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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Wed Nov 10, 1999 5:32 pm Subject: Re: SW in the future | |
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>Let me put it in perspective: YES! It's going to far! > >Think of it ... we couldn't have preferential treatment -- so all documents >would need to have all spoken, visual and tactile languages (let's not forget >braille). "Turn to page 143 for the beginning of the Signwriting portion of >the menu." Ack. Better yet to either learn English (don't flame me!) or have >a personal translating device. > >But interesting question -- where *exactly* do we expect SignWriting to be >used? Realistically. I'm still waiting for my Hoover Car, which was promised >to be the "Car of the future" quite some time ago. I should be zipping around >like George Jetson. > >"In school" is obviously the first answer as that's happening now. > >Valerie, care to add your visions on this? :-) > >Bill Reese > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ November 10, 1999 Hello Everyone! Thanks for asking for my vision, Bill. I am sure other people have lots of feelings on this subject too....and I hope they will share with us.... And Bill, don't worry, hearing people who speak English are the majority in the USA...your rights are not being taken away, just because Deaf people choose to read and write their own native language.... Deaf people, after all, have no choice but to learn to read and write our language, English. SignWriting doesn't replace English...it simply enhances the lives of people who use a signed language. I know that is not your world, but they have a right to their world too. And obviously, if we are still new to presenting SignWriting in schools...obviously we are VERY far away from having SignWriting on elevator buttons (smile)... And it has nothing to do with getting a new toy like an automobile. You can still talk, read and write, even though you don't have your new Hoover Car. But there are Deaf children who are learning to read and write because of SignWriting, and we are talking about their very well being, besides preserving languages for historical reasons. So it has nothing to do with preferential treatment....it has to do with trying new ways of communicating better, and learning to live together.... Just like captions....before when captions had to be burned on film (could not be hidden), hearing people complained that the English words on the screen annoyed them...in the European countries they accept captions as a part of life...but Americans complained. At the time, when I heard that, I felt the hearing people in the USA were terribly selfish not to want to share their screen with Deaf people who need captions. However, there was still a solution. Technology was invented to accomodate the situation...now we can have Closed Captions, and people can turn it on or off as they wish. The problem was solved through innovative technology. So there is no reason why we can't find new solutions to using written SignWriting in technology, so that hearing people like yourself will not feel bothered by it, but Deaf people can choose what they want to use. After all, no hearing person can grasp how it must feel to be born-deaf...so giving the Deaf options is only fair...and there are a lot of innovative people in the world who can find solutions... Val ;-) Val ;-) |
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