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From: Fran.O'gorman@f41.n267.z1.fidonet.org (Fran O'gorman)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: question RE signers and signing
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Date: 17 Jan 91 15:17:50 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Hello James,
     If my memory serves me correctly, I think I recall that you
are a teacher, that you sign, and that you are actively associated
with a signing group of people.  Perhaps you could help me.
     Tzipporah, a dear lady I've known since I began writing Sign
Friends (oh, I should've told you that, I'm Fran its author) has
been in touch with a coordinator of training for EMS personnel and
he gave her a list of words he would like me to include in the
program.  They are quite technical (some of them) related to the
kinds of questions an EMS worker would ask a person if on an
emergency call.  Like 'last bowel movement' or 'bloody sputum' in
a cough.  
      My thought was that if an EMS worker knew the usual
preliminaries of sign, that he/she could just ask the question
(making sure to be sensitive to face the person and not swallow
the words) that most signers could probably lip read the question
and what would be needed is enough knowledge of sign to be able to
interpret the signed response.  Finding books that contain some of
these signs has been a problem and offhand I don't know some of
them. 
     Am I correct in my assumption (that most signers can lipread)
in your experience?  If you don't have an answer to this but
someone else reading this does, I'd appreciate your info/input.  
     It's not that I'm adverse to including some of these in my
program, but I may not be able to do all, and my thought is that
it may not be necessary in order for an EMS person to be able to
assist a deaf/signing person.
     Thanks for your help in this matter.
                                            Sincerely,
                                            Fran

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