From the
News-Sun in Sebring, Fla. Kudos to the newspaper for this series.
SEBRING, Fla -- Most hearing folk are totally unaware that a deaf culture exists within the larger American society.
This culture is rich with tradition, history and its own unique world view; it has its own controversies, passions, hopes and ambitions.
What most hearing folk think of as a limited existence -- deafness as something to be dreaded -- most deaf folk cherish and even find comforting.
Living without sound can actually enrich a person's life, they say, not curtail it or be a cause of suffering.
It isn't, however, the shared experience of silence that creates the deaf culture, rather it is the language they use that binds them.
What often puzzles the hearing is the fact that this language is a visual one, not spoken. Caught up in the idea that speech is the best (or only) way to express and exchange ideas, too many hearing people simply dismiss sign language as something less valuable than English say, or Swahili, a second-best kind of thing.
Talk to Nancy Weems, who teaches American Sign Language at South Florida Community College, or Christopher Hayes, who teaches the deaf and hard of hearing for The School Board of Highlands County, however, and a person is introduced to the richness, eloquence and flexibility of a completely developed language that allows its users the full breadth of human communication.
Sign language has its own syntax, grammar, even vocabulary. A person uses his entire body to speak it, not just his hands.
American Sign Language is not translated English. It is a language of its own, full of idioms and rules allowing for the full range of expression. It is so established a method of communication that many school districts and colleges offer it as a second language.
In fact sign language is so versatile, both Weems and Hayes said, children can learn to sign long before they can master the complicated combination of muscle movements -- of the lips and tongue -- that are necessary for speech.
Toddlers, even infants, have been known to be able communicate with sign language -- for example, bringing their fists together, using the sign they want more.
But, of course, somebody has to teach them, and herein lies the problem -- too few people are fluent.
In fact, Weems said, too many families with deaf members do not learn how to sign. Ninety percent of siblings, for example, never learn how to communicate with their brothers and sisters, she said.
It saddens her that so many hearing people cut themselves off, and fail to see the opportunities knowing sign language presents.
Weems said the students she teaches typically have one of three different reasons for taking her course -- a few find themselves there because they are fascinated by the language, but most simply need a foreign language credit and don't want to take Spanish. In both of those cases they will probably never use it again. The smallest population are people losing their hearing, or who have a family member who is deaf.
"Nowhere in that list," Weems said, "are people charged up to become interpreters. Not enough people even know there is an enormous demand for interpreters world wide." This is too bad, she added, because interpreters can make a very good living.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the development of sign language had its share of controversy and difference of opinion.
Part two of this series will review that history. Part three describes how deaf children are taught.
From the News-Sun in Sebring, Fla. Kudos to the newspaper for this series.
