In an interview with The LA Times, Matlin describes the show as “a deaf/hearing version of “Little People, Big World.” Entertainment Weekly takes up this comparison, and takes the opportunity to knock the “cloying, artificial product-placed problems” of family shows currently airing on TLC (The Little Couple, 19 Kids and Counting, and others as well as Little People, Big World and Jon and Kate Plus 8). But My Deaf Family, as seen in the pilot, could provide a much more informative, nuanced, and emotionally resonant look at the daily life of Americans in extraordinaroy circumstances.

Matlin has long been a spokesperson for the importance of captioning, on behalf of the National Association for the Deaf and other organizations, and My Deaf Family is available with closed captioning, in addition to the subtitles that appear on the screen during signed conversations. This makes airing My Deaf Family on YouTube a welcome complement to Google and YouTube’s efforts to promote automated captioning of videos, which I tried out in its initial stages last fall. Google’s policy blog covered Matlin’s series, and the YouTube blog posted full (captioned) video of her talk at Google headquarters as well as statistics about the show’s success on YouTube, where it has over 87,000 views.

Working with Matlin and My Deaf Family is a potentially powerful collaboration for Google/YouTube as they attempt to make autocaptioning a reality and accessibility a priority. In his history of closed-captioned television, Greg Downey found that captioning became a priority to the US government only once the beneficiaries of captioning were understood to be not only the deaf/hard of hearing audiences, but students and immigrants learning English, part of a long history of mainstream benefits leading to much-delayed improvements for people with disabilities. In the digital realm, though, captions already have mainstream value – textual versions of multimedia content are useful in search engine optimization, in improving search engine algorithms, in translating material, and in providing transcripts of events to be used by bloggers with a quick turnaround time. The advantage of incorporating My Deaf Family is that captioning and accessibility can be tied to entertainment, and gain a cache as not necessarily a technical or niche feature, but as compelling topics in their own right, that could extend the range of entertainment options we have available.

Finally, I would suggest that Matlin could similarly benefit from YouTube. Only the 9-minute pilot has been fully finished, as Matlin still hopes for television distribution and financing, seeing YouTube as a promotional vehicle for her show. Yet, in taking the show to YouTube, Matlin told the Times

“YouTube is akin to having my own network. After a small initial outlay, I am putting the show out there myself for all to see, hoping that the reaction will be great and that sponsors and networks will see that the show can work.”

This is exactly the logic that has allowed a number of web series to take to the internet and create interesting, innovative content that might not find a home on television – The Guild, Odd Jobs, Auto-Tune the News – or that supplement television in interesting ways – Valemont, The Office: Subtle Sexuality, The Secret Life of Scientists. The Streamy awards, “honoring excellence in original web television programming and those who create it,” are now in their second year, and have already recognized several of these series, bringing them additional attention, viewers, and financial opportunities. Whether it’s increased broadband speeds, mobile video technologies, media spreadability, social networking sites, something else or a combination thereof, we’re moving beyond the struggles of Quarterlife, and allowing My Deaf Family to develop online, in adorable 9-minute chunks like this pilot, might ultimately be what allows it to succeed on its own terms, presenting deaf culture to a wide audience.

1. In honor of Veterans Days (or Remembrance Day as the rest of the world knows it), a wonderful set of videos of dogs welcoming their owners back from military service. Get those tissues ready and enjoy.

2. The Daily Show skewered Sean Hannity for using footage from Glenn Beck’s “9/12” rally in DC to depict Michelle Bachmann’s much smaller rally. As departing White House Communications Director Anita Dunn pointed out, “Well that is where you are getting fact-checking and investigative journalism these days folks. It is a different media environment.” Nice to see the rest of the press prove their utter fecklessness once more. For his part, Hannity mustered the most pathetic of apologies, saying it was “inadvertent,” which led to this wonderful response from Stewart and his staffperson forced to watch Hannity daily:

3. Our own Liz Ellcessor offers two excellent posts on television’s encounters with people with disabilities, one a follow-up to her Antenna post on the Glee episode “Wheels,” and another on Brothers. Let’s hope it’s not another 300 years till American television offers us two shows with people with disabilities. Adding to Liz’s own links to other commentators on the episode, I’ll also note Myles McNutt’s piece at Cultural Learnings.

4. MediaCommons unveiled its new profile system, which is exciting and well worth reading about.

5. Jason Mittell continues his admirable process of discussing the job search at his department at Middlebury in as open terms as he’s probably allowed to. The job market scares people more than anything other than the tenure process, so it’s great to see someone opening up about it in something other than woefully vague terms.

6. In honor of Seth McFarlane’s bad week (Family Guy had its worst week in the ratings this year by 0.5 points, Cleveland Show by 0.6 points, and American Dad by a full point, while his Family Guy Presents Seth and Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show received poor reviews), here comes this explanation of how his shows get put together:

7. In the world of odd adaptations, it seems that Justin Halpern’s Twitter account, ShitMyDadSays, is being made into a sitcom by the Will and Grace creators and Warner Bros. TV. See here for more commentary, though I suspect I’ll discuss this soon over at The Extratextuals, cause it’s so wonderfully paratextual. Update: I’ve now done so here.

8. Annie Peterson talks about web traffic and star talk. I’m going to be very obtuse with details, since Antenna’s supposed to be under the radar right now, so we’re not ready to play with the fire she offers the kindling to build. But to see the evidence of her assertions, see her earlier post here too.

9. Timothy Burke discusses using Power Point in the classroom (though all PP haters should, as we learned at MCS colloquium on Thursday at Wisconsin, consult Kurt Squire for tips. Kurt, to be fair, credits Henry Jenkins with leading the way, a shout out that I’d echo).

10. Finally, in the blast from the past category, it’s old, but if you’ve never treated yourself to Real Ultimate Power and the wonders of all things ninja, do go here and enjoy.

Also, note that the new issue of Flow is out, and that it was Human Rights week on In Media Res

Artie in his wheelchair

Last night’s episode of Glee, “Wheels,” focused on Artie and put the entire club in wheelchairs for a performance. It also attracted a lot of attention and some controversy. A number of actors with disabilities expressed disappointment that Artie is played by an able-bodied actor, Kevin McHale, rather than by an actor who does use a chair. Darryl “Chill” Miller and Geri Jewell are working actors with disabilities, but they’re some of a very few on television, in film or theater.

I haven’t watched a lot of Glee thus far – it wore a little thin for me after a few episodes, I did find it somewhat stereotypical, and I was desperate to learn about the characters who weren’t part of the two white, heterosexual, maybe-baby love triangles. Tina, particularly, was underdeveloped initially, unless a quiet Asian woman was what they were going for. “Wheels” brought me back out of curiosity, and I’m torn.

Pros:

• Glee is charming, and darkly funny, and I want to like it (no matter how often it disappoints me).
• The episode is rare in its focus on a person with disabilities, and having that out there, and McHale’s enthusiasm for the role, are all good things on some level.
• The messages about physical accessibility were really well-done. Throughout, accessibility for the entire school, rather than just Artie, is emphasized in discussions of ramps, buses, and inclusion in school events and organizations.
• The introduction of Becky, a girl with Down Syndrome, broadens the understanding of what disability is in Glee‘s world – it’s not just wheelchairs.

Cons:

• I am disappointed about the casting, and the lack of actors with disabilities representing themselves on TV. The longer actors with disabilities don’t play these parts, the harder it is for them to get experience and work and get other parts down the road.
• I had some qualms about the dancing, related to the hype that surrounded it and lack of acknowledgment for a history of wheelchair dancing.
• The tired practice of putting able-bodied people into chairs to “understand” a disabled experience rubbed me the wrong way.
• The revelation of cheerleading coach Sue’s sister, though, provided too pat a reason for Becky’s inclusion – and reiterated the humanizing linkage of athletic characters and their siblings with disabilities that seems so prevalent on TV lately.

The roughly equal lists up there suggests that I don’t know whether I liked this episode or not. Have other folks seen it? Did you like it? Are you rooting for Artie/Tina? Am I overlooking an obvious reason to appreciate this episode, or Glee generally?