Text 4 Deaf

Three hearing friends and I designed a text messaging website called www.text4deaf.com, the aim of the website was to bridge the communication gap between the deaf and the hearing communities. Anyone can send a text message from this website (your computer) to any cell phone regardless of service provider. 10% of the proceeds goes towards a deaf charity. I did a vlog that introduces this website and in order to reach both communities at the same time, I incorporated sim-com which is simultaneously communications. Also note something, the first time I did the vlog I realized that you couldn't see my hands as I was signing that's because the wall was originally pale and did not provide a contrast with my own skin color. So we posted a navy sheet on the wall and you could see it so much better. Just an FYI to all that if you ever do a video of someone signing make sure you have contrasting background. :D

Left and Right!

My mother always told me that I was smart. Now I can tell her that I am twice as smart! Why? I use my left and my right brain when I communicate. According to the Week 3 & 4 link, regarding language, deafness, and sign language, understanding spoken language is based on the left hemisphere of the brain whereas the processing of non-language perception (sign language) is based on the right hemisphere. Since I use both languages (sometimes simultaneously), I must be using both sides at once.
Now here's my question- where does the brain process lip reading? The right side of the brain is concerned with spatial processing which is why sign language is organized on this side. But if lip reading is not concerned with utilizing space is it still clustered under the right side as a visual component?

How do you "affect" the deaf?

David Rose asked me in class, "can you hear the music?" For a second, I was trying to clarify the question. Did he mean could I hear the music? Or did he mean, did I know there was music playing? Or did he mean, was I affected at all by the music?
Maybe he meant to ask all three questions. I answered, "No, but I can feel the music." But wait! Feeling the vibration does not affect me the same way people hear the music. I don't know if the vibration is a happy, scary, or romantic vibration. The interpreters told me what kind of music was playing but it had no emotional affect on me.
I've seen the "Wizard of Oz" so many times and I know the song, "Over the Rainbow" is a wistful song about dreaming of some far off place and it does affect me. Why? Judy Garland's facial expression and the longing look as she gazes out into the horizon. Facial expressions does to me what music does to my hearing peers. (Thanks to David's illustrations of AABA helped me understand the musical interpretation of it).