TEDxIslay - Michael Chorost - ASL: The Language of Community Communication and Visual Experience

[@ASLInterpreterSHansen]

cont...would have benefitted from having access to the text of the speech prior to interpreting. There were some misinterpretations that could have been avoided and my guess is she was having a hard time hearing and hadn't seen the text of the speech. So glad to be able to view these presentations on-line! Thanks! SH

[@ASLInterpreterSHansen]

Hi! Couple of thoughts. One is that your suggestions are valid. It sounds like asking for a family to open their home so everyone can be adopted into the family too. However, once you open you house to become an open house, you lose intimacy and depth when you are busy entertaining and educating guests. That is the analogy that comes to my mind. I can see Gallaudet increasing their hrg enrollment perhaps to 10 percent, but not an unlimited #. Second comment is that the interpreter

[@luv2icesk8lots]

The problem is, if Gallaudet took off the cap on hearing students enrolled, it would become JUST LIKE CSUN! Where the primary language at Gallaudet is now ASL, if too many hearing people were permitted the use of ASL would decline and English would prevail in more and more conversations and possibly eventually make its way into the classroom. Also, if Gallaudet admitted hearing students who had no knowledge of ASL at admission, the students would be at a MAJOR disadvantage academically because of their inability to comprehend the materials. It would be the equivalent of admitting a Deaf student to an English university with no interpretive services. Looking back at Deaf history and the history of Gallaudet, for many, many years the school had a hearing President and the student body was not being appropriately represented by Deaf administration. The students and the Deaf community got sick of this and started the Deaf President Now (DPN) movement so that the person representing the students best interests knew first hand what those interests were! If more and more hearing students were admitted, it would undo all the work that was fought for during DPN. Gallaudet is one of the very few places where the hearing are the minority. Let's help this University maintain its Deaf culture and community so that those Deaf students can then go into the community and be great leaders, showing that being Deaf does NOT make a person disabled and that with a little help when needed, a Deaf person can be just as valuable employee, manager, leader, owner, etc, as any hearing employee! In a Deaf school students don't have to make sure an interpreter will be available during that time slot or to have a talk after class/during office hours with the professor, they are assured that they will be able to have access to the professor and the course materials just as if they were a hearing student in a hearing school. Please don't change that!

[@foxxxy1115]

100% agree

[@charlotter6865]

Really interesting what he said about ASL and deaf culture being valuable for its insights into visual experience.

[@foxxxy1115]

Curious if any Deaf have opinions about this man suggesting we make sign language a language for everyone. My thoughts are that the Deaf culture is very unique and special, and if we have ASL become as widespread as he suggests, it might be diluted by hearing culture and take away one of the biggest cultural identities Deaf people have. It kind of bothered me when he said he wants to stop making Gallaudet a university for the Deaf. It just feels like another hearing person trying to block Deaf from access to the things that are culturally important to them. I definitely think that ASL and the Deaf culture would suffer if there were no cap on hearing students. Maybe raise to 10% but not eliminate the cap. I could be wrong; it was just a thought. Anyone?

[@WhoTheFRELL]

very astute observation about the need for ASL to be viewed as a language, not as a byproduct of disability.

[@tomdowning5762]

I disagreed what he said, almost all!!!