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From: Vixen@f11.n203.z1.fidonet.org (Vixen)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: GOOD TEACHERS VS. BAD ONES
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Date: 1 Mar 91 04:21:48 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Hi Fran,

Well, as a Visually and hearing impaired person, it is probably no
surprise to anyone when I say that my sending skills are better
than my receiving skills. Such being the case, those who will only
sign with others who can sign at ninety miles per hour, often don't
have the time of day for me, whether deaf or hearing! Those types
exist on both sides. It hurt me at first, the moreso, since most of
my loss has occured over the last year and a half and as you can
imagine, I am still dealing with a lot of feelings and am
"hyper-aware" of how both deaf and hearing people deal with me. But
now, I am begining to believe that if a person has no time for me
because I am physically forced to be a "slow signer" then maybe
that person is'nt so hot in the first place and I don't need to
know them.

This is why I seem to detect that little bit of Elitism or Self
perceived superiorty when others berate those who are not as well
educated in sign as they might be. One may as well berate people
who are speech impaired or maybe a new American who has not learned
a great deal of the English language, because it might take a
little time and patience to communicate effectively. It seems a
form of bigotry to me.

I know that my instructors recommend "mirror practice" for those
who do not have the opportunity to use their ASL out in the real
world on a frequent basis. Unfortunately, while I do have some very
close up useable vision, mirrors will not work for me. It has been
suggested that then, I might just want to sign when talking even to
hearing people. I suppose that would be good as it would force me
into working with ASL syntax while speaking English. However, my
experience is that my hearing non signing friends are not very
comfortable with that. One of my closest friends // helpers who has
some limited signing ability himself is far to "self conscious" to
even use his own sign with me! Now, don't judge too harshly since
he really does have a good good heart but he is so self conscious
and I suspect that either his or my signing would bring him
unwanted notice.

Well as a "born hearie" , I am sure that I will not and do not sign
as though I were born to it either. In fact, I would'nt be
surprised if my ASL sometimes comes out more like Signed English at
times. Although, I try to use ASL syntax. For those who really wish
to communicate with us as people without first making a value
assesment of us based on our signing skills, I know that ASL not
being our native language or "signing with an accent" will be of
little import. I guess it is simply a matter of accepting people
for what they are.

I don't know Fran, since I go for long periods without using sign
and you must receive from Mary regularly, I would'nt be so sure
that my skills are up 100 per cent over yours! I somwetimes wonder
just how much I retain through long periods without using it. But
you defintely do lose it through nonuse! Thank goodness for
fingerspelling at such times!.

Keepin' the faith!

.                             Vixen

..."Quack quack!"

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