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A social group whose hands fly | HeraldTribune.com | Sarasota Florida | Southwest Florida's Information Leader
As a case management specialist for the Community Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Julie Jones wanted I wanted to bring together people who are deaf and hard of hearing.
"People were fading away," she said, community via the center's director, Donna Carlton. "I wanted to create a group where we could socialize."
And so, the Flying Hands social club was formed. The group welcomes the deaf and hearing impaired and those who want to learn American Sign Language.
"Flying Hands means hands fly when you sign," Jones said. "Deaf people, when they're together, their signing is very fast, it flows."
The group's purpose is to motivate and get people involved, Carlton said.
"Deaf people can be so isolated," Carlton said. "Hearing loss isolates people; they tend to isolate themselves from family and the community because of the barriers it imposes in communication."
The group's newly elected president is Veronique Cheney, who wrote on her laptop to communicate with a reporter.
"We just get together for social events because we don't get to see each other much, and we all have something in common, our language," she said.
ASL has its own grammar and sentence construction, the characteristics that define any language. People often first learn to finger spell with 26 one-handed signs. There also are hand signs accompanied by lip movement and facial expression to create whole words, sentences and phrases.
High schools, as well as State College of Florida and the University of South Florida Sarasota–Manatee, offer ASL as a foreign language course. Often, ASL is accepted as a foreign language requirement to graduate high school. Teachers recommend Flying Hands events as part of their assignments, Cheney said.
"There is a whole culture called the deaf culture," said Dr. Myra McPherson, USF adjunct professor of ASL. "I require students to attend interactions with the deaf community. When you learn something about a new culture, it's uniting. It's important for hearing people to learn something about a new culture, how they are like us and what are the different ways of communicating?"
The history of sign language reflects cultural attitudes to the deaf and hard of hearing. In 5th century BC, Socrates encouraged those who were deaf or hearing impaired to use their bodies to communicate. By the 16th century, Pedro Ponce de Leon used 30 shapes to correspond to sounds to aid in education of the deaf. He instructed children of Spanish noble families with genetic traits that often produced deafness.
In 1864, the first American school for the deaf opened in Connecticut and was authorized by President Abraham Lincoln. By the 1880s, however, sign language was no longer taught, deemed inappropriate, and was not legitimized as a language until the 1950s.
Perhaps in reaction, the National Association of the Deaf was established in 1880 with a core value to preserve ASL.
Today, there is a deaf culture and growing academic field called deaf studies along with an emerging interest in deaf history. Deaf studies are available at many colleges, such as USF's main campus in Tampa. Also, Gallaudet University, a university for the deaf, offers a forum, "Linguistic Human Rights and the Future of Sign Language."
Cheney said she hopes to add storytelling and poetry to the monthly Flying Hands meetings because she believes storytelling is an important part of one's heritage."
"Deaf storytelling is not a new phenomenon," McPherson said. "They have an actual competition in the deaf culture. Deaf people are so visual, they put a story in a physical picture."
"When I first met my hubby, he did not know sign language," so they used the computer to communicate, said Cheney, who became hearing impaired at age 5 or 6, but did not learn sign language until she went to college.
She studied at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., and earned her bachelor's degree in social work.
Now, the social club she leads is an opportunity to meet people within the deaf community.
The deaf have many new technological tools to aid in communicating, but, Cheney said, "Technological advances have not changed the way our deaf culture has gathered over time."
Member Terri Simon said she joined Flying Hands because, "It was an opportunity for me to be able to fellowship with other deaf people and to improve my signing skills and to just have fun."
As a case management specialist for the Community Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Julie Jones wanted I wanted to bring together people who are deaf and hard of hearing.
"People were fading away," she said, community via the center's director, Donna Carlton. "I wanted to create a group where we could socialize."
And so, the Flying Hands social club was formed. The group welcomes the deaf and hearing impaired and those who want to learn American Sign Language.
"Flying Hands means hands fly when you sign," Jones said. "Deaf people, when they're together, their signing is very fast, it flows."
The group's purpose is to motivate and get people involved, Carlton said.
"Deaf people can be so isolated," Carlton said. "Hearing loss isolates people; they tend to isolate themselves from family and the community because of the barriers it imposes in communication."
The group's newly elected president is Veronique Cheney, who wrote on her laptop to communicate with a reporter.
"We just get together for social events because we don't get to see each other much, and we all have something in common, our language," she said.
ASL has its own grammar and sentence construction, the characteristics that define any language. People often first learn to finger spell with 26 one-handed signs. There also are hand signs accompanied by lip movement and facial expression to create whole words, sentences and phrases.
High schools, as well as State College of Florida and the University of South Florida Sarasota–Manatee, offer ASL as a foreign language course. Often, ASL is accepted as a foreign language requirement to graduate high school. Teachers recommend Flying Hands events as part of their assignments, Cheney said.
"There is a whole culture called the deaf culture," said Dr. Myra McPherson, USF adjunct professor of ASL. "I require students to attend interactions with the deaf community. When you learn something about a new culture, it's uniting. It's important for hearing people to learn something about a new culture, how they are like us and what are the different ways of communicating?"
The history of sign language reflects cultural attitudes to the deaf and hard of hearing. In 5th century BC, Socrates encouraged those who were deaf or hearing impaired to use their bodies to communicate. By the 16th century, Pedro Ponce de Leon used 30 shapes to correspond to sounds to aid in education of the deaf. He instructed children of Spanish noble families with genetic traits that often produced deafness.
In 1864, the first American school for the deaf opened in Connecticut and was authorized by President Abraham Lincoln. By the 1880s, however, sign language was no longer taught, deemed inappropriate, and was not legitimized as a language until the 1950s.
Perhaps in reaction, the National Association of the Deaf was established in 1880 with a core value to preserve ASL.
Today, there is a deaf culture and growing academic field called deaf studies along with an emerging interest in deaf history. Deaf studies are available at many colleges, such as USF's main campus in Tampa. Also, Gallaudet University, a university for the deaf, offers a forum, "Linguistic Human Rights and the Future of Sign Language."
Cheney said she hopes to add storytelling and poetry to the monthly Flying Hands meetings because she believes storytelling is an important part of one's heritage."
"Deaf storytelling is not a new phenomenon," McPherson said. "They have an actual competition in the deaf culture. Deaf people are so visual, they put a story in a physical picture."
"When I first met my hubby, he did not know sign language," so they used the computer to communicate, said Cheney, who became hearing impaired at age 5 or 6, but did not learn sign language until she went to college.
She studied at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., and earned her bachelor's degree in social work.
Now, the social club she leads is an opportunity to meet people within the deaf community.
The deaf have many new technological tools to aid in communicating, but, Cheney said, "Technological advances have not changed the way our deaf culture has gathered over time."
Member Terri Simon said she joined Flying Hands because, "It was an opportunity for me to be able to fellowship with other deaf people and to improve my signing skills and to just have fun."