Just do jazz hands...!!!

At people with a hidden disability? Actually no!

Why aren't we supposed to be laughing?

God! That sounds dangerous! Hands doing totally different things from feet.

Glad you can find something to laugh about in all this.

How about Riverdance with Jazz Hands?

Eat your heart out, Michael Flatley.

"To make "Jazz hands" requires a fast horizontal wiggle of the raised outspread hands. I'm doing it now - can you see?" (Rockgran)

I think it would look like you were trying to ward them off!

That was in response to, "people grinning inanely and waving at you could be?! I've woken up from bad dreams like that."

KateK !

No you can't please all the people all the time. Life can't accommodate for everyone but an awareness of difference is always worth consideration. Many people with ASD do develop coping strategies from the most basic eg wearing ear plugs/ear defenders, shopping online instead of going to busy noisy supermarkets etc. Everyone is different and copes in different ways.

Riverdance? If only

Oops, I meant Riverwalk of course, not Riverdance

Multiple cases of carpel tunnel/RSI diagnosed in following week?

The 'jazz hand' equivalent of thunderous applause would be a sight to behold

Thanks rockgran, I thought it referred to those big 'hands' people sometimes wear at events!
Obviously .....

You can't please all of the people all of the time. What if there were at the same concert a deaf person who needed everything at maximum voluime and someone with very sensitive ears who couldn't stand loud noise, plus a blind person who wouldn't know that the audience was doing a silent clap and someone with only one hand who couldn't clap anyway?

'What about the sensory sensibilities of blind attendees - they might find it disconcerting for a speaker to be greeted by silence.' Riverdance you have hit the nail on the head. If we attempt to cater for everyone's disabilities or sensibilities, life as we know it would simply grind to halt (as someone else said earlier).

Catering for the deaf, the blind, those with auditory or other hypersensitivities, would mean speakers at meetings would receive no acknowledgement whatever, there would be no sense of collective enthusiasm among the delegates. They would be dull, cheerless affairs.

To make "Jazz hands" requires a fast horizontal wiggle of the raised outspread hands. I'm doing it now - can you see?

I have to agree with Elegran that sometimes the needs and wants of the majority are being eroded by all the minorities.
I find loud noise quite painful and hate (for instance) when amplifiers at concerts are just too loud. I always avoid them if I can and if I can't I stuff things in my ears. I don't really expect everyone else to change for me.

Also - if we were all accommodated in every respect how would we find something to grumble about? Surely one of life's pleasures!

I believe jazz hands are part of the Charleston which I'm sure anyone knows was a popular dance in the 1920 jazz era. I'm guessing that's where it comes from.
If you've never seen both hands waved then you haven't seen an audience show appreciation for a concert performed in sign language by a deaf choir. The choir can't hear clapping but they like to see the hands waving.

If it were a conference aimed at those with autism then it would be reasonable, but to request silent hand waving for a general women's conference is unnecessary IMO.

What about the sensory sensibilities of blind attendees - they might find it disconcerting for a speaker to be greeted by silence.

Whooping is totally different from a brief round of polite applause and should be banned!

ok, Ive never seen anyone with both hands waving is it just for jazz or other types of music, do you get classical hands or pop hands? got me puzzled that one

You wouldn't usually wave with both hands though, which is what 'jazz hands' is, apparently.

been reading this with interest what is jazz hands, according to some answers it is hands with palm facing outward and giving a wave. This sounds pointless. I would wave anyway this way there must be more to jazz hands than this? anyway why jazz, wouldn't you wave for other occasions

If everything in the world is changed to accommodate every single variation of human difference, life will grind to a halt. There needs to be a balance between patterns adapting to individuals and individuals adapting to cope with patterns.

My dgd is also hyper sensitive to sound and she was 5 before we managed to take her to panto. Oddly enough she happily went to the ballet before then. At 8 she now performs on stage herself. I also work with adults with additional learning needs in staging performances. We have two performers with significant degrees of autism, so significant that they will always live in supported accommodation. Both of them accept their applause with great pride. The original report I read did not mention ASD speakers or attendees,
and one assumes that if there were ASD speakers/attendees they would be high functioning and able to cope with the demands.

Besides which can you imagine how scary rows and rows of people grinning inanely and waving at you could be?! I've woken up from bad dreams like that.

Damn!