Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined
[Image ID:
The sign for Candle in American Sign Language. Base hand in 1 handshape touches palm of dominant hand. Dominant hand is in 5 handshape with palm facing signer. Fingers wiggle. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent pink, red, orange, and yellow in different stages of the sign. Background is transparent.
End ID]
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again but it is absolutely an example of civilizational inadequacy that only deaf people know ASL
“oh we shouldn’t teach children this language, it will only come in handy if they [checks notes] ever have to talk in a situation where it’s noisy or they need to be quiet”
https://academic.oup.com/jdsde/issue/29/3
Sharing interesting information for those looking for Deaf studies and educational peer reviews.
Source: The Journal of Deaf Studies on Facebook
It's good!
Anyway I'm watching Deafula
Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined
[Image ID:
Surgery in American Sign Language. Hand in A handshape drags thumb against base hand in open B handshape. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign.
End ID]
Deaf Broadway's Rocky Horror Picture Show
[Image ID:
Image 1: graphic design of the sign Late Night in ASL.
Image 2: graphic design of the sign twice in ASL.
Image 3: graphic design of the sign show twice in ASL.
Image 4: graphic design of hands representing light being projected.
Image 5: graphic design of the sign show, as in performance, in ASL.
All images are translucent red, black, grey, and white in different stages of the signs.
End ID]
Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined
[Image ID: test in American Sign Language. Both hands move down starting in 1 handshape, then X handshape, then 5 handshape. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green, blue, and purple in different stages of the sign.
End ID]
When I’m out with Deaf friends, I put my hearing aid in my purse. It removes any ability to hear, but far more importantly, it removes the ambiguity that often haunts me.
In a restaurant, we point to the menu and gesture with the wait staff. The servers taking the order respond with gestures too. They pantomime “drinks?” and tell us they learned a bit of signs in kindergarten. Looking a little embarrassed, they sign “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day” in the middle of asking our salad dressing choice. We smile and gently redirect them to the menu. My friends are pros at this routine and ordering is easy ― delightful even. The contrast with how it feels to be out with my hearing husband is stunning.
Once my friends and I have ordered, we sign up a storm, talking about everything and shy about nothing. What would be the point? People are staring anyway. Our language is lavish, our faces alive. My friends discuss the food, but for me, the food is unimportant. I’m feasting on the smorgasbord of communication ― the luxury of chatting in a language that I not only understand 100% but that is a pleasure in and of itself. Taking nothing for granted, I bask in it all, and everything goes swimmingly.
Until I accidentally say the word “soup” out loud.
Pointing at the menu, I let the word slip out to the server. And our delightful meal goes straight downhill. Suddenly, the wait staff’s mouths start flapping; the beautiful, reaching, visual parts of their brains go dead, as if switched off.
“Whadda payu dictorom danu?” the server’s mouth seems to say. “Buddica taluca mariney?”
“No, I’m Deaf,” I say. A friend taps the server and, pointing to her coffee, pantomimes milking a cow. But the damage is done. The server has moved to stand next to me and, with laser-focus, looks only at me. Her pen at the ready, her mouth moves like a fish. With stunning speed, the beauty of the previous interactions ― the pantomiming, the pointing, the cooperative taking of our order ― has disappeared. “Duwanaa disser wida coffee anmik? Or widabeeaw fayuh-mow?”
Austin “Awti” Andrews (who’s a child of Deaf adults, often written as CODA) describes a similar situation.
“Everything was going so well,” he says. “The waiter was gesturing, it was terrific. And then I just said one word, and pow!! It’s like a bullet of stupidity shot straight into the waiter’s head,” he explains by signing a bullet in slow motion, zipping through the air and hitting the waiter’s forehead. Powwwww.
Hearing people might be shocked by this, but Deaf people laugh uproariously, cathartically.
“Damn! All I did was say one word!” I say to my friends. “But why do you do that?” they ask, looking at me with consternation and pity. “Why don’t you just turn your voice off, for once and for all?” they say.
Hearing people would probably think I’m the lucky one ― the success story ― because I can talk. But I agree with my friends.
It's my first day back to school. Comment/tag your Major!
Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined
[Image ID:
The Sign for Major in American Sign Language. Both hands in B handshape. Pinky edge of dominant hand slides forward against thumb edge of base hand. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign.
End ID]
Why’d you decide to be an interpreter?
(Also, hai! I saw you followed me :D)
Hi👋
I love signing, but also, I have experience with disability from both sides (chronic pain and working in assisted living). To me, serving a community you identify with just hits different. I know many Deaf people don't identify as disabled and I've never really been deaf, but I think there are a lot of parallels between my experiences facing inaccessibility as well as the pride and assumptions that come with being trans and the experience of many Deaf people I've met.
I'm also immersed in the Deaf community. Like I said earlier, it's important to me to be a part of the community I serve, but that's not the reason I interact with the Deaf community. I genuinely prefer socializing in ASL. People used to think I was an introvert, but now I go to social events at least weekly and often multiple times a week because I go to every Deaf event open to hearing people. So really it's more because I'm a hearing person in the community that I want to be an interpreter than the other way around.
they/them, hearing, Interpreting major. Online resources: https://sites.google.com/view/thesign-resource If you wanna learn ASL, try and find in-person classes with a culturally Deaf teacher and make sure you learn about Deaf culture as well! [Profile Pic ID: The sign for Art in American Sign Language. End ID]
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