A question

[Frost]

probably really obvious..but i'm just wondering ..

how come people who know SL has a bigger advantage when it comes to having jobs (the ones related to hearing services of course) compared to the people who learn to lipread. isn't lipreading a harder thing to master (apparently it can't be mastered) than SL?

 

[Gemtun]

probably really obvious..but i'm just wondering ..

how come people who know SL has a bigger advantage when it comes to having jobs (the ones related to hearing services of course) compared to the people who learn to lipread. isn't lipreading a harder thing to master (apparently it can't be mastered) than SL?

Not sure if I can answer your question accurately but here it goes.

I grew up not knowing sign language. When I got my first job teaching deaf inner city kids about sex at age 25, I was forced to learn ASL rapidly if I wanted to keep my job. I was very lucky that the kids were patient with me and helped me pick up signs. Sure I made so many blunders while doing presentations but the kids thought it was amusing and paid even closer attention. I used a lot of props to help hide my weakness until I became fluent in ASL about 3 years later.

It was damn hard for me to master ASL because it is a totally different language than English. I thought it would be a breeze but boy I was wrong. But I had to plunge into ASL wholly if I wanted to communicate effectively with deaf kids.

I can lipread and I can work with hearing people if I wanted to or if I wanted to work with the deaf, I can also because I am fluent in ASL now. Now I am a supervisor of about 35 deaf people. Dont get me wrong ..there are many deaf people who cant lipread yet do work with hearing people but I can imagine that it would be very frustrating if there is no staff interpreter.

I guess I have choices of working with deaf and hearing unlike others who have not mastered the skill of lipreading. But I cannot imagine working with hearing people again because it is too isolating for me.

 

[deafdyke]

That's easy......b/c Signers can function without the benifit of expensive medical technology. Not everything is covered by insurance....lots of people have to pay out of pocket for batteries, cords, mappings, audilogy appointments etc. I mean we live in a world where even middle class people have a struggle paying for and finding good quality health care. If you're a good hearing aid user or good CI user, that doesn't mean anything except that your medical costs will be high.
Thing is most people on Disabilty do have the abilty to work. Very few of us are the profoundly/severely handicapped people who absolutly positively cannot phyiscally or mentally work....it's just that we can't find a job that pays enough for basic costs of living AND the additional costs that our disabilty incurs.

 

[VamPyroX]

Lipreading doesn't benefit anyone... except those who need it. The military would have better use for lipreaders. With sign language, they can communicate with deaf people. With lipreaders, they get nothing.

 

[Raven]

That's crap, I've been a lipreader all my life and I've benefited more from it than I would have with sign language. I wouldn't have gotten to know hearing people, spent my life in an hearing-dominated public school, and held a job with hearing people.

edit: I forgot to add some points.

The truth is, sign language isn't a common language out there. More often than so, it's shared among within the deaf culture. If a HOH/deaf person equipped with only SL works in a place among non-SL people... that single person will feel left out and isolated without an interpreter.

 

[Frost]

That's crap, I've been a lipreader all my life and I've benefited more from it than I would have with sign language. I wouldn't have gotten to know hearing people, spent my life in an hearing-dominated public school, and held a job with hearing people.

edit: I forgot to add some points.

The truth is, sign language isn't a common language out there. More often than so, it's shared among within the deaf culture. If a HOH/deaf person equipped with only SL works in a place among non-SL people... that single person will feel left out and isolated without an interpreter.

thats true but people still think that knowing SL will open you up to more opportunities in the deaf communities than it does for lip readers.Btw i thought the army didn't take hearing impaired people.. lip readers or not.. sumone told me that was a liability they weren't willing to take.

 

[DeafSCUBA98]

deaf ppl can work for the army.. but they cannot be in war, or go oversea, or do the training.. but you can work at warehouse at the base, computer, etc...

for this... its a tough one to answer.. so i think it varies on what job/major it is for...

i believe lipreading have some advantage in some areas,.... and ASL have some advantage in some areas. for example if you work at retail store or restruant or something similar that serves costumers.. the ASL have advantage on this because if the costumer is deaf or HoH and knows ASL thats a good for a business.. also ASL users (most) are good at lipreading but not super good on it.

I also notice its not just Deaf.. its also good for other people who knows spainish, french, etc...

DeafDyke.. i'm wondering why it bring it up to insurance issue? i believe that has nothing to do about it.. since most companies are under one major insurance company.. and the major insurance company have same rate and it doesn't matter if they have a disability worker or not.. major insurance company will make it even for all companies and everyone from one company to another.

 

[VamPyroX]

That's crap, I've been a lipreader all my life and I've benefited more from it than I would have with sign language. I wouldn't have gotten to know hearing people, spent my life in an hearing-dominated public school, and held a job with hearing people.

edit: I forgot to add some points.

The truth is, sign language isn't a common language out there. More often than so, it's shared among within the deaf culture. If a HOH/deaf person equipped with only SL works in a place among non-SL people... that single person will feel left out and isolated without an interpreter.

From what you're saying, it benefits you personally. Your question was related to having a job.

Lipreading benefits people on a personal basis. A deaf person can understand a hearing person well. In the work place, it would only help you understand the hearing people. If a person knew sign language well, then they would also be able to communicate with deaf people and help other co-workers with signing as well. At the end, they are benefitting more from the sign language than they would from the personal benefit of lipreading.

 

[Reba]

...Btw i thought the army didn't take hearing impaired people.. lip readers or not.. sumone told me that was a liability they weren't willing to take.

Deaf people cannot join the military. They can work in civil service that supports the military.

 

[deafdyke]

That's crap, I've been a lipreader all my life and I've benefited more from it than I would have with sign language. I wouldn't have gotten to know hearing people, spent my life in an hearing-dominated public school, and held a job with hearing people.

How do you know? I mean Sign alone is limiting yes I do agree......but speech alone is quite frustrating. Why not open your mind and see about learning Sign? It could be benifical to you! Beleieve it or not, your response is very common among raised oral kids......quite a few of them are taught to look down on Sign as something "limiting" and then they discover Sign, and find that it makes them free and gives them options. Hey.....look at it this way....isn't it better to be bilingal instead of monolingal? I know your POV, and I know that the people who raised you taught you to think of ASL/Sign in general as something speshal needs and not a "real" language......but it IS a real language and knowing it confers all the advantages of knowing a second spoken language. Trust me....Sign and Deaf culture is a lot more fun then reading about the latest hearing aids/ALDs and going "Boo-be-bah" in speech therapy!

i'm wondering why it bring it up to insurance issue? i believe that has nothing to do about it.. since most companies are under one major insurance company.. and the major insurance company have same rate and it doesn't matter if they have a disability worker or not..

It's not an insurance issue per se. It is a health care cost issue. I will address this later , since I gotta run.