NAD: Personal Reflections I
Normally, I don't have the money or ability to attend the NAD convention; I had only been once, in 1994 at Knoxville, and only then because I was a direct participant. I did consider the possibility of Portland in 1996, but being a poor, unemployed student at the time, I decided to take a pass. In 2002, we chose to spend our time and hard-earned cash on Deaf Way II; considering half the Deaf-World was at Deaf Way, I doubt we missed a lot-- as it is, I have very fond memories of Deaf Way II (for all you wild-eyed conspiracy theorists out there, consider this: I. King Jordan helped with and was President of Gallaudet during both Deaf Way events... Make of that what you will). This time, we're poor and unemployed, but hell-- Palm Desert is just over a couple hours away. So out came our checkbook, and away we went.
First of all, spending my time in 110+ heat is not my idea of fun. But then again, sitting in a puddle in humid, sweaty New Orleans at the height of summer wouldn't have been on the top of my to-do list either. Luckily, I spent 99.9% of my time inside, with the rare exception being those moments I stepped outside to quickly ensure my Sidekick would sputter back to life, enabling me to keep in touch with everyone else inside.
The first thing we did after checking into Le Resort was hit the exhibit room. I regret that I didn't pay attention to every booth, because later I was told that I could find X services there, or Y product at that table. My wife raved over the Ubi Duo-- if you're curious about this, check this blog by frequent commenter McConnell out-- there's tons here about it. While I don't think the Ubi Duo is going to be the be-all and end-all that McConnell thinks it is, it does sound like another excellent tool in the never-ending search for communication between deaf and hearing people.
I did run into a couple of old friends-- one was a 1994 Knoxville companion, and I finally got to meet his wife, in addition to catching up on our lives. Another was a former housemate, and unfortunately we had all of five minutes to talk-- never saw him again during the conference. Walking up and down the halls brought yet another familiar face, followed by another... I bet you regardless of all the hoopla regarding NAD, and especially this year's edition replete with the Gallaudet saga, that at heart this is what it all comes down to-- we deaf pay to socialize. *grin*
The TDI booth afforded me the opportunity to be handed some papers on emergency measures regarding communications equipment-- some of it is quite useful to know. Other booths had the usual information on colleges, social services, and telecommunications. Despite knowing that T-Mobile had just released the SKIII, I somehow never arrived at their booth to ask if I could test it out.
One unique booth was Clerc Tea, run by MSSD alumni and current Gallaudet student Branic Keltz. This company, founded within the past year, sells three different kinds of tea and tea accessories. The web page is a bit sparse, and could use some work (perhaps a job that could be contracted out to deaf-owned and operated companies such as TaylerInfomedia). But since my dishwashing partner LOVES tea, I'm definitely keeping the website bookmarked. It's opportunities to learn about new ventures like this that are great about such gatherings/conferences/events.
One thing that struck me as different from past conferences and conventions was the message board near the information booth. In years past, it would have been covered with messages, notes, and the like (I remember Knoxville-- there was absolutely no room left on the board by the end of the first afternoon!). During this past week, I noticed a grand total of 4-5 messages over the three days I passed it, and most of what was posted there were job announcements. As a community, we've progressed into the information age and modern telecommunications with no problems, but age-old issues such as un- and underemployment and job networking remain with us...
The workshops I attended were great, although given the prevalence of Deafhood throughout the blogosphere the last few months, you'd think the workshop coordinators would have done two things:
1) found a much larger space for all four Deafhood workshops (to their credit, they checked with the hotel management after the first two workshops resulted in people on the floor, along the wall, at the door, and out in the hallway; but unfortunately, there was no switch to a larger venue); a friend ventured that it was not only a problem for people who wanted to see the presenters, but it raised concerns of fire safety issues.
2) we need a mea culpa from whomever scheduled the FSSA workshop and the first Deafhood presentation at the exact same time. Given the recent fireworks at Gallaudet, it was a given the FSSA workshop was going to be heavily attended. The same was true for the Deafhood series (I attended the last two, and the room was *packed* both times). A lot of people I know wanted to attend both, and had to be forced to choose. Let's hope the next conference brings a more evenly distributed schedule. Naturally, there will always be workshops that are scheduled at the same time-- you can't avoid that-- but the top two issues of the month/year/decade at the same time? Come on...
One thing I thought could be improved for those of us in the audience is the seating placement. At many conferences I've gone to for history associations and the like, the typical seating is in rows. But I think such seating (which was provided at NAD) isn't as deaf friendly as it could be. I know hotel staff set up and broke down the seating/tables, but perhaps next time it could be arranged to have the rows set up diagonally, so that on the left side, the row could start at top left and slope downward to the right, and on the right side, from top right and ending sloped to the left? This would prevent us from having a permanent crick in our neck as we twist our necks to the left or right to view the speaker.
I greatly enjoyed the "Tribute to ASL and Deaf Culture" entertainment on Friday night. While some of it clearly was Deaf-World in-jokes and humor (witness Vikee Waltrip's hilarious take on a SEE teacher's instructions to her class on how to sign/say the Pledge of Allegiance), some of it was magical, such as TOYS, which some of us saw at previous events/gatherings (Deaf Way II, for example). All of us in the room witnessed parity with the hearing community when Sam Costner and Todd Behanna presented a commercial disguised as a classic comedy routine for the edification of the audience; like most commercials, I could have done without it. I suggest that next year, a different company allow its employees to stage a scene from "A Streetcar Named Desire," or appropriate a Burns and Allen routine-- lord knows we need some classic material in our commercials...
But for me, two highlights were Bernard Bragg and Mark Morales. Bragg was hardly in the sunset of his career as he reminded us that we are all "just deaf." I felt this set a great tone for the unity that the community has claimed is present, but that seemed woefully lacking in the wake of the Gallaudet protests in May. Morales completely stunned me with his brilliant rendering of the historical encounter between the Spanish conquistadors and the Aztecs, narrated as an ABC story, starting from A to Z, then 1 through 10, then backwards through the numbers and alphabet. I ran into Morales the next day, and we discovered a mutual love of Latin American history. I'm hoping he'll continue to create such brilliant syntheses of ASL and history and other subjects.
This is getting a wee bit long. I'll continue this later, but before I quit, I just want to say that those of you who I haven't seen for ages, those of you who shared your mealtimes with me, sat and caught up with me... I greatly enjoyed the time we had, wished we had more, and value your friendship. As for the half-European, I'm gonna see if I can book in advance some time with you for the next time you're in the States, whether it's a year from now or five. *grin*
First of all, spending my time in 110+ heat is not my idea of fun. But then again, sitting in a puddle in humid, sweaty New Orleans at the height of summer wouldn't have been on the top of my to-do list either. Luckily, I spent 99.9% of my time inside, with the rare exception being those moments I stepped outside to quickly ensure my Sidekick would sputter back to life, enabling me to keep in touch with everyone else inside.
The first thing we did after checking into Le Resort was hit the exhibit room. I regret that I didn't pay attention to every booth, because later I was told that I could find X services there, or Y product at that table. My wife raved over the Ubi Duo-- if you're curious about this, check this blog by frequent commenter McConnell out-- there's tons here about it. While I don't think the Ubi Duo is going to be the be-all and end-all that McConnell thinks it is, it does sound like another excellent tool in the never-ending search for communication between deaf and hearing people.
I did run into a couple of old friends-- one was a 1994 Knoxville companion, and I finally got to meet his wife, in addition to catching up on our lives. Another was a former housemate, and unfortunately we had all of five minutes to talk-- never saw him again during the conference. Walking up and down the halls brought yet another familiar face, followed by another... I bet you regardless of all the hoopla regarding NAD, and especially this year's edition replete with the Gallaudet saga, that at heart this is what it all comes down to-- we deaf pay to socialize. *grin*
The TDI booth afforded me the opportunity to be handed some papers on emergency measures regarding communications equipment-- some of it is quite useful to know. Other booths had the usual information on colleges, social services, and telecommunications. Despite knowing that T-Mobile had just released the SKIII, I somehow never arrived at their booth to ask if I could test it out.
One unique booth was Clerc Tea, run by MSSD alumni and current Gallaudet student Branic Keltz. This company, founded within the past year, sells three different kinds of tea and tea accessories. The web page is a bit sparse, and could use some work (perhaps a job that could be contracted out to deaf-owned and operated companies such as TaylerInfomedia). But since my dishwashing partner LOVES tea, I'm definitely keeping the website bookmarked. It's opportunities to learn about new ventures like this that are great about such gatherings/conferences/events.
One thing that struck me as different from past conferences and conventions was the message board near the information booth. In years past, it would have been covered with messages, notes, and the like (I remember Knoxville-- there was absolutely no room left on the board by the end of the first afternoon!). During this past week, I noticed a grand total of 4-5 messages over the three days I passed it, and most of what was posted there were job announcements. As a community, we've progressed into the information age and modern telecommunications with no problems, but age-old issues such as un- and underemployment and job networking remain with us...
The workshops I attended were great, although given the prevalence of Deafhood throughout the blogosphere the last few months, you'd think the workshop coordinators would have done two things:
1) found a much larger space for all four Deafhood workshops (to their credit, they checked with the hotel management after the first two workshops resulted in people on the floor, along the wall, at the door, and out in the hallway; but unfortunately, there was no switch to a larger venue); a friend ventured that it was not only a problem for people who wanted to see the presenters, but it raised concerns of fire safety issues.
2) we need a mea culpa from whomever scheduled the FSSA workshop and the first Deafhood presentation at the exact same time. Given the recent fireworks at Gallaudet, it was a given the FSSA workshop was going to be heavily attended. The same was true for the Deafhood series (I attended the last two, and the room was *packed* both times). A lot of people I know wanted to attend both, and had to be forced to choose. Let's hope the next conference brings a more evenly distributed schedule. Naturally, there will always be workshops that are scheduled at the same time-- you can't avoid that-- but the top two issues of the month/year/decade at the same time? Come on...
One thing I thought could be improved for those of us in the audience is the seating placement. At many conferences I've gone to for history associations and the like, the typical seating is in rows. But I think such seating (which was provided at NAD) isn't as deaf friendly as it could be. I know hotel staff set up and broke down the seating/tables, but perhaps next time it could be arranged to have the rows set up diagonally, so that on the left side, the row could start at top left and slope downward to the right, and on the right side, from top right and ending sloped to the left? This would prevent us from having a permanent crick in our neck as we twist our necks to the left or right to view the speaker.
I greatly enjoyed the "Tribute to ASL and Deaf Culture" entertainment on Friday night. While some of it clearly was Deaf-World in-jokes and humor (witness Vikee Waltrip's hilarious take on a SEE teacher's instructions to her class on how to sign/say the Pledge of Allegiance), some of it was magical, such as TOYS, which some of us saw at previous events/gatherings (Deaf Way II, for example). All of us in the room witnessed parity with the hearing community when Sam Costner and Todd Behanna presented a commercial disguised as a classic comedy routine for the edification of the audience; like most commercials, I could have done without it. I suggest that next year, a different company allow its employees to stage a scene from "A Streetcar Named Desire," or appropriate a Burns and Allen routine-- lord knows we need some classic material in our commercials...
But for me, two highlights were Bernard Bragg and Mark Morales. Bragg was hardly in the sunset of his career as he reminded us that we are all "just deaf." I felt this set a great tone for the unity that the community has claimed is present, but that seemed woefully lacking in the wake of the Gallaudet protests in May. Morales completely stunned me with his brilliant rendering of the historical encounter between the Spanish conquistadors and the Aztecs, narrated as an ABC story, starting from A to Z, then 1 through 10, then backwards through the numbers and alphabet. I ran into Morales the next day, and we discovered a mutual love of Latin American history. I'm hoping he'll continue to create such brilliant syntheses of ASL and history and other subjects.
This is getting a wee bit long. I'll continue this later, but before I quit, I just want to say that those of you who I haven't seen for ages, those of you who shared your mealtimes with me, sat and caught up with me... I greatly enjoyed the time we had, wished we had more, and value your friendship. As for the half-European, I'm gonna see if I can book in advance some time with you for the next time you're in the States, whether it's a year from now or five. *grin*
posted by Mr. Sandman | 10:37 PM
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