'Jesus and Me' and The Body of Christ - Catholics with Hearing Loss: Captioning the Catholic Mass

'Jesus and Me' and The Body of Christ:  

 “Faith is not a private matter, a completely individualistic notion or a personal opinion: it comes from hearing, and it is meant to find expression in words and to be proclaimed” - Pope Francis   (Source: Lumen Fidei, 22 :http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20130629_enciclica-lumen-fidei.html)

The Catholic Faith is not just a 'Jesus and Me' faith, but rather one in which we share and profess our faith together which commands us to fully participate in all parts of the Mass.   This is a post Vatican II emphasis.  Captioning, Audio loops and Sign language are three most common ways to address communication access to the diverse population of those with hearing loss and deafness so that they can not only hear the homily,  but share and profess their faith with the community of believers and pray together,  reflect on the Homily together, connect to any blessings bestowed on this community, including themselves.   Solo praying/reading at the Mass is more of a 'Jesus and Me' relationship.  Catholics with hearing loss and deafness indeed should have a personal relationship with Jesus, but they are also part of the body of Christ, the church and should be able to worship together in a way that allows full participation and not just being a spectator or observer.   They should have access to the Mass, connecting with the community and in a way that speaks to their diverse communication, culture and linguistic needs (whether it is Captioning, Sign Language or Audio Loops).  Captioning is the language of many with hearing loss and largely overlooked in terms of reaching those with hearing loss and deafness.  Captioning is also a Universal Design access covering a large user population at a Mass, not just those with hearing loss, but many other 'disabilities' as well. 

"Although Catholics preach a personal encounter with Christ we also emphasize the importance of the entire Body of Christ, which is the Church. The Christian walk is not a self centred journey, it is a journey for the community of believers, which the Bible calls the "Elect." (Col 8:33, Col. 3:12; 1 Tim. 5:21; Tit. 1:1; 2 John 1) . " 

(source: http://catholicbridge.com/catholic/born_again_catholics.php)

 The Catholic Mass is very communal, and not a time for solitude praying

and reading.   It is a time of sharing and professing the faith together as well as engaging, and entering into reflection with the congregation during the Homily.   It is very challenging for someone with a hearing loss to walk this walk with the body of Christ,  if there is no communication access for them at Mass whether it is Captioning, Sign Language or Audio Loops to fully participate at Mass with the community, pray, engage, reflect together WITH them instead of solo,  be on the same page, be in the same moment with their experiences at Mass, reflect on the homily together at the same moment  which according to Pope Francis 'surpasses all forms of catechesis', share and profess together, laugh at the same time they laugh, join them with the prayer of the faithful intercessory prayers together, connecting to the spiritual unity and essence, know the announcements, understand the blessing being bestowed, and be part of the Mass experience with the church together as a participant instead of an observer.  Being a participant is something you have to claim for one self as you can't claim someone else's experience at the Mass.  The Word and Sacrament are interrelated and connected as well that is important to witness.  

A common universal experience for many who are deaf and hard of hearing is when they go to the Mass and they are unable to participate,  it is worse then not going at all because it magnifies  the isolation and alienation for many because communication access is either not provided for them,or not available for them,  overlooked, or denied to them.  They are disconnected from the Mass experience.

"(Catholics) who want to attend mass and be a part of ministries but do not find a willingness or desire for their inclusion. Often times this is do to ignorance and a lack of awareness." (Source:  http://www.disabilityawarenesstraining.com/component/content/article/3/40)

Because of this,  many have a 'why bother' about attending church with only 4-10 percent of those with hearing loss attending church which means 90+ percent of those with hearing loss and deafness are NOT in church because they can't fully participate.  

 It is my hope to raise this awareness through this blog that those with hearing loss and deafness in the church are being excluded from participation at the Mass if there is no access, and deserve the fullness of their faith, and according to their baptismal rights. They should be able to participate with the body of Christ -the church, and not solo 'Jesus and Me'.    They should be one as the Lord would want All to be One.  Captioning (CART or Remote CART) is a wonderful way to share the Joy of the Gospel to the deaf and hard of hearing, reaching the widest user population within the spectrum of hearing loss and deafness as well as many other 'disabilities'. (see my blog post on the Universal design of Captioning and how it reaches a wide population who can benefit) May we all be one.

______________________________________________

Isn't Jesus about relationship, not 

religion?: See more at http://catholicbridge.com/catholic/relationship_vs_religion.php

_________________________________________________________________

"It is essential that all forms of the liturgy be 

completely accessible to people with 

disabilities, since these forms are the essence of 

the spiritual tie that binds the Christian 

community together," the bishops wrote.

 (Source: http://www.patersondiocese.org/page.cfm?Web_ID=1888)

_______________________________________________________________________

"An obvious benefit of closed captioning is to allow everyone to have an equal opportunity to participate in and enjoy the benefits of a service, program or activity." 

(Source:  http://tfwm.com/captions-where-do-we-go-from-hear/)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why I hate religion but love Jesus -Fr Barron comments:  Part 1 at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLta2b9zQ64 and Part 2 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWR1QCoRqwA (click on CC for captioning)

_________________________________________________________


US Bishop Pastoral statement: 

"Parish liturgical celebrations and catechetical 

programs should be accessible to persons with 

disabilities and open to their full, active and conscious 

participation, according to their capacity."

Source: http://www.ncpd.org/views-news-policy/policy/church/bishops/welcome-and-justice

________________________________________________________________

"A growing number of churches, synagogues

 and other places of worship are adopting

 closed captioning for hearing-impaired

 congregants." (Source:  http://www.stenotype.edu/news/stenographer-goes-church/#sthash.5tWSYgfx.dpuf)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Accessible meeting space allows

 everyone to participate." 

(Source: http://www.ada.gov/business/accessiblemtg.htm

_________________________________________________________________

" Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican Council's document on the reform of the liturgy, declared that in its mandate of fittingly celebrating the "memorial of [Christ's] death and resurrection," "The Church, therefore, earnestly desires that Christ's faithful, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators; on the contrary, through a good understanding of the rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration" (48).  (Source: http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2006/04/full-conscious-active-participation.html)

______________________________________________________________

"Live captioning, also known as computer assisted 

real-time (CART) communications is similar to the

teletext captions you see on TV. It allows people who 

are deaf or hard of hearing to read the captions to

understand what is being said. If they are verbal, it also 

allows them to participate in the conversation."

 (Source: http://accessiblecommunications.wordpress.com/tag/remote-captions/)

___________________________________________________________

"The faithful are called to spread the

 word, and captioning makes that more

 achievable. " (Source: http://www.closedcaptioning.net/webcasting/captioning-church-programming)

________________________________________________________________________________________

" If a house of worship is not doing CC, 

however, then a major portion of the 

dialogue will not be picked up by the 

whole audience.” 

(Source:  http://tfwm.com/opening-up-services-with-closed-captioning/)

        Captioning Shares the Message

             Welcome !    See  http://www.catholicscomehome.org

__________________________

"Churches, you might say, can't afford to build all 

these expensive accommodations for the disabled. 

You have to realize, though, that the lack of these 

services is keeping many people away from Christ." (Source: http://catholicexchange.com/disabilities-and-the-catholic-church -M. LYNN BOOKER)

______________________________________________________________________________________

Who Do You Say that I am?:  

 A short film:  See http://www.archmil.org/Synod2014/Sessions/Videos/Beauty-of-the-Catholic-Church-cc.htm

___________________________________________________________________

Who are the Catholics?: A short video presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk4OCzre_IY




___________________________________________________________________________________

What is the Catholic Church?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clp2-sAAsfQ (don't click on CC because it is already in subtitles)

_______________________________________________

Why I'm Catholic:  http://whyimcatholic.com

_____________________________________________________________________

 "I am the bread of life" (see link below)

(Source:  http://www.catholicbridge.com/catholic/eucharist.php#Was%20Jesus%20being%20literal%20when%20he%20said%20I%20am%20the%20bread%20of%20Life)

__________________________________________________________________________

"Both the Eucharist and the word are 

sources 

of life. Thus, in St John’s Gospel, Jesus

 says,

 “I am the living bread that came down

 from

 heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he

 will live 

forever” (Jn 6:51). This is also true of 

the 

word: Jesus says, “The words that I 

have 

spoken to you are spirit and life”

(Jn 6:63). (Source:  http://catholicsensibility.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/the-presence-of-christ-in-word-and-sacrament/)

_____________________________________________________________

What is the Mass?:  http://catholicbridge.com/catholic/mass.php

_________________________________________________________________________

The deaf and hard of hearing in other churches

 advocating for CART (aka real time captioning): 

 See http://xpressivehandz.blogspot.com/2014/04/ada-violation-at-upcoming-giant-center.html

A church event in a public place was offering sign language interpreter, spanish interpreter and almost didn't provide real time captioning (CART) which is translating spoken English into verbatim English  in real time like interpretation does that allows the majority of the deaf and hard of hearing to be able to PARTICIPATE like the others!  However, in the end, they were granted CART (real time captioning) that allows the same equal and effective communication access that ADA would support in secular society.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"The ADA calls us to be aware of and correct what we do that unnecessarily excludes people"

(Source: http://network.crcna.org/disability-concerns/q-ada-church-and-americans-disabilities-act)

__________________________________________________________________________

Lets pray that we break the 

communication barriers for all !

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Visible vs. Invisible church: 

See http://catholicbridge.com/catholic/vatican_says_protestants_not_churches.php

_____________________________________________________________________

Reaching Catholics:  see  http://www.oncecatholic.org

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sharing the Christmas Message in Real Time Captioning: 

 http://captioningthemass.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=37

___________________________________________________________________

Captioning, Sign Language and Audio loops are the three most common communication access used by the deaf and hard of hearing in secular business, education and entertainment settings.  It would be nice if it was also being provided in churches even though the church is ADA exempt.  The hearing loss and deafness population is diverse so all three most common communication   access needs to be in place.

About 10 percent estimated of the hearing loss population benefit from sign language (3 percent are native/primary users and 7 percent estimate are acquired/bilingual for a total estimate of 10 percent ), about 40 to 60 percent estimated of the hearing loss population benefit from Captioning, and about 70 to 80 percent estimated  can benefit from Audio Loops (assuming they are wearing hearing aids and cochlear implants with T coils so this is more in theory). However in reality; 1 in 5 Americans with hearing loss who can benefit from a  hearing aid wear one.  1 in 4 deaf adult Americans who can benefit from a cochlear implant wear a cochlear implant. 25 percent of hearing aids do not have T coils in them.  Many people with more severe and profound hearing losses who do wear hearing aids and do have T coils in them often find the Audio Induction loops not reliable for them or 'strong' enough. Captioning can also cover all these groups and thereby provide effective communication  access.  Technically though any one who can read  (receptive) and speak (expressive) can benefit from Captioning so real time captioning can cover a wide user population within the spectrum of hearing loss.

Think those with mild and moderate hearing loss who most benefit from audio induction loops are wearing  hearing aids?  According to this:

"Only 14% of older adults with hearing loss use

 hearing aids, according to estimates from a 

nationwide survey.

The proportion dropped to fewer than 4% of people

 with mild hearing loss across all age decades and 

to fewer than 5% of adults ages 50 to 59,

 irrespective of the severity of hearing loss."

 (Source:  http://www.awesomecapital.com/awesome-blog/most-hearing-impaired-adults-forgo-hearing-aids)

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

" This {real time captioning} technology is primarily used by people who are late-deafened, oral deaf, hard-of-hearing,or have cochlear implants. Culturally deaf individuals also make use of CART in certain situations. " (Source: http://www.everyonecommunicates.org/methods/captioning.html)

______________________________________________________________

"A growing number of churches, synagogues 

and other places of worship are adopting 

closed captioning for hearing-impaired 

congregants." (Source:  http://www.stenotype.edu/news/stenographer-goes-church/#sthash.5tWSYgfx.dpuf)

________________________________________________________________________________________

Why I hate religion but love Jesus -two video's with Fr. Barron (now a Bishop!) comments:  

Part 1 at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLta2b9zQ64 (click on CC for captioning)

and 

Part 2 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWR1QCoRqwA (click on CC for captioning)

__________________________________________________________________

Caption Catholic Tidbits:

Catholic Answers:  http://www.catholic.com

Holy Bible Apps:  http://catholicapps.wordpress.com/bible-apps/

A  Video Guide to the Mass:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co0qalRkEJs


New American Bible online: http://www.usccb.org/bible/

__________________________________________________________________

St. Michael the Archangel prayer:
http://www.ewtn.com/Devotionals/prayers/michael.htm

______________________________________________________________________

Lord Hear Our Prayer

LIGHT a CANDLE:  http://www.lightingacandle.org

__________________________________________

Pray For Us All!

See: http://catholicbridge.com/catholic/mary_do_catholics_pray_to_her.php

_____________________________________

Come Pray the Rosary with others - together Online:  http://www.comepraytherosary.org

(text guided version offered to follow along)

_________________________________________________________________

" No captions is like no ramp for people in wheelchairs or signs stating ‘people with disabilities are not welcome."  



(Source:  http://globalaccessibilitynews.com/2015/02/13/harvard-massachusetts-institute-of-technology-sued-over-lack-of-closed-captioning-online/)














This applies just as well to real time captioning in churches as well, only the church is ADA exempt.  The ADA law does not apply to churches.  The church and any kind of worship place of any faith is allowed to discriminate and not provide real time captioning for church services.  90 percent of the those with hearing loss do not attend church because the church is not accessible to them.  Wouldn't it be nice to provide real time captioning to our brothers and sisters in Christ in order to share the Joy of the Gospel?  Maybe the 90 percent of the missing brothers and sisters might return to the church if it is accessible to them, thereby opening the doors and welcoming them to share and experience the fullness of their faith.








__________________________________________________________________________________________





"Accessible meeting space allows 


everyone to participate." 


(Source: http://www.ada.gov/business/accessiblemtg.htm













_____________________________________________





"Of all the barriers to full participation and inclusion, the barrier of unexamined attitudes is the most difficult to address," states Ginny Thornburgh, director of the American Association of People with Disabilities' Interfaith Initiative." 




(Source:  http://www.disabilitiesandfaith.org)




__________________________________________________________









Without real time captioning as a valid accommodation for the late deaf, oral deaf and hard of hearing it is like saying to them at the church door:   'no ramp for the wheel chair users' , or 'no blacks allowed', or 'no Irish need to apply'.  






_________________________________________________________________








Catholic Mass for the deaf and hard of hearing:










"For the Deaf or Hard of Hearing:





Arrange for seating the Deaf community in the 

front, near the

 speaker.

Arrange for interpreter or real time captioning 

services at 

least 

two weeks in advance.

Utilize room amplification system or personal 

amplification

 system.

Provide all materials to the interpreter or CART

 reporter one 

week in advance.

Provide bright lighting.  Avoid creating a special 

atmosphere 

with dim lighting."

(Source: http://www.dioslc.org/ministries/disabilities/guidelines-for-accommodating-people-with-disabilities)









________________________________________________________
US Bishop Statement:  








'It is essential that all forms of the liturgy be completely accessible to people with disabilities, since these forms are the essence of the spiritual tie that binds the Christian community together' 



(Source:  http://www.disabilityawarenesstraining.com/component/content/article/3/40)






_________________________________________________________________



The purpose of this blog is to raise  Diversity Awareness among those with hearing loss and deafness, and to raise  awareness that many  with hearing loss are being excluded from full participation at the Mass if the church does not have Captioning. Catholics with hearing loss deserve the fullness of their faith.   Does your Diocese/Archdiocese have at least one Mass service in Captioning at a church that one who benefits from it can reasonably travel to in order to fully and actively participate at the Mass? Contact your Diocese/Archdiocese - find it here:    http://www.usccb.org/about/bishops-and-dioceses/all-dioceses.cfm.)




















Is your church or Diocese/Archdiocese  inclusive to all those with hearing loss and deafness by providing Real time Captioning, Sign Language and Audio Loops?   If not - Diversity and Inclusion Awareness is needed in order to share the joy of the gospel by applying Universal Communication Access.  It is very important to share the Word of God with everyone.  Let's pray for that!







Prayer of Inclusion: http://www.ncpd.org/ministries-programs/spirituality/prayers

















"Be not Afraid, Open Wide the Gates" - Pope St.  John Paul II   (Source: http://jp2forum.blogspot.com/2013/12/be-not-afraid-resounding-from-1531-to.html)

CC-CaptionCatholic