New and exploring the deaf world

Timothy7

Timothy7

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Hi everyone! I'm Timothy. Just Monday I began taking a Level 1 ASL class. I had dabbled in ASL before over the past four or five years - reading noted books, learning (the forgetting and now re-learning) the manual alphabet. Finally, I realized I needed to quit tinkering and dive deeper and an ASL class was the way to do it.

Two hours flew by, with a great instructor, and overview of manual alphabet, number 1-10, and some basic hand signs.

My goals are to 1) learn ASL, 2) learn - as a hearing person - to have be deeper understanding of the deaf world and culture. There are a number of people in my church who are deaf and I feel it's difficult to get to know them without my entering their world on their terms and learning ASL. 3) perhaps a future new career as an ASL interpreter?

Great to be here! Please feel more than free to contact me, advise me, correct me, and help me understand (inasmuch as it's possible) what your world is like.

Respectfully and with anticipation,
Timothy
 
:welcome: to AllDeaf forum. Just relax reading and posting all the threads here. See you around here. :wave:
 
heyyy thts cool tht u wanna practice your signing me too i need to practice. what year are u in college?
 
cristina0091 said:
heyyy thts cool tht u wanna practice your signing me too i need to practice. what year are u in college?
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Actually, I'm not in college, (I'm 57), but taking the program as a visiting adult at a school for the blind. Thanks for your kind greetings!
 
Timony: is that correct you are in a "school for the blind" learning ASL? Is this a "mistake"?I wonder if CNIB-Toronto knows about this?

Implant: Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07.
 
drphil said:
Timony: is that correct you are in a "school for the blind" learning ASL? Is this a "mistake"?I wonder if CNIB-Toronto knows about this?

Implant: Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07.
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There are plenty of blind people who are deaf and use ASL or tacile signs, in fact in some cases sign language is their ONLY access to langage beside written English (braille). Why does it bother you that he is learning ASL rather he is blind/student or visiting adult or a teacher?
 
deafgal001 said:
There are plenty of blind people who are deaf and use ASL or tacile signs, in fact in some cases sign language is their ONLY access to langage beside written English (braille). Why does it bother you that he is learning ASL rather he is blind/student or visiting adult or a teacher?
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I think it would be fair to say Dr Phil seems to have led a very cloistered existence regarding deaf people before arriving in our midst.
 
Interesting that "tactile signs" are part of ASL-are they "real" signs? Fortunately, I am not blind thus don't get to "concerned" about the "theoretical aspects" of "tactile" using of hands? How all of this ties into "braille" no idea. At CHS, a few years ago in one of my classes I did see a person using her fingers to communicate on a Deaf/Blind person's hand. FingerBraille?

I guess I live a" real small town" called Toronto Ontario where I haven't "interacted" with many "deaf" person- don't know any. I know that at Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf and Canadian Hearing Society-- some "deaf" persons are there. Depends on how one wants to "use time in a societal setting".
I would "guess" if one wants to learn ASL with the "blind" then transferring to just "deaf" people would seem to suggest a different sign system-correct? Again, it depends on who one interacts with and how many. How much time-now- one has to do all of this? I believe the original rational of "Tim" was to" understand deaf culture" by learning/ using ASL. Whether the Deaf/Blind are a separate "culture" from the "cultural deaf"-no idea. Don't recall reading much of this topic.
Doesn't bother me at all if one wants to do this. How ones uses their time- is up to you! Still a free country.

Implant-Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
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drphil said:
Interesting that "tactile signs" are part of ASL-are they "real" signs? Fortunately, I am not blind thus don't get to "concerned" about the "theoretical aspects" of "tactile" using of hands? How all of this ties into "braille" no idea. At CHS, a few years ago in one of my classes I did see an
person using her fingers to communicate on a Deaf/blind person's hand. FingerBraille?
I guess I live a real small town called Toronto Ontario where I haven't "interacted" with many "deaf" person- don't know any. I know that at Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf and Canadian Hearing Society-- some "deaf" persons are there. Depends on how one wants to "use time in a societal setting".
I would "guess" if one wants to learn ASL with the "blind" transferring to just "deaf" people would seem to suggest a different sign system-correct? Again, it depends on who one interacts with and how many. How much time-now- one has to do all of this? I believe the original rational was to understand "deaf culture" by using ASL.
Doesn't bother me at all if one to do this. How ones uses their time-up to you!

Implant-Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
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Why are you here if deaf or deafblind people are such a waste of time to you?
 
Yes, tactile signs are "real" signs. They may not necessarily be ASL (although they can be) but they ARE real signs.
 
Mrs. Bucket is in Toronto. She should talk to DrPhil.
 
As I have pointed out before-consider myself real deaf- live in the world of total silence. As for another cloistered world-Cochlear Implants. Sunnybrook/Toronto has implanted only 850 persons over a 18 year span-as of last year. Yeah-"lots of people" wandering around Toronto with them! They are the designated regional centre for about 1/5 of Ontario excluding babies/children. I checked with over 10 neighbours if they knew anyone deaf-excluding me-no! None of them every saw an Implant before- either.

Implant-Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
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Wirelessly posted

Bottesini said:
deafgal001 said:
There are plenty of blind people who are deaf and use ASL or tacile signs, in fact in some cases sign language is their ONLY access to langage beside written English (braille). Why does it bother you that he is learning ASL rather he is blind/student or visiting adult or a teacher?
Click to expand...

I think it would be fair to say Dr Phil seems to have led a very cloistered existence regarding deaf people before arriving in our midst.
Click to expand...

I would say. Met someone who is training to be an interpreter for Ontario's CHS the other night, so I would say DrPhil leads a very excluded life.
 
Wirelessly posted

drphil said:
Timony: is that correct you are in a "school for the blind" learning ASL? Is this a "mistake"?I wonder if CNIB-Toronto knows about this?

Implant: Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07.
Click to expand...

I would say the CNIB in Edmonton is aware. I was assigned an ASL-fluent intervener who could translate for the deafblind when I moved there. Fortunately, tactile signs were not needed, but they didn't know how well I could see; sure, they got the medical records, but they didn't have the feedbacks which come with personal annotates.
 
I live really in a "cloistered world"-- which has over the past 18 years included at least 1 or 2 Hearing Help course every year. CHS/Toronto- Spadina Rd. My last course-Speechreading- was when I was really deaf- in early 2007. At my request CHS gave my entire file to Sunnybrook/Toronto. The audiologist-Amy Ng at Sunnybrook mentioned that I really did appear to want to deal with my Profound level of Hearing loss. I guess in the end helped me to get my Cochlear Implant. In 1994/95 I was part of York University/CHS study on how persons use Hearing Help classes deal with their Hearing loss. It was published in Journal of Aural Rehabilitation 1995 pages 26-36. I haven't studied the situation of Deaf/Blind-fortunately, so far, not blind yet. Do other members here study the situation? I understand there is substantially less persons that are deaf/blind in comparison to say one's with Hearing Loss or deaf as indicated on the Dr Phil programme --the 3 deaf/blind children recently.

Implant-Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
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As far as learning ASL at a deaf/blind school, it is done quite a lot. They will teach both ASL and Tactile sign for the deaf-blind students. Here in Florida, and specifically where I live, the school district closed the Special Needs school and most all of the deaf, hard of hearing and deaf/blind and low vision student from my area were transferred to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind (FSDB). Initial reports are that the kids are doing 90% better than originally thought and the school is making things very easy for the transition for both the students and their families.
 
The original question was the "utility of learning ASL' within a context of deaf /blind students to someone who is never blind or deaf to understand "deaf culture"?
Are in fact the system used to "pass on info to the blind/deaf person on their hand" the same as the ASL used for only the "deaf"? What I ACTUALLY SAW at CHS, a few years ago clearly was very different than "ordinary signing". Is there a "different system" in the US-re: deaf/blind "Braille/ASL"?
In the text book I previously tried to learn ASL-Signing:How to speak with your Hands, Elaine Costello, Bantam Books New York 1983- there is NO mention of how "blind/deaf persons" use this book. A further check of the other 2 ASL books I have:
American Sign Language-David Stewart, Barrons 1998 and
Signing Made Easy-Butterworth & Flodin,Perigee/Penguin 1989-the same thing. No listing in the index: either Deaf/Blind or Blind/deaf.
Is there something "different" today in this area--Interesting academic/ linguistic question?

Implant-Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
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