The "Hero" Nobody Wanted or Asked For

           

         You have probably seen the video circling about Samsung’s ad called “Touching Hearing Hands”. If you haven’t, in 2015 Samsung released an ad for an app that allows the deafblind to send messages through Morse Code, which seems nice and probably good natured. However, this ad is very controversial in its portrayal not only of the deafblind, but also disability.

The ad follows Muharrem Yazgan, who is deaf, around Istanbul. For this video the community was taught sign language to communicate with Yazgan. As the man walks down the street people were going out of their way to talk and interact with him and his sister. People who would usually not. Then at the end of the walk they arrive at their destination where members from Samsung introduce themselves and tell Yazgan what is going on. Real heartfelt moment lots of crying and what looks to be joy.

There are your typical problems with and ad like this. For example, who is benefiting and profiting from the ad. The answer to both of those is Samsung. However, I want to look deeper at the ad’s objectification of Yazgan and its portrayal of people with disability.  

The first issue I had with the ad is that Samsung representatives pretty much tell Yazgan and the Deaf community we did all of this for you and your welcome. To me this is problematic. The idea that someone with a disability needs unwarranted “saving” or “help” as if there is a need for assimilation into an ableist culture that still won’t be very receptive to their lack of verbal communication.

Another issue with the unwarranted help is Samsung acting as though they are removing barriers for deaf people. However, there should never have been barriers made in the first place. The barriers come from an ableist society and ideals. With this almost savior complex, Samsung is making deaf people out to be inferior by telling them they need help even though they didn’t ask for it.  

Throughout the video Yazgan and his sister look confused and uncomfortable with the people who are interacting with them because the interactions are very unordinary and forced. At one point out of nowhere someone runs into them, looks very purposeful, with apples. Yazgan picks up the apple and the guy who dropped them is very insistent on Yazgan taking an one. Even though it seems Yazgan does not want it. This is just one of many examples in the ad that display disability as inferior. As if being deaf means, you cannot do ordinary everyday things, like picking something up.

In a TEDx, Stella Young talks about the social model of disability and how society is debilitating and makes people disabled through ideals of ableism. Samsung’s video proves Stella’s point. An ableist view would be one that believes those who are disabled or differently abled are dependent on those seen as abled to complete daily tasks; because they are dependent, they are viewed as inferior to ableists. Even though, ableism creates disability by building barriers for those differently abled to making there day to more difficult.

Sunny Taylor talks about the same idea as Young saying that social norms restrict movements and makes people dependable. An example of this is in the Samsung video all the people who interact with Yazgan learned sign language for the ad. Some of the people were community members and others were payed actors/actresses. The point being that in an ableist society we view verbal communication as better than signing making those who can’t verbally communicate disabled. Only through social norms though. If signing was valued just as much as verbal communication, then companies like Samsung would not feel the need to make an ordeal out of an app for the deafblind or anyone it would have been a video just like any other. Instead they made an ordeal as if it is not expected for or their job as a media company to make technology for communication for everyone. No hero, no big display, no over dramatization necessary just an app for communication like they make all the time.