Hi all.
I have been watching ASL video logs, captioned and not. My whole opinion on the captioning issue is as follows.
Deaf people have been taking advantage of technology in order to use it to their own benefit. Examples include TTYs, closed captioning on TVs, etc.
Now, here comes new technology: the webcam / camcorder.
How should Deaf people use it? Some have chosen to make posts on blogs linking to their videos. These are called ASL video logs.
I have seen captioned ASL vlogs, and to be absolutely honest with you, I focused more on the captions than on the signing.
To me, that is OK for TVs where I can look at the captioning and the TV at the same time because the captioning is the only way to access the TV.
That is NOT OK for ASL vlogs for three reasons, which I will categorize here as Necessity, Economic and Dilution.
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Necessity: ASL video logs are just a few of the primary ways by which Deaf people spread their language, culture and heritage. Is it really, truly necessary to caption them when we can just put up a separate transcript?
Economic: There is a problem with captioning your own ASL video logs, which is that you are biased. You have your own ideas and opinions of what you signed on the video log, but these are only your own. To resolve this bias, you could pay someone to caption your own ASL vlogs. Captioning is expensive in terms of time and resources, so you could pay quite a lot. Do Deaf people really have a lot of money in general? It’s one of the reasons that there is no charge for using VRS!
Dilution: The mental effort it takes to look at both the captions and the signing at the same time is so taxing. English and ASL are two different languages, with different syntax, culture, etc. Therefore, it should not surprise you that I pick the captions since I’m used to looking at captions on TV! This is an ASL video log, not a English video log, yet the experience is EXACTLY like that when I look at captioned ASL video logs. Due to the mental effort and the extremely unintutive experience of looking at captioned ASL video logs, the beauty and uniqueness of ASL goes down the drain. Some people choose to caption ASL video logs to help hearing people understand what they are saying. i feel that is a very misguided decision. Ultimately, due to the dilution of language (Are English and ASL separate languages? Why is this captioned if so?), it will be the Deaf community who takes the brunt of the damage resulting from one small speck of history.
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In conclusion, I feel that I have made a significant point that other members of the Deaf community will appreciate understanding. Small decisions have a veery big impact on other people, and ultimately it is your own responsibility to, before making decisions that seem small, analyze the impact on other people.
- Kyle
