Thanks For Nothing...

While watching the Paralympics, either in the venues or on tv, something very odd occurred to me. Thanks to my journalist credentials, I was sitting in the media area during the Opening Ceremonies and so could watch the tv footage as well as seeing it live right in front of me. On tv and in the stadium there was a sign language interpreter for anyone who was deaf. During the rest of the Games, there was sign language interpretation during all Paralympic broadcasts on Chinese television. Perhaps this may not seem unusual to you, but let me clue you in to 2 things:

1. There was none of this during these same Chinese stations broadcasts during the Olympics
2. Deaf athletes do not take part in the Paralympics

CCTV must have thought that deaf people wouldn't be interested in watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and so therefore didn't offer sign language interpretation or subtitles. While I applaud the efforts of inclusion during the Paralympics, the whole concept just seems strange. It seems to imply the deaf, and to expand it, the disabled, would only be interested in disabled sports. The whole thing just seemed kind of stupid...