[nfb-db] nfb-db digest volume 57 issue 12

[Randy Pope]

Hey Janice and all,

You ask a very good question.  For Deaf culture courses, the only college or
university that I'm aware if Gallaudet University which has an excellent
program.  However there are some community college that will go a bit
further than just teaching ASL.  As part of the course, you will need to
attend the silent dinner nights where the students and deaf people can have
some fun.

I'm willing to bet that ASL would be quite difficult to teach to any totally
blind people as it's require sight to see the facial and body expression.
These components are very important in communication.  At Gallaudet there is
one totally blind hearing student is taking courses to be a professional
interpreter.  One barrier of course is seeing the expressions of the face
and body.  Since the student cannot see, the professor had to resort to a
bit of touching in order to give the student some clues of the expressions
use.  

I don't know of any of the totally blind people know this.  No offense but
often when I meet a hearing blind person, the facial and body expression are
quite....what's the word....flat or difficult to read when communication.
That's why many blind students have some difficult in creating the right
expressions in order to communicate in ASL.  Even the ASL DB people who gone
totally blind, the body and facial expressions go flat with time, especially
when they are isolated.

But I can tell you this.  With a good and understanding professor, the
totally blind people can master ASL in spite of being blind.  That is why
Pro Tactile is fast becoming the necessary component for the DB people in
communication.  Believe or not, even the non-ASL users can benefit from Pro
Tactile method.

Lastly, just so that everyone here on this list know, I'm  Usher 2, meaning
that I'm hard of hearing and low vision.  I can communicate in both ASL
fluently and have good speech like a hearing person.  Almost my entire
family are hearing/sighted.  Two of my son's children are hard of hearing
but not blind.  For years I have been advocating for both hard of hearing as
well as the culturally deaf DB people at both state and federal levels.

Hope this help, Janice

Randy  



-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-db [mailto:nfb-db-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Janice Toothman
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2013 6:32 AM
To: NFB Deaf-Blind Division Mailing List
Subject: [nfb-db] nfb-db digest volume 57 issue 12

Hi Randy,
How do learn more about the deaf culture so that I can bridge the gap?  
Also, where can I learn tactile ASL that is affordable to facilitate this
communication with the ASL signers because that is my dilemma?
Janice

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