Quote:
Originally Posted by rockdrummer
I agree that offering ASL and other signing courses would help towards that end. My comments to Shel were regarding inconsistancies in signs within ASL and inconsistancies between the signs used in ASL and manually coded english signs. Some are similar however there are some that are quite different. Same word has different signs. For me that adds to the difficulty in learning and communicating using signs.
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So, what do you think would be workable? I am just lookin for solutions or at least the start of a solution that will hearing people understand Deaf people better, and some form of communication that keeps the Deaf child included in all aspects of life. I mostly want to stop the prejudices and walls from forming. What is the bi-bi coalition? Is there a central place to help to support them? I realize that there are differences in sign strategy, but I am thinking that for general communication ASL is more than adequate. I don't know about english literacy classes. I am guessing that might take a little SEE. But in general, how can we make our kids become a real part of the schools they go to unless the other kids learn an easy form of communication?
Our Deaf school here in Oregon has an all time low enrollment. There has been talk about shutting it down more than once. I has been moved multiple times, and we just got done fighting the legislature to keep them from combining the Deaf and Blind school for the sake of money. (They really want to get the Blind school site, because it is now a very valuable, (very very valuable) piece of real estate. I don't think these people are gonna quit trying to do away with the school. Every year the parents lose more power over the decisions and programs and staff.
The education board here lean towards mainstreaming everybody. If that happens, I want our kids to not feel like a minority with no way to communicate. The only way I can think of to find a solution is to disect the problems until I understand them well enough to know what might work to facilitate communication for the kids and their peers and teachers. Terps can't do this, and separated classes don't fill the social needs, because the misunderstandings and prejudice will still grow. I think that we need to integrate the hearing kids into the Deaf experience,?????