[sasi] Deaf Culture

[jeffrey]

cindy,
regarding ASL,
in my view it is not a language but a method of communication as you stated
it is an extension of
pantomime, more effective and advanced for sure
but nevertheless a communications tool
like speech and braille and writing.
i am curious
about your experience with deaf people,
did you ever meet one that was deaf for a good number of years and a 
believer
in the so called deaf culture and then went blind but
still refused to go with a cochlear implant
and remain a vegetable
because it was the teachings of the deaf culture?
Jeff and incredible docker

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cindy Flerman" <cflerman at verizon.net>
To: <sasi at acb.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2012 10:54 PM
Subject: [sasi] Deaf Culture


> Hello,
>
> I wanted to comment about the idea of a deaf culture.
>
> I don't think this necessarily has to be a controversial issue, at least 
> the way I see it.  I worked at Braille Institute in Los Angeles for 
> several years, where some of the clients were blind and had hearing 
> impairments ranging from mild to profoundly deaf.  Many of those with 
> little to no hearing had that disability first and then became visually 
> impaired later, some largely due to RP with Usher's syndrome.  For some of 
> the clients I saw when I attended a Confident Living week at Helen Keller 
> National Center, it was the same: hearing impairment followed years later 
> by visual impairment. Most of these folks used ASL as their primary means 
> of communication, and I think that language probably promotes the idea of 
> a deaf culture.  At Braille Institute one of the social workers who does 
> admissions counselling is well versed in many methods of communication for 
> hearing impaired clients and can probably talk to just about anyone with 
> any degree of hearing impairment, using any method from conversation to 
> fingerspelling to ASL.  I really think the term "deaf culture" is often 
> applied to the group that uses ASL, since it really is a particular 
> language for those who use it.  Not being a professional in the field as 
> some of you on this list are, this is my untrained guess at the situation. 
> I don't think it has anything to do with asking for special favors or the 
> idea of using every tool we can to be independent.  Perhaps I'm missing 
> something but that's my best guess.
>
> Even with visual impairment alone, using every means to accomplish a task 
> can be a great idea.  Sometimes if I can't read a package direction with a 
> scanner, a website such as
>
> http://www.directionsforme.org/
>
> or a bar code reader, I try it on the optacon.  If that still doesn't 
> work, then a sighted reader will get the job. In teaching I couldn't be 
> more in agreement with giving children the widest possible variety of 
> skills, but wonder how common it really is for children to be both oral 
> with or without a cochlear implant and versed in ASL as well. And let's 
> just hope someone teaches them adequate braille skills!
>
> Just my thoughts.
>
> Cindy Flerman
>
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