As an essential deaf worker from home during the lockdown – many technologies bought wonder and useful for me to communicate with many Deaf, Hard of Hearing people and people in the community.
It is incredible to have the digital technology that makes any Deaf people’s life!
Life from the Deaf community was challenging to communicate in the past where there was no digital technology to reach out to other families, doctors, police, friends, and staff in the business. Many television programmes do not have any captioning/subtitles for many Deaf people to understand what the stories were about or even a breaking new such as flooding. The Deaf people became dependent on their hearing children, hearing mother/father, even friends or staff to explained what the story was about or the breaking news. The children, mother or staff, told the Deaf person to wait until the breaking new finished then to explained to the Deaf person. Any hearing person accomplished was delayed and put up with the long waiting until the story of the program completed. The deaf couple drove out to their Deaf friends if they were home or not. If their Deaf friends were not at home, the Deaf couple will drove to another house. The phone was not helpful because many Deaf people don’t hear the phone ringing even can not hear the other end of the speaker calls. The Deaf people simply hang up or doing the work around the house.
What about an interpreter? In the past, there was no qualified sign language interpreter, only the children called CODA (Children of the Deaf Adults), mother/father, or friends to help the Deaf person. We, Deaf people, wrote down with a pen and paper during the conversation.
The reality is many other people do not realise that Deaf people, even Hard of Hearing, do not hear the voice of the speakers over the phone entirely, read the lips of the speakers, a conversation behind their backs, or to listen to the sounds. Deaf means are unable to hear the sound, except to feel the vibrating of the sound. Deaf people received around 25-30% of lip readings.
New technologies came along, such as faxes, digital computers, mobiles, texts, the internet, social media today. These technologies bring joys for most Deaf people than other Deaf people who struggle to get funding to get a computer, mobile for their work, studies at University.
Sign Language Interpreters are fantastic, and they make Deaf people’s life better by watching the news, the speaker at the University, public meetings, job interviews, and many other places such as at the hospital.
What about elderly Deaf people or Hard of Hearing people? Not all of them due to financial, not aware of the new communication within their family, doctors, or refused to use the latest technology on their choice. Most of the Deaf elderly do not understand the interpreter signing due to the level of their education in the old days, where the Deaf elderly use oral and gesture signs.
For me, it is fantastic where I can work from home in Eureka or work in the office in the city of Hamilton, even anywhere I traveled to meet the persons with disabilities, including Deaf/Hard of Hearing at their homes. I keep the fax machine at home because I have got three people who have their faxes at their home. The main problem is there are not many faxes out there today – it is difficult for many Deaf older people to keep in touch. The manufactures are no longer making faxes due to digital communication, and they do not think about older people. Of course, the manufacturers expect many people to pay latest technology than facsimiles.
With many digital communications such as Zoom, Skype, Viber, Internet are brilliant tools for me to keep in touch with many Deaf people, staff, doctors, and others. The mobiles are great tools in which I can download the limit of apps due to finances and the size of Gbs.
I use sign language interpreters for the public meeting, the Government meeting, the Advisory Group, my appointment at the hospital, and even through Zoom. The funding covers this area for me during the works.
Today you can see daily news where there was an interpreter inside the little box in the bottom corner on the right and it is for many Deaf people to keep updated. Recently, the screen where the interpreter in the little box was too small for some Deaf people to see. Recently there was a new channel on the television, and the channel called Kordia’s Pop Up TV service. This channel screen one hour every day at a specific time in the afternoon during the Covid19, where there is a full screen of an interpreter for most Deaf people to see easily. Of course, there is a hiding catch where not every Deaf people have got update Freeview or satellite tv. Honestly, I don’t watch it every day.
See photos here, for example. The picture on the right is during breaking new, BUT the camera tends to shift where there is another speaker on the other side through sideways several times
I do not spend my time on social media when I am not working, I choose to have a break from any digital technologies in the evening, BUT I regularly check if there is an emergency email, texts, or messengers via Facebook or Viber. My partner will let me know if there is fax come through our fax machine in the other room. Surely not 24/7 days a week. I choose to have a break to do the gardening, reading books, DIY, letting our dogs out for a run in the large property, or sitting out in the sunshine in the courtyard.
![Health Minister Adrian Dix and Chief Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry provide an update on COVID-19 on March 20, 2020 Nigel Howard also pictured. (MANDATORY CREDIT: Government of BC) [PNG Merlin Archive]](https://i0.wp.com/lifeineureka.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/canada.jpg?w=270&h=203&ssl=1 "COVID-19 Update")
Life in Eureka 
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