ASL will be always expensive to replace for listening and speaking or in the name of Oralism to please AGBell.
Do we do not need more scars anymore?
-JT
Copyright © 2018 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
...And the Truth Shall Set You Free. 
You must be logged in to post a comment.