Kathleen Say
1994
Hi. My name is Kathy Say. I went to the Arizona School For
The Deaf and after graduation, went to Gallaudet. After I graduated
there, I moved to Washington state where I was the supervisor
for the school for the Deaf for a year and a half. I moved here
to San Diego where I work as a researcher at Salk Institute and
I have been there for two years.
I would say back when I was in high school was the first time
I heard about SignWriting. I couldn't understand what that would
possibly be for, and what it was worth. I was very much against
it. When I came here to San Diego I heard again about SignWriting.
I thought "People are still talking about SignWriting!"
I decided to go and see for fun what it would be like. I met
Valerie Sutton and I started to learn and I learned a lot. And
I also learned how valuable it is. I learned more and more and
more.
When you learn something you have to start with the basics
and then it gets easier after that. You can read and write it
easily.
Just like written English, you have to start learning words
and then later sentences and continue from there. It is very
important to have a strong foundation. ASL is the same way.
SignWriting is not formally in the school systems yet, but
for research purposes it is very important and it can also lead
to the educational system for preserving sign language in the
future. It teaches the children the different grammatical structures,
that is to say, the structure of ASL and how it differs from
English structure. It would be nice to have SignWriting for the
future and I hope that one day it will be incorporated into the
educational system through the "bilingual-bicultural approach".
I hope the Deaf Community will accept writing Sign as a part
of the language, as a written language, because many languages
have a spoken form as well as a written form. Why can't we have
two forms? A manual form, and a written form? It would really
be nice to have both. I hope that that will happen.
|
