Blind, Deaf, Dunham

Recently the activity center for people with disabilities I attend weekly had an outing to a local theater. One of the center’s volunteers invited us to a comedy she was in. The performance was not a play but a bunch of comedy skits they had put together.

We were transported by our usual taxi service that brings us to the activity center. My van was one of the first to arrive so I was able to choose where I positioned my wheelchair as the seats in the theater were chairs that could be moved as needed. Naturally I chose what I thought was the front row and held the spot to the right of me for my friend.

A blind woman I knew sat in the chair to the left of me. My friend soon came thereafter and there was very little room for anyone else near us. Just when we were settled in two things happened: First the theater crew asked us to move forward so there would be an aisle behind us for the performers to walk through during the show. Second, while we were doing this, the sister of the blind woman who uses a manual wheelchair and is also blind, asked to be seated next to her sister. As we were repositioning ourselves an employee of the center squeezed the wheelchair of the woman next to her sister. As a result, there was no longer room for both me and my friend. One of us now had to sit elsewhere.

I completely understood that the two sisters wanted to sit next to each other but was at a loss as to why two blind people had to sit in the first row. They couldn’t see what was taking place on stage but certainly didn’t have trouble hearing. Did their inability of not seeing give them the need to sit in the first row because they now had to rely more on their sense of hearing? Compensation of senses is something common so when sight is gone - hearing and smelling becomes much stronger.

This brought to mind a quote of one of my son’s favorite performers - ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, “You don’t take the blind to see David Copperfield.” His comedy sketch with his puppet Peanut brings up some serious things to consider.

When blind people go to the theater or more commonly, the movies, they need someone to sit next to them and explain what is being performed. Of course talking during a performance is prohibited and therefore cannot take place. This got me wondering why there can’t there be a special area for people who are blind or have poor eyesight. Given the century we are in and the technology available is there no way to construct something so whispering in the last row would not be a disruption?

Jeff and Peanut also tell the story about a group of deaf people who came to see their show. “Everyone was facing us but there was one guy who was facing the other way waving his hands moving his fingers. He was a signer!! Think about this for a second - they brought a bunch of deaf people to see a ventriloquist!”

Deafness is the easier disability to compensate for in theaters because signing makes no sound. Why then isn’t there a system where when purchasing tickets, someone with a hearing disability can request a signer be present. Is it really too distracting to have a person stand at the corner of the stage or has no one ever seriously considered the needs of the deaf?

The mass media doesn’t even have a way for those who can’t hear to watch television or enjoy going to the movies. Does it really too costly to have a signer appear in the corner of the screen? Since not everyone who has trouble hearing knows sign or can read lips, another solution is to provide subtitles. If subtitles can be used on DVDs for those who don’t understand the language then why can’t they appear at the bottom of our televisions?

All this would be the norm in a perfect world - a world in which those with sight and hearing disabilities are taken into consideration and not just given a ticket discount.

Venice

“I’m going to Venice.”
“Really? For how long?”
“About three hours.”

This is the usual beginning of conversations I have had with friends before I go to Venice. They assume I am taking a trip to the Italian city. Although I live in the Netherlands and there are people who travel to neighboring European countries for a few hours of business and pleasure, my pocketbook does not allow me to do so. It does however allow me to go to a neighboring city to see the group Venice perform. Venice is a group made up of four related men – two pairs of brothers which makes everyone cousins.

How we are introduced to songs depends on what is played on radios, televisions and even in movies. The first time I heard their song Family Tree it was not sung by Venice but by a woman at a Christmas party. The words she sang related the exact feelings I had towards the death of my sister. Never before was I so compelled to find out the name of the artist who recorded the song and what it sounded like when they sang it.
I remember asking, “Elly, what a beautiful song. Who recorded it?”
“Venice! They are an American folk rock group from Venice California and are well known here in the Netherlands.” She answered.
Since I was born in New York and only lived in the Netherlands for the past ten years, I thought it strange that if they were from America and well known why I had never heard of them.

I surfed the net and wound up on a Myspace profile. There I found a video of them singing Stuck in the Middle With You a song sung by Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty and performed by their band Stealers Wheel. I knew the song from my sister’s car radio from when we drove through the mountains of New York on our way to ski trips. We always turned it up so it was blaring. I was ten then and now liked the way the familiar song sounded with the voices from Venice.

As the song played, it also caught my husband’s ear and he said, “That’s not the Stealers Wheel. Who is that?”
I answered, “Venice.” And wondered - he was born here so why doesn’t he know who they are.
He again said, “Who?” He goggled them and logged onto their website Venice Central. Within the hour he ordered their Two Meters Sessions CD.

I kept surfing and wound up on Youtube where I was amazed by one particular video version of The Family Tree. In it was Jeffery Banks the life partner of band member Mark Lennon, signing the song for the audience. Jeffery was introduced as being the youngest of four children born to deaf parents. As a result, he was able to sign before he could verbally speak.

I had never seen a song signed before but what an awesome concept it is. It is known that deaf people hear by feeling the vibrations of music but they don’t know the words of songs unless they read the words somewhere or know sign language and are lucky enough to have a song signed. Therefore including the text to songs in CDs should be standard as well as having people at concerts who sign. Sounds strange because usually deaf people don’t go to concerts but isn’t that the fault of the producers of concerts? If signing became the norm and this was publicized, an even bigger audience might be the result.

The CD my husband ordered arrived the day after and I have been playing it ever since. Five days later, our then seven-year-old son had his favorite song – Never Coming Back.

It was a year after we were introduced to their music that we went to Venice in the Netherlands. They were performing in the town next to the one we live in. It was an acoustic concert so it seemed like we were all sitting in someone’s living room. After the show we had the pleasure of meeting Michael, Kipp, Mark and Pat Lennon. It was in talking with them that I learned they were related to the Lennon Sisters who my parents loved to watch on the Lawrence Welk Show. The same Lennon Sisters I had met twelve years prior in Branson Missouri.

No matter what part of the world you’re in music carries the stories that become our life’s songs and from those songs come the stories of our lives.