There is a surprising amount of hate in the deaf community for different circumstances. People born deaf and refuse cochlear implants hate on those who get it. There is hate on those who are partially deaf and use hearing aides. There is hate on those not born deaf but develop it later. It's a very weird, almost caste like group. You'd think there would be more sympathy across the board.
There's also a lot of self-delusion, or lying to oneself. I suppose for some people it's necessary to cope with their disabilities. I've seen deaf people say they wouldn't accept hearing for all the money in the world, and that they're not disabled, but rather differently abled. As someone who has gradually lost their hearing I'll tell you that being hard of hearing is absolutely a disability in many ways, not just for communication. It seriously negatively impacts a person's life. Having fewer senses than everyone else doesn't make me differently abled, it makes me disabled, and I would give a whole lot to have normal hearing again.
In my experience that used to be far more the case, but it's been changing since the 00s. Growing acceptance of the impacts of mainstreaming and the ways in which the hard of hearing have been hurt by anti deafness has created a situation in which we're increasingly accepted by the deaf even when our sign is absolute dogshit.
If I were to reproduce I would've broken the tradition of mainstreaming my family had and I would've committed to ensuring my children were native signers as well as speakers. That attitude is increasingly common among us HoH folks and it's part of our contribution to mending the divide, an acceptance of the value of Deaf culture and community.
The enlightened argument "My disability > Your disability, FU"
Did you know that American sign language is not English? Turns out people who only speak sign language actually communicate in English with an accent and with non-native grammar because they literally speak a different language. Perhaps that's what we're seeing here. 🤷♂️
I can see the bits that could be asl syntax but it's all over the place. It's definitely not written asl, but I can see it as decreasing effort in one's second language to prove a point
ASL and BSL are not compatible. So two deaf people both from english-speaking countries cannot communicate.
Not sure about english specifically, but one of my relatives were in the school for blind and deaf children (or those which are close enough). The problem is they just can't teach them good enough and every child requires a lot more time that teachers can give. So it requires a lot of time and effort from parents to help them and not every family has resources to do it.
Do they not learn to write and read English before they learn ASL?
It's a language with native signers. If you're born deaf to Deaf parents you grow up signing and you don't really learn English until it's time to learn to read. CODAs (children of deaf adults) also often learn sign first because that's their parents' language
Probably depends on what kind of household they grow up in. If their parents sign, a child would pick that up long before they learn to read.
I wonder where "same language, different encoding" turns into "new language"
The morse-derived shorthand used by radio enthusiasts might be similar.
It has different syntax. Its not even based on English, it's descended from French sign language and is wildly different from English as a Signed Language and from British Sign Language.
"I am ASL. You are the Devil" is such a good line
I am american sign language
My ancient ass thought age/sex/location...
People born deaf have trouble picking up language and their overall development is slower. Be patient.
