The Hits

I must remember that next time I can't sleep... in fact I couldn't sleep last night but spent some time doing household chores and the rest (no pun intended) catching up on missed Coronation st episodes... oh well...

Personally I think this IS a good idea - one of my friends who is deaf loves going clubbing, but that's mainly for the sensation of the bass. He does however have a keen interest in celebrity culture and I'm sure many deaf people his age do; an interest which will surely include seeing pop stars perform. It's not as if it's radio being signed after all - you can see the performer in the background with the lyics comin atcha courtesy of the bopping signers.

Personally I prefered when subtitles were available on music channels, as they are beneficial to hearing people too - solves late night "what was that lyric" queries!!

they were testing them a while back on The Hits but nothing seemed to come of it. wonder why

As a semi-professional musician it is my worst fear to be Deaf, and to not be able to listen to or produce music. However without sound lyrics are just as valid as poetry. Anyone who saw Richard E Grant very brilliantly reciting Bohemian Rhapsody on the BBC3 documentary will be able to relate to my feelings on this. How about instead of insulting Deaf people with some very gay-bar-like disco dancing The Hits puts, in subtitles, the lyrics of the song? Imagine it:


I sit and wait
Does an angel contemplate my fate?
And do they know the places where we go
When we're grey and old?

etc......

I would expect that they are doing this for Ofcom reasons and not purposely to insult deaf people.

Or, why not have the lyrics on screen with a little bouncing ball that bounces in time with the music?

Great for those that wish to do ad-lib karaoke, and for those that are deaf.

That reminds me of the Sing-A-Long Disney Videos.

Well tongue-in-cheek-ness taken on board, but again it's the point that some deaf people are illiterate [as are some hearing people of course], and BSL is the primary/only language of choice, for which provision needs to be made.

It's like those vocal types who are Welsh first language having a right to be provided with this in public life, even though nearly all of them speak English [poorly].

Mind you a great deal more people speak Welsh as a first language than deaf people speak BSL as theirs, but there we are.

Which is probably why Welsh-speakers have an entire digital TV channel dedicated to them when Deaf people have maybe a couple of hours of repeats in the middle of the night.

BTW who chooses the programs in the SignZone? Who decides that Deaf people need to be subjected to Nick Knowles and DIY SOS? Or Panorama? Fortunately if you RF your digibox into a video recorder you can leave the subtitles on and tape any programme any time on any channel that has subs.

Liking the Disney sing-a-long idea though.

as previously stated, some deaf people have BSL as their first language rendering this and karaoke songs useless.

Just watching this now! That woman in the red top (1st pic) was dancing to Little Less Conversation by Elvis and JXL. Hilarious!

Bit worrying if the deaf people watching copy the dance moves as well!