Queensland deaf educator Dimity Dornan has described deafness as a scourge that can be eradicated, like polio. Why do these sorts of comments continue to be made? Almost like the polio epidemic of some decades ago, Queensland business-woman Dr Dimity Dornan’s alleged comparison of deafness with polio has erupted around the country. She is reported to […]
Deafness and the politician
Mojo Mathers: New Zealand Greens MP The New Zealand Parliament had not seen anything like it. Early in 2012, as a newly elected MP for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, Mojo Mathers gave her maiden speech in the House of Representatives. Her words were conveyed by a New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) interpreter […]
Compelling theatre on a tricky subject
Tribes by Nina Raine Performed at the Melbourne Theatre Company March 2012 Deafness is a terrifying subject for a stage or a screen production. It blows apart the most fundamental and unquestioned assumption ever made by anyone who has written dialogue: that all characters hear – everything, the first time, and every time. Yes, Tribes did slip up […]
The kindness of the cinema chains
They propose to put captions on 0.03 per cent of cinema screenings for two-and-a-half years. Do they realise what this means? In the late 1920s, sound came to the cinema, and the silent movie era came to an end. Incredible as it sounds today, deaf people in the United States protested. The silent movies’ version […]
A rare Australian deaf memoir that draws in the reader
Janice Evans Book Review The Art of Being Deaf: A Memoir Donna McDonald Gallaudet University Press, Washington DC. 2014 There is no doubt that Donna McDonald excels as a writer. Her memoir, The Art of Being Deaf, published in 2014 by Gallaudet University Press, is one of the best biographies of deafness I have […]
Ever tried lipreading ‘Happy Feet’?
In captioning politics late in 2007, a deal between the Liberals and the Democrats to investigate television captioning showed some promise If the Federal Government likes to live dangerously, there is a good example in the deal stitched up last month between the Democrats’ Senator Natasha Stott Despoja and Communications Minister Helen Coonan. The deal came […]
