[NFB-DB] Family Resources for Learning ASL

[Scott Davert]

Hi Eric.
Just chiming in with my perspective as a blind hard of hearing person
and professional who has been in the field for around a decade...
It has been my experience that individuals who are congenitally blind,
or who have little more than light perception, struggle much more than
those who have had some form of useable vision in the past. not only
because ASL is a visual language, which is a huge factor, but true ASL
as opposed to signed English, has an entirely different grammatical
structure than written/spoken English. I won't bore you with the
historical context as to why it happened, but it's an important thing
to keep in mind. Also of importance to note is that tactual ASL is
different in some respects from ASL. This is since there are
modifications necessary to convey certain words that have a visual
component which must be conveyed in another way. I attempted to take
an ASL class when I was a graduate student with a tactual interpreter
I was entirely lost and since no voicing was allowed, I had no context
concerning the environment. For example, the instructor would gesture
at something in the environment, and since I had no visual perspective
of the room, I quickly learned this would not work for me. What has
worked, to some degree, is getting one on one training. Perhaps your
school district would work to provide this? It may even be something
that could serve as a foreign language requirement for credits. I
would recommend starting by having him learn the hand shapes of the
various letters in the manual alphabettte. I created a list of the
letters and text descriptions  of each, which I can pass along for his
study if you'd like. You will also find all sorts of Youtube videos
with this info. You will need to learn the handshapes which include
both letters and numbers, as one of the parameters of sign language.
I believe you said you are in the LA area. One person who is a
wonderful resource out there is Cathy Kirscher. She is the Regional
Representative for the Helen Keller National Center. Though based in
San Diego, she would be a good person to reach out to. Feel free to
let her know I gave you her email. It is: cathy.kirscher at hknc.org.
Speaking of HKNC, they also have a program that is a 2 week long
seminar for teens in the summer time. It deals with next steps after
high school, advocating for oneself, and a brief taste of the  various
programs available at the center. I went through it as a teen and
found it very helpful, serving as a mentor myself for 2 years while in
grad school. Full disclosure: I worked for the center in various
capacities for 6 years.Their website is http://www.hknc.org
Another resource you may wish to check with is the National Family
Asociation of the Deaf-Blind. http://www.nfadb.org
I hope these resources will help get you pointed in the right
direction in your search for answers, though I realize it's not much.
Below is my contact information for the state wwho is one of my
current employers.If  you'd like to take this off list or if I can be
of further assistance, please feel free to make use of it.

Regards,
Scott

Scott Davert, MA, VRT
DeafBlind Service Specialist for Western NC
North Carolina Division of Services for the deaf and hard of hearing
5501 Executive Center Dr. STE. 200
Charlotte NC, 28212
704-301-0398 Voice/text
scott.davert at dhhs.nc.gov



On 4/23/18, Janice Toothman via NFB-DB <nfb-db at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Eric,
>
> my name is Janice Toothman.  I have Usher's.  It developed later in
> life.  I am totally blind.  I use tactile sign.  I fingerspell and use
> Print on Palm at present, mostly because I don't have ready access to
> the resources you are seeking for your son.  I have not found a local
> place to in my state to teach me Tactile ASL even though I live  20
> miles from Washington, DC ( home of Gallaudett University or Gally as it
> is affectionately called).  I couldn't afford to pay the 50 dollars an
> hour for a private tutor of one of their professors.  Although I have a
> VR counselor, they don't see it as a hight priority for me even though I
> am profoundly deaf and am contemplating a CI.
>
> I am not sure if your earlier post said what state you live in. The
> American Association of the DeafBlind might know of individuals willing
> to teach ASL or Universitys that have Deaf studies.  Again I am only
> thinking of people and interpreters/SSP (support Service Providers that
> might be willing to help get you started.
>
> These are just my own thoughts as I have struggled personally with this
> myself.
> Janice Toothman
> Second Vice-President
> National Association of the DeafBlind, A proud Division of the NFB
> We care, We share, We grow , We make a Difference
>
> Learning ASL would would be for you compared to you son.  You son would
>
> On 4/23/2018 11:58 AM, Eric V via NFB-DB wrote:
>>
>> Good morning everyone.
>>
>> We had a nice discussion with Danielle over the weekend & while we are
>> going to pursue looking into the CI’s further, we also want to be
>> begin learning ASL. We’ll meet with our district’s DHH team, but
>> beyond our sons, my wife & I obviously want to learn in parallel. Can
>> you share resources & ideas on how to pursue learning ASL & how the
>> process might be different for us given our son’s are totally blind,
>> compared to sighted ASL communication?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>
>>
>>
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