Tuskegee Airmen
I'm watching a flick on History Channel called "Tuskegee Airmen," and it is about an elite squadron of black pilots, during WWII. I am being very inspired.
Just as blacks faced doubts, prejudices, barriers and outright oppression, they were still able to fight as pilots in the segregrated days. They still gave for their country. Yet they faced a lot of venom from whites. But they preservered and proved themselves through their actions.
I am imagining that the Deaf will be able to do just such a thing. With technology so ingrained in our lives, it is incumbent on ourselves to ensure that the technology is created to facilitate communication for deaf pilots. With the globalisation of data communications, video relay, IP relay, IM technology, all that, it is a mere software engineering task to create a software that allows deaf pilots to communicate to other pilots in the air and air traffic control using relay services and instant messaging. If the worst comes to the worst, in emergencies, there's always Morse code, speech synthesis and speech recognition.
Until these technologies are readily available, we the Deaf cannot realistically argue that we are entitled to be in the military or NASA. It is my dream that a group of Deaf astronauts go up in space on one of the first commercial space missions. That is only a few years from now. Did ya know that Virgin Atlantic airlines just established a new off-shoot, Virgin Galatical, and they are now taking reservations for space flights starting in 2008, I believe. Cool, eh? If so, then the time is NOW to start training, fundraising, and gaining support/publicity to be ultimately allowed into space. Meanwhile, I'm gonna start working on the technology needed to do it.
Sign language in zero gravity. An interesting concept. I say that it is a theory that can be realistically tested in space.
Godspeed, my fellow Deaf citizens.
Just as blacks faced doubts, prejudices, barriers and outright oppression, they were still able to fight as pilots in the segregrated days. They still gave for their country. Yet they faced a lot of venom from whites. But they preservered and proved themselves through their actions.
I am imagining that the Deaf will be able to do just such a thing. With technology so ingrained in our lives, it is incumbent on ourselves to ensure that the technology is created to facilitate communication for deaf pilots. With the globalisation of data communications, video relay, IP relay, IM technology, all that, it is a mere software engineering task to create a software that allows deaf pilots to communicate to other pilots in the air and air traffic control using relay services and instant messaging. If the worst comes to the worst, in emergencies, there's always Morse code, speech synthesis and speech recognition.
Until these technologies are readily available, we the Deaf cannot realistically argue that we are entitled to be in the military or NASA. It is my dream that a group of Deaf astronauts go up in space on one of the first commercial space missions. That is only a few years from now. Did ya know that Virgin Atlantic airlines just established a new off-shoot, Virgin Galatical, and they are now taking reservations for space flights starting in 2008, I believe. Cool, eh? If so, then the time is NOW to start training, fundraising, and gaining support/publicity to be ultimately allowed into space. Meanwhile, I'm gonna start working on the technology needed to do it.
Sign language in zero gravity. An interesting concept. I say that it is a theory that can be realistically tested in space.
Godspeed, my fellow Deaf citizens.
1 Comments:
I know there is one Deaf licensed airplane operator. His name is Roger McCargill from Omaha.
Ofir
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