Category Archives: American Sign Language

Libraries and Camps and Bookcart Drill Teams: The Long Twisty Journey from There to Here

American Sign Language, Little Hands and Big Hands, News, On Life

Dawn Babb Prochovnic, author of the “Story Time with Signs and Rhymes” series, was kind enough to interview me on her blog about Little Hands and Big Hands and signing with children:

An Interview with Kathy MacMillan

I initially entitled this post “An Interview with Author, Kathy MacMillan,” but in addition to being an author of several books, Kathy is also an ASL interpreter, sign language workshop presenter, a trained librarian (and probably a host of other things I haven’t learned about quite yet!).

I was first “introduced” to Kathy when I read her book, “Little Hands and Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Together.” Kathy and I share a love for signing with hearing children of all ages, and I really connected with her simple, accessible approach to signing with kids. I did a little research and found out that she is the author of several other books (some of which are pictured later), and she blogs and presents regularly at libraries and other community venues.

I wanted to get to know Kathy a bit better, and she was kind enough to participate in an interview:

Dawn: How did you first become interested in sign language (and in particular, signing with hearing children)?

Find out the answer – and lots more – in the full interview here.

10 Things Writers Need to Know About American Sign Language and Deaf Culture

American Sign Language, On Writing

I love the movie Jerry Maguire – except for one scene that always makes me want to throw something.  It’s the one where Dorothy (Renee Zellweger) and Jerry (Tom Cruise) see two deaf people signing, and Dorothy says, “My favorite aunt is hearing impaired. He just said ‘You complete me’.”

What a sweet scene, right?  The line even appears later in Jerry’s big winning-Dorothy-back speech at the end.

But here’s the problem: anyone who actually knows about Deaf culture or American Sign Language doesn’t buy it.  If Dorothy’s aunt really taught her that much sign language, then she surely also taught her that many deaf people (and certainly the vast majority of ASL users) find the term “hearing impaired” offensive.  Also, what the deaf actor, Anthony Natale, signs would be rendered word-for-word as “You make me feel complete” – and it’s highly unlikely that even a skilled, experienced interpreter would come up with such a graceful interpretation as “You complete me” on the spot, let alone a character who had only learned a few signs from her aunt.  Though the moment is no doubt lovely to those who don’t know any better, to those who do it’s another example of the pervasive sentimentalization of sign language.

There is so very much that TV, movies, and books get wrong about American Sign Language and Deaf Culture.  Even with the presence of shows like ABC Family’s Switched at Birth, which gets so very much right, myths and generalizations abound.  Here are the top ten things I wish those writers knew:

1) American Sign Language is a real language with its own grammar and syntax.

It has nothing to do with English, and it is a language perfectly attuned to the eye instead of the ear.  Whereas concepts in a spoken language present themselves linearly, sign languages can make use of space to show the interrelation between several concepts at once, with an eye-pleasing efficiency.  Click here for an example.

2) Deaf Culture exists!

It’s the set of beliefs, behaviors, and adaptations unique to deaf signers, and is the foundation of the Deaf community.  American Sign Language is the most precious and powerful symbol of American Deaf Culture.

3) Just say “deaf” – or, if you are referring to culture instead of hearing ability or lack thereof, say “Deaf”.

While some people may identify as “hard of hearing”, terms such as “hearing impaired”, “deaf and dumb”, and “deaf mute” are offensive and inaccurate.  A Deaf person is not broken or impaired; he or she simply uses a different language and is a member of a different cultural group.

4) Reading lips is not a terribly effective way to communicate.

First of all, the correct term is “speechreading”, because when one is doing it, one is looking at far more than just the lips – the facial muscles, expression, and context play a big part in understanding.   Speechreading is a difficult and exhausting skill that takes years to master – and hearing people are usually better at it than deaf people are.  (One Deaf friend jokes that the only sentence she can speechread is “Can you read lips?”)  Even the most skilled speechreader working under the best circumstances of lighting and positioning has to make use of significant guesswork to follow a conversation.

5) If there is a deaf person in a scene, and the other people in that scene are not signing or, in the case of speechreaders, speaking directly to that person, that deaf person won’t know what’s going on!

The fact is that 90% of deaf kids have hearing parents, and an astonishing number of them report being left out of family communication all or most of the time.  Glossing over the vital importance of access to communication and this all-too-common experience of deaf characters by pretending that communication is somehow happening when it clearly isn’t perpetuates misunderstandings among hearing readers and viewers.

6) Sign language is NOT universal, any more than spoken languages are.

American Sign Language is the sign language used throughout the United States and most of Canada.  Because the first deaf educator in the U.S., Laurent Clerc, came from France, ASL is most closely related to French Sign Language, though the two languages have diverged greatly over the past 200 years.  There are many sign languages in the world, such as Chinese Sign Language, British Sign Language, and Kenyan Sign Language.  There is such a thing as International Sign, which is a limited set of signs, supplemented by gestures, used at international conferences and gatherings.  (Please note the absence of the word “language” in the name – that is because International Sign is a constructed communication method, much like Esperanto, used in very limited settings.  It is not a full-fledged language.)

7) It takes years of training to become an American Sign Language interpreter.

This one is close to my heart.  Just because someone can sign, that doesn’t mean he or she can interpret.  Interpreting is a whole separate set of skills that involves taking in and understanding the message in the source language, processing it and finding the best match in the target language, and producing an equivalent message in the target language.  It doesn’t happen instantaneously, and it is a hard-won skill.  In addition, certified interpreters are bound by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf Code of Professional Conduct, which requires confidentiality of all assignment-related information, impartiality, and other standards that protect hearing and deaf consumers alike.

8) When portraying the use of American Sign Language in print, please, for the love of God, don’t gloss.

Glossing, a tool that is often used in ASL textbooks and courses to help students remember ASL syntax, uses the words that most closely align to ASL signs and puts them in ASL order.  Words in gloss are always written in the present tense and in capital letters.  For example, the gloss of the ASL translation of the English sentence, “Where is your car?” would look like this:

YOUR CAR WHERE?

Glossing can be a valuable tool, but it is extremely limited because it does not show use of space or nonmanual signals (for example, eyebrow and mouth movements and body shifts, all of which serve a grammatical function in ASL).

Worse, when glossing appears in fiction, it gives an incomplete picture of the language and makes deaf characters sound primitive and limited in communication.  What’s wrong with using standard dialogue conventions and replacing “said” with “signed”?:

“Where is your car?” she signed.

9)  Not all deaf people want cochlear implants or hearing aids.

In fact, most culturally Deaf people are not terribly interested in how much or how little they or the people around them can hear; they are more interested in the thousand other things they can do to get on with their lives and everyday interests.  There was a time when getting a cochlear implant meant spitting in the eye of the Deaf community; now, as the limitations of the technology have become clearer, it is seen more as an individual choice.  The major concern of the Deaf community in relation to cochlear implants is the fact that so many hearing parents (and remember, 90% of deaf children have hearing parents) rush to implant their young children without educating themselves about the limits of the technology, the resources of the Deaf community, and the many educational options available.  See the National Association of the Deaf Position Paper on Cochlear Implants for more information.

10) Where’s the Deaf perspective?

If you are going to include a deaf character in your writing, you MUST educate yourself about the rich culture and history of this fascinating, resilient community.  Two must-see documentaries to get you started:

Through Deaf Eyes.  DVD.  PBS Home Video, 2007.  120 minutes.

A beautifully accurate and entertaining look at 200 years of Deaf history, told from the perspective of the people who lived it.

Audism Unveiled. DVD. DawnSignPress, 2008. 57 minutes.

Sheds light on Deaf people’s everyday experiences of discrimination in their families, communities, and the wider political world.  “Audism”, or the idea that one is superior based on one’s ability to hear, was a term coined by a Deaf scholar in the 1970s, and is the lens through which this affecting documentary presents the Deaf experience.

Author’s note:

Before I posted this, the WordPress language checker alerted me to “possible bias language” at the use of “hearing impaired” above.  There is hope for the world!

Find more posts like this at Kathy’s ASL interpreting, storytelling, and resource website, StoriesByHand.com.

Signs of Christmas

American Sign Language, resources, Resources for Teachers and Librarians
The holidays are a great time to use signs with kids – whether they’re traveling to see relatives, staying up late for midnight mass, or missing naps, holiday times can bring changes, and signing promotes security amid the chaos. image image Make this ASL holiday wreath by gluing the hands into I-LOVE-YOU signs, numbers to count the days to Christmas, or letters to spell out your name! Find complete directions at http://www.storytimestuff.net. Check out this video guide to simple Christmas signs from My Smart Hands, presented by a mom and two kids of different ages – it’s a great chance to see how those little hands actually form the signs.

Celebrating a Great Partnership: Clerc-Gallaudet Week is December 3-9

American Sign Language, resources, Resources for Teachers and Librarians
At certain times throughout history, fate has brought together people who were able to do great things together, their collaborations pushing them individually to great heights.  Lennon and McCartney.  Jobs and Wozniak.  Twain and Tesla. Perhaps lesser-known to many hearing Americans is a partnership that happened by fortunate accident but would go on to shape an educational system, a language, and eventually, an entire culture: that of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc, founders of the first permanent school for the deaf in the United States. clercLaurent Clerc, born December 26, 1785 in the south of France, became deaf as a young child and spent his early years uneducated, with little to no communication with his hearing family members.  Finally, when he was twelve years old, an uncle convinced Clerc’s parents to send him to a well-known school for the deaf in Paris, the first public school for the deaf in the world.  At the school, Clerc quickly learned French Sign Language, reading, writing, philosophy, mathematics and more – so quickly that after just eight years of schooling he became a tutor and was hired as a teacher one year later.   In 1815, Clerc was selected to travel to England with the head of the Paris school for a series of demonstrations of his teaching methods – a trip that would change history. That’s because in attendance at one of those demonstrations was thgallaudet-portraitThomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a hearing man and minister from Hartford, Connecticut who had travelled to England to research deaf education methods for a proposed school for the deaf in the United States.  He had originally come to study at the Braidwood School, an institution that focused exclusively on speech and speechreading, but had been frustrated by the Braidwood family’s refusal to share their methods.  When he attended the presentation by the French educators, Gallaudet knew that he had found what he needed for the American school.  The Frenchmen invited Gallaudet back to Paris with them. Gallaudet soon ran out of money, and recognized that he still had not learned enough to start the school on his own.  He entreated Laurent Clerc to return to the United States with him, and Clerc, moved by the plight of the uneducated deaf children in America, agreed, abandoning the cultured halls of Paris for the wilds of the New World. On their fifty-two day sea voyage across the Atlantic, Clerc taught Gallaudet French Sign Language, and Gallaudet taught Clerc to read and write English.  In 1817, they opened the first permanent school for the deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.  Some students came from the nearby island of Martha’s Vineyard, a community with its own established deaf community and sign language.  Most students came from hearing families where they had eked out a few “home signs”, gestures to communicate enough to get by.  But all found themselves in a rich community where Clerc’s French Sign Language blended with the signs brought by his students, forming early American Sign Language and the roots of American Deaf Culture as we know it today. Clerc and Gallaudet went on to establish or help establish schools for the deaf in many other states, and both devoted their lives to deaf education.  In December 1974, DC Public Library established Clerc-Gallaudet Week as a way of honoring Clerc and Gallaudet’s birthdays (December 26, 1785 and December 10, 1787, respectively) and promoting library awareness in the deaf community and deaf awareness in the library community. To learn more about Clerc and Gallaudet, check out these links: