YPS

Sitting in the "silence" of the De La Salle - College of San Benilde Auditorium, I am writing my first live blog. Nines (Nina Terol) is giving a talk on Blogging as the new platform of identity, expressions and even of political involvement. I have just finished my talk on why we should register and vote... The setting seems like any regular YouthVotePhilippines event but there is one special distinction. The audience is composed of about a hundred deaf students 17- 18 years old. They are college students, articulate, curious and soon-to-be multi media practitioners and/or entrepreneurs.

As a speaker, one is confronted by a language barrier. So many stories to tell, so much to share and yet I am contrained by one fact, I do not speak the right language for this undertaking. Every speaker should measure himself or herself according to how well the audience received or understood the presentation. It is the speaker's role to be clear, concise and convincing.

We have interpreters with us. This helps immensely and we were advised to learn to spell our names in sign. I went a little further and tried to learn a few key words from my talk in sign language. It is difficult to base one's reception on eye contact because their eyes are on the interpreter and the slideshow. I am a dispensible actor in front. I am simply a voice. And in this setting, a voice does not count.

This is a new experience. This is a humbling experience. My thoughts are spinning, my words are caught in my throat as I wish I could move my hands to make sense. One sees the world from a new perspective. Perhaps this is their perspective as they face the speaking crowds. Perhaps just as I wish now I could understand their gestures, they also wish they could understand the movements of our lips...

I value this stifling of my oft-taken-for-granted ability to speak and communicate. The ability to communicate is a very human necessity. The ability to connect to one's peers, colleagues, and communities defines our support system and in fact perhaps our identities. The ability to communicate underscores our political participation, our advocacies, our stands.

Silently I blog from this auditorium but the words that reverberate in this hall, approximated or emphasized by the gestures of our interpreters have suddenly taken on new meaning and dimensions.

The audience "listens" intently... their attention is undiluted and fully on the "speaker". Our voices are translated and hopefully imbibed. They ask questions on how could the registration and voting process be made more deaf-friendly. If COMELEC registration personnel could be more facilitative and responsive. If we could share this kind of talk with other schools, communities and organizations for the deaf.

Persons who are differently-abled should not be eased out of the voting process simply because processes and personnel cannot "accomodate" them. Which raises a new question in my mind. Are automated elections ready for the differently-abled?

I learned more in this silence than in the noise that would have drowned out the lesson of this experience.

How about you? Have you been silent lately?

*(note, this was a live blog posted on my personal blogsite but i decided to re-post it here. A few hours delayed but just as fresh)