Recently I have begun corresponding with a Deaf family who has been studying about Paganism and undertaking their own spiritual journey down the Pagan Path. Both the wife and husband are Deaf, and they have three Deaf children.Together, the family has been begun celebrating the Wheel of the Year and eight Sabbats. I recently shared [...]
Archive for the ‘Deafness’ Category
A Deaf Imbolc Ritual
Posted in Archives #2 On Being Deaf and Pagan, Archives #3 A Deaf Pagan Shares, Archives #4 Pagan Thoughts and Writings, Art & Literature, Creating Accessibility, Deaf/Hearing Relations, Deaf/Pagan Relations, Deafness, Equal Communication Access, Irish/Celtic, Magick, Paganism, Poetry/Prose, Ritual, Sabbats, Sign Language, Spirituality, witchcraft, Women's Spirituality on Thursday February 2 2012 | 2 Comments »
Another Video Captioning Option
Posted in Archives #1 Deafness and Accessibility, Broom Closet, Creating Accessibility, Deaf/Hearing Relations, Deafness, Empowerment, Equal Communication Access, Interpreting, Paganism, Sign Language, Spirituality, Universal Issues, Video Posts on Sunday May 29 2011 | 2 Comments »
Recently I’ve put up a couple of posts here at the Crossroads about captioning your videos…an issue which – as a Deaf person myself – is near and dear to my heart, as well as an important one for many deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Since many people do use YouTube for downloading their [...]
Adding Captions to Your YouTube Video
Posted in Archives #1 Deafness and Accessibility, Cinema, Creating Accessibility, Deaf/Hearing Relations, Deafness, Empowerment, Equal Communication Access, Paganism, Spirituality, Universal Issues, Video Posts, witchcraft on Friday May 27 2011 | 17 Comments »
In a previous post, I talked about the importance of adding captions to the videos that you create, in order for them to be accessible to deaf and hard of hearing individuals. In that post, I mentioned that YouTube has come up with a new automatic captioning program by which it can automatically add captions [...]
The Pagan Community and Deaf Access
Posted in Archives #1 Deafness and Accessibility, Archives #2 On Being Deaf and Pagan, Broom Closet, Creating Accessibility, Deaf/Pagan Relations, Deafness, Empowerment, Equal Communication Access, Ethics, Interpreting, Paganism, Sign Language, Spirituality, Universal Issues, Women's Spirituality on Thursday May 19 2011 | 7 Comments »
(photo showing sculpture of the sign “relationship/connect”) As my Crossroads readers know, this blog is my attempt to merge my identity as a Deaf person with my Pagan spirituality. Some of my posts focus on Deaf issues, some of my posts focus on Pagan issues. And some of them focus on both. That merger of [...]
Pagan Deaf Access Letter part one – “Clarifying the Laws”
Posted in Archives #1 Deafness and Accessibility, Archives #2 On Being Deaf and Pagan, Broom Closet, Creating Accessibility, Deaf/Pagan Relations, Deafness, Empowerment, Equal Communication Access, Ethics, Interpreting, Paganism, Sign Language, Spirituality, Universal Issues, witchcraft, Women's Spirituality on Thursday May 19 2011 | 1 Comment »
(graphic showing sign language pictures for “law obey must you”) Greetings Ocean, We are writing you in hopes of giving you a better understanding about our organization and how our event and community work. That’s not the issue here. You keep trying to divert away from the real issue by making irrelevant arguments about how [...]
Pagan Deaf Access Letter part two – “Who Knows Best?”
Posted in Archives #1 Deafness and Accessibility, Archives #2 On Being Deaf and Pagan, Broom Closet, Creating Accessibility, Deaf/Pagan Relations, Deafness, Empowerment, Equal Communication Access, Ethics, Interpreting, Paganism, Sign Language, Spirituality, Universal Issues, witchcraft, Women's Spirituality on Thursday May 19 2011 | 2 Comments »
(graphic showing a person’s head with a tree and roots growing in the brain area) As previously explained to you, our event exists because of the VOLUNTEER support of the participants – not in spite of them. Please, we encourage and support and welcome and invite you to work with us in coordinating and establishing [...]
Pagan Deaf Access Letter part three – “Demanding or Advocating?”
Posted in Archives #1 Deafness and Accessibility, Archives #2 On Being Deaf and Pagan, Broom Closet, Creating Accessibility, Deaf/Pagan Relations, Deafness, Empowerment, Equal Communication Access, Ethics, Interpreting, Paganism, Sign Language, Spirituality, Universal Issues, witchcraft, Women's Spirituality on Thursday May 19 2011 | Leave a Comment »
(photo of the ASL sign for “advocate”) On its face, you appear to make demands for your needs without considering the sacrifices others similarly situated have made in coming to our event to assist in creating such spaces/activities/micro-communities. You would rather have others do for you, when you seem to be ideally the individual who could [...]
Pagan Deaf Access Letter part four – “Damaging, Demanding…or just Deaf?”
Posted in Archives #1 Deafness and Accessibility, Archives #2 On Being Deaf and Pagan, Broom Closet, Creating Accessibility, Deaf/Pagan Relations, Deafness, Empowerment, Equal Communication Access, Ethics, Interpreting, Paganism, Sign Language, Spirituality, Universal Issues, witchcraft, Women's Spirituality on Thursday May 19 2011 | 2 Comments »
(photo of a woman’s face with an angry demanding expression, pointing a finger out) We ask that you not try to damage our event for what it is. At this point in time, the gathering cannot happen any other way than we’ve described above. You must know that Pagan communities, organizations, churches across the country [...]
Pagan Deaf Access Letter part five – “We Love You but…”
Posted in Archives #1 Deafness and Accessibility, Archives #2 On Being Deaf and Pagan, Broom Closet, Creating Accessibility, Deaf/Pagan Relations, Deafness, Empowerment, Equal Communication Access, Ethics, Interpreting, Paganism, Sign Language, Spirituality, Universal Issues, witchcraft, Women's Spirituality on Thursday May 19 2011 | 8 Comments »
(photo showing hands bending together to make a heart, framing an ocean sunset) Finally, Ocean, we send you: an invitation to work with us for our event next year, as we have described above; acceptance of who you are as a Pagan and as a member and spokesperson for/on behalf of the Deaf Community; energy [...]
It’s the First Day of May
Posted in Archives #3 A Deaf Pagan Shares, Archives #4 Pagan Thoughts and Writings, Deaf/Hearing Relations, Deaf/Pagan Relations, Deafness, Humor, Interpreting, Music, Paganism, Sabbats, Sign Language, Spirituality, Video Posts, witchcraft on Sunday May 1 2011 | 5 Comments »
This post includes a video, which uses American Sign Language (ASL) and is also captioned for the “signing impaired.” Scroll down to watch this video. There is also a non-signed version with printed lyrics for those who prefer to watch such. The first day of May is commonly known as Beltane, and also referred [...]
Providing Access
Posted in Archives #1 Deafness and Accessibility, Deaf/Hearing Relations, Deaf/Pagan Relations, Deafness, Empowerment, Equal Communication Access, Interpreting, Paganism, Sign Language, witchcraft, Women's Spirituality on Sunday April 3 2011 | 6 Comments »
Recently I have been involved in some education and advocacy efforts within the Pagan Community regarding the need for greater access for Deaf Pagans, or Deaf individuals interested in learning more about Paganism or topics related to Paganism. Rather than trying to “reinvent the wheel” so to speak, or repeating the same thing over and [...]
SignWriting
Posted in Archives #1 Deafness and Accessibility, Creating Accessibility, Deaf/Hearing Relations, Deafness, Equal Communication Access, Interpreting, Sign Language on Tuesday March 1 2011 | 6 Comments »
One of my contacts in the Pagan Community is an individual who first introduced me to the concept of signwriting. For those of you who are not familiar with this, signwriting is a writing system which uses visual symbols to represent the handshapes, movements, and facial expressions of signed languages. It is an “alphabet” – [...]
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MEET OCEAN
Ocean is the creator & manager of this blog. Born deaf into an all-hearing family, she was raised oral and attended hearing schools. Ocean began learning sign language at the ripe old age of 16, and after meeting a Deaf man began her own journey through Deafhood. She graduated from Gallaudet College (now University), and has held positions both within & outside of the field of Deaf Services.
Ocean has been a practicing Pagan for 30 years, and considers herself "an eclectic witch," with a primary focus on Celtic Spirituality, but an interest in many different areas. A skilled tarot reader, she once donated her services to help raise funds for a Domestic Violence agency. She has also done workshops on aromatherapy, herbalism, & Paganism for the Deaf Community.
As a passionate advocate, Ocean often speaks out on the need for greater access for Deaf people (Pagan or otherwise) - interpreters, captioned videos, CART, etc...and works to build bridges between the Deaf & Hearing communities.
She lives not far from her hometown on the banks of the Ohio River with her two cats, Karma & Gandalf.
To contact Ocean,
you may email her at oshginva@gmail.comMAKING CONNECTIONS
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
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