Indoor Soccer Madness!!!

Today I was pretty tired after playing 3 games of indoor Soccer in one night. That's right 3 games in one night.

I played about 60 minutes worth of indoor soccer, and boy I've paid for it today. I was exhausted, nursed sore muscles and slipped in an occasional micro sleep throughout the day.

I won't be doing that again in a hurry, next season will start in the first week of June (a 1 week break, shit!!!). What I really need is to do this on a regular basis so I can adapt to running around, trapping the ball and work on my kicking power (which is rather pathetic).

Having said that, given the opportunity, I'll do it all over again next week in a heartbeat .

:D

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Audism part two.

Ok.. let's get a few things straight.

My previous post on Audism was made in the heat of the moment, what I should have done was to do a little research about the topic itself then make a post about it. Then I realised that I was writing something about my own personal experience not a frickin' research paper.

So.. here I am again.. part two.

Audism is derived from the Latin word audire meaning to hear, and -ism, meaning system of practice, behaviour, belief, or attitude.

First stop was the Audism.org website to find out what really constitutes Audism.

The website states the following...

1. Audism is the word that specifies the discrimination on the inability of hearing.  
   


2. The notion that one is superior based on one's ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears. (Zak 1996)

The only part of this definition I believe that really nails it is "The notion that one is superior based on one's ability to hear." I do not like the first point because it implies that only Hearing people are capable of Audism. It also fails to recognise that some Deaf/Hearing Impaired people do discriminate against hearing people.
I do not like the "behave in the manner of one who hears" bit either, since I behave like a hearing person in many ways it implies that I'm a walking example of Audism itself!!!

This definition needs to be clarified

Tony's right, this is a difficult topic to understand and articulate it on paper.

As I was wading through a mountain of reading material on this topic here my some of my observations..

• There is clear evidence of discrimination against Deaf people in the job market.


• Majority of causes of Audism can be traced to communication breakdown.


• Lack of representive Deaf people in executive positions on Deaf organisations and/or Deaf educational institutions kind of speaks for itself.

I've given up on this topic for now, one reason is that I do not know much about Deaf history. I believe knowing more about Deaf history will give me a better perspective on Audism itself.

In the mean time here are some links on the topic for you to read and decide for yourself what it means.

Stay tuned for part three...

http://urbansemiotic.com/2006/05/06/audists-and-audism/
http://znuage.blogspot.com/2006/11/originally-posted-in-personal-journal_05.html
http://library.gallaudet.edu/dr/faq-audism.html
http://www.meryl.net/ci/archives/004508.html

An interesting story about Gallaudet University, who do you think is the Audist and who is on the receiving end of it ? These links made me realise that I need to read more about Deaf history, so I encourage you to seek this information out yourself.
http://www.audism.org/Ryan/plealetter.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/26/opinion/main2125873.shtml
http://www.audism.org/gallaudetfacts.html

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Audism

I learnt a new word today.. Audism, it is a term used to describe prejudice against a deaf or hearing impaired person. A belief that hearing is superior to being Deaf.



This is an interesting word.. what a wonderful resource the Internet is. As I'm writing this post I'm grinning from ear to ear, as I normally do when I learn something new and stimulating.



Tony had recently made some wonderful cosmetic changes to his blog and saw the links to deaf related material (He possibly discovered them while doing research for his assignment at Uni). Amongst the links on Tony's blog is http://www.deafread.com/, which I will include in my list of links as well.



It is an extremely valuable resource for deafies. It was in this website I discovered a post on the Reunify Gally blog titled "Deaf rejecting deaf" (note the capitalisation of the two words).



This post is a well articulated piece describing a typical experience of a deaf† person. What was written in this post had generally matched my own experience when I first discovered the Deaf‡ community (see explanation of terms at the end of this post) in 2001.



Those experiences had a role to play in shaping my decision as to whether or not to get a Cochlear Implant in 2004. I made a brief mention about this in April 2006.



It's ironic that the Cochlear implant community is growing partially due to the Audism that exists in the Deaf community. At a time where the Deaf community in Australia itself is struggling to survive because their numbers are dwindling and the number of institutions who support the Deaf community are also closing in greater numbers.



I'll be honest with you because I do have some friends who are a part of the Deaf community and they do regularly attend community events in an effort to support the community. They will not like what I'm about to say. I'm unable to contain my glee (Schadenfreude is a lovely word isn't it) that this is happening.



All is not entirely lost, today I went to a Cochlear Implant community event and discovered that there are a few young people who have implants are organising social events inviting Deaf & deaf people to come together in a neutral environment in an effort to reduce Audism.



A lofty goal for sure, can such initiatives succeed ? All it will do is slowly help mend the rifts between the two groups but I don't believe it will completely eradicate Audism. But it will go a long way towards minimising it in both camps.



I can honestly say that I've no regrets about getting the implant, in fact the only regret was that I didn't get it done earlier. Oh well there's no point in worrying about it now. It's changed my life for the better, so much that I'm seriously considering getting another implant in my other ear.



Now I'm off to do some interesting reading about Audism.....







† deaf: a word to categorise a deaf person who does not participate in cultural events within a sign language community. Generally these people have a spoken language as their "mother tongue" and do not use sign language on a regular basis.



‡ Deaf: a word to categorise a culturally deaf person, who use a sign language on a regular basis and they generally participate in cultural events within a sign language community. Generally these people have a sign language as their "mother tongue".

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A Goldmine of Sorts

While I'm recovering from recent surgery (which is why I haven't been going out and socialising lately), I took the opportunity to do some research on the Internet about Hearing Impairment/Deafness (whatever the fuck you want to call it) and socialising with hearing people.

Well good 'ol Google had dusted off this paper which personally made my jaw hit the floor and reading it had surfaced some emotions that I had buried deep within myself. The last time these emotions had surfaced was when I was in high school, and periodically while I was growing up.

This paper explored the effects of how well a deaf person can socialise in a hearing environment, level of education etc after receiving a mainstream education. A lot of what was written in this paper had matched my own personal experiences while I was growing up. So reading it had brought a lot of old memories and re-opened some old wounds that I thought was long gone. Hence the emotions which bubbled to the surface. By reading a different perspective on certain issues surrounding mainstream education, it has equipped me with a better understanding of the education I had received.

If you are a deaf/hearing impaired person who had received a mainstream education, I cannot emphasise how important this paper is. I strongly urge you to read this paper as it will provide a valuable insight into the issues of deaf education. Unfortunately the author of this paper had only used one person as a case study for his conclusions on mainstream education for deaf people.

The paper is in pdf format, so you will need the Adobe Reader to be able to view it.

Click here to read the paper I found.