And I'm very pleased to introduce her and

have her come up here and tell us her story and tell us about some

of the causes that she is committed to. [ Applause ]

>>Marlee Matlin: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, Susan.

And speaking of not everyone knowing who I am, it's true.

There isn't. I don't know if any of you -- well, I have

to admit this, but I was a huge -- I actually had a huge weakness, when I have the time

to watch a little television, because I have four kids, and it's difficult to watch.

And I have one teenaged girl who is 14, and she's a huge fan of "The Bachelor."

You all know the show "The Bachelor." It just so happened that on "Dancing with

the Stars" when I was there, I happened to meet the -- what's his name?

Jake -- I actually met Vienna, who is the woman who grabbed Jake, or who Jake chose

on this year's bachelor. And she came up to me and said, "Are you an

actress?" And, of course, clearly, it proves that not

everybody knows who I am. [ Laughter ]

>>Marlee Matlin: Anyway, I am so happy to be here today at the coolest place, the mecca

of the Internet world, Google. Google is a sign -- what's the sign?

This is the sign -- Google headquarters. It's like that moment when Darth Vader said,

"Luke, I am your father." And everyone gasped and said, "No way!"

I can't believe it's happening. It's the ultimate cool to be here today.

And there's free food, too. You guys have free Red Bull, free food.

I can't believe it. It's really great.

[ Laughter ] >>Marlee Matlin: So is there a resume that

I need to give you if I want to apply for a job here?

Maybe I could play pool all day. I don't know.

Anyway, thank you. It's a fun place to be.

Thank you for having me here. More importantly, being here with you, I can

finally see some of the faces behind the news and the entertainment and the information

that the world has come to rely upon. And now that I see you, I want to say thank

you for all that you are doing. You are fantastic.

Thank you very much. Well, I know that you're anxious to have me

talk about my book, that book that is called "I'll Scream Later."

And some of you may wonder where that title came from.

Well, I have to admit that if you didn't know already, I am a recovering drug addict.

And today it's been 23 years, two months, and 20 days.

And just -- [ Applause ]

>>Marlee Matlin: Thank you. [ Applause ]

>>Marlee Matlin: And just after I won the Golden Globe for best actress in "Children

of a Lesser God," I checked myself into rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic.

Unlike today, where my entire journey would have been covered by TMZ and Perez Hilton,

back then, way back then, there was no such thing as being able to -- there was no such

thing as those things, so I was able to check in in secret.

While I was there, I was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress.

If you can imagine, I must be the only person to get that, "Congratulations, you've been

nominated," call while working on my sobriety at the Betty Ford Clinic.

So, anyway, when the phone call came in from Jack here, who -- by the way, this is Jack

Jason, my interpreter, if I didn't introduce him already, sorry.

[ Applause ] >>Marlee Matlin: I don't have a male voice.

I just wanted to let you know that. [ Laughter ]

>>Marlee Matlin: Well, maybe after a couple of cigarettes.

No, anyway. Anyway, he asked me for reaction or a statement,

which wasn't going to be, "Staying sober. Thank you for the nomination, but I'm staying

sober, keeping sober." I didn't want to say that.

So instead, I said, tell them I'll scream later.

And that phrase stuck with me ever since. And I think it strikes the right tone of humor

and irony coming from this Deaf gal, because as you'll see in my book, I may be Deaf, but

I'm probably one of the loudest people you'll ever meet.

My good friend and mentor, Henry Winkler, put it perfectly when he told me, "If you

will it, it is not a dream." For me, if you will it, it is not a dream.

It's about intention. And for me, even though I was different than

everyone else, I had the will and the desire to make something happen for myself.

And everything else just followed. But times have changed.

Though today I'm an actress and a film producer, as well as an advocate for children and disability-related

causes, and most recently a dancer on "Dancing with the Stars" -- I hope you voted for me.

Did you vote? Okay.

I'm also a mother of four. And as a result, I'm a cook and a car-pool

driver and a room mother and a conflict mediator, and a closet organizer and a pretend math whiz.

Seriously, life is good.

It's been 23 years since critics said that I won my Academy Award out of pity and that

I would never work in Hollywood again simply because I was Deaf.

And I'm still here. The barriers that many had predicted would

stop my career dead in its tracks have virtually vanished, thanks to many working actors like

me who are Deaf or differently abled, attitudes have changed.

Now, most of the barriers I face are more humorous than they are distressing.

Here are a couple of examples. Once when I was working on a television show

with Mark Harmon called "reasonable doubts." Many of you are probably too young to even

know this program was on the air. But, anyway, an NBC executive came to visit

the studio where we were shooting the show. After watching me work for a little while,

he said to the executive producer of the show, you know, that Marlee Matlin is great.

Is she going to be Deaf for the whole show? [ Laughter ]

It's okay, I'm over it. And once while I was ready to appear live

on CNN, in front of millions of viewers, as you know CNN has, the director was counting

down the seconds, and I was getting my makeup, Jack was sitting with the reporter on the

other side of the camera, as we were counting down, with just three seconds, she leaned

over to Jack and said, "Could you tell Marlee that my dog is deaf just like her."

And suddenly I was live on television, and I'm thinking, what does she want me to --

does she want to throw me a bone? Does she want me to say woof?"

I don't know. Okay.

And this doesn't only happen in Hollywood. It happened to me a couple of times.

I don't know about you, those people who are Deaf, but I'm on a plane, ready for the plane

to take off. I'm set, my seat belt is on, and Jack and

I are signing to each other. The flight attendant comes over, sees me signing,

waves, gives me a menu. As soon as she sees me signing, she grabs

the menu out of my hand, goes to the galley and returns with a new menu in Braille.

[ Laughter ] >>Marlee Matlin: Actually, they have to think

about it for a moment, too. And she's like, "Yes, so what's wrong?

Don't you need the Braille?" I'm like, "No, I'm Deaf, not blind."

And then she realizes it, and then I never see her for the rest of the flight.

I use these stories not to trivialize the barriers facing people like myself, because

every day, there is still discrimination against differently-abled people and people who are Deaf.

And whether being in front of the camera,

out and about, being a mom, or working on behalf of some of my favorite charities, my

message has always been the same and one that I got from my parents, that no matter what

abilities we possess, all of us not only deserve respect, we deserve to be heard.

In my book, I chronicle that it wasn't always easy, that sometimes I was made fun of out

there and sometimes I fell. But it was all a part of growing up.

Just because I was Deaf, my parents felt that I should not live a sheltered life.

And far from it. They believed that it was important for me

to embrace life, both the good and the bad. So even though I danced in front of 25 million

people each week on "Dancing with the Stars," or stood my ground as strong characters who

just happened to be Deaf on shows like "The 'L' Word" and on "The West Wing," I still

have days when I feel like I'm going out that front door of my parents' house for the first

time to prove that I can do anything except hear.

And oftentimes I still find myself explaining that, yes, I do drive a car; and, yes, I can

have children; and, yes, I am a working actress. Well, fortunately, with your commitment here

today to creating greater accessibility, you at Google have demonstrated that you get it.

You get it. Because what you're doing here today with

YouTube and automatic captioning is nothing short of extraordinary.

I cannot tell you how much I've come to rely on the Internet for my communication needs.

And many others out there, many millions of others out there.

I'm sure you've probably heard of the irony of the invention of the telephone, that when

Alexander Graham Bell, who had a Deaf wife and a Deaf mother, wanted to find a way to

help them communicate, he thought of the television -- excuse me, the telephone as a tool that

would help them. But little did he realize that the telephone

would be one of the greatest barriers when it came to communication between the Deaf

and the hearing world. Right there.

Twenty years ago, I lobbied, and I succeeded in getting the film which inspired me to be

an actress, "The Wizard of Oz," to be closed captioned for the first time.

Because captioning was crucial in bringing the words that you all take for granted

to my world. And the following year, in 1990, I took it

one step further, and I went to Capitol Hill to lobby on behalf of the legislation that

all televisions 13 inches or larger should be equipped with closed captioning technology.

Like the critics who doubted my ability to be an actor because, in their eyes, my Deafness

put me on a level below my peers, TV manufacturers and programmers thought that millions of Americans

who were Deaf or hard of hearing didn't deserve equal access through closed captioned.

But with the hard work and determination, we were successful in getting the decoder

bill passed. Six years later. And legislation was passed that

required that all broadcast television be 100% closed captioned.

But like the irony of the invention of the telephone telephone, the Internet eventually became

a bigger barrier than one could ever imagine when it came to closed captioning content on

broadband. Here's a good example.

Just last October, the "The Wizard of Oz" celebrated a wonderful milestone, the 75th

anniversary of its initial release. And for the first time in broadcast history,

it was going to be streamed live to every single American who had access to a computer

for free. So -- absolutely free.

So I was eager to share the film with my children, particularly my then-five-year-old daughter,

in whose eyes I saw the same sense of wonderment and excitement that I had when I was 7 watching

the film for the first time about the young girl with the Ruby slippers who dreamt of

someplace over the Rainbow. But when I opened up my laptop and hit the

"play" button, I was horrified to find that the film that I had lobbied to get closed

captioned 20 years earlier was shown without captions.

I was told that the technology was not out there and that I had to be patient and to

wait. Well, as I said, I like to make noise.

So I tweeted like crazy to the thousands of followers that I had on Twitter, and I made

sure that my friends, like Ashton Kutcher and Alyssa Milano knew what was going on and

-- what was going on with closed captions on the Internet.

And I encouraged them to re-Tweet. And they did.

Then I found out there was actually no problem with the technology, and, in fact, the technology

is out there to stream content with closed captions.

When it came down to the same issue, a lack

of understanding, it was a lack of understanding, and a large percentage of manufacturers said

that -- we said, "You need to provide access for the millions of users who are Deaf or

hard of hearing. So by providing closed captions, they can

get access." More importantly, they failed to understand

that original programming had captions, but that the Internet had to have the captions

as well. Eventually, the frustration increased so much,

because I had to fight to make -- to do what I did 20 years ago all over again.

The ultimate irony came during the unveiling of the celebration of Helen Keller's life.

There was a statue being unveiled in the capitol rotunda.

It was streamed live without captions. Here we're celebrating and honoring a woman

who fought for equality and accessibility over 100 years ago, and who I looked up to

as a role model, and I wasn't even able to share the celebration of her life.

It was simply unacceptable, unacceptable. But you at Google, you changed all that.

Just as you did when you pioneered the search engine, you are helping to ensure the commitment

and standards and legislation that we work for in access in broadcast TV are continuing

here with your efforts in getting hundreds and thousands of videos on YouTube broadcast

with closed captions. So today, I am proud to premiere the pilot

episode of a show that I produced which I hope will become a series either on network

or Web, called "My Deaf Family." And the show chronicles a family from right

here in the San Francisco Bay Area that is made up of both Deaf and hearing family members.

It's told from the perspective of 15-year-old Jared Firl, who is hearing.

Jared's parents are Deaf, and they work nearby here at the California School for the Deaf

in Fremont. And Jared also has three siblings, two of

whom are Deaf and one who is hearing. I like to think of it as a Deaf version of

'Little People, Big World'. And I even pitched it to TLC in the hopes