Mentor Text #2

The YouTube video “What happens when deaf people go to the movies” by Chella Man stars two people, Nyle and Chella. Nyle is deaf and only speaks sign language. Chella can verbalize words, therefore I assume he is a friend of Nyle who also speaks sign language. In the video, they go to the movies and, the purpose is to show that the deaf part of the population is not treated right at this kind of occasion. At the pay desk, they ask for a Captiview which is a device that reads out the subtitles for the movie. The workers barely know what it is nor does it work. Subtitles for the wrong movie and taking up the whole view. It is not optimal for deaf people to attend the movies, the technology does not work nor are the workers educated on how to handle it. Where should the line be drawn of how much we have to adjust for a minor part of the population. According to Ross Mitchell, about 4.1% of the population is deaf or has hearing disabilities. What amount of the population is too small for us to not adjust for them? I would say that 4.1% is enough for us to have working technology for the people who cannot hear but, where should the line be drawn? At some point, we can not adjust for everyone.

Ross E. Mitchell. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. 2006. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enj004