With BDA looking to gain an even keel, under the public glare, I noticed that they are still maintaining the same theme, carrying on from the last precedessor. It is in this pdf (page 6) where there is a “Welcome” column from the incoming Chairman, Francis Murphy.

The aim of this blog is to elicit further clarifications and draw out some deeper background knowledge from people who were involved with BSL Recognition campaign leading up to 2003 and for those who still are involved nowadays. But I will write about what I have discovered so far – I am not a trained researcher but I’d like to think ”finding out information” is one of my strengths. Pardon me, in advance, if I get things wrong.

Soon after BSL was “recognised” by Department of Work and Pension (not the government itself I might add), it seemed that the push for BSL recognition continued on many fronts, including the EC Parliamentary Assembly which was a month after the DWP’s annoucement. I wonder if this is a deliberate act of sabotage by the Government to take the winds out of the sail of that assembly by being seen “doing something”.

Malcolm Bruce is certainly not giving up as he made a speech back in March – although he is weary that he is having to “reassert” the same issues he made 30 years ago but, boy, I do admire his resilience. I do not know how much support does he gets for his endeavours. Is he our best chance to gain a voice in the House of Commons? Where have all our movers and shakers have gone?

Moving onto another subject, it is my opinion that the battle-cry of “BSL Recognition now” does not invoke the same emotiveness if someone wear to holler “Welsh Language now” – simply because the wordings are vague in the former whereas, with the latter, the message is clear cut. If someone is confronted with BSL, someone can get the “WTF” moment as it can mean all sort of things – unless you are working in Deaf community/organisation/diversity circles. By adding ‘BSL’ in a seach engine, it will spews various results such as Birmingham Swim League to Breed-specific legislation (regarding pit bull dogs). Everybody hates abbreviations.

I feel the slogan containing “Sign Language now” is more effective in carrying the message, through the absolute message it is carrying and its clarity. Another wording which can also be bandied around “Legalise Sign Language”. It is my feeling this will increase the awareness of the campaign and capture the imagination more. People – from ordinary bystander to a celebrity - will be more curious and say “What do you mean by that?”…….this is where we come in: produce a leaflet / attempt to communicate / find the nearest terp. The importance should be on the message – making it accessible to a wide-ranging and emotive. “BSL Recognition” is not sexy enough.

Unfortunately, I will not be at the Southport Congress due to my parent’s 40 years wedding anniversary party.  I would appreciate any lowdowns on it – even perhaps someone could write a blog about the Congress?!? Any takers?!?

This concept caught my eyes when I was browsing through a web 2.0 zine, called Webware (part of CNET setup).

From the Deaf perspective, I felt this would be a really useful event organising tool where hearing people are expected to be in attendance i.e. for work, having your own business, ringing around for a quote, your own wedding – if from a hearing family! It takes away the pain of calling around by phone, via Typetalk, when you want a simple answer.

The concept is based around:

• Recording a message
• Create a phone list
• Choose options (set time to send message and to RSVP by using their phonepad)
• Send
• Make a cuppa tea

The problem is how do you record the message. Rather than using your own voice, we can take advantage of the text-to-speech softwares which are out there, such as NaturalSoft or ChipSpeaking, and plop the microphone in front of the speakers (if you haven’t chucked them out!).

On ChipSpeaking website, the blurb said it is designed for the “vocally disabled” – that’s us, innit! Yay! It is an American site that have not been updated for some time but there is a pretty good reason for that – the creator passed away 6 years ago. I have no idea what the quality of speech is like as I am not in the position to judge – for all I knows, it could be in Deep South Texas drawl……

Naturalsoft offer a choice of male/female voices from around the world. There is a blog about getting free Text-to-Speech software if you want to research further.

…….then upload the voice file – I hope! I am waiting for a response from Phonevite whether it is possibly to upload voice recording to be used for calling people. I will update later.

Unfortunately, this website only serves the US of A. It would be a fantastic if we can have similiar setup for the UK.

Update: Got this nice email from the Chipspeaking team:

Hi Tony,

Deepest thanks for your email. Great that we can be of help.

On the text-to-speech software, I’m sorry that we don’t have that yet (will mention it to Kalvin, the CTO). However, you might want to try this home-made/bootleg solution (not tested). If you have already have a text-to-speech software on your PC (I think MS Word might have a feature too… not sure though… I just found this site that talks about it, but again not sure how it works http://www.gmayor.com/word_text_to_speech.htm), you could then try playing the speech on your PC with the Phonevite Web Recorder recording, and see if the recorder captures the read text (You might need the help of someone to verify). Would you let us know if/after you try it?

Also, could you quote you on a new testimonials page that we’ll have. If yes, would you mind letting us know the City and State you are from? We’d quote you as Tony B., City, ST or something like that, or anonymous.

Thanks a lot,

John & the Phonevite Team

I had a bit of a bother today on See Hear’s forum. I have caught myself in a childish tit-for-tat battle with Andy Arthur, aka CornishAndy. I even called him CornyPunk – gawd, that is how low I have stooped.

The real bone of contention is kicked off with my request for sources to be cited. It was in response to MM’s blow by blow account how BDA disintegrated, with RNID playing a big part in their downfall by wresting away the ownership of BSL mantlepiece and therefore we should converge on RNID and play at their own game. This is all news to me, having been busy uprooting me and my family 4 times in the last 2 years (3 times whilst my wife was pregnant) – starting from Derby, via Inverness, Pudsey, Shipley and then back to Derby. So I am out of the loop. So I am curious. Therefore I asked for sources. Isn’t this straight forward enough for you?

However, there is a deeper story to my request. MM is well known for saying his piece. Frequently, you will find him to be the 1st person to comment whenever a new thread/blog is created. In fact, saying his piece in every nook and cranny conceivable on the deaf-related web 2.0 arena and its forums. I have yet to witness an acknowledgment from him that someone else, aside from him, does also have a good point. He just wade in and turn on the whole debate on its head without addressing the issue brought forward. His blogs is devoid of any source citations to back up his thoughts. Deservingly, this has earned him a troll status, invoking regular vehement outbursts from a fellow Aussie blogger, the peerless if somewhat unrestrained Tony Nicholas, aka Radio666.

Back-tracking a bit, my request for sources was met with scorn by CornishAndy – a well-known ally of MM.

Why do I keep seeing requests for links and references?

As I see it these requests are just a way to try and punish posters by making them do a lot of work looking things up. Forget that.

There have been plenty of links in the past, use those.

Not a good start. Rude actually. I have been looking and looking for any info surroundings the events outlined in MM’s original post hence my request. CornishAndy went on to he is not justified to provide the links, which is apparently somewhere in the forum – a forum without any form of search engine. I somehow think my request was perfectly reasonable, but after that point, the rest of the conversations on that thread descended into a farce as I took out my frustrations on him. It is too onerous and petty to go any further than this as much as it pained me to say.

My real sore point of these events are individuals making sweeping statements, without foundations or corroboration whatsoever. By publishing these unsubstantiated claims, it will colour the perception of BDA upon any newcomers who happened to be reading this post. Quite possibly it can add another nail to the coffin for the struggling BDA, for each reader happened upon the post. Another blogger have admitted to me that he was almost ready to believe the hype spewed by MM and CornishAndy. Thanks to JGJones timely intervention, he was pulled away from the abyss. This is why I am compelled to challenge this piece of unsubstantiated piece of social commentary – hard work or not – which does no-one any favours except playing right into the hands of RNId.