aligreat
11-14-2005, 12:26 AM
A few months back on the Yahoo group I posted about not understanding a lecture that was done in sign. This was very depressing to me until I was told that the lecturer was using British Sign Language rather than American Sign Language. I am in an ASL III class, and I started signing over 15 years ago for my foreign language requirement in college.
On Friday the California School for the Deaf in Fremont had an open house. One of the events there was a film called "Audism Unveiled." Audism is the belief that the ability to hear makes you better than a deaf person--it is like racism is for race. It was a fascinating film, and I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in Deaf Culture. The film is full of deaf people signing about what it was like to grow up as a deaf person. At the beginning of the film it said that it was going to be captioned "for the signing impaired," but since the film is still in production the captions were missing. I still understood what the signers were "talking" about. When everyone in the audience started laughing at something, I started laughing at the same time. I even understood when a biology student at Gallaudet fingerspelled "amniosentesis."
The film has some funny parts, but there were some sad parts too. They said that 69% of deaf children grow up in homes were sign is not used on a regular basis. I know that sign is helpful for hearing children, to help avoid the terrible twos. I can't imagine trying to raise my deaf daughter without sign. My hearing daughter has benefitted so much from sign as well.
The film concluded by having people sign I am human. Human is fingerspelled, and the last person was a little girl, who is probably too young to read three letter words, but she signed "I H-U-M-A-N, Understand?" It was so adorable. I just had to share.
-AG
On Friday the California School for the Deaf in Fremont had an open house. One of the events there was a film called "Audism Unveiled." Audism is the belief that the ability to hear makes you better than a deaf person--it is like racism is for race. It was a fascinating film, and I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in Deaf Culture. The film is full of deaf people signing about what it was like to grow up as a deaf person. At the beginning of the film it said that it was going to be captioned "for the signing impaired," but since the film is still in production the captions were missing. I still understood what the signers were "talking" about. When everyone in the audience started laughing at something, I started laughing at the same time. I even understood when a biology student at Gallaudet fingerspelled "amniosentesis."
The film has some funny parts, but there were some sad parts too. They said that 69% of deaf children grow up in homes were sign is not used on a regular basis. I know that sign is helpful for hearing children, to help avoid the terrible twos. I can't imagine trying to raise my deaf daughter without sign. My hearing daughter has benefitted so much from sign as well.
The film concluded by having people sign I am human. Human is fingerspelled, and the last person was a little girl, who is probably too young to read three letter words, but she signed "I H-U-M-A-N, Understand?" It was so adorable. I just had to share.
-AG