Anne Marie's metaASL

Is ASL Deaf community sexy? Critique of Ryan Commerson’s “Re-defining Deaf”

Anne Marie Baer — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:05:35 +0000

If you have not seen Ryan Commerson’s film discussion about Deaf people, media, and current thinking about our language-cultural representation in media, watch his film atRe-defining Deaf by Ryan Commerson 2008

Please kindly accept me not being able to type up a translation of my discussion in ASL right away, I will try to post a text shortly when I am able to. I wish not to miss the opportunity to follow up Ryan’s presentation given the matter of timing. Also this time I am able to try to follow your contribution in commentary. I am open to any input as long as it is civil and sexy enough.

DBC, which is the faster and easier way to good deaf life, l’chaim?

Anne Marie Baer — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:05:36 +0000

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Look at the upcoming Deaf Life magazine thinking what it means faster and easier way to a good deaf life, L’Chaim? Be surprised, see this upcoming Deaf Life magazine in August 2008 In Hebrew, this L’Chaim means good life. I am talking particularly to you L’Chaim and also to everyone. I have been watching you vlogs and..we do not forget you and your grueling childhood being an oralist. Your stories touch me. I completely feel for how you had went through and want to tell how DBC is doing what to keep from this keeping on happening again. It reminds of my Deaf mother born in Germany during Nazi reign. Her family knew she would be sterilized to completely annihilate entire of undesirable subhuman groups and diversity as possible to prefect their kleenly klean world. Here is the link to my story how she was hidden at her family home until after war two hence survivors, four of us Deaf and also our Deaf children. Not meaning to put you on the spot, let’s talk about two possibilities we can consider, there is one where some of us think we can expect this wrongful situation will not happen by keeping on thrusting a heavy log on their thick, welded door, bang, baoom, broom..hollering at them how rotten lousy these auditsts really are.Or..we just keep on making e-mail correspondences, videophone calls, and lunch appointments to collaborate with different organizations and legislators, and agencies that will say, yes we can do this?Things cannot happen without good networking, legalizations, and processes, just as for almost all other matters anywhere. Hey, why did not we talk about this long time ago? Truthfully so little have been done here opposed to some people want us to believe. Historically we already did however it was not that substantial as needed enough for changes to really happen. What more we need to is to keep on offering and ideas how we can come up with so many alternatives and promote educational and interactive media and also more human service like language - speech specialist people who do a lot of one-to-one service for individuals and families. We sure can have that for ASL, only if we be more visually vocal, be constantly pressing and insisting for not just due processes, but ongoing processes with civility, that is an ongoing dialogue keeping everything in check and balance? Actually it is yet to happen, you can quickly tell it in your own gut.

Although there has been saying about resistance, stalling, slowness, constant neglects, and shrug off dismals. Yet did we try enough? Did we try to re-do strategy and reframe our wording so that makes more sense and feasible? Impatience and demand keep on pressing than ever. They keep on getting greater and is greater than ever.

BUT..have we yet been out to lunches and parties with people working for signing babies, chairs - directors of speech language departments, and agencies, pediatricians, and representatives of health care services to come up with creative ideas that becomes more of everyone’s winning situation? Have we?? What if we already did? Did we?

This is what we need to see and reexamine and re-avenue our goals to where our burning passion should be well consumed, that is deaf and hoh children grow to be best accomplished full whole human beings they are as being birthright to be by being fluent in a language or best being competent in both languages as possible.

There is two possibilities to sit back and consider, which should be faster and more effective: keep on rallying, hollering, or somehow get connected with others for more dialogue whatever that would get us moving farther and faster? This is how things would happen in most ones’ favor, only if we keep on working with others.

In closing, here what we ourselves try to do locally, we are starting to work with Deaf community members and parents of deaf - hoh kids to volunteer after school activities for deaf and hoh children at a local community center so that we can start networking with most powerful people, namely, parents of deaf and hoh children for more dialogue and much more development that are yet to happen. Or should we go to rallies and keep on hollering and shouting? This strategy and politic identity do not give deaf good life, honestly no, L’Chaim.

DBC members - no voting power

Anne Marie Baer — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:59:29 +0000

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I was a former DBC member who also was deleted from the roster without acknowledgment. In my vlog I am sharing my experience as a former DBC member who had no voting power. Leaders were self-selected. Then they make decisions after only hearing out members. At first I was not sure because the organization was being founded. I asked the group to use the polling system on our web group discussion, a tool that would enable full democracy in the group. It was never put in use. I felt like going back to square one, being totally oppressed. It reminded me of old days at Gally when everything was nearly always behind closed doors.

After investigating on non profit organizations management how power and decision making processes should be distributed within groups. I learned that structures vary from a place to other place around the globe. Ok..from my perspective about DBC members not having voting power, it is not really healthy for any Deaf person to feel constantly oppressed especially when it comes to their own core of being oppressed trying to fight the same oppression of ASL language and Deaf babies - children’s right to it. This is how things really got out of proportion for me. I became silent and eventually was ousted.

Although there is variety of political structures in organizations, let me share you a text I found from a website about launching and managing an organization.

The Selection Process

“An inclusive leader selection process is important. Making the selection process appear inclusive of all members, to the extent possible, increases positive perceptions of the leader and support for change. The automatic leadership rotation process produced the least positive leadership perceptions. Even in the organization where leaders were appointed by a district bishop, the general membership perceived that they at least had “veto” power over the final hiring decision. Although in actuality they did not have that power, their perception of having a voice in the selection process created a personal ownership of the hiring decision and a responsibility to support the leader.”

www.maxwideman.com - a site about launching and managing an organization

My Deaf film review: Beyond the World (Dietro il Mondo)

Anne Marie Baer — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:59:48 +0000

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For more information about the film, check at LightKitchen

ASL sessions, ASL coaching, ASL skills enhancement, health insurance pays!

Anne Marie Baer — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:50:29 +0000

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Commentary available (I am sorry, the commentary kept on snapping out, it needs more time to get fixed.)

Kevin Gamache, ASLPride raised an excellent point about ASL Modifiers . I created a vlog last night in response to his suggestion and thinking more already, I wanted to redo but decided to leave it as it is. A lot can be discussed.Here are pointers:

Actual terms used for ASL modifiers are like ASL coaching, ASL skills enhancement, ASL sessions, similar as voice coaching, accent reduction, speech sessions, speech language therapy.

Vloggers fluent in ASL can help with feedback although with limit. Areas in ASL that are still developmental have two main things: Weakness - errors can be fixed right away and other types need more time for acquisition. ASL teachers with at least few years of teaching experience and those who already studied ASL structures can point out more clearly which are worth concentrating on and those best left to improve with time.

Anyone with speech language problems can have their own health insurance pay for speech/language assessment and sessions with speech audiologist to help with improving their speech and language skills. So anyone deprived of ASL input in their childhood CAN try to negotiate with their health insurance to have this coverage for ASL skills coaching.One time I did get approval for treatment not specifically stated in the policy. I insisted acupuncture treatments to treat chronic headache problems because no medicine worked. My insurance had an underwriter to approve 10 sessions, twice for a year and these 20 sessions did work.

I am not too crazy about the word “therapy”, it is in a way detrimental. I choose this term coaching just like movie stars from other countries just hire their own voice coaching to smoothen out their accent and odd wordings in English as second language. However for getting insurance coverage, insurers would use a more medical term “therapy”, that is the way how they can underwrite. Let them say it so that you can get coverage and you still tell your friends that you got an ASL coach!

There is another option - negotiate with your work administrator to include ASL skills enhancement for professional development. I tutored numberless signers to improve their ASL skills for their employment, tenure, and promotion. At the most of time it was covered by their employment benefit.

See links about voice coaching, catering services with fees. My Voice Coach, Your Voice Coach, Broadcast Voice Specialist, Stress Reduction Counselor, Voice Power Studios

Standard fee for speech language service an hour is around $75 and it can go as high as $150 an hour. See fees at a speech language center, this center does include ASL service - scroll down to see that. ADHEARENCE, LLC

I did look for information about health insurance coverage for services in Spanish and bilingualism but I have not came across anything relevant yet.

Having a full cognitive language experience is not a privilege, it is your right and

a human right.

Deaf and hearing families together at holiday gatherings

Anne Marie Baer — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:09:06 +0000

We have a wonderful hearing family friend with a 6 year old Deaf son living near us. We get together on Christmas eve and also on other occasions with interpreters. This is how we do.

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Julie Rems Smario DeafHope on CNN: One of 18 CNN Heroes finalists

Anne Marie Baer — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:00:00 +0000

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We are soooo ferociously proud of our friend Julie Rems Smario and her family. Julie is one of 18 CNN heroes finalists, see here! Out of 7,000 heroes around the world, only 18 finalists were nominated. On Thursday Dec 6th, 6 winners will be announced, one for each category, championing children, community crusader, defending the planet, fighting for justice, medical marvel, and young wonder. Julie is one of three finalists in community crusader, each finalists receive $10,000 and 6 winners will receive another $25,000 that will go toward their cause.

Kate Kovacs Board Chair’s note about DeafHope being on CNN and clarification

Thanks to Adam Stone for a wonderful write-up in DeafDC.com about Julie and DeafHope today. Like many of us, I was anticipating and on my toes until CNN finally (pah!) aired our segment at the last part of their 2-hour show. When it came on, it was enlightening to see how everything was put together and in other words, “crunched together” (from 2 days worth of filming) to do a 2-minute clip describing Julie’s work at DeafHope. Wow, when other people put it in perspective for the world to see, it is mind-boggling! We wanted to watch the segment with Julie but with the change in the airing date and Julie being out of state at a conference, it wasn’t possible.However proud we are of the clip shown, they made an incorrect statement about DeafHope being the only DV SV organization in North America. We know it isn’t true but how do we tell the general public who has seen the segment? We have organizations like ADWAS and DAWN to name a few. The producer asked if we were the only one in Northern California so you can see how this error may have been made. Our website has a listing of other DV SV agencies across the country. Granted, there are not many similar agencies across the US, but we are hoping that that will change soon enough. Especially with great visions of what an organization can do for the Deaf community with agencies like ADWAS who opened its first shelter not so long ago after years of commitment to the cause.It is always inspiring when we have Deaf leaders, DV SV agencies, survivors, and even the general public to root us on and direct our paths. We do want to congratulate Julie again on this accomplishment and we would love to see people send in their comments and pictures to add to our “When violence against women stops, I will…” banner on our website to make this a powerful and positive move toward our goal which is to eradicate violence in our society.Being selected as one of the 18 finalist is a honor for Julie and DeafHope. December 6th is the date when CNN announces the final 6 all star Heroes. Its going to be very tough for the blue ribbon panelists to decide because each and every finalists did wonderful work on both a local and global scale and one can only imagine the work the 7,000 nominates have done. And don’t forget there are many more who haven’t been recognized. Whether Julie is chosen or not, we are proud of her. Here’s to hoping our story is both seen and heard everywhere to make a difference. Ah, we shouldn’t just hope, we believe it will happen!

Kate Kovacs
DeafHope Board Chair

Check us out at DeafHope website

Here is the DeafHope’s link to all Deaf domestic violence survivors programs across U.S.A.

Deaf family against Deaf family after many years

Anne Marie Baer — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:18:41 +0000

Now is a heightened time for families especially when moments of remembrance and holiday gathering occur. This is a story I learned from an elder from one of these two Deaf families living in the same area for many years.

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This is one beautiful story about how a Deaf family welcomed a Deaf roomate with nearly full blown HIV and contagious hepatitis B disease for two years. This roomate is a sweet and funny guy in his 50’s rejected by his own family because of being Deaf.

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It’s our Deaf Noam now 10 months old.

Anne Marie Baer — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:10:17 +0000

He is sitting on his dad’s first Devia chair. Developmentally he is growing nicely, now finally sitting upright on his own. He is also standing on both feet with help of his both hands on something. He constantly hand babbles yet to form a sign word. He should be coming up with a sign word anytime. He is now wearing high ended digital aids (worth $5,000 fully paid by the state of Colorado) for short interventions daily, he loves music that he does actually dance to music and with 95 db loss in both ears, he can localize where sounds come from. He receives three time weekly speech auditory training. We do not yet know how good his speech auditory perception is, we will just go as to this point, no more than that.

Devia oak chair by Uzi Buzgalo 2006

Anne Marie Baer — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:11:47 +0000

Here’s an oddity, we found this oak chair at a garage sale. Uzi saw out figures of hands and smoothened them, it is the very first Devia chair, one out of three seats here in our house. See the next posting above with our Deaf Noam sitting on it.

Finally a Trick ‘n Treat

Anne Marie Baer — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:01:06 +0000

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Finally a trick ‘n treat, here is newly released ASL literature work “Haunted Dorm” It was created two years ago, inspired by experience of oppression encountered in an ASL research project, I decided to turn it into a literary work piece that could serve a genre of entertainment work in ASL as well as for providing a deep thought provoking anaylsis useful for Deaf studies and social studies. The 3-min introduction explains about four actual characters how their shameness of being so ruthless oppressants and the point of climax of the story are intended to be interpreted.
In this work, I added a variety of cinematic effects that incorporates in ASL parameters to settings of the story to enhance effects. I wish to point out two well known Deaf film makers and a Deaf vlogger who also used similar cinematic effects in their works to add greater dimensions to our language and culture.

Barbara Digiovianni’s heartwarming congratalations to Julie Rems Smario for recieiving a Humanitarian award Internationally recognized at the eWomenNetwork Foundation International Femtor Awards Gala.

Daniele Le Rose’s presentation of “The Le Rose Cut” H-M-H model theory as well as Rene Visco’s film work “Audism” at LightKitchen that demonstrates these cinematic effects

The “Haunted Dorm” story lasts 11 minute, it is not like a 3 to 5 min quickie. It is for entertainment in first version, consider it not a final product yet.

To cite:

Baer, Anne Marie. (2007, October 31). Finally a Trick’n Treat. Retrieved (put on date when you download it), from http://www.annemariemetaasl.com/2007/10/31/finally-a-trick-n-treat/

Haunted Dorm

Anne Marie Baer — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:20:21 +0000

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Haunted Dorm by Anne Marie Baer, one of her innovative ASL lyrics works intended to protray Deaf experience of oppression in rather more literature sense. This work is still in process, there are so much being experimented in this work leaving to two main areas that still need fine tuning: ASL telling story technique and cinematic effects. I shared this with some of my friends and got different feedback. Holding it already for two years, I cannot hold it forever and do not think I will have time to re-shoot myself and do better video editing work, I decided to r e l e a s e it! Enjoy.

To cite:

Baer, Anne Marie. (2007, October 31). Haunted Dorm. Retrieved (put on date when you download it), from http://www.annemariemetaasl.com/2007/10/31/haunted-dorm/

Me and my grandmother on the 1st day of Sukkot holiday. Uzi Buzgalo 2007

Anne Marie Baer — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 05:26:23 +0000

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This is Uzi Buzgalo’s other Devia artwork recently completed. This is a remarkable example of how a Deaf individual self empowers by accomplishing something on his own and enjoys the ownership. This is in reference to my previous vlog discussion about Deaf empowerment issues, Difference between being self empowered and empowered by others. Instead of having to be with his all hearing families to celebrate Sukkot holiday, a Jewish tradition to build huts and tents, he stayed with his grandmother to build his own little one. His grandmother remains in his fondest memory for using Moroccan gestures and home signs that provided the foundation of his language development in his early childhood. You can notice his grandmother holding the chair steadily to allow her 10 year old Deaf grandson (Uzi) build his hut and self empower himself this way while his families celebrate Sukkot in the far distance as can be seen in the upper left of the painting.

See Uzi Buzgalo’s Arts Gallery

How processes of empowerment may differ in one having the ownership and self autonomy critical for Deaf individuals, community, and socialization processes. 4 min

Anne Marie Baer — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:29:38 +0000

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This is a follow-up discussion of previous vlog about Difference between being self empowered and empowered by others. I question whether empowerment by others on reliance of a philosophy, social theoretical framework will allow one to having a full ownership of achievement. Self empowerment does, and having an ownership is necessary for self autonomy that is the ability to to self actualize to great extent.

To cite:

Baer, Anne Marie. (2007, October 18). How processes of empowerment may differ in one having the ownership and self autonomy critical for Deaf individuals, community, and socialization processes. Retrieved (put on date when you download it), from http://www.annemariemetaasl.com/2007/10/19/how-processes-of-empowerment-may-differ-in-one-having-the-ownership-and-self-automation-critical-for-deaf-individuals-community-and-socialization-processes-4-min/

How a human group comes together to be empowered or only some being so. 3 1/2 min

Anne Marie Baer — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:30:36 +0000

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Second point - experience of Deaf survivors being fully participants, we all find it self empowering 4 min

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3rd video clip: There is a stark difference in being empowered by other and being self empowered 3 1/2 min

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Deaf discourse: What it means to be self empowered or empowered by other? Three video clips discuss on how social experience processes can have impact on one becoming emancipated to not being quite so. There is a difference in being empowered by other and being self empowered.To cite:

Baer, Anne Marie. (2007, October 15). How a human group comes together to be empowered or only some being so. Retrieved (put on date when you download it), from http://www.annemariemetaasl.com/2007/10/15/how-a-human-group-comes-together-to-be-empowered-or-only-some-being-so-3-12-min/

Deaf Noam infant at 7;0 mos already starts signing - video clips with an explanation about first year language development - 12 min video with links

Anne Marie Baer — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 06:36:38 +0000

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This is to get an idea how a signing baby develops language during his first month to about 8 - 10 months before developing a first sign word. I cannot subtitle a 12 minute long video clip. For non signers and new ones, you can scale to video clips to observe our deaf Noam at 4;5 and 7;0 starts using hands to develop “pre” sign vocabulary, known as protoword. Also you can watch how mom and her infant interact.

Nature moms – a brief clear explanation of how signing enhances early onset language development

Dr Laura-Ann Pettito’s most recent work on hand babbling

New York Times on Infant’s hand babbling to language development

More current research information on babbling and the transition to prototypical sign can be found in chapter 9 “The Form of Early Signs: Explaining Signing Children’s Articulatory Development” by Richard Meier in an edited book: Schick, Marschark, & Spencer. (Eds.). (2006). Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children. (pp. 202-230). New York: Oxford University Press.

Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children

To cite:

Baer, Anne Marie. (2007, August 19). Deaf Noam infant at 7;0 mos already starts signing. Retrieved September 29, 2007, from http://annemarieasl.tumblr.com/post/9109141

My Deaf mother during Nazi time in Germany

Anne Marie Baer — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:52:57 +0000

My three deaf siblings and I are survivors if it was not for our grandparents who hid my mother in their house during her childhood. They had no choice but had to drill my mother to sound like a hearing to avoid suspicion. Many deaf people in Germany were sterilized. Despite my mother’s residual hearing with fairly good auditory speech comprehension, she still felt so suppressed from having to keep on concentrating. The psychological effect lasted through her lifetime. It would have made a huge difference if she and her family were allowed to speak, sign, and be bilingual.

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To cite:

Baer, Anne Marie. (2007, July 27). My Deaf mother during Nazi time in Germany. Retrieved (put on date when you download it), from http://www.annemariemetaasl.com/2007/07/27/my-deaf-mother-during-nazi-time-in-germany/

Deaf infant Noam 6;0 mos old develops attention skills for prereading

Anne Marie Baer — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:52:51 +0000

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Tips for deaf infant prereading skills development

1) Pick a book that has easy to see, single image each page.

2) Let your baby look at pictures before saying anything. It may take awhile before your baby will be ready to watch you signing.

3) Keep the image close to your face, allow the baby look at the picture then when s/he looks at you, s/he is ready.

4) Repeat same signs few times and stop when the baby looks away. That way s/he will learn it is the end of conversation when one is not looking.

5) Let baby touch your hand when signing, even on the image if there is texture to feel.

6) It is perfectly fine to fingerspell a or few short words. Even at this age, child develops acute receptive skills for reading fingerspelling important for English vocabulary development.

It is the beginning of child’s literacy and language development!

To cite:

Baer, Anne Marie. (2007, July 12). Deaf infant Noam 6;0 mos old develops attention skills for prereading. Retrieved (put on date when you download it), from http://www.annemariemetaasl.com/2007/07/12/deaf-infant-noam-60-mos-old-develops-attention-skills-for-prereading/

Gotta show off a new Devia work!

Anne Marie Baer — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:10:18 +0000

This is “Six Days of Sitting” artwork my husband Uzi just completed. As usual I helped to touch up a bit. The actual history to this creative work is..Uzi was one of deaf students who were all of sudden transported to the basement of a building when 6 Days War began. He spent 4 days sitting in the basement, in darkness without electricity but with a candlelight that drew all hands of deaf children. They played out thoughts for hours. The back seat resembles a small window concealed with blue paint, a broken iron decorator, and brown tapes taped over the glass to prevent from shattering. On fifth day, everyone got out and had to stay in Jerusalem while Israelis fought on the outskirt of the country until the war finally ended on the 6th day.