Ronan Hanson

Project

Presentation

Progress Log

Capstone Essay

Ronan Hanson

Ms. Kohler

English 8 Capstone Paper

21 April 2020

ASL Capstone Essay

For my eighth grade Capstone Project, I decided to learn American Sign Language, also referred to as ASL. I chose to learn this language for my Capstone because I had a brief introduction to ASL over my summer vacation. I loved the language and the way it is spoken, without words, only through hand signs and emotions. I was fascinated with how the language worked, like how you can have an emotional and powerful conversation without any words spoken. I also took up ASL because it was a lesser-known language, with a small community. The community of deaf and hard of hearing people who speak this eloquent language has constantly been misrepresented, misunderstood, and oppressed by hearing people. (Carlisle) Since they have a disadvantage to start life, not being able to communicate with peers and family members, life is incredibly difficult to live as a deaf or hard of hearing person. Keeping this misrepresentation, misunderstanding, and oppression in mind, my Capstone will highlight these issues so I can educate people about the deaf and hard of hearing community. My Capstone will consist of presenting a lesson plan on the language of ASL, at an introductory level with a focus on conversation structure and grammar structure. In addition, I will teach about the struggles deaf people face, as listed above. My Capstone goal is to have people learn about a new language and culture, as well as walk away with the information to educate more about ASL.

The deaf and hard of hearing community faces many problems and obstacles that they need to overcome almost every day. One of these problems is misrepresentation. The National Association of the Deaf, referred to as the NAD, released a statement about the media not properly representing the deaf community. The media often portrays deaf people in one way and gives the deaf community an image that lacks authenticity and truth. (NAD 1) The NAD did not appreciate this spread of incorrectness of the deaf community and neither did many deaf people as well. With this wrong image being created about deaf people, the NAD has made a slogan for the coverage of deaf persons by the common media, this slogan states: “Nothing about us without us.” (NAD 1) Sadly, the media often does not understand deaf people and their issues and may not understand for a while.

Understanding deaf people and their community is a hard thing for many hearing individuals. Again, the media has joined deaf related topics and has given an ignorant view on a popular discussion in the deaf community: cochlear implants. (NAD 2) Many deaf people debate the need for cochlear implants, some believe that it helps deaf people communicate with a larger audience, while others do not believe they need to be “fixed”. (NAD 2) Many deaf people are okay and happy they are deaf because they do not see themselves as broken and in need of something to fix them. Then the media joins the debate, as a majority of mass media is run by hearing persons, they often do not see from a deaf person's perspective. (NAD 2) With this in mind, mass media often promotes deaf people getting cochlear implants and does not see their views as potentially one-sided. With this lack of understanding comes ignorance and oppression, which is what many deaf people often have to face.

In an interview I had with a Sign Language Interpreter, she told me in great detail about the oppression deaf people face. As stated before, mass media oppresses the deaf population and joins deaf related conversations with closed-minded views. Hearing people also opress deaf people with there being less job opportunities for deaf people. The deaf community has an extremely high unemployment rate and anyone who is deaf and is not white has an even harder time finding a job. Ms. Jean-Marie also told me about something that surprised me, she told me that President Trump does not have a Sign Language Interpreter present at his meetings and addresses, which is extremely unfair to the deaf community because they now have a lack of communication with the president. (Carlisle) Deaf people are often pushed aside by hearing people or even their families sometimes, which makes it all that much harder being deaf. During the interview, the interpreter, Ms. Jean-Marie gave me a good insight into a deaf child's situation, she said, “Imagine this, you cannot communicate with your family or anyone else around you, that is how deaf people and especially deaf children feel.” (Carlisle) Thankfully it is not all terrible, Oregon is one of the best states in terms of equal access to communication. Still, hearing people make it difficult for deaf people to communicate with them, but this communication is easier with an interpreter.

In school, deaf children learn many skills to help them communicate such as lip reading, ASL and MCE. MCE is a form of Sign Language that has a similar structure to the English language and it is easier to learn for hearing people. (CDC) At a very young age, deaf children almost have to learn ASL and this is their main form of communication to others. (CDC) Lip reading is another way to help deaf children communicate with hearing adults like their parents, who might not have fully learned ASL. (CDC) In addition, children can learn to speak while in school, but speech is something very difficult to learn and it is being taught less in school and more by speech therapists. (CDC) With there being an abundence of words in sign, still some words do not have their own sign.

Missing words in Sign Language, especially ASL, has always been an issue. Words in English are more often spoken, since there are more people who speak it than ASL, and some words common in English have no sign in ASL. (Quenqua) This is because words have signs based on popularity; the more often a word is spoken in English, the higher odds it has a sign. Most words have signs and if they do not, they are finger spelt. In addition, certain subjects such as biology have a major lack of signs due to the low popularity of deaf people in that scientific field. (Quenqua) Having a lack of signs is just one of the many struggles deaf people have to face.

The deaf community has many struggles such as misrepresentation, misunderstanding and oppression. With these struggles comes communication issues, learning issues, as well as social issues. Through mass media the deaf population has been misrepresented in a false image that is nothing like how dead people truly are. By misunderstanding, hearing people do not realize how hard it is to be a dead person in a country with hundreds of millions of people who can hear, yet only two million people have the same hearing issues you have. With oppression, deaf people are not given the same amount of communicational help they need as hearing people are given. With these issues in mind I plan to educate people on these issues and educate them about the wonderful language that is American Sign Language.

Works Cited:

Carlisle, Jean-Marie. Personal Interview. 24 April 2020. (Carlisle)

”Guidelines for Media Portrayal of the Deaf Community”, ​NAD, ​NAD https://www.nad.org/about-us/position-statements/guidelines-for-media-portrayal-of-the-deaf-community/​. Accessed 7 April. (NAD 1)

”Guidelines for Media Portrayal of the Deaf Community”, ​NAD, ​NAD https://www.nad.org/about-us/position-statements/guidelines-for-media-portrayal-of-the-deaf-c ommunity/​. Accessed 7 April. (NAD 2)

”How People with Hearing Loss Learn Language.” ​CDC, ​CDC​,

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/language.html​. Accessed April 5. (CDC)

Quenqua, Douglas. “Pushing Science’s Limits in Sign Language Lexicon.” ​The New

York Times, ​3 December 2012, one page. (Quenqua)