in your statement, you said you’ve interacted with Deaf adults whose parents have embraced ASL and they have done well with their lives.

I’m one of them. However, I don’t think you are aware of the percentages of actual hearing parents that even do this COMPARED to those whose parents do not even learn sign or are even involved with their childrens education and whatnot.

I learned sign right off the bat when my parents found out I was deaf at 2. They learned right alongside of me and started teaching me vocabulary in sign AND English.

I’d like to make a point. What I’ve written so far is in my own words with no help in writing this. This is English and yet I can still sign.

Now look at my friend’s writing which I am copying and pasting here. She is a Deaf adult. Writes in the way of ASL.

I WISH SEE YOU WELL SO MISSED OF YOU ARE HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOOD BLESSING MORE YEARS TAKE CARE ALL HELP YOU FAMILY ENJOY. NEVER FORGET YOU ARE IS TODAY. WISH SEE PICTURES ALL SHEAS ? HUG ALL HARD TOO MILES.

Now, are you going to tell me that this is the fault of CI or Total Communication in the failure of Deaf education? I can usually make sense of anything people say to me because I have a number of people in my family that is dyslexic but this….. What my friend wrote. It’s even more difficult to decipher this compared to dyslexic family members. Even when I try to sign this to myself to try to understand my friend.

Because my friend does not even have CI, oralism, or Total communication. Her own parents doesn’t even sign or have deep meaningful communciation with her as they do with her siblings or any other members of her family.

That’s sad. Really sad.

This is what I’m saying here. I am not even saying anything remotely like I’m ashamed to be Deaf. Where do you even get that from? I’m more than ok being Deaf, but, I’m very much more wanting to communicate with anybody tha I encounter so I’m willing to use whatever language tools there is to communicate with that person as that person is a human being who is also important and of value. It doesn’t even matter to me if you are of different religion, nationality, language, etc. We ALL want to be understood and accepted for who we really are.

Are you willing to label yourself as this and that and that’s just it? Just settling for that and cut yourself off to greater possiilities, opportunities, avenues of growth, etc.?

Another perfect example. Go to the SorensonVRS website and watch the video in ASL about the FCC then click on the link for the text transcript of the reasons why we have to register for FCC and come back and tell me what the differences are between that and what you thought about the “information” that was shared / not shared and do you think that a Deaf person that only reads at 3-4th grade level would be able to understand the entire text transcript?

BTW, CI hasn’t been around that long and is not responsible for failure of Deaf education. That’s really laughable.

And maybe it’d be a real good idea to ask other Deaf adults whose parents didn’t learn sign and was not involved in their education and how the Deaf person feels about all that.

My other friend, Joe, recently met my parents and he saw them sign and he is in his 60’s – he felt inspired by seeing my folks sign and wish that his parents did. He did not learn to sign until he was in 8th grade. He often felt left out with interactions with his 14 siblings growing up and had no idea what was going on around him. But he learned to talk and read lips and he can interact with other Deaf AND hearing people very well compared to another friend, Paul, who ONLY uses ASL and when we all went out to a restaurant and the waiter asked Paul what he wanted, Paul didn’t even want to communicate with the waiter directly so I helped him out by interpreting and Paul was pretty rude to the waiter by just flat out ignoring him. Yeah Paul doesn’t need to learn how to speak to be able to learn ASL. The communication breakdown did not happen with the waiter who was open to trying to communicate with Paul in other ways bu the breakdown occured with Paul who clearly did not want to communicate.

That’s a very CLEAR point of why communication is very important regardless of whatever TOOLS there are to use to communicate with each other and it’s a moot point if you are Deaf, Hearing, Spanish, German, Muslim, Jewish, Gay, Lesbian, etc and so on. That’s just a Cop out and a way of labeling : boxing yourself in just so that you don’t have to step out of your comfort zone to communicate with each other here for whatever issue / topic and so on.

Ok guess this is long enough.

Have a great weekend!

Take care,
Amy

My name is Amy Silverhawk and I am a 33 year old Deaf woman who was born Deaf and have used interpreters all my life and I have been signing since 2 years old. I am also fluent in lipreading, and speech. I also chose to have a CI put in a couple years ago.

My take on all this controversy – I think this is getting all bogged down in similar fashion of “He Said, She said” stuff which is what I see is going on here in regards to all groups within the Deaf Community.

I think everyone is missing the total point – the ROOT of all this. Why NOT have TOTAL COMMUNICATION!? This is the CORNERSTONE of all relationships, communities, understanding, knowledge, tolerance, and even breaking down communication barriers!

Fact is : We live in a majority Hearing world. English is spoken everywhere. Yet, our Deaf youth is unable to be on the same educational level for the majority as the hearing youth. ASL is not going to cut it when it comes to English language but I believe in ASL for communicating as well socially and for other aspects. Why doesn’t the Deaf Community DEMAND better education for our Deaf Youth? Why not put CART and / or interpreters depending on each INDIVIDUAL child? CART captures EVERYTHING in Spoken English using $5 vocabulary words.

Fact is : There WILL BE NO LOSS of Deaf Culture, Deaf Language, Deaf Identity if we used ALL the tools that was available to us to be able to interact fully in the world which happens to be hearing and English Speaking as well.

There are countless OPTIONS for Deaf people be they be from Deaf or Hearing families. It doesn’t have to be BLACK or WHITE. Why not use everything that is available to us, be it CI, learning Speech / Lipreading, English, ASL, and so on – TOTAL COMMUNICATION and it will also address the WHOLE Deaf Individual.

This is simple. This doesn’t have to be as complex as it has become.

Hearing people pick up information from Day one when they are born. Deaf babies aren’t. Why are we LIMITING them ever further by saying “oh this tool (like CI for example) is not ok because it’d “erode” our Deaf culture, etc” You get the idea – I see that both groups are reacting out of Fear for the majority in the controversy. Fear can also equate to not being knowledgeable, not being open minded, not understanding the other, not being flexible, and stubbornly saying “MY WAY IS RIGHT AND THERE’S NO OTHER WAY!” and so on.

Back to getting information. We are ALREADY limited in getting information because we are DEAF in itself. Accept that. Why not use all tools to get more information, even interacting with the Hearing and learning from them. THIS IS NOT A 1 WAY STREET = THIS IS 2 WAY STREET. Hearing and Deaf can learn from each other. No one is “better” than the other. That’s another issue I see especially in the Deaf Community. It’s all about Perception / Perspective. If you want to see the Hearing world as oppressive, that’s your choice – YOU MADE THE CHOICE to see it that way but in reality, you can have the option to see it in a different way and DO SOMETHING about it in a positive way that helps everyone. Believe me, I was in that “shoe” before and now I’ve chosen to change my perspective and I can see more options and I am doing something about it. I want the world to be a better place for everyone – I don’t even care if you are hearing or Deaf.

EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT. ALLOW EVERY ONE TO HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXPERIENCE WHATEVER THEY CHOOSE TO IN THEIR OWN WAY. WE CAN ALL LEARN EACH OTHER AND HELP EACH OTHER.

In this way, we can help the Deaf Community and Audism ceases to be. Controversy ceases to be, the divisions in the Deaf community ceases to be when it comes to these important issues.

What you FIGHT against, does not SOLVE – it ATTRACTS more of the problem.

Why are you even Fighting in the first place – why aren’t you talking with people who are open minded and willing to help from the hearing community, why aren’t you talking with those hearing parents of young Deaf Children and giving them options, why aren’t you standing up and saying – “hey – if any parents of deaf children have questions, why don’t you contact me and I would be happy to talk with you about my experiences and whatnot” or even going to the Deaf schools / Deaf programs and say “We demand better education for our youth!” Why aren’t the majority of Deaf programs having higher levels of educations like Honors, AP, etc. Focus on those places and the seeds will grow and spread and those “naysayers” or ones that are “fighting” you will see the results of the actions and probably would be happy to join in with you and help improve the Deaf Community in all ways!

If your not willing to help change things for the better then you’ve made your choices. If you want to keep fighting – then keep fighting but how can it really solve the issues that is there? What I mean by this paragraph – Consider the Law of Attraction.

Have a Wonderful day! Take care!
Amy

I just returned from a trip to Egypt and enojoyed every moment incuding the heat – on my first night in Cairo i discovered KFC just around the corner from the Phaorah Hotel, I found the staff friendly and service excellent – before leaving I called in to say my good-by’s and presented them with a cake – I hope one day I can revisit Cairo. PEACE AND GOOD HEALTH TO MANAGER AND STAFF AT KFC CAIRO (DOKKI) – WISH YOU A HAPPY LIFE:

Thomas – Australia

As always, you did a great job. You deserve it.