Okay, it’s just another great commercial. But boy, sometimes these days, the most commercial stuff is sooooo cool. (H/T PT)
Source plus a little backstory
* For those who don’t know, this is how I say heartwarming. I’ve been exchanging movie reviews every month with BHM’s webmaster Oliver Del Signore for (yikes!) about 13 years now, and in that time I have so come to loathe movies that are billed as either “heartwarming” or “inspirational” that where film is concerned, I treat those two terms as cuss-words. Thus h-wording and i-wording. Still, even my ice-cold Grinchly heart can be warmed once in a while. 🙂
That is neat! As one who is seriously hearing impaired, I know the frustration of being in a crowd of strangers. I find large crowds, especially airport terminals, to be truly terrifying. I don’t know what anyone is saying, especially overhead announcements that can be very important.
Learning sign language would only help if many other people knew it too. What I hope for is realistic and affordable technology to improve the hearing/understanding ability of those so impaired. This certainly is going that direction. 🙂
I have three Granddaughters, who all hear perfectly (and are beautiful) but 4 years ago my eldest, aged 15, wanted to learn sign language, so she studied and now at age 19 is only one semester away from being certified as an interpreter in ASL. She does volunteer work with a local Doctor to help with hearing impaired patients and goes to weekly informal meetings of those with impaired hearing. She has taken along her younger sister, aged 16, who is also learning. They can communicate in “secret” around “sign language impaired” people (which is most of the rest of us) so they both love it. Last time they took the youngest , age 7 and she is picking it up. Not bragging or anything. PROUD GRANDPA.
Nice.The little backstory link works.
Cool.
ASL could be very useful to communicate without everybody within earshot overhearing you.
In this time of so much worry, it is nice to see such a story and to remember that average people the world over are just like us and we are just like them. Thank you for sharing this, Claire. :-))
That was simply wonderful. Thank you so much for posting this, Claire.
Our family goes to Camp Cheerio in the NC mountains every year. It is billed as a cued speech camp, but in reality it is multi-mode; cue, ASL, spoken word. My deaf son lives for this weekend, he gets to be around people with hearing aids, CI, profoundly deaf, and their families. It is a place that he feels like everyone else, not different. The rest of our family looks forward to this almost as much as our one deaf child does, when they are there, they aren’t “the deaf kid’s bother/sister”, but just another attendee.
My wife posted the same commercial on her Facebook page. Many people face isolation from others despite them being around people. Not just the deaf, but the blind, the homeless, the autistic. People with mental illness or personality disorders. In some, their isolation is more profound, in that to breach the gap, to reach out, is not a simple matter of communication, but the more difficult one of making a connection.
Seeing such an effort to reach to those on the island of isolation, cut off, not by choice, but circumstance, gives me hope for the future of those around me who have little voice but great need.
EwB
revjen45 Says:
March 11th, 2015
ASL could be very useful to communicate without everybody within earshot overhearing you.
=========================
We did that in junior high,couldnt talk in class and when bored we signed away.Thank goodness we had a teacher who could see the benefit in it as opposed to a mind sapping control freak.
That was very heart warming. Thank you