You may please all the people some of the time, you can even please some of the people all of the time, but you cannot please all of the people all the time.I know, I know, the quote is wrong; President Lincoln wasn't talking about pleasing people, he was talking about fooling people. Arguably there might be times when those serve the same purpose.
I have been wrangling with the concept of communication and communication access for a while now. As an interpreter it is a constant issue I deal with. However, lately it's a bit more of a pressing issue in that my AC has established a communication access committee to develop a communication policy for our business meetings. Somehow or another (probably because I've been described as "formidable") I was asked to be a part of the committee. This committee was established in response to a very heated discussion at our last business meeting about what language we should use during our meeting. We spent the entire three hours of our last meeting discussing issues related to communication and communication access as it's been a point of contention for quite some time in my area.
I have talked to many other people, both on the committee and not, about this issue, in order to see if there can be some sort of creative solution that we might be able to come up with. Unfortunately it's too heated a topic and too hotly debated for us to come up with anything that won't essentially piss off and ostracize a portion of our membership.
If we mandate that sign be the communication method during the meetings there is a large portion of the membership who will revolt (which really makes me sad, since, c'mon people... sign language is the one thing we all have in common!!). To make it even more complicated there are those who are pushing for ASL, and those who are against it since they communicate using a more English-like signing style.
The other members of the committee are all individuals whom I respect and we generally agree on the single point that people should really be signing more, as we have a sizable representation of d/Deaf people who regularly attend our meetings. But the devil is in the details; there are definite camps and factions and, while I look forward to the discussion at this meeting, we are definitely NOT going to satisfy everyone, nor will we realistically even satisfy the charge that we have been given by the board of our AC (the charge being: meet for several hours one Saturday afternoon and have a recommendation ready for the next AC meeting).
My biggest concern is that we were asked to develop/recommend a policy. In my mind, "policy" inherently means that there are actions that will be considered to be in violation of whatever policy is established. With violations come repercussions, also known as disciplinary actions. I'm not so sure I like that implication.
"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." --Abraham Lincoln
I like the new blog template! :)
ReplyDeleteOy, sticky issue. Just know that your AC isn't the only one to face it. I think this is the eternal question. People down there don't realize how lucky they are to have a lot of participation from Deaf people.
Good luck at the meeting.