September 16, 2009
‘Deaf Life’ Magazine Shines Light on Deaf Culture
Diana Louise Carter • Staff writer • September 14, 2009
When Matthew Scott Moore was studying social work and filmmaking at Rochester Institute of Technology, he realized media could be a powerful tool for change.
Today, after 25 years at the helm of his own production company and nearly 15 years of magazine publishing under his belt, he’s trying for international change.
Moore, 50, who lives in southeast Rochester, is working with a media company in Japan to launch a Japanese version of his monthly Deaf Life magazine.
Oh, did we mention that Moore can’t hear?
But all these years of publishing magazines and books, organizing events, running Web sites and making appearances haven’t been about what deaf people can’t do.
In Moore’s words, his purpose is “to show what the deaf community can do and what’s happening.” The change part comes in how deaf people are viewed and the opportunities that result.
Joan Naturale, a librarian at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, called Deaf Life “a one-of-a-kind publication which brings together all facets of deaf cultural life.”
She mentioned articles on the history of Martha’s Vineyard, where all residents used to sign, and a profile on an artist who founded an art movement that expresses resistance to oppressive education of deaf students.
Moore’s company, MSM Productions, does some things for the hearing community, too, or at least for those in contact with deaf people.
There’s For Hearing People Only, a book, now in its third encyclopedic edition, that attempts to answer questions about the deaf world.
The chapters are taken from a column by the same name that appears in Deaf Life, which has published for a total of 15 years — there were some gaps — since 1987.
“My copy editor, Linda Levitan, and I started the ‘For Hearing People Only’ feature in Deaf Life as a result of the questions we’d been asked —’Do all deaf people read lips?’ ‘Is there one sign language for all countries?’ ‘How do deaf people use the telephone?’” he said in an e-mail interview.
“Evidently, the columns were a hit — I learned that teachers were photocopying and posting them on bulletin boards, distributing copies to students, making use of them. We were on to something!”
Moore said the book has become a popular text or assigned reading for high school and college courses in deaf studies, interpreter training and basic sign language. “That’s gratifying to know,” he said.
Naturale said Deaf Life is used in a similar way by students and educators.
“The content-rich magazine touches upon biographies of deaf people in myriad fields, technology such as mobile videophones and captioning, historical events, deaf education, social issues, controversies and cultural deaf expression (art, theater, poetry) that are of interest to the community,” she said by e-mail.
MSM Productions also runs a network of Web sites at www.deaf.com. The sites include a gallery of inspirational people, historical profiles, a bulletin board for the deaf community and a chat area, though the chat site is under renovation right now.
When Moore isn’t editing copy for the magazine or the Web, he’s preparing for events.
There’s the gala on Oct. 24 celebrating MSM Productions’ 25th anniversary and a conference for deaf Japanese-Americans to be held in Honolulu in December.
DCARTER@DemocratandChronicle.com
