Miss-Delectable
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http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/68385
The classroom full of students is completely still. All eyes are fixed on the man standing in front of them. Without a word, the class erupts in laughter, shattering the silence. With fluid hand motions and animated facial expressions, a newcomer might guess the teacher is playing charades with his students. But the class isn't playing around, they are listening to a story - rather, they are watching a story. And it wasn't a game - It was a language.
American Sign Language is used by thousands of deaf Americans, yet thousands of hearing Americans know little, if anything, about the language and the people that use it as their primary source of communication. From the differences between deaf and Deaf, to how they wake up to an alarm clock in the morning, ignorance drives misconceptions about the deaf and demands a louder voice for what many people see as a silent culture.
Norman Roberts, ASL program supervisor and coordinator of academic support at BYU, was born to deaf parents. Although he and his brothers are all hearing, their first language was ASL. He pointed out that many people think ASL is merely a collection of signs resembling pantomime, when in actuality it is a language like English or Spanish with sentence structure and grammar rules.
"It's not an oral language, it's a visual, manual way of expressing one's self. But it's still a language," Roberts said. "It's not just a bunch of signs."
According to Roberts, many hearing people think deafness is a horrible disability. However, many deaf people do not see it as a disability but instead a typical way of life.
"In a worst case scenario, hearing people see deafness as a tragedy," Roberts said. "But for many deaf people ... it's not a tragic thing for them to be deaf. Is it sometimes inconvenient? Yes. ... [But] if they're deaf, it doesn't take away from their cognitive function."
According to Roberts, ASL follows English and Spanish in the number of students enrolled in classes at BYU. Students learn the language as well as parts of the culture, which helps dissipate some of the hearing community's misconceptions about Deaf people.
Miya Alger, a freshman from Malad, Idaho, is in her second semester of ASL at BYU. She said she has learned things about deaf culture that she had never thought about before. For example, what it would be like to have a deaf child as a hearing parent.
"I never thought about what a challenge that would be," Alger said. "There are so many options out there for deaf people and their family members, and that was really interesting to learn."
Another lesser-known fact is that "deaf" can be capitalized to refer to the group of people who use ASL and are part of the deaf culture through shared experiences, according to Barbara Kannapell, a professor at Gallaudet University. One does not necessarily have to be deaf to be a part of the "Deaf" community.
Alger said she didn't have many preconceived notions about deaf people that needed to be corrected, but instead has learned first-hand what Deaf culture, or the culture that uses ASL, is really like.
Daniel Jones, a deaf computer networking student from Delta, said he appreciates being able to meet hearing people, especially those like Alger who know how to sign and are willing to talk to and learn from deaf acquaintances.
Jones has also experienced less willing people at BYU, one who even opted not to talk to Jones because he was deaf.
"Even if you don't know sign you can always write down what you want to say," Jones said. "And if there is an interpreter, use the interpreter. There is no excuse to walk away from a deaf person."
Jones, a former UVSC student, is currently awaiting acceptance into The National Technical Institute for the Deaf in New York.
In addition to ASL, deaf students can also choose to learn to speak, or learn orally. Another option is Cued Speech. Unlike ASL, Cued Speech is English coupled with hand shapes around the mouth to represent vowel and consonant sounds. Nathan Webster, a Cued Speech interpreter, said that Cued Speech is especially helpful for hearing parents with deaf children because they don't have to learn a new language to communicate.
"Hearing parents have a difficult time learning ASL-obviously it's a language, it's an evolving language, [and] you have to spend a lot of time learning to be fluent," Webster said. "If it's English, and you already know it, than you don't have to worry about being fluent, you just have to worry about what your hand is doing."
Opinions vary about what method is best for deaf children, but regardless of the method, deaf people are capable of pursuing any career.
Julio Diaz, an ASL instructor at BYU, co-owns a movie production company called Eye-Sign Media, LLC. They have shown one of their films locally and plan to submit their latest production, "Stolen Lunch," to the Sundance Film Festival at the end of the summer.
Although some of the methods used at Eye-Sign Media differ from hearing movie studios, according to Diaz they are more similar than different. The same is true for hearing and deaf people.
"We have the same wishes, the same challenges, the same frustrations, the same joys ... that anyone else has," Diaz said. "Yes, some of our frustrations arise from the ignorance of hearing people around us. ... However, for each frustration - be it acne, weight, grades - there are people who don't understand."
The classroom full of students is completely still. All eyes are fixed on the man standing in front of them. Without a word, the class erupts in laughter, shattering the silence. With fluid hand motions and animated facial expressions, a newcomer might guess the teacher is playing charades with his students. But the class isn't playing around, they are listening to a story - rather, they are watching a story. And it wasn't a game - It was a language.
American Sign Language is used by thousands of deaf Americans, yet thousands of hearing Americans know little, if anything, about the language and the people that use it as their primary source of communication. From the differences between deaf and Deaf, to how they wake up to an alarm clock in the morning, ignorance drives misconceptions about the deaf and demands a louder voice for what many people see as a silent culture.
Norman Roberts, ASL program supervisor and coordinator of academic support at BYU, was born to deaf parents. Although he and his brothers are all hearing, their first language was ASL. He pointed out that many people think ASL is merely a collection of signs resembling pantomime, when in actuality it is a language like English or Spanish with sentence structure and grammar rules.
"It's not an oral language, it's a visual, manual way of expressing one's self. But it's still a language," Roberts said. "It's not just a bunch of signs."
According to Roberts, many hearing people think deafness is a horrible disability. However, many deaf people do not see it as a disability but instead a typical way of life.
"In a worst case scenario, hearing people see deafness as a tragedy," Roberts said. "But for many deaf people ... it's not a tragic thing for them to be deaf. Is it sometimes inconvenient? Yes. ... [But] if they're deaf, it doesn't take away from their cognitive function."
According to Roberts, ASL follows English and Spanish in the number of students enrolled in classes at BYU. Students learn the language as well as parts of the culture, which helps dissipate some of the hearing community's misconceptions about Deaf people.
Miya Alger, a freshman from Malad, Idaho, is in her second semester of ASL at BYU. She said she has learned things about deaf culture that she had never thought about before. For example, what it would be like to have a deaf child as a hearing parent.
"I never thought about what a challenge that would be," Alger said. "There are so many options out there for deaf people and their family members, and that was really interesting to learn."
Another lesser-known fact is that "deaf" can be capitalized to refer to the group of people who use ASL and are part of the deaf culture through shared experiences, according to Barbara Kannapell, a professor at Gallaudet University. One does not necessarily have to be deaf to be a part of the "Deaf" community.
Alger said she didn't have many preconceived notions about deaf people that needed to be corrected, but instead has learned first-hand what Deaf culture, or the culture that uses ASL, is really like.
Daniel Jones, a deaf computer networking student from Delta, said he appreciates being able to meet hearing people, especially those like Alger who know how to sign and are willing to talk to and learn from deaf acquaintances.
Jones has also experienced less willing people at BYU, one who even opted not to talk to Jones because he was deaf.
"Even if you don't know sign you can always write down what you want to say," Jones said. "And if there is an interpreter, use the interpreter. There is no excuse to walk away from a deaf person."
Jones, a former UVSC student, is currently awaiting acceptance into The National Technical Institute for the Deaf in New York.
In addition to ASL, deaf students can also choose to learn to speak, or learn orally. Another option is Cued Speech. Unlike ASL, Cued Speech is English coupled with hand shapes around the mouth to represent vowel and consonant sounds. Nathan Webster, a Cued Speech interpreter, said that Cued Speech is especially helpful for hearing parents with deaf children because they don't have to learn a new language to communicate.
"Hearing parents have a difficult time learning ASL-obviously it's a language, it's an evolving language, [and] you have to spend a lot of time learning to be fluent," Webster said. "If it's English, and you already know it, than you don't have to worry about being fluent, you just have to worry about what your hand is doing."
Opinions vary about what method is best for deaf children, but regardless of the method, deaf people are capable of pursuing any career.
Julio Diaz, an ASL instructor at BYU, co-owns a movie production company called Eye-Sign Media, LLC. They have shown one of their films locally and plan to submit their latest production, "Stolen Lunch," to the Sundance Film Festival at the end of the summer.
Although some of the methods used at Eye-Sign Media differ from hearing movie studios, according to Diaz they are more similar than different. The same is true for hearing and deaf people.
"We have the same wishes, the same challenges, the same frustrations, the same joys ... that anyone else has," Diaz said. "Yes, some of our frustrations arise from the ignorance of hearing people around us. ... However, for each frustration - be it acne, weight, grades - there are people who don't understand."