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From:
Roving Reporter Date: Fri May 22, 1998 1:35 am Subject: Re: Intro | |
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Hi, I guess I better say something before someone wonders what I'm doing here. (-: I am hard of hearing, learned ASL late in life...I can still vividly remember my first dawning wonder at finding out there were other people like me, and that they even had a "secret" language that no one in my family knew about! Talk about cool! My upbringing was somewhat difficult, but not particularly remarkable because I think most of us have these difficulties who come from hearing families. And because I am hard of hearing, I have a somewhat different perspective perhaps, than someone who is deaf and knew of sign language all along...it is more hard-won I guess, and I also have to explain the unexplainable -- why someone who can hear with hearing aids still prefers a visual language. I really don't know. I discovered SignWriting while attending CSU Northridge where I worked for a short time at the NCOD's Library on Deafness. There while filing periodicals, I came across this funny little newsletter with what looked like little people figures in print! Who could resist it? I even noticed that if I studied it a bit, it made sense, even though I didn't have a dictionary...I just had to think in terms of sign language. I later met an interpreter who used it exclusively to take notes for herself of ASL signs. I thought that was pretty cool too. When I think of SignWriting, I am reminded of the story of the man who "invented" a written system for the Cherokee language. I don't remember his name at this moment, but he is still honored by his people for his work, which led to the printing of books in the Cherokee language, and helped also to preserve it for future generations. I am sure some day that we will similarly honor Valerie Sutton, right up there with others such as Laurent Clerc! You see, with more deaf people being mainstreamed, it's more important than ever to have some way to document our language and easily transport it to many places. For example, I'm looking forward to the day when I can buy an ASL/English dictionary with the ASL printed in SignWriting. I would even not mind helping with the ASL-to-English part, since I am a writer. (-: ********************************************************** * Therese Shellabarger - * * https://www.concentric.net/~tlshell/ Shalom chaverot! * ---------------- * EFTC Inc. -- Dir. of Communications * * See Deaf Expo at https://www.deafexpo.org/ * ********************************************************** |
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