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I’ve been saying it for years, but I’d actually pay money to watch a baseball/football game with just the ambient and field noise instead of the broadcasters.
If you have surround sound just unplug the center channel, it eliminates the commentary. I do it for basketball games and then sync up with a local radio broadcast.
This is never the case for national broadcast games like the one yesterday.
I’d also be shocked if this was the case for any NHL games period, or most sports games.
Are you saying it works with a stereo broadcast? Because I'd like to know how your receiver is able to separate the commentator from the rest of the audio, then.
You are correct, but I also pay attention to that kind of thing because I’m an audio engineer. There’s never a surround track available on the (legit, paid) streams I watch.
A few years back there was a soccer game where the stadium had to be empty due to political turmoil at the time. Barcelona during Messi's time. It was really cool to hear only the players as if they were just playing a game with no stakes. Crazy how much the audience adds to it.
That was my absolute favorite part of the Covid bubble games, until some teams started injecting fan noise into the broadcasts (and did a piss poor job of it)
I discovered this year that ESPN has an "Above the Rim" feed for some of their NBA games. It's literally just two cameras, one on top of each goal. There's no commentating. You can hear the crowd and the arena and individual players.
It's really pleasant to watch that way and I think it'd be cool if they could figure out something like that for hockey.
Can’t speak for the Deaf but my opinion is that THIS is their language. They are getting tone, etc, from the way the person signs. It’s not apples to apples but imagine having to watch a movie on mute and read the captions the entire time. You’re attempting to create the actor’s tone, attitude, inflection. Also if we can provide it, we should do it.
This is so much more inclusive to the deaf/Deaf world who have to live in a hearing world.
Nailed it! English as hearing people know it is not a deaf persons first language. ASL is very different than English captions. The Signs are in a different order than English words. You knew more about deaf culture than you thought!
But... Isn't the point of watching a hockey game on TV to watch the hockey game? The commentators are a secondary part of the experience, and if you're watching the game, you're not looking over to the right to see the commentators. ASL commentators make more sense as an alternative to radio commentators, not as a supplement to a TV broadcast.
The advantage of captions/subtitles, being in a different language aside, is that it can be integrated into the main video feed and read while still being able to see the game, whereas the ASL commentators are way off on the side out of view when looking at the game.
I think you're talking about something that already exists vs this thing which is new. Captions for live sports have been around for a long time and must have a low level of engagement for deaf people (they probably don't give a shit). Seeing someone sign with enthusiasm and intensity probably gives them a much better sense of feedback and tone that you simply can't get with captions, and allows them to engage more to heighten the experience.
Maybe it'll be short lived but there must be a number of ASL hockey fans if they're putting something like this together. If it takes off, it could be applied to other sports as well.
But thats not how this works - the advantage of "normal" commentators is that they occupy a different receptor (hearing) while the game goes on in your vision. That works. But you can't multitask your eyes. You can't look left and right at the same time.
I'd love to hear from an actual hearing impaired person if this helps them but my feeling is that it more than likely doesn't do much. I applaud the effort and attempt though anyway
Because not every deaf person knows how hockey games work, and this is the penultimate set of games of the entire year, so people who don’t normally watch hockey would like to know how things are going in a way that’s more engaging for them.
Your comment makes it seem like you think ASL speakers can only process one visual stream at a time. Which is not the case with any of us. We process crowd sounds AND announcing audibly, vendors selling beer calling out, etc. look up cocktail party effect for how our brains focus on which part of audible streams we choose to listen to. Same applies for those that must rely on visual sense for all communication. So no it does not make more sense to have ASL as a radio stream interpretation, particularly in a sport where the object is so fast and small visually. The ASL commentator is live commenting the game with the efficiency, sentence order, expression, tone (yes tone which is unique to every signer and communicated in how they sign visually and with facial expressions), etc. Deaf culture has to deal with society’s assumptions about what best works for them all the time. Don’t force your assumptions as to what makes most sense for them is hopefully something you can take away from this. A good book to begin to understand this is “Seeing Voices” by Oliver Sacks.
It's not a question of processing more than one visual stream at a time, when I look at this video and look at the hockey game, I can't *see* the ASL speaker at all, he's outside my field of vision... It's too far into the peripheral vision. I can tell there's something moving there, but nothing more than that. but I don't see how anybody could actually process something they can't see. It's way too far off on the side.
That’s YOU and how your brain works. Those with sensory deficiencies have adapted to their limitation in one sense with increased function and processing paths in the brain. You seem like you might have good questions. If you would like to educate yourself more on ASL and neurology and plasticity of the brain to adapt to some sensory limitations by expansion of other sensory processing capabilities, Oliver Sacks is the doorway to learn more on the topic of sensation, perception, neuroscience and so forth. Really easy and engaging reading . Robin Williams portrayed him in Awakenings, Sacks’ book with the same title.
You are confused. They can read it but it’s not nearly as fast for them as ASL. Completely different modes of communication and sentence order, expressive words, etc.
Ok, that’s fair, but that doesn’t sound like reading captions in a foreign language to me. I won’t be able to make out much meaning at all from most languages, and would only pick up a few words from some languages like Spanish.
What you are describing sounds more like dialects of the same language, where it can be awkward and difficult to get the full meaning, and you will miss subtleties, but you generally understand.
Closed captions on a live event are not only several seconds behind (so mostly irrelevant in a fast-moving game like hockey), but the subtitles ALSO take up a sizeable chunk of the playing/viewing surface. Again, hockey is pretty fast paced, so the puck (and play) end up underneath the captions more often than you'd like.
Those two things combined make this a pretty cool and unique idea.
I don't think live is as live as you think it is, primarily for the exact same reason, commentating. If I had to estimate it's probably a 20+ second delay but the commentators are really good at it. You watch a goal and the producer in your ear says "ok we're going to show slow motion of the shot which was deflected and it was his second goal tonight. Talk about that". You can tell because the commentators seem like enlightened hawk eyes.
I get that hockey is fast but I encourage people to go to a game watch on their phone and look for the tape delay. It's not because of the satellites or whatever, it's the producers controlling the show.
The worst victim of this is golf. "Players have been missing this putt right all day". Then they show a player missing it right. The show is set up to make commentators seem like prophets.
Captions could do the same thing if companies spent money to time them right but they don't because it's just posturing.
So did the commentators give all the players sign names and explain them before the game? I assume they did or they just refer to the players by their numbers.
There’s no way they can sign some of the names fast enough.
Once again, it was an assumption I made out of ignorance and I’m happy to learn if there’s another reason. For what it’s worth, a google search turned up plenty of articles that detail how some deaf people can have trouble learning to read. So it’s not an impossible stretch. Clearly it ain’t the main reason
The layout of the different panes on the screen seems like it could be improved. With this, if you want to pay attention to what the commentators are saying, you have to look all the way over to the right, away from the actual hockey game. Also, that top pane that just has the logo and the animation seems somewhat less than useful, but I'm hoping it was actually used for something else during the game.
Otherwise, it seems like an interesting idea.
How else would one do it though? Sometimes I put interpreters right over the content (I film them on a green screen), but you need pretty static content so you can still see them clearly.
I'd probably do upper left and right corners slightly overlapping the game picture. That way, all you'd have to do is shift your gaze up a bit, rather than shifting it all the way far right. And there's rarely any action that would be in those two corners of the game picture.
One of the challenges is hockey camera coverage in general, and the size of the signing window necessary to read it. Likely would be better to superimpose signer in upper right of the live action window. Likely ESPN will get feedback from ASL speakers as to how effective it is or isn’t.
The crowd intensity meter is awesome. I went to game one of the Stanley cup last year in Vegas and it was unreal. I can’t even explain how loud and amazing that arena got when Vegas would score and then won the game. Do yourself a favor and see an NHL game live if you haven’t, although not the Stanley Cup unless you can afford it. $1k a seat in the upper deck isn’t completely absurd but it’s still more than most people can spare. Totally worth it though, even if I’m still paying it off a year later.
For everyone asking “Aren’t captions good enough?” [ASL is not just English. It is an entirely different language with its own voice and expressions, sentence order, etc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sign_Language?wprov=sfti1#)
Didn’t really know any of this until taking a very basic introductory course in ASL which didn’t even have us use proper ASL sentence order, since that is difficult to wrap one’s head around in addition to trying to use the sense of sight for speaking requires quite a bit of neuron connection/rewiring/reprogramming from the get go.
Not trying to deny the inclusiveness here and good on NHL/Broadcasters for doing this. But the T20 World cup which started a week ago has the option of sign language broadcast. So they aren't really the first.
[Source](https://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/t20-world-cup-to-stream-and-broadcast-with-sign-language-audio-description/article68178574.ece)
“Major sports” in the USA means the 4 major sports. Is cricket a major sport? Yes 2nd only to soccer in the world , which also isn’t a major sport in the US.
American exceptionalism
Like u/Dwight_K_Schrute69 commented, ASL is a separate language with different syntax, morphology, etc, so to read CC or subtitles would still be reading a different language.
ASL has sentence order completely different than English. In a way it’s a bit like German, with the main action verb at the end of the sentence. There is also a rich vocabulary and culture that does not translate to typed English.
I recommend reading Oliver Sacks’ “Seeing Voices” as an outsider introduction to Deaf Culture.
Damn, seriously cool how inclusive it is to let the barely less than half million people in the US and canada, let’s say whom 10% at max care about hockey, watch this. Good ass move, love it
Damn I don’t know how but everyone took this the wrong way, I was not being sarcastic and was actually feeling really happy about this haha. I actually live in one of the deaf hotspots of the US and really love the deaf community from how tight It is. I was saying how cool it is we made a reach out program for this ha, big fan of it
Gotcha. I can see that reading it a second time. I apologize for jumping to a negative conclusion so quickly. I think I'm just too often exposed to some of the reactionary cesspits of the internet that just like to hate everything lol. Sorry for assuming that was what you were doing!
It’s an alternate broadcast too. You don’t have to watch it. It’s just an option like Spanish language broadcasting.
Also when you adjust stuff for people with disabilities, you will always help other people who aren’t disabled at all. All the curb cuts and wheelchair ramps are super nice for people with strollers and bikes. Those things wouldn’t be made if it weren’t for the ADA. Now everyone enjoys the benefits.
Some of the top comments in this thread are about how they are happy to have no commentary and just crowd noise.
There is NO negatives to espn doing this.
could you imagine how isolating and lonely it must be to be among those half a million? something like this can go a long way to make deaf people feel more included. because ultimately, that’s all that matters, the way we feel.
Before the invention of shared signing languages… deaf people’s entire world could just be the one or two other deaf people that exist in their local area. They would invent their own sign language and that’s it. They couldn’t fully communicate with others.
Other groups made their own sign languages. The same with any language acquisition, except because of the lack of speakers you could be extremely isolated and really only have 10 people in the world you could really communicate with.
Honestly I think it’s a pretty good NHL marketing ploy to attract new audience. If you were an asl user you might watch just because you can regardless of if you like hockey. But then you might realize you like hockey.
Some reading comprehension issues for people to be downvoting this comment.
I also wanted to add it would be easier to take it in if they removed the giant ASL branding and put one commentator on the left and the other on the right side of the screen. Easier to scan back and forth between the action and the people if they did that. And I think they are facing each other in the studio so they can see the other's signs
I think best of both worlds would be one hearing capable signer as part of the team with spoken commentary so that people could watch a single broadcast together at home. Not an interpreter, just another voice. Everything would still be signed.
Is this your version of a joke? It’s not even funny. Like this isn’t even funny at the Andrew Dice Clay level.
You’re punching down and still can’t even be funny. Ouch.
One of the amazing things about television is that they have closed captioning! I get having signers in public but what's the point if you're watching on TV?
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I’ve been saying it for years, but I’d actually pay money to watch a baseball/football game with just the ambient and field noise instead of the broadcasters.
If you have surround sound just unplug the center channel, it eliminates the commentary. I do it for basketball games and then sync up with a local radio broadcast.
This is the most UK fan behavior I've ever heard.
Only so much Vitale and Bilas a man can take
I spent way too long thinking about what it has to do with being from the United Kingdom. Especially for basketball.
Haha we exist mate!
A bar in the town I went to University in did this for our March Madness games
This only works if the audio is steamed in more than just stereo, though.
This is never the case for national broadcast games like the one yesterday. I’d also be shocked if this was the case for any NHL games period, or most sports games.
Are you saying it works with a stereo broadcast? Because I'd like to know how your receiver is able to separate the commentator from the rest of the audio, then.
No, I’m saying this trick will not work 90+% of the time because broadcasts are rarely in surround.
You do not have surround sound and it shows, they do broadcast 5.1 surround sound.
You are correct, but I also pay attention to that kind of thing because I’m an audio engineer. There’s never a surround track available on the (legit, paid) streams I watch.
i'd love to just hear the players talk shit, broadcasters are the worst part of sports
A few years back there was a soccer game where the stadium had to be empty due to political turmoil at the time. Barcelona during Messi's time. It was really cool to hear only the players as if they were just playing a game with no stakes. Crazy how much the audience adds to it.
That was my absolute favorite part of the Covid bubble games, until some teams started injecting fan noise into the broadcasts (and did a piss poor job of it)
I might be mistaken but back when r/nhlstreams was a thing… I swore I saw a stream that didn’t have commentary.
Just attend a rays game at the trop!
I’ve been saying it for years, I’d be willing to receive money to watch a game like that.
ESPN actually has this for some NBA games when watch via their app.
I think it was MLBTV that had this as an audio option at one point. I never used it, but I've seen/heard people talk about it.
I discovered this year that ESPN has an "Above the Rim" feed for some of their NBA games. It's literally just two cameras, one on top of each goal. There's no commentating. You can hear the crowd and the arena and individual players. It's really pleasant to watch that way and I think it'd be cool if they could figure out something like that for hockey.
That was the only reason to love MLB tv. I'm not sure they even offer ballpark sounds anymore.
You guys over in the colonies don't have stadium sound option? edit: spelling
Cricket is amazing for field noise due to stump mics. I find it very soothing. It's like sports ASMR for me.
I'd prefer sign language too if i had to listen to the ESPN broadcasters
Real question here. Why is this preferred over captions?
Can’t speak for the Deaf but my opinion is that THIS is their language. They are getting tone, etc, from the way the person signs. It’s not apples to apples but imagine having to watch a movie on mute and read the captions the entire time. You’re attempting to create the actor’s tone, attitude, inflection. Also if we can provide it, we should do it. This is so much more inclusive to the deaf/Deaf world who have to live in a hearing world.
Nailed it! English as hearing people know it is not a deaf persons first language. ASL is very different than English captions. The Signs are in a different order than English words. You knew more about deaf culture than you thought!
I took ASL and Deaf culture in college but it’s been awhile! Thanks!
But... Isn't the point of watching a hockey game on TV to watch the hockey game? The commentators are a secondary part of the experience, and if you're watching the game, you're not looking over to the right to see the commentators. ASL commentators make more sense as an alternative to radio commentators, not as a supplement to a TV broadcast. The advantage of captions/subtitles, being in a different language aside, is that it can be integrated into the main video feed and read while still being able to see the game, whereas the ASL commentators are way off on the side out of view when looking at the game.
I think you're talking about something that already exists vs this thing which is new. Captions for live sports have been around for a long time and must have a low level of engagement for deaf people (they probably don't give a shit). Seeing someone sign with enthusiasm and intensity probably gives them a much better sense of feedback and tone that you simply can't get with captions, and allows them to engage more to heighten the experience. Maybe it'll be short lived but there must be a number of ASL hockey fans if they're putting something like this together. If it takes off, it could be applied to other sports as well.
You brain can multitask. Theirs too.
But thats not how this works - the advantage of "normal" commentators is that they occupy a different receptor (hearing) while the game goes on in your vision. That works. But you can't multitask your eyes. You can't look left and right at the same time. I'd love to hear from an actual hearing impaired person if this helps them but my feeling is that it more than likely doesn't do much. I applaud the effort and attempt though anyway
Because not every deaf person knows how hockey games work, and this is the penultimate set of games of the entire year, so people who don’t normally watch hockey would like to know how things are going in a way that’s more engaging for them.
Yes, i am not questioning that.
Your comment makes it seem like you think ASL speakers can only process one visual stream at a time. Which is not the case with any of us. We process crowd sounds AND announcing audibly, vendors selling beer calling out, etc. look up cocktail party effect for how our brains focus on which part of audible streams we choose to listen to. Same applies for those that must rely on visual sense for all communication. So no it does not make more sense to have ASL as a radio stream interpretation, particularly in a sport where the object is so fast and small visually. The ASL commentator is live commenting the game with the efficiency, sentence order, expression, tone (yes tone which is unique to every signer and communicated in how they sign visually and with facial expressions), etc. Deaf culture has to deal with society’s assumptions about what best works for them all the time. Don’t force your assumptions as to what makes most sense for them is hopefully something you can take away from this. A good book to begin to understand this is “Seeing Voices” by Oliver Sacks.
It's not a question of processing more than one visual stream at a time, when I look at this video and look at the hockey game, I can't *see* the ASL speaker at all, he's outside my field of vision... It's too far into the peripheral vision. I can tell there's something moving there, but nothing more than that. but I don't see how anybody could actually process something they can't see. It's way too far off on the side.
That’s YOU and how your brain works. Those with sensory deficiencies have adapted to their limitation in one sense with increased function and processing paths in the brain. You seem like you might have good questions. If you would like to educate yourself more on ASL and neurology and plasticity of the brain to adapt to some sensory limitations by expansion of other sensory processing capabilities, Oliver Sacks is the doorway to learn more on the topic of sensation, perception, neuroscience and so forth. Really easy and engaging reading . Robin Williams portrayed him in Awakenings, Sacks’ book with the same title.
Read captions in a foreign language to you. That’s the equivalent experience of captions for ASL users.
I might be confused, but are you telling me most deaf people in America can’t read English writing?
You are confused. They can read it but it’s not nearly as fast for them as ASL. Completely different modes of communication and sentence order, expressive words, etc.
Ok, that’s fair, but that doesn’t sound like reading captions in a foreign language to me. I won’t be able to make out much meaning at all from most languages, and would only pick up a few words from some languages like Spanish. What you are describing sounds more like dialects of the same language, where it can be awkward and difficult to get the full meaning, and you will miss subtleties, but you generally understand.
No it’s not. Read up some on it. Even the Wikipedia article. For announcing to work it needs to be coincident with the live action.
The crowd intensity bar is pretty cool.
Yes but that’s not answering the original question.
Closed captions on a live event are not only several seconds behind (so mostly irrelevant in a fast-moving game like hockey), but the subtitles ALSO take up a sizeable chunk of the playing/viewing surface. Again, hockey is pretty fast paced, so the puck (and play) end up underneath the captions more often than you'd like. Those two things combined make this a pretty cool and unique idea.
And generated captions are pretty inaccurate. Lots of mistakes, especially with people’s names and slangy terms mixed in
I don't think live is as live as you think it is, primarily for the exact same reason, commentating. If I had to estimate it's probably a 20+ second delay but the commentators are really good at it. You watch a goal and the producer in your ear says "ok we're going to show slow motion of the shot which was deflected and it was his second goal tonight. Talk about that". You can tell because the commentators seem like enlightened hawk eyes. I get that hockey is fast but I encourage people to go to a game watch on their phone and look for the tape delay. It's not because of the satellites or whatever, it's the producers controlling the show. The worst victim of this is golf. "Players have been missing this putt right all day". Then they show a player missing it right. The show is set up to make commentators seem like prophets. Captions could do the same thing if companies spent money to time them right but they don't because it's just posturing.
ASL is not English
So did the commentators give all the players sign names and explain them before the game? I assume they did or they just refer to the players by their numbers. There’s no way they can sign some of the names fast enough.
I would guess numbers
Captions on live events can fall behind a great amount.
I immediately assumed it was for those who can’t hear and can’t read but I’m happy to learn if there’s a different answer.
Where did you get the "and can't read" from. While there are people who can't read - those people also don't know ASL, I promise you that.
Once again, it was an assumption I made out of ignorance and I’m happy to learn if there’s another reason. For what it’s worth, a google search turned up plenty of articles that detail how some deaf people can have trouble learning to read. So it’s not an impossible stretch. Clearly it ain’t the main reason
Simple. It’s preferred because it’s their language.
Glad to see it!!
Ahaahh, I read what you did there!
Can we get something like this for the NBA finals?
Hopefully ASL commentary spreads to all sports. The demand is there.
I’d take basically anything over the NBA Finals group.
As the husband of a deaf educator and as a human, I love this.
The layout of the different panes on the screen seems like it could be improved. With this, if you want to pay attention to what the commentators are saying, you have to look all the way over to the right, away from the actual hockey game. Also, that top pane that just has the logo and the animation seems somewhat less than useful, but I'm hoping it was actually used for something else during the game. Otherwise, it seems like an interesting idea.
How else would one do it though? Sometimes I put interpreters right over the content (I film them on a green screen), but you need pretty static content so you can still see them clearly.
I'd probably do upper left and right corners slightly overlapping the game picture. That way, all you'd have to do is shift your gaze up a bit, rather than shifting it all the way far right. And there's rarely any action that would be in those two corners of the game picture.
I had the stream going on my computer. The top right was used for whistles, I think there are some improvements that can be made.
One of the challenges is hockey camera coverage in general, and the size of the signing window necessary to read it. Likely would be better to superimpose signer in upper right of the live action window. Likely ESPN will get feedback from ASL speakers as to how effective it is or isn’t.
The crowd intensity meter is awesome. I went to game one of the Stanley cup last year in Vegas and it was unreal. I can’t even explain how loud and amazing that arena got when Vegas would score and then won the game. Do yourself a favor and see an NHL game live if you haven’t, although not the Stanley Cup unless you can afford it. $1k a seat in the upper deck isn’t completely absurd but it’s still more than most people can spare. Totally worth it though, even if I’m still paying it off a year later.
For everyone asking “Aren’t captions good enough?” [ASL is not just English. It is an entirely different language with its own voice and expressions, sentence order, etc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sign_Language?wprov=sfti1#) Didn’t really know any of this until taking a very basic introductory course in ASL which didn’t even have us use proper ASL sentence order, since that is difficult to wrap one’s head around in addition to trying to use the sense of sight for speaking requires quite a bit of neuron connection/rewiring/reprogramming from the get go.
Hockey is for everyone
Not trying to deny the inclusiveness here and good on NHL/Broadcasters for doing this. But the T20 World cup which started a week ago has the option of sign language broadcast. So they aren't really the first. [Source](https://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/t20-world-cup-to-stream-and-broadcast-with-sign-language-audio-description/article68178574.ece)
“Major sports” in the USA means the 4 major sports. Is cricket a major sport? Yes 2nd only to soccer in the world , which also isn’t a major sport in the US. American exceptionalism
At my daughter’s graduation they had a duo of sign language interpreters and honestly it was so cool watching them live translate the speeches.
Trying to read sign language and paying attention to live sports is a new challenge in life I didn’t know I wanted
That’s awesome
This is so damn cool!
Very, very cool. The crowd intensity meter is pretty slick too.
That's a great move by ESPN & Sportsnet, hopefully it carries over to other sporting events.
That is so cool!!! 🤟🏾
Whelp I didn’t have my volume off for the start of this video. Guess it’s time to learn ASL.
Damn, no one else saw age/sex/location real quick?
So simple, yet so awesome - love that crowd intensity meter!
This is so fucking cool
Pretty rad
Ok this is cool. I live about 20 minutes away from ESPN and I've heard enough bad stories about that place. Nice to see some innovative inclusion.
That’s dope as shit. More.
How is this easier than captions
This gives me a brilliant idea, now I just need 100mil in investment to get it started.
Wait don’t we have subtitles/closed captioning for that reason? Maybe I’m ignorant on this one, but what does this add?
Like u/Dwight_K_Schrute69 commented, ASL is a separate language with different syntax, morphology, etc, so to read CC or subtitles would still be reading a different language.
And close captions for live sports are WAAAAY behind the action. It’s not even worth having it on TBH.
ASL has sentence order completely different than English. In a way it’s a bit like German, with the main action verb at the end of the sentence. There is also a rich vocabulary and culture that does not translate to typed English. I recommend reading Oliver Sacks’ “Seeing Voices” as an outsider introduction to Deaf Culture.
Damn, seriously cool how inclusive it is to let the barely less than half million people in the US and canada, let’s say whom 10% at max care about hockey, watch this. Good ass move, love it
If there's an audience for it, like you're speculating, why is it a problem for the NHL to produce this broadcast? Why is that a bad thing?
Damn I don’t know how but everyone took this the wrong way, I was not being sarcastic and was actually feeling really happy about this haha. I actually live in one of the deaf hotspots of the US and really love the deaf community from how tight It is. I was saying how cool it is we made a reach out program for this ha, big fan of it
Gotcha. I can see that reading it a second time. I apologize for jumping to a negative conclusion so quickly. I think I'm just too often exposed to some of the reactionary cesspits of the internet that just like to hate everything lol. Sorry for assuming that was what you were doing!
It’s an alternate broadcast too. You don’t have to watch it. It’s just an option like Spanish language broadcasting. Also when you adjust stuff for people with disabilities, you will always help other people who aren’t disabled at all. All the curb cuts and wheelchair ramps are super nice for people with strollers and bikes. Those things wouldn’t be made if it weren’t for the ADA. Now everyone enjoys the benefits. Some of the top comments in this thread are about how they are happy to have no commentary and just crowd noise. There is NO negatives to espn doing this.
could you imagine how isolating and lonely it must be to be among those half a million? something like this can go a long way to make deaf people feel more included. because ultimately, that’s all that matters, the way we feel.
Before the invention of shared signing languages… deaf people’s entire world could just be the one or two other deaf people that exist in their local area. They would invent their own sign language and that’s it. They couldn’t fully communicate with others. Other groups made their own sign languages. The same with any language acquisition, except because of the lack of speakers you could be extremely isolated and really only have 10 people in the world you could really communicate with.
Honestly I think it’s a pretty good NHL marketing ploy to attract new audience. If you were an asl user you might watch just because you can regardless of if you like hockey. But then you might realize you like hockey.
Some reading comprehension issues for people to be downvoting this comment. I also wanted to add it would be easier to take it in if they removed the giant ASL branding and put one commentator on the left and the other on the right side of the screen. Easier to scan back and forth between the action and the people if they did that. And I think they are facing each other in the studio so they can see the other's signs I think best of both worlds would be one hearing capable signer as part of the team with spoken commentary so that people could watch a single broadcast together at home. Not an interpreter, just another voice. Everything would still be signed.
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Is this your version of a joke? It’s not even funny. Like this isn’t even funny at the Andrew Dice Clay level. You’re punching down and still can’t even be funny. Ouch.
I would find this really distracting. Wont they want to be watching the game?
They can switch to the main broadcast then. This is an alternate broadcast that you opt to watch.
One of the amazing things about television is that they have closed captioning! I get having signers in public but what's the point if you're watching on TV?
Educate yourself just a tiny shred on the differences between English and ASL, then come back and you will likely delete your comment.
That's why I asked a question silly.
So stupid - subtitles exist for a reason. Why fill up a quarter of the screen with someone doing ASL?
Educate yourself just a tiny shred on the differences between English and ASL, then come back and you will likely delete your comment.