Deaf and English Literacy

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mactoph said:
The ASL magazine is simply recorded video of the contents of the magazine in ASL. Perhaps I should have said we create a video fo the contents of the magazine.
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So, it is a v-log, then and not a magazine produced in ASL.
 
mactoph, for what it's worth, in my province, all deaf newsletters, announcements and emails that are distributed to the membership are written in english (akin to the level of any newspaper article). Often vlogs of the most important announcements are posted on the associations' websites.
 
Most newspaper articles are written at about an 8th grade literacy level, for what that's worth. Maybe that would be a good level to shoot for?
 
kokonut said:
Juicy Studio: Readability Test

Interesting...plug in any URL address to determine the website's or blogsite's level of "readability."
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Unfortunately this is very unreliable as it takes in all words on the page, whether they are part of an article, a heading, a link or an advertisement. I tried it on a medical article and it calculated the average length of the sentences was 1.74 words and the readability was less than a grade 4 level. haha
 
jillio said:
It is only your "fate" if you lay down and accept it. You don't have to walk around with that cross on your shoulder. You choose to walk around with that cross on your should. You can put it down any time you choose.

Perhaps playing the victim in this way provides you with some sort of benefit in the hearing world.( Poor little deaf woman syndrome. She is so brave, despite the fact that she has such a horrible cross to bear.) But around here, with other deafies, it doesn't get you anything except a reputation as a whiner.
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Knock yourself over the head with the cross, woman.

Nobody is saying to bear the cross with silence or play the poor victim.

All I am asking is not to be as nasty and combative right from the start
as for example you are.

Fuzzy
 
mactoph said:
our organization produces a magazine in English that is written at about a 10th grade level, we also produce a parto of that magazine in ASL.

I had talked with a couple of people from our local Deaf community and they shared with me a concern that they felt the English literacy level of at least a portion of the Deaf community would have difficulty with the English version of the magazine because the literacy rate of many was at a 3rd or 4th grade level. I had no other experience to base my question on, so that is where I started.


Both mention Deaf high school graduates reading English at 4th grade level.
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Please correct me if I am wrong, for I want to understand well-
so you are involved with a Deaf Community - as what, if I may ask?, in some organization - what organization, again?
and your organization produces a magazine.

The members of a Deaf community- so I assume they are Deaf themselves -
expressed concern that the level of English might be to difficult for some
due to possible illiteracy of some?

Is that right?

Fuzzy
 
Audiofuzzy said:
Please correct me if I am wrong, for I want to understand well-
so you are involved with a Deaf Community - as what, if I may ask?, in some organization - what organization, again?
and your organization produces a magazine.

The members of a Deaf community- so I assume they are Deaf themselves -
expressed concern that the level of English might be to difficult for some
due to possible illiteracy of some?

Is that right?

Fuzzy
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Thanks for the questions Fuzzy- I work for a religious organization and have responsibilities for producing our materials in accessible formats.

My involvement with the Deaf community is simply interactions with those who use the products we produce. Besides ASL (produced primarily by Deaf members of our organization), we also do work with captions.

The situation that prompted my question was some of our management asking if we could cut back on some of the ASL translation of our English text and rely on the English text instead. We are hoping to continue doing the ASL production and I was looking for some information that would help to demonstrate the value and need of ASL over English text.

From many of the comments in the thread, I have the feeling that I shouldn't have even asked about the English literacy of people who are Deaf. I understand how this might be offensive is English was the first language, but my understanding is that English is a 2nd language... I didn't expect quite so much controversy.

I have greatly appreciated the help of many people in this thread who have offered helpful responses. On the other hand, I'm a little baffled by the complaints of some who seem to be complaining that we hearing folks aren't completely ignorant to Deaf issues, but also attack me for trying to better understand. I'm sure part of it is the way I jumped into the forum without introducing myself or asking my question in a helpful way.

Regardless, it is great to see such a great community here- and again, I really appreciate all the help!
 
mactoph said:
Thanks for the questions Fuzzy- I work for a religious organization and have responsibilities for producing our materials in accessible formats.

My involvement with the Deaf community is simply interactions with those who use the products we produce. Besides ASL (produced primarily by Deaf members of our organization), we also do work with captions.

From many of the comments in the thread, I have the feeling that I shouldn't have even asked about the English literacy of people who are Deaf. I understand how this might be offensive is English was the first language, but my understanding is that English is a 2nd language... I didn't expect quite so much controversy.

I have greatly appreciated the help of many people in this thread who have offered helpful responses. On the other hand, I'm a little baffled by the complaints of some who seem to be complaining that we hearing folks aren't completely ignorant to Deaf issues, but also attack me for trying to better understand. I'm sure part of it is the way I jumped into the forum without introducing myself or asking my question in a helpful way.

Regardless, it is great to see such a great community here- and again, I really appreciate all the help!
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Thank you for explaining, Mctoph.

No, you have every right to ask questions, which by you were asked politely,
may I add.

I am very sorry that you had to encounter certain aggressive individual
who can not understand that being a representative of a Deaf group here, her
first and foremost responsibility here is to be courteous even if she feels
the subject is offensive.

Sadly, it's not the first time when it happens, and sadly not the first time when because of that, the person like you who was genuinely seeking answer and dialogue instead of finding help and direction was only nastily jumped on
and turned away from the only reliable source.
What a shame.

Fuzzy
 
Audiofuzzy said:
Knock yourself over the head with the cross, woman.

Nobody is saying to bear the cross with silence or play the poor victim.

All I am asking is not to be as nasty and combative right from the start
as for example you are.

Fuzzy
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Sorry. I don't let audism pass without pointing it out. If you perceive that as nasty and combative; oh, well.
 
Audiofuzzy said:
Thank you for explaining, Mctoph.

No, you have every right to ask questions, which by you were asked politely,
may I add.

I am very sorry that you had to encounter certain aggressive individual
who can not understand that being a representative of a Deaf group here, her
first and foremost responsibility here is to be courteous even if she feels
the subject is offensive.

Sadly, it's not the first time when it happens, and sadly not the first time when because of that, the person like you who was genuinely seeking answer and dialogue instead of finding help and direction was only nastily jumped on
and turned away from the only reliable source.
What a shame.

Fuzzy
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Get over yourself, Fuzzy. You can be so annoying with your cater to the audists attitude.:roll:
 
Journey said:
Unfortunately this is very unreliable as it takes in all words on the page, whether they are part of an article, a heading, a link or an advertisement. I tried it on a medical article and it calculated the average length of the sentences was 1.74 words and the readability was less than a grade 4 level. haha
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:laugh2: A medical article got a less than 4th grade level? Now that's a hoot!
 
Here's what I got for this site as a whole:
The following table contains the readability results for Deaf Chat | People Deaf Culture - AllDeaf.com.
Reading Level Results Summary Value
Total sentences 439
Total words 1759
Average words per Sentence 4.01
Words with 1 Syllable 940
Words with 2 Syllables 441
Words with 3 Syllables 229
Words with 4 or more Syllables 149
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 21.49%
Average Syllables per Word 1.77
Gunning Fog Index 10.20
Flesch Reading Ease 53.43
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 6.80
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here's what I got for foxnews.
Reading Level Results Summary Value
Total sentences 446
Total words 1925
Average words per Sentence 4.32
Words with 1 Syllable 1076
Words with 2 Syllables 530
Words with 3 Syllables 236
Words with 4 or more Syllables 83
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 16.57%
Average Syllables per Word 1.65
Gunning Fog Index 8.36
Flesch Reading Ease 62.88
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 5.56
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I thought news were supposed to aim for an 8th grade level reading score? Not that this is too reliable.
 
To be fair to Foxnews, here are my results for New York times..
Reading Level Results Summary Value
Total sentences 696
Total words 2768
Average words per Sentence 3.98
Words with 1 Syllable 1627
Words with 2 Syllables 564
Words with 3 Syllables 242
Words with 4 or more Syllables 335
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 20.85%
Average Syllables per Word 1.74
Gunning Fog Index 9.93
Flesch Reading Ease 55.45
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 6.51
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Well I guess it's not a conservative thing.
 
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