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From: Fran.O'gorman@f94.n272.z1.fidonet.org (Fran O'gorman)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Multiple Uses Of Sign
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Date: 28 Feb 91 16:00:13 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Hi Lana,

 FO>>> Here in NY the Grange I believe (that's an organization for people
 FO>>> in agriculture --sort of fraternal I think) sponsor a camp wherein
 FO>>> a deaf child is paired with a hearing child for the week (or
 FO>>> weeks, not sure).  By the end of the experience (knowing how kids
 LB>       Wow.. that's kinda nifty,  I know a good friend of mine is
 LB>  off to Malaysia for a few weeks this summer as a representitive
 LB>  of OUR camp regarding some sort of international conference on
 LB>  Deaf Camping or.. international Deaf Camps.. or something like
 LB>  that.. it should proove to be very interesting.. After seeing the
 LB>  the GREAT EXPERIENCE it was for both campers and staff at Our
 LB>  Deaf Camp last year I'm all for them!

I don't know how long you've been reading/getting silenttalk but
there's been an ongoing debate over sign vs. oralism and this idea
of 'deaf culture'.  While I am big on sign as everyone here knows
(Annie are ya listenin'?) I think our moderator made a very good
point when she said that the deaf have historically kept very much
to themselves which isn't good (for them OR the hearing people I
might add).  This was be due in large part to the existence of
deaf schools that were mostly sleep-away ones.  I'm writing a
program that does sign graphically on the computer (it's a
tutorial called Sign Friends, perhaps you're familiar with it?)
and I had the darndest time finding a book that will show bus or
school bus.  The residential schools had no need for one.  The
parents drove them there and picked them up, or if public
transportation were used it'd be a train or plane I imagine.
Anyway the point I'm taking so long to make here is that this kind
of camp that brings hearing and nonhearing together when kids are
young, is just the ticket I think, to breaking down some of the
barriers that separate the two worlds.  A kind of deaf culture
will exist with the existence of a particular language and the
very particular experience of deafness itself, but that such a
culture be not so exclusive and excluding is what I think would be
the best.

I'm definitely all for camps or whatever that bring people
together of varying life experiences!  Kind of like this echo!

 FO>>> My Mary, who is more like him in that she hears, when she was
 FO>>> little, before she was formally being taught sign, began to make up
 FO>>> her own!  It certainly seems like a natural thing --and again,
 FO>>> very universal.

 LB>          I believe that here in Canada Sign Language is a
 LB>  recognized second language for Universities as well as being a
 LB>  recognized 2nd for getting a job at Airports. :-)

So it sounds like sign is used ALOT there, huh?  Interesting.  Are
there any differences between the American version and the
Canadian that you're aware of?

--Fran

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