Well Personally...
Throughout this website bits and pieces of my opinion have been sprinkled through as you may have read. My general opinion about language oppression is that it needs to end, and the only way for it to end is to educate and be be educated. The history of ASL, Deaf people and the hardships they have faced, are facing and will face, break my heart and make me angry. Since beginning the ASL Interpreter Program at George Brown College I have learned so much about Deaf people, their culture and especially their language. I've learned about oppression and audism and that they can come in many forms. Some of these forms I too was oblivious of until I began my professional training. So no, I don't blame those naive to the knowledge, for their actions. However, I do blame those who are privy to this kind of information and do nothing about it. My opinions on Deaf history and the torture, for lack of a better word that Deaf people have been put through, for their rights and freedoms stripped by those who are able-bodied, white, male and ignorant are that of pure disgust and anger. As for the YouTube debate, I have mixed emotions. On the one had, I recognize and agree with the Deaf community on their upsets regarding the "signalong" videos but I also have had some difficulty in explaining this to other non Deaf people who are uneducated about the culture, language and over all Deaf world. It is difficult to take a stand when it seems no one is willing to listen even as a member of the majority population. I can only imagine how it must be to be the minority fighting for these rights, which is why it is so important for us who are educated to stand by and with the deaf community to help fight for basic human rights.
I feel sad be be a part of a majority population who timelessly negate and oppress the Deaf community. However, I take that I've chosen to take that shame and educate instead. To advocate and to stand by and support this incredible language and I hope that maybe now you will take this little bit of knowledge and I encourage you to dig a little deeper and share this information. It's time to stand by and support.
Before I began this website I did not realize how broad a subject this was; it is impossible to include all the forms of audism, oppression and general negatively centred around signed languages let alone American Sign Language specifically. I've done by best to present some basic information to hopefully intrigue those naive to this world to explore this community, this language.
I feel sad be be a part of a majority population who timelessly negate and oppress the Deaf community. However, I take that I've chosen to take that shame and educate instead. To advocate and to stand by and support this incredible language and I hope that maybe now you will take this little bit of knowledge and I encourage you to dig a little deeper and share this information. It's time to stand by and support.
Before I began this website I did not realize how broad a subject this was; it is impossible to include all the forms of audism, oppression and general negatively centred around signed languages let alone American Sign Language specifically. I've done by best to present some basic information to hopefully intrigue those naive to this world to explore this community, this language.
Non Deaf Professionals Opinion
Oppression:
"When does the oppression stop? When will our society accept that deaf people can do literally everything hearing people can do, except for hear? It is 2014 and there are more than half a million people in the United States who rely on American Sign Language to communicate. Deaf children in schools, deaf patients in hospitals and deaf citizens of the world deserve equal opportunity. People should never suffer because of a simple communication barrier." - Callis .L L (2014)
Audism:
"The notion that one is superior based on one's ability to hear or behave int he manner of one who hears"
- Humphries, T (1975)
"The corporate institution for dealing with deaf people...it is the hearing way of dominating, reconstructing and exercising authority over the deaf community."
- Lane, H (1992) Mask of Benevolence
"Educational and medical institutions have assumed authority over deaf persons, claingin to act in their best interest while not allowing them to have a say in the matters that concern then the most." - Lane, H (1992)