Ready to see some deaf talent? This weekend there is a deaf short film festival in Wellington, New Zealand. Not only is it showcasing New Zealand’s deaf talent, but also bridging the gap between deaf and hearing communities.

One of the featured films on Friday September 8 will include the award winning film ‘Tama’. The film was created by the deaf film-maker Jared Flitcroft and hearing film-maker Jack O’Donnell.

“Many films have been in collaborations between deaf and hearing film-makers, and the festival gives both deaf and hearing audiences the opportunity to really experience the incredible deaf talent and deaf culture we have in New Zealand,” Jenny Boyd, festival organizer, told New Zealand’s Stuff.

The film is about a deaf teenager, Tama. He feels isolated from the people around him because of communication barriers. The sound within film includes a deaf perspective (muffled sounds), and a hearing perspective (loud common background noises).

Throughout the film, Tama finds his own way to communicate. The way he discovers is best for him is using haka as a way to communicate with his father. Haka is a traditional New Zealand war dance.

“The haka [is] a symbol of change. In the film you’d see Tama change from this weaker person, someone who can’t communicate and as he learns the haka he becomes a man,” Flitcroft said to Radio New Zealand. “He realises he can do it. He’s representing the way he has changed… the way he can stand up to his father and say “look at me, look at me I am communicating with you”.”

Also, at the film festival will be a performance from Sean Forbes. Forbes is a deaf American hip-hop artist who founded DPAN.TV, an online platform that hosts sign language media content. He started out by signing songs in ASL to make music accessible for deaf people.

Read more: Meet Sean Forbes, the deaf rapper who is inspiring a generation

Get more information about the deaf short film festival here!

Shoppers in the U.S. may have noticed a sweet face on Gap ads recently, and those who looked even closer may have noticed something special: little, pink hearing aids tucked behind her ear.

Emily, who was born with hearing loss, is one of the stars behind the new GapxDisney collection and is quickly becoming recognized in the deaf community.

A failed newborn hearing screening and the desire to ensure his son grows up feeling confident were the only factors Robbie needed when deciding to get a hearing aid tattoo. 

His wife, @stephy_rene, shared her family’s story with us on Instagram. 

Did you miss the most talked about hearing loss stories of 2016?

From deaf athletes to breaking down stigmas, we’ve rounded up the top 10 Hearing Like Me articles of the year.

Reminisce, catch-up and relive the moments.

When I was growing up with a hearing loss, as well as during my job as a lifeguard working with children, I always noticed that children would stare at my hearing aids or my swimming molds.

They were often in shock or became intrigued of these funny objects in my ears. They would ask me what they are, what they’re for, or even try to poke or touch them! This sparked my idea for this blog!

A while back I did a blog on ‘10 Misconceptions about Hearing Loss’ so as a follow up blog I’d like to share some other insights that I’ve noticed when people ask me about my hearing loss. It’s great to be inquisitive and ask questions about hearing loss, but there are some common sense things that you may want to know, so you don’t offend deaf people.  

I’ve experienced a couple of these situations and they can become very awkward. I thought by sharing these with you, I hope you can either relate with them or help to share this blog to raise deaf awareness!

8 Things not to say to someone with a hearing loss 

When my baby boy was born, I looked at him nestled in my arms through teary, tired eyes and knew he was worth the pain. But when he failed his newborn hearing screening numerous times our world really was turned upside down.

Being profoundly deaf, we quickly found out that Harry couldn’t hear a thing. It broke my heart thinking about the months spent talking to my bump and realizing that he hadn’t heard a word. The little competence I had gained during those early weeks as a first-time mum had been completely diminished. I was suddenly thrown into the unknown, where nobody I knew had ever been.

Captioning on YouTube has been a hot topic in the deaf/Hard of Hearing world lately, especially among teenagers. YouTuber Rikki Poynter – Pikachu lover and advocate for closed captioning, who’s also deaf – has sort of led the charge for getting all YouTube videos captioned. She explains in her video why captioning is important for Deaf/HOH people, as well as those who don’t speak the language that the video is filmed  in. She also posts a whole load about deaf related topics.

Captions on YouTube has been such an important topic lately, mostly because they are so bad. In 2009, YouTube released their automatic captioning feature for videos using voice recognition algorithm, but the text is often inaccurate. While YouTube does let users upload their own captions, it can be time consuming, and most users don’t do it. However, with encouragement from the Deaf/Hard of Hearing community, and people like Rikki, there are some YouTubers who are leading this change. Here’s a list of some YouTubers I’ve found who caption their videos:

Every Friday we’ll feature the most buzzed about topics relating to the “hearing loss” community. Join us on social media or check in on the Hearing Like Me forum, and find out how our community is going viral!

We talk a lot about wearing hearing aids with pride, but recently we’ve seen more and more people take that concept to a whole other level, with tattoos of their (or their loved ones’) hearing technology.