Goggin and Newell wrote a comprehensive look at Disability and how it applies to the Digital world (by digital, they include any and all information sharing technology that transmit information through ones and zeroes over phone lines and other broadband means). This is a wide umbrella that includes television, the Internet, and mobile telephony.
While not directly addressing the issue of blogging (in part because it was still new at the time of publication), the book provides plenty of ideas that can be connected to the Deaf World and blogging.
We’ve Got Blog: How Weblogs are Changing Our Culture (2002) is an anthology, selected by the editors of Perseus Publishing, of various posts gleaned from the web on the then-burgeoning culture of blogs. Most of the essays are from 1999-2001; several authors, including Rebecca Blood, point to 1999 as being the widespread start of blogging. Some of the contributors are from the same pool of pioneering bloggers, the so-called “A-list” bloggers, such as Cameron Barrett, Derek M. Powazek, Rebecca Mead and others. I’m not gonna bother linking to their blogs, you can Google ‘em yourself. Most of the bloggers talked about are more of the A-listers as well, along with other notable bloggers such as journalist/blogger Dan Gillmor. At this time, the book reads more like a history book than a picture of current trends.
Here we go. This is my first post. This is the first time I’ve used WordPress, although I have used LiveJournal as a blog host for several years. Now I’m sharing space on my friend’s blog server, lpoweronl, so thanks to him for that.
So why am I doing this? Well, I’m working on my Master’s degree in English at the University of Texas. An old writer’s adage is to “write what you know.” I know life as a Deaf person, and I know the Internet has been an incredible accessibility tool for me as a Deaf person. For other Deaf people too as well. The Internet also has changed life for Hearing people as well. Blogging and wikis and other forms of collaborative information presentation have changed the way academics look at the way the English language is being used. Of course, other languages are being used too–not just English. The Internet isn’t limited to North America. People are able to express themselves in their native languages all over the web. And now the World Wide Web has evolved to include other ways of expressing language rather than text lining the monitor.
People are able to create audio podcasts to present their thoughts or even artwork (in terms of music and poetry). And technology and bandwidth improved, leading people to videocasts, small video presentations broadcast on the internet. The limits were stretched further now that news and performances and other material are now posted for all to view on the web. Let’s not forget language, as I mentioned just a bit ago.