By Anna on 13 December, 2010
You are Here: Safety Haiku: Automatic Captions This is the reason why you should not send me breathless, excited emails about the wonders of automated speech-to-text. You see the “CC” button and you think you and I will both enjoy the same media. This is what I actually get. (On the other hand, in a [...]
Posted in recommended reading | Tagged abuse of people with disabilities, auto-captions, birth stories, Deaf, Disability Living Allowance, DLA, everything in the UK is going to hell, hard of hearing, history, history of lobotomy, howard dully, lobotomies, marfan syndrome, mocking autocaptions because they're terrible, subtitles, UK
By Anna on 8 March, 2010
So, for International Women’s Day, I want to remind readers that there are certain stories that we tell about certain women, and that these stories have a purpose.
Perhaps we can subvert that.
Posted in anna history rants, history | Tagged Blog for International Women’s Day, Blog for IWD, helen keller, history
By Anna on 26 February, 2010
Yes, of course Darnton. You describe a life of abject misery and back-breaking labour, so obviously people faked being disabled all the time.
Posted in anna history rants, history | Tagged history
By Anna on 14 January, 2010
This is, of course, completely untrue, but there was a concentrated effort to ensure that Keller’s accomplishments were ignored. “Radical Marxist” isn’t as nice a story as “deaf-blind woman overcomes”.
Posted in anna history rants, anna rants, biography, disability activism, feminism, history | Tagged anna rants, helen keller, history, women's history month
By Anna on 4 January, 2010
Today is World Braille Day!
Were I a more organized person, I would now present you with a scrupulously researched history of Braille, deep insights into the so-called “War of the Dots”, and a wonderful interlude on the use of raised text in the Halifax School for the Blind.
Posted in history | Tagged blind, braille, history
By Anna on 13 December, 2009
Obviously I have quoted this for truth because I’m an historian and I’m often questioned on why I consider the history I do to be both political and activist in nature. And, this is (in part) why.
Posted in anna history rants, history, Quotations | Tagged history, quote
By Anna on 9 December, 2009
But still. Lane didn’t write the first book about deafness from the POV of actual deaf people (Lane is Hearing – he cites Jack R Gannon’s book as the first history written by someone who was Deaf), but he wrote the one that launched a thousand ships, so to speak. He challenged, quite viciously, the idea that deafness was something to be “conquered”, and argued that a deaf-focused history was necessary.
Posted in anna history rants | Tagged Deaf, history
By Anna on 7 December, 2009
There’s a word to describe these sorts of histories: meliorist. Things Were Bad! Then! Something Awesome Happened! Then! Things Were Better! I think this is how history tends to be taught, because it’s very Feel Good. It’s also very plodding and doesn’t reflect the nuances of history. Was the CNIB a good thing? I don’t know, but I do know a lot of blind people in Canada hate it. (I need to do more research to understand why, because I don’t actually know.) Was the Halifax School for the Blind made of awesome? I don’t know, but I do know they did a lot of things in an attempt to be “good” and seem to have been founded by actual blind people. (A step above the folks who ultimately founded the School for the Deaf, for what that’s worth. I’m really excited to learn more of the history of the school.)
Posted in anna history rants, history | Tagged history
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