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(ound of subway announcements)
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(narrator) We live in a world
built for people who hear.
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(woman) "Hello? Can you hear me?"
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(sounds of many different
day-to-day activities)
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(sounds of many different
day-to-day activities)
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(narrator) But what would our man-made
world look like and feel like
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if it were designed
for those who don´t hear?
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♪ (percussive music) ♪
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Gallaudet University in Washington DC
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is a school for the deaf
and hard-of-hearing.
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And they are redesigning entire buildings
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based on the sensory experience
of those who don´t hear.
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♪ (percussive music) ♪
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We've only just begun
to challenge ourselves
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to examine how we could
design entire buildings,
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entire campuses, or even cities,
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to be aligned with DeafSpace.
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♪ (percussive music) ♪
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Deaf people, as a culture,
have been marginalized largely.
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We've been, as a marginalized community,
developing our own culture
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and that defines
what kind of place we call home,
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how we claim and occupy space.
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And so we've begun
to ask ourselves these questions
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and because of that,
have gotten a lot more creative
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begun to think bigger
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about how we can find different ways
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to align our ways of being
to our environments.
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The classrooms are oriented
in a semi-circle or U-shape
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so that classmates can continually
visually connect with other classmates.
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So if you want to be involved
in a discussion,
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everyone has a front row seat to seeing.
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In a wider hallway, two people can walk
in parallel, signing with each other.
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But we do have specific
distance parameters
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wherein we can observe
the whole body and its signing.
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Hearing people, though, could disregard
that kind of a distance requirement,
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they can be next to each other,
speaking to each other,
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without that need
for the visual field."
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Stairs also require more
visual attention to your footing,
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and so ramps reduce that.
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So if you are talking to
someone while navigating
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while navigating a ramp,
you can do it easly.
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Within DeafSpace, we have always relied
on a heavily visible environment,
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because we are not
getting information auditorily.
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So if you´re in the top of a terrace,
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you can see all the way to the bottom.
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It's one distinct place that can
be unified or have three distinct areas.
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Color and lighting are highly
aligned to communication access.
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Blues and greens will contrast with most
skin tones enough to reduce eye strain.
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You may want to have
more diffused lighting.
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A lot of the lighting here is
directional so that it can be aligned.
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There are mirrors present
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to allow somebody to know and have
a sense of what's happening behind them.
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Through the use of that reflection
they can know if someone is near,
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behind or if sombedody taps them.
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They look up and the reflective
space lets them know who is it.
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Transparency of, say, doorways.
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So that when a person is in an office,
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they can either have a
transparent doorway or passageway,
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or one that is opaqued.
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So that I can see lighting and shadow and
movement and know somebody is at the door,
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but not clearly see who's there.
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Very often, people refer to
"hearing loss" as an example
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which negatively frames the
whole approach from the outset.
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But let's imagine the
deaf baby who has never heard
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and yet is still described as
experiencing "hearing loss".
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And instead we propose a
different framing: that of "deaf gain".
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"What is it that we gain by the
experience of being or becoming deaf?"
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DeafSpace, I think is born of the idea
of having something to offer the world.
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That being deaf confers some very
interesting perspectives on life.
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[Upbeat music]