Banning Sign Language When Driving ????????

:bsflag: Ha ha I dont believe this is a real big scene issue about our hands that we use.. Well all people should put their hands on the wheel and put their duct in their mouth to see how it feels like in a long trip with no communication accessories like music, mini TV, map direction, and many other things.

None of anyone s business whatever we do with our hands to communicate with. We didnt have to have taken our eyes off the road in a long pause meanwhile we use one of our hands to communicate that didnt have any problem with that. After all we Deafies are the best driver. So what s the purpose to tigger our hands to communciate???? For God s sake!!!

That a full of craps in this society to use their lame excuse to turn against our hands to communicate.. That 's other thing of audist attitude people 's thinking that we deafies cant cant or are not allowed to have this or that by their fricking own ways. Scoffs! Well it makes sense that we are doubled disabled to listen with device and reading their lips by their orally speaking during driving.. :whistle: :whistle: Har Har Har!!!! Orally speaking/Lipreading and devices are the worst off than having our hands with ASL while you are driving your vehicle.

Wake up audist attitude people that you are not gonna to stop me from who I am as a Deaf natural person.

:squint: How can it be so bad for our hands to communicate with ASL that does all the work for us? it s a good tool to use facial expression and body language. BRAVO!!! ASL is a true language!!

What a :crazy: audist attitude people's thinking of us deafies's capabilities !!



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Sweetmind
 
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Sweetmind said:
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None of anyone s business whatever we do with our hands to communicate with. We didnt have to have taken our eyes off the road in a long pause meanwhile we use one of our hands to communicate that didnt have any problem with that. After all we Deafies are the best driver. So what s the purpose to tigger our hands to communciate???? For God s sake!!!
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Sweetmind
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Sorry, it is somebody's business if it involves the public's safety. The greatest good the greatest number.

Nobody is exempt from the laws of physics. If signing can cause accidents in vehicles that weigh several thousand pounds, then that activity needs to be regulated while using these vehicles. It has nothing to do with any attempt by the wider society to "regulate" how deaf people live and by what means they communicate. It has everything to do with safety considerations. Remember, driving is a privilege not a right because of the inherit dangers of vehicles to the public. Unfortunately, Americans have taken it to mean they have the right over the years but it is still a privilege.

The original issue was the concept of banning cell phones (assuming exceptions for emergencies) because it has been observed using them has caused accidents. In other words, it has been established there is a significant cause and effect relationship using cell phones while driving. This is nothing new as most people has seen such incidents.

What gets your ire is the fact that signing while driving apparently was thrown into the mix. You feel that is going too far. My question...is it really? Several folks have pointed out in this thread have reported certain incidents while driving and doing sign. Only a fool can't see that signing has the same possibility if not worst than using a cell phone in causing accidents. The reason I say that is where are your eyes when lipreading and using sign? It is certainly not on the road! One reason it hasn't really been on the radar scope of the authorities for the most part is that the numbers of people who lipread and sign (i.e., deaf) are insignificant as well as accidents caused by such activities. It is not an escape clause as if more accidents started happening because of signing, then it will come under scrutiny.

There are many reasons for accidents in vehicles and the majority of them are directly due to inattentiveness of people who are driving. It doesn't matter why it happened but that it did. That is the point for attempts to regulate certain behaviors that a cause and effect relationship regarding driving and safety.

I have no answers on how are you to communicate when you are a driver but maybe it will have to come down to having a "designated driver" (who doesn't do much communicating) so the deaf can travel safely in cars. It is an inconvenience...sure but at least one wouldn't have to truthfully say to the authorities that the accident happened because er...I was signing to the my friend here.... The so called safety record of deaf doesn't state that they never have accidents but rather they have less of them probably because of the awareness that it is difficult to lipread or sign while driving. For now, I wouldn't worry too much about any law being passed to regulate signing while driving.
 
Blah Blah blah you gotta to worry about Drunkard driver and Reckless driver more than just having a hand to focus on.... Oh yea Oh yea some people had sex in the car while someone drives.. So what is your point?

I dont take any BS anymore...
 
jazzy said:
But I am against any deafies using pager while they drive, it scares me when they do it.
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me too! i dont like it when i catch my partner using her sidekick while driving -- makes me a bit TOO nervous -- i usually would ask if i can answer the sender back with her message and that works fine

as for banning the use of sign language while driving -- thatll be IMPOSSIBLE to do -- far too many deafies drive while chattering -- granted there are some who would weave while driving but overall we have a faster respond time than the hearies i believe statistic-wise -- i drive and chat with my partner

same with the use of the inside dome light -- i was very surprised to find out some states ban the use of the dome light in the car while driving at nite and im in a converstation with someone -- they would turn off the dome light and i would turn it back on :lol: i still use it anyway cuz im SO used to it on it doesnt bother me at all :dunno:
 
Sweetmind said:
Blah Blah blah you gotta to worry about Drunkard driver and Reckless driver more than just having a hand to focus on.... Oh yea Oh yea some people had sex in the car while someone drives.. So what is your point?

I dont take any BS anymore...
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Nobody is immune from having an accident and if there are enough accidents due to those who sign, somebody going to legislate against it (whether you like it or not!). Doesn't matter if there are more of the other types of driving problems since thet are already against the law (I assume the sex in car goes under some obscene rule somewhere).

My real point is that just because signing or lipreading is the only way you can communicate doesn't give you the carte blanche right to endanger others especially driving a vehicle. Your individual right does not supersede society at large. Otherwise, society would be an absolute mess...(not to say that some believe it already :thumb: )
 
Sweetmind said:
Wake up audist attitude people that you are not gonna to stop me from who I am as a Deaf natural person.
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Sweetmind, we know you're an advocate for ASL, but this is not the issue here. It's a SAFETY issue. NOTHING should happen in a car that takes a driver's hands from the wheel or eyes from the road for longer than necessary.

I've often been the driver in a car with deaf passengers and I'll tell you, it is not easy for me. Either I have to ignore the conversation entirely or I have to drive in a somewhat unsafe manner to continue communicating. But I definitely feel I am not driving safely when I sign or watch signing, and drive. Except at a red light!

I do agree it should not be banned outright because, as jazzy said, "I do not like to talk while I drive but sometime we need to tell others for istance " I need to stop somewhere to go bathromm or warn me of firetrucks." It would be completely impractical to ban it entirely. What are people going to do then, write messages on paper? Like that isn't unsafe when driving?

I've had deaf passengers turn around in their seat so they are facing me so I can see them sign in my peripheral vision, and that works a lot better, except I usually can't sign too much back. People should just be more careful when driving is all.
 
Thats understandable, I understand your feelings about it.. I have no object but it turns me off that people are tiggering about our hands to make a big deal out of it.. If you cant then you cant.. I can then I can. So no big deal! I am driving my van for more than 30 years and use my hands to communicate with. So whats the problem! **knocking the wood** I did not have any bad car accident yet.

We have the children who is the worst off than picking on our hands. Children do fight a lot in the car that distracted the driver from the driving. So I had to stop and get off the car. I told the kids out of the car and let them their fighting each other outside of the car. (LOL). Cop stopped by, I explained it everything to him. He said something to the children that I couldnt understand. Then we all went back to the car and My children was quiet down on the way home. They apologized for what they did.

Thats typical for those kids to fight over nothing. ;)

Thanks! ;)
Sweetmind
 
Sweetmind said:
Thats understandable, I understand your feelings about it.. I have no object but it turns me off that people are tiggering about our hands to make a big deal out of it.. If you cant then you cant.. I can then I can. So no big deal! I am driving my van for more than 30 years and use my hands to communicate with. So whats the problem! **knocking the wood** I did not have any bad car accident yet.

We have the children who is the worst off than picking on our hands. Children do fight a lot in the car that distracted the driver from the driving. So I had to stop and get off the car. I told the kids out of the car and let them their fighting each other outside of the car. (LOL). Cop stopped by, I explained it everything to him. He said something to the children that I couldnt understand. Then we all went back to the car and My children was quiet down on the way home. They apologized for what they did.

Thats typical for those kids to fight over nothing. ;)

Thanks! ;)
Sweetmind
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Sorry, but I agree with Interpretator and sr17. Because you've been lucky enough not to drive your car into a ditch while signing/driving doesn't mean everyone else should follow your example and attempt doing such reckless things.

When you're driving, your hands should STAY on the wheel. It's bad enough that you don't have use of any of your hearing while driving - your hands need to be focused at 10 & 2 respectively and that's that. It's in the drivers' ed manual! If you NEED to communicate with your hands, it can be done in a safe manner, like for instance, waiting until you're stopped at a red light or when your vehicle is pulled over in a parking lot, etc. Even so, you'd be quick about it, like it was mentioned, "I need a bathroom," or "Let's stop for lunch."

You have to admit that there are crazy drivers no matter where you go and there will be things that will happen which will cause you to have to react swiftly, i.e. swerving or stopping short, or shifting gears, whatever. You certainly don't want to be in the middle of signing the day before's events when someone's headed straight for your front bumper. Do yourself a favor and wait til you're NOT in a car and do such things over coffee. :)

This has NOTHING to do with audist attitudes. :roll: I'd expect hearing motorists to follow the rules as well.
 
Driving smart is good. Banning sign language while driving is ridiculous. That pretty much sums it up for me.

If a cop sees people signing in a car and that driver is following all the rules of the road and driving safely, then it shouldn't be an issue. If a cop sees people signing in a car and the car is weaving all over and is unsafe on the road, then he should pull them over, the same as they pull over hearing people talking on a cell phone or playing with the radio and veering all over the place.

Let's put it this way: when I walk down stairs, I HAVE to look at my feet. I feel like I'm going to trip and fall if I don't. I don't know why, that's just the way I am. So I actually have to ask deaf people to stop signing to me while we walk down stairs because I just can't look at them. (Of course they make fun of me a lot but I'm used to that!) So should someone make it illegal for me to sign while walking down stairs? Or should I just be smart enough to know when I can and when I can't?
 
sr171soars said:
Sorry, it is somebody's business if it involves the public's safety. The greatest good the greatest number.

Nobody is exempt from the laws of physics. If signing can cause accidents in vehicles that weigh several thousand pounds, then that activity needs to be regulated while using these vehicles.
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1. Such regulation would be virtually unenforceable. It would be a waste of time. The police have more important things to do than look out for the few drivers that sign. How will they know it is signing, or just someone who uses their hands alot when talking?

2. Unless you can demonstrate that crashes due to signing are commonplace, there is no reason to regulate it. Can you or anyone cite some relevant statistics or facts, showing the need for regulation of SWD?

Why are we so regulation happy? Regulation should only be used when absolutely necessary. Signing while driving does not appear to need regulating. Regulating SWD will be unlikely to save many lives, if any. You may like telling others how to live, but they will naturally resist such regulating.
 
my partner and i do talk in the car but only for breif times, such as which store did we need to go to first, or where do we need to turn, or what do you want for dinner? ( if its real late and we'll need to get dinner in town) sometimes we need to figure a direction out. So this is basic communication we have, sometimes when we talk, for basic communication my eyes are on the road but my one hand is signing and if i see something going on up ahead, then i say HOLD a second then proceed to use safety protcol, but belive me i use EVERY safety measure for every reasons,... but we don't yap alllll the time just VERY breif. my partner talks to me and when she says hld on we hld the convo til we re out of the busy city. all in all, rain is no converstation due to slick roads, but we do try to keep it breif. and for the music mine's set to ONE station and my CD is always inside the track so all i have to do is hit once for radio, hit twice for CD on a little red button, that's it. so 95% of the time my eyes are indeed on the road, and my hands on the wheel.
 
YEp Yep javapride. No wonder they have a law for the loudest music for the vehicles, too. ;) Many deafies are always turned the volume higher while they have devices in their ears.. I dont understand this anymore..
 
I'm going to sound stupid here, but I've kinda wondered what a lot of you guys who use mainly ASL do in situations where it's not advisable to let go of whatever you're doing, and you need to get a point across...?
 
I remember a couple years ago when a Deaf friend of mine was worried about his sister and asked me to search for her in a car. He told me to NOT sign, since we were going through bad, drug-ridden areas, and he said that there were warring gang factions throughout, and the possibility of being shot while signing would have been pretty good, since one gang could mistake the signing for another gang's. Dang.
(BTW, we found his sister and she is fine today.)
 
dkf747 said:
Can you or anyone cite some relevant statistics or facts, showing the need for regulation of SWD?
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There's conflicting information on this. Apparently a 1976 study showed a greater number of accidents among the deaf population compared with hearing. However, today I hear over and over again that deaf people proportionally have a lower number of accidents than hearing people (as cited in the original story). Unfortunately I can't find the original study nor the actual numbers that back up the second claim. AND, I don't think any of this information takes into account whether the cause of the accident was people signing or other negligence.

You'd really have to study this in depth before making any regulations. For example, one accident involving a deaf person could be used to prove the need for banning "SWD," but maybe that person was alone in the car, but drunk! Or perhaps the deaf person wasn't at fault at all. This is purely an attempt by people to make a blanket regulation removing "distractions" from drivers. It's not really a bad idea generally speaking, but the sign language part is just so clearly misguided.

Beowulf said:
He told me to NOT sign, since we were going through bad, drug-ridden areas, and he said that there were warring gang factions throughout, and the possibility of being shot while signing would have been pretty good, since one gang could mistake the signing for another gang's.
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Ack! That's very true. I seem to remember someone outside of Gallaudet was killed by gang members who mistook the signing for gang signs. Police in that area started receiving training to stop this kind of thing from happening. And just a few months ago...sad:

http://www.4hearingloss.com/archives/2006/01/police_find_get.html
 
dkf747 said:
1. Such regulation would be virtually unenforceable. It would be a waste of time. The police have more important things to do than look out for the few drivers that sign. How will they know it is signing, or just someone who uses their hands alot when talking?

2. Unless you can demonstrate that crashes due to signing are commonplace, there is no reason to regulate it. Can you or anyone cite some relevant statistics or facts, showing the need for regulation of SWD?

Why are we so regulation happy? Regulation should only be used when absolutely necessary. Signing while driving does not appear to need regulating. Regulating SWD will be unlikely to save many lives, if any. You may like telling others how to live, but they will naturally resist such regulating.
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It never ceases to amaze me that some people can't read anymore. I never said that we needed to have a law for signing while driving (just read my prior emails). I said we need a law for banning the use of cell phones as there is enough evidence for it.

The jury still out for signing while driving but I did call a spade a spade in that it can be as dangerous if not worst at times than cell phones. Anytime one's eyes are off the road, that person is not driving carefully. It is far from an attack on ASL and the deaf culture. That really irks me becauses it comes across to me as if it were the deaf community wants a free pass to do what they want when they want. My concern is safety period. No matter who is driving, there are enormous responsibilities/consequences for when stupid things happen and they happen all the time. Just check your traffic news...

I agree it would be hard to enforce a law banning SWD...heck banning cell phones would be hard to enforce as well (my first email alludes to this problem). There is a fine line in trying to balance the difference between under regulation (anything goes) to over regulation (everybody sort of looks the other way - this happened in the Soviet Union...curruption was rampant).
 
sr171soars said:
In the case of signing, I can see that one's attention is definitely diverted as you need to use your eyes to see what's being said. That often means turning your head to the signer and it is obviously not a good thing if you are the driver. Some of you in this thread mentioned the difficulties of signing while being the driver.
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Not to mention having to take your hands off the wheel to respond. There are many distractions while driving. I don't think the intention is to remove all distractions. If that was the case then we would not have radios or CD players or cup holders, or ashtrays in cars and there would be a law against talking in a car. That would be extreme. No, I think the intention is to identify and reduce the most likely distractions that would result in an unsafe driving condition. Clearly, taking your hands off the wheel for any reason will result in a dangerous driving condition. Communicating in any form will be a distraction, but with hearies they don’t have to take there hands off the wheel to communicate. That I think is the difference.
 
When I'm driving my fiancee around, we agree to use oral-only communication because she is against me taking my eyes off the road or my hands off the wheel longer than absolutely necessary. She lipreads me and she speaks orally to me. It's an agreement only because I can still focus on the road most of the time. (I tell her to stop when I'm doing something that needs a lot of attention, like rush-hour traffic or turns after two-way stop signs). But when I park the car, we go right back to signing.

My fiancee can't get a license due to her seizure disorder :( (it has nothing to do with her deafness). I hate driving.
 
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