Deaf and Gay and Proud to be Both

By ANTHONY CHONG.

After struggling to fall in love with women, I finally affirmed my identity as a gay person at the age of 21. But I did not have the strength to open up to anyone as I feared losing my family, my friends, and my reputation as a deaf community leader. 

The deaf community in Malaysia is small. Without any intention, I had emerged as an exemplary deaf person in the eye of the deaf community. But it wasn’t until I entered the deaf community at age of 18 that I found someone to guide me. As I lost much time, I expedited my learning of deaf culture and language until I was ready to live as a cultural deaf person. 

What is a cultural deaf person? A cultural deaf person looks at oneself as part of a linguistic minority. He is proud of being fluent in Malaysian Sign Language and has sufficient cultural knowledge to survive mainstream society. He also does not see his hearing disability as a disadvantage. The disadvantages we experience are produced by mainstream society. 

Must language be spoken to be heard?

Sunday, 27 Jul 2014 

By Priya Kulasagaran 

  

It’s hoped that the new dictionary will help children like these communicate more effectively. 

A new dictionary aims to raise awareness about the complexities of sign language and how it is used. 

IMAGINE if you were told that your mother tongue is not a “real” language, but merely a shadow of one. This is what many deaf communities face when it comes to sign language. 

According to the World Federation of the Deaf, some 70 million deaf people around the world say that sign language is their first language. 

Despite this, the common misconception is that sign language is a crude imitation or ‘inferior’ to spoken languages such as English. 

“Sign language is a visual language, which is actually equal to any spoken languages because this visual language has its own grammar, structure and meaning,” says advocate for the deaf, Anthony Chong. 

57 pelajar pendidikan khas sertai kem motivasi

SETIU ‐ Seramai 57 pelajar pendidikan khas dari tiga sekolah di Terengganu menyertai Kem Pelestarian Sahsiah Pelajar Pendidikan Khas (Masalah Pendengaran) bagi mempertingkat ilmu dan motivasi mereka. 

Program empat hari di Agro Resort bermula Selasa ini anjuran Persatuan Orang Pekak Terengganu (POPT) itu disertai pelajar Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Ibrahim Fikri, Kuala Terengganu; SMK Sura, Dungun dan SMK Tembila, Besut. 

MyBIM as academic association

Congratulations! Finally the day has arrived!

A group of Deaf people with excellent education and/or long experience in Deaf Community has gathered and discussed to establish a new association which will employ different methods in bringing new development to Deaf Community in Malaysia. This association does not provide what the current Deaf associations do, i.e. providing BIM interpreting service, sign language courses, counselling on employment issues, and workshops on general knowledge. It is not a necessary to have a new association with same function with other associations.

The new association would focus mainly on the knowledge building on Deaf people, not just their language but their culture, history, identity, education, sport, technology, socioeconomic, art, deafhood (the process of being Deaf) and many more through research, article writing, journal publication, training and courses. It may enable Deaf people become more powerful with new knowledge and understand ourselves.

No offence and I feel it is important to create new knowledge so that the Deaf Community can become stronger and powerful. They would be able to use new knowledge to protect their rights as Deaf in the mainstream society, especially education and employment. Knowledge is power!

Malaysian deaf community gives thumbs down to fake sign language interpreter

PETALING JAYA: The deaf community in Malaysia have slammed the fake sign language interpreter at the memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela, calling his actions disappointing and disrespectful.

How to promote accessibility?

Is it worth to identify who is actually ableist and/or classist?

How come these words exist if your answer is "no"?

I could say either yes or no as I have my own opinion and you have different opinion. That is important for a good debate.

In our life, we know what we are doing, however, we often forget that what we can do is our privilege that some other people who are not able to do, therefore, they were being marginalized. They remain silent until it is hard to recognize their needs.

They are human like us, too. They have curiosity too. They are thirsty to gain more information. However, they sometimes could not overcome the barriers they encounter. They definitely need someone to help them to break the barriers. You see, you did not notice it because you are able to access what you want. You see, too if you could not access what you want to have.

Shall we perform bimization for academic level?

The status of Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (Malaysian Sign Language) BIM is not actually recognized fully in Malaysia.

A simple explanation I could say is that BIM is not recognized in the Constitution of Malaysia, like New Zealand Sign Language and Kenyan Sign Language are both recognized in the Constitution of their countries, which marking them as one of the country's official languages.