Is ASL Fading Away or Not?

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Kalista

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Daisy Bravo has make several good point. We concern about our ASL will be fading or not in the future.

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No, I don't believe ASL will ever fade away, in fact ASL is growing everyday, even hearing students are taking up sign language courses at the universities and community colleges, so I'm not even worried. AGBell and their associates can try to wipe ASL off the center of the earth for all I care, But, It'll never happen.
 
Well, the USE of ASL might fade away in 100 years because of technology eliminating deafness but ASL will live on only in History books, kinda like Latin.
 
I do not believe ASL will fade away in the future as long as we keep educate and encourage hearing parents to inculde ASL with their deaf children. A lot of people keep forgetting that ASL is not only used by the Deaf people but also used by the hearing as well too such as down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, trauma, and brain disorders or speech disorders do use sign language frequently as a communication tool. Also stuides have shown an increase of improvements on babies and children who use sign language to communicate.

Not too long ago the Deaf community fear that their culture will fade away slowly because of these cochlear implants and seeing how many deaf people inculde children had choosed to be implanted but yet they keep forgetting one thing, those who received cochlear implants are STILL deaf when their implants are turned off. This makes no difference from what I've experienced wearing my hearing aids because without them I won't be able hear anything. Also not everyone will benefit these implants. That's why many of us here are fighting to keep ASL alive and fighting against misinformation by doctors and audiologists..
 
We have reached a contradictory moment in history. Not only has technology advanced to the degree it has in medical treatment of deafness, it has also advanced to the point that deaf people are given a "vioce" through text pagers, email, interpreters video relay, etc. Communication is earsier than it ever has been at this point. Also, a growing number of universities and colleges are offering degrees in Deaf Studies and interpreting. At no other time in history has the study of ASL been as widespread as it is today. So while medical tecnology is advancing, we are also seeing advances that makes it much easier for the deaf to live and communicate without the medical technology available. If one chooses to not take advantage of the CI, or in the future, any other technology designed to "cure" deafness, one has more options for communication available than ever before. There will always be those individuals that are not benefitted from the medical advances. So, no, I don't see ASL disappearing.
 
I don't think ASL will ever die. Even if technology advances and makes deafness "obsolete", some people have deafness in their family for generations and might choose to not use the technology. Also, not everyone will afford the technology, so there will always be those "poor" (financially) deaf people who can't get the CIs, BAHAs, etc. And like Angel said ASL is used with people who have other mental/verbal/processing disorders. So no, at least as long as I am alive, and people like me who love ASL (even hearing people) and think it's more natural for us than English speaking, ASL will never go away.
 
I do believe ASL will fade away becuz of the Hitech development is getting better to the day for all the dhh n' hg that will help us to comprehend in communication system for the global.
 
It's funny to see hearing people to learn American Sign Language, why did they want to learn? Because they want to communicate with deaf people. Now, many deaf people are getting Cochlear Implants. Reason? Because they want to become hearing/able to speak, which they will hurt ASL culture.
My point is in the future hearing people learn ASL, but they will have nobody to communicate ASL with since many deaf people are able to hear/speak with CI's on. BUT for those deaf people will keep ASL culture, and my concern is to look at statistics, how many deaf people in deaf schools right now compares to 1980's. In the future, few deaf people ... more hearing people meaning ASL will not be around that much in the general besides the deaf community.
 
the USE of ASL might fade away in 100 years because of technology eliminating deafness
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Maybe, but mankind has never been able to get rid of disabilty. Diseases, yeah....disabilties no.
And Angel is right. There are a host of non aural disablities which use ASL as a communication system. It's most popular with MR kids, but its also slowly growing, that kids with apraxia, tracheostomies etc use asl.
 
authentic said:
...My point is in the future hearing people learn ASL, but they will have nobody to communicate ASL with since many deaf people are able to hear/speak with CI's on. BUT for those deaf people will keep ASL culture, and my concern is to look at statistics, how many deaf people in deaf schools right now compares to 1980's. In the future, few deaf people ... more hearing people meaning ASL will not be around that much in the general besides the deaf community.
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The use of CI's is not an automatic dis-use of ASL. I know many CI users who still use ASL and associate with the Deaf community. As long as the non-CI Deaf maintain a welcoming, non-judgmental attitude, the CI deaf will continue to feel comfortable using ASL with them.
 
seems AGB and friends just wanted to see ASL fading away bec they havent accept the loss caused by Edward Miner Galladeut.. who those read the book.. Shall Twain Not Meet.. will understand what i mean.,...

I have 2 deaf sons with Jolie.. we use ASL 24/7 and theres more deaf coming and will use asl even ciers bec at ksd i seen ci kids use asl too exposing them to 2 languages.. i know my spellin is terrible lol
 
Reba said:
The use of CI's is not an automatic dis-use of ASL. I know many CI users who still use ASL and associate with the Deaf community. As long as the non-CI Deaf maintain a welcoming, non-judgmental attitude, the CI deaf will continue to feel comfortable using ASL with them.
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I agree...also that goes for parents who decide to implant their children. If we want the parents to accept us and our language, then we have to accept the fact that they will implant their children and not to attack them. If we do that, we just become as responsible for ASL fading away as the oralists are.
 
shel90 said:
I agree...also that goes for parents who decide to implant their children. If we want the parents to accept us and our language, then we have to accept the fact that they will implant their children and not to attack them. If we do that, we just become as responsible for ASL fading away as the oralists are.
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**nodding agreement**
 
shel90 said:
I agree...also that goes for parents who decide to implant their children. If we want the parents to accept us and our language, then we have to accept the fact that they will implant their children and not to attack them. If we do that, we just become as responsible for ASL fading away as the oralists are.
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I agree that's a good approach under todays circumstances for teachers in deaf schools, when facing this kind of parents.

But I find it cruel to see children forced to wear CI all the time, even when they ask to put if off, either because they want a rest or because they do not like it. A doctor told the parents and teachers to not let a new impanted child with sign language competence put of the CI, else the child could develop a bad habit of not wearing CI.

I wonder if this is child abuse? Are there other similar situations where children are forced to use technology against their will legally?
 
flip said:
I agree that's a good approach under todays circumstances for teachers in deaf schools, when facing this kind of parents.

But I find it cruel to see children forced to wear CI all the time, even when they ask to put if off, either because they want a rest or because they do not like it. A doctor told the parents and teachers to not let a new impanted child with sign language competence put of the CI, else the child could develop a bad habit of not wearing CI.

I wonder if this is child abuse? Are there other similar situations where children are forced to use technology against their will legally?
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Yes. I force my children to go to the dentist, where technology is used to make pictures and check their teeth.
I force my children to eat with knife and fork (OK, that's old technology, and not very American) and
I force my children to turn off the lights before they go to sleep,
I force them to flush the toilet, etc...

What I am saying is that like with other things, children have to get used to some things.
And when the choice has been made for CI, that includes the effort to learn to hear and interpret sound.

With us, Lotte rejected the HA and we "forced" it on her. She never rejected the CI. (Actually, she was fine with the HA in the kindergarten because many children wore them. As soon as she was in the car, she would rip them off :) )

When children with CI are older, the parents will let it be up to the child to wear the CI. Often they will take it off after a long day with intense listning, just like people with HA's that take them off when they come home.

But at the start of the hearing proces, it is imporant to get used to the sounds and equipment.

After all, when a child wants to take off the CI or HA, it is very likely it is because it is something weird on their head. Not because they have a sudden urge to start sign-language.
With Lotte, she had no benefit with the HA, so she didn't want it.
With the CI, she benefitted and she's fine with it. In fact, she requests to have them on.

Of course a child can be tired of all the sounds coming in, and parents should allways keep that in mind, especially after a long day. And the child should be allowed to take it off.


But child abuse..... NO. Not even remotely!
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Let's go back to the topic
 
Allready now there are fewer children that will grow up with ASL. Older people that become deaf and previously might have needed ASL, now can choose for CI.
With that, there will be less need for ASL. Fewer deaf (and hearing) people will depend on it.

The increase in people studying it is wonderful.
Signlanguage will allways be the natural language for deaf people, so with that it will never disapear. But, I think that in the long run ASL will be used by only a few people.
 
Cloggy said:
Yes. I force my children to go to the dentist, where technology is used to make pictures and check their teeth.
I force my children to eat with knife and fork (OK, that's old technology, and not very American) and
I force my children to turn off the lights before they go to sleep,
I force them to flush the toilet, etc...

What I am saying is that like with other things, children have to get used to some things.
And when the choice has been made for CI, that includes the effort to learn to hear and interpret sound.

With us, Lotte rejected the HA and we "forced" it on her. She never rejected the CI. (Actually, she was fine with the HA in the kindergarten because many children wore them. As soon as she was in the car, she would rip them off :) )

When children with CI are older, the parents will let it be up to the child to wear the CI. Often they will take it off after a long day with intense listning, just like people with HA's that take them off when they come home.

But at the start of the hearing proces, it is imporant to get used to the sounds and equipment.

After all, when a child wants to take off the CI or HA, it is very likely it is because it is something weird on their head. Not because they have a sudden urge to start sign-language.
With Lotte, she had no benefit with the HA, so she didn't want it.
With the CI, she benefitted and she's fine with it. In fact, she requests to have them on.

Of course a child can be tired of all the sounds coming in, and parents should allways keep that in mind, especially after a long day. And the child should be allowed to take it off.


But child abuse..... NO. Not even remotely!

Let's go back to the topic
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Ok, we agree that a child should be allowed to take it off. This doctor told the parents to NOT let the child take it off, even if the child ask to... Is this acceptable?
 
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