Communicating With Deaf People: A Resource Manual for Teachers and Students of American Sign Language

AbstractObjectiveFood security is defined as being able to access enough food that will help maintain an active, healthy lifestyle for those living in a household. While there are no studies on food security issues among deaf people, research shows that communication barriers early in life are linked to poor physical and mental health outcomes. Childhood communication barriers may also risk later food insecurity.Design/Setting/SubjectsA single food security screener question found to have 82 % sensitivity in classifying families who are at risk for food insecurity was taken from the six-item US Household Food Security Survey Module. Questions related to food insecurity screener, depression diagnosis and retrospective communication experience were translated to American Sign Language and then included in an online survey. Over 600 deaf adult signers (18–95 years old) were recruited across the USA.ResultsAfter adjusting for covariates, deaf adults who reported being able to understand little to none of what their caregiver said during their formative years were about five times more likely to often experience difficulty with making food last or finding money to buy more food, and were about three times more likely to sometimes experience this difficulty, compared with deaf adults who reported to being able to understand some to all of what their caregiver said.ConclusionsOur results have highlighted a marked risk for food insecurity and related outcomes among deaf people. This should raise serious concern among individuals who have the potential to effect change in deaf children’s access to communication.

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Building Allies and Sharing Best Practices: Cultural Perspectives of Deaf People and ASL Can Benefit All

LEARNing Landscapes ◽

10.36510/learnland.v14i1.1028 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 97-110

Author(s):

Debbie Golos ◽

Annie Moses ◽

Elaine Gale ◽

Michele Berke

Keyword(s):

Best Practices ◽

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

Visual Language ◽

Pedagogical Practices ◽

Deaf People ◽

American Sign ◽

Cultural Perspective ◽

Educational Settings ◽

Cultural Perspectives

Societal views of Deaf people typically stem from a medical or deficit perspective, which then informs educational practices. In contrast, educational settings that embrace a cultural perspective provide visual language and strategies that can benefit all students. This article will address three common myths about American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf people and share research-supported pedagogical practices and recommendations on how to be an ally on behalf of Deaf people.

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Authentic Voices, Authentic Encounters: Cripping the University Through American Sign Language

Disability Studies Quarterly ◽

10.18061/dsq.v38i4.6111 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 38 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Octavian Robinson ◽

Jonathan Henner

Keyword(s):

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

Language Instruction ◽

Deaf People ◽

American Sign ◽

Disabled Students ◽

Signed Language ◽

The Disabled ◽

The University ◽

Disabled Communities

Discussions on disability justice within the university have centered disabled students but leaves us with questions about disability justice for the disabled scholar and disabled communities affiliated with universities through the lens of signed language instruction and deaf people. Universities use American Sign Language (ASL) programs to exploit the labors of deaf people without providing a return to disabled communities or disabled academics. ASL courses offers valuable avenues for cripping the university. Through the framework of cripping, we argue universities that offer ASL classes and profit from them have an obligation to ensure that disabled students and disabled academics are able to navigate and succeed in their systems. Disabled students, communities, and academics should capitalize upon the popularity of ASL to expand accessibility and the place of disability in higher education.

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Negotiating legitimacy in American Sign Language interpreting education: Uneasy belonging in a community of practice

Disability Studies Quarterly ◽

10.18061/dsq.v38i1.5836 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 38 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Michele Friedner

Keyword(s):

American Sign Language ◽

Community Of Practice ◽

Sign Language ◽

Deaf People ◽

Deaf Community ◽

American Sign ◽

Relational Work ◽

Gate Keeping ◽

Sign Language Interpreting

This article ethnographically explores how American Sign Language-English interpreting students negotiate and foreground different kinds of relationships to claim legitimacy in relation to deaf people and the deaf community. As the field of interpreting is undergoing shifts from community interpreting to professionalization, interpreting students endeavor to legitimize their involvement in the field. Students create distinction between themselves and other students through relational work that involves positive and negative interpretation of kinship terms. In analyzing interpreting students' gate-keeping practices, this article explores the categories and definitions used by interpreting students and argues that there is category trouble that occurs. Identity and kinship categories are not nuanced or critically interrogated, resulting in deaf people and interpreters being represented in static ways.

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“From White Deaf People’s Adversity to Black Deaf Gain”: A Proposal for a New Lens of Black Deaf Educational History

JCSCORE ◽

10.15763/issn.2642-2387.2020.6.1.68-99 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 68-99

Author(s):

Rezenet Tsegay Moges

Keyword(s):

American Sign Language ◽

Ethnic Group ◽

Sign Language ◽

Educational System ◽

Deaf People ◽

Deaf Community ◽

American Sign ◽

Educational History ◽

Black Deaf ◽

Deaf History

This paper re-visits Bauman and Murray’s (2014) “Deaf Gain,” using the perspectives of Black Deaf history. Due to the enforcement of the Oral policy in U.S. educational system during 1890s through 1960s, the language transmission of American Sign Language (ASL) for many generations of White Deaf people were fractured (Gannon, 1981). During the segregation, approximately 81.25% of the Black Deaf schools maintained their signed education, which ironically provided better education than the White-only schools. Consequently, the language variation of Black Deaf people in the South, called as “Black ASL” (McCaskill et al., 2011), flourished due to the historical adversity of White Deaf experience. Thus, the sustainability of Black ASL empowered this ethnic group of American Deaf community, which I am re-framing to what I call “Black Deaf Gain” and presenting a different objective of the ontology of Black Deaf experience.

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Felicia Bisnath - Wh-questions in the Trinidad and Tobago Signing Community

10.31234/osf.io/895zt ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Felicia Bisnath

Keyword(s):

Trinidad And Tobago ◽

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

Deaf Education ◽

Deaf People ◽

American Sign ◽

Language Background ◽

Deaf Parents ◽

Wh Questions

Signing in Trinidad and Tobago is characterised by variation and multilingualism arising out of deaf education. Two varieties are named for the purposes of this paper: Trinidad and Tobago Sign Language (TTSL) which is an indigenous variety, and Trinidad and Tobago American Sign Language (TTASL) which can be considered a product of contact between TTSL and American Sign Language (TTASL). This paper describes variation in the domain of wh-questions as they are used by three different kinds of consultants: two deaf people who grew up with and without deaf parents and relatives respectively, and a hearing person with deaf parents. Eighteen unique wh-words, one non-manual form and four positions of the wh-word were elicited. These grammatical properties when viewed alongside the backgrounds of the language consultants reveal variation between TTSL and TTASL. Terminological variation in what “TTSL” refers to was also found. This variation is linked to the language background of signers, and shows that the named varieties created by linguists out of convenience do not necessarily reflect the perceptions of all members of a community.

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Intersectionality in American Sign Language Hip Hop Interpreting

The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Music ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190281090.013.50 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Elyse Marrero

Keyword(s):

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

Hip Hop ◽

White Women ◽

Black Masculinity ◽

Deaf People ◽

American Sign ◽

Music Festivals ◽

White Femininity ◽

And Performance

Viral videos of American Sign Language (ASL) hip hop interpreters at music festivals have circulated the online mediascape, bringing attention to music interpreting, ASL, and Deaf culture. Hip hop interpreters create intersectional embodied texts challenging our assumed ideas of hip hop, Black masculinity, white femininity, and the connections between ASL, music, and Deaf people. Many hip hop interpreters are white women, which creates an interesting dynamic between interpreter and musical artist, specifically how both parties intersect and meet through their own expressions of hip hop music and culture. Using the concept of dialogical performance, this chapter provides textual analyses of a televised “sign language rap battle” and ASL interpretations of Kendrick Lamar’s “Swimming Pools” and Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow.” An interpreter’s presence, and how she adds news layers of meaning to a song and to her identity in relation to a song and performance, is explored in each presented scenario.

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“They’re not willing to accommodate Deaf patients”: Communication experiences of deaf American Sign Language users in the emergency department

10.31219/osf.io/xwka5 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tyler Glenn James ◽

Kyle A. Coady ◽

Jeanne-Marie R. Stacciniari ◽

Michael McKee ◽

David G Phillips ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emergency Department ◽

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

Cultural Sensitivity ◽

Oral Communication ◽

Deaf People ◽

American Sign ◽

Insufficient Information ◽

The Past ◽

English Speaking

Deaf people who use American Sign Language (ASL) are more likely to use the emergency department (ED) than their hearing English-speaking counterparts, and are also at higher risk of receiving inaccessible communication. The purpose of this study is to explore the ED communication experience of Deaf patients. A descriptive qualitative study was performed by interviewing 11 Deaf people who had used the ED in the past two years. Applying a descriptive thematic analysis, we developed five themes: (1) requesting communication access can be stressful, frustrating, and time-consuming; (2) perspectives and experiences with Video Remote Interpreting (VRI); (3) expectations, benefits, and drawbacks of using on-site ASL interpreters; (4) written and oral communication provides insufficient information to Deaf patients; and, (5) ED staff and providers lack cultural sensitivity and awareness towards Deaf patients. Findings are discussed with respect to medical and interpreting ethics to improve ED communication for Deaf patients.

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“They’re Not Willing To Accommodate Deaf patients”: Communication Experiences of Deaf American Sign Language Users in the Emergency Department

Qualitative Health Research ◽

10.1177/10497323211046238 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 104973232110462

Author(s):

Tyler G. James ◽

Kyle A. Coady ◽

Jeanne-Marie R. Stacciarini ◽

Michael M. McKee ◽

David G. Phillips ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emergency Department ◽

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

Cultural Sensitivity ◽

Oral Communication ◽

Deaf People ◽

American Sign ◽

Insufficient Information ◽

The Past ◽

English Speaking

Deaf people who use American Sign Language (ASL) are more likely to use the emergency department (ED) than their hearing English-speaking counterparts and are also at higher risk of receiving inaccessible communication. The purpose of this study is to explore the ED communication experience of Deaf patients. A descriptive qualitative study was performed by interviewing 11 Deaf people who had used the ED in the past 2 years. Applying a descriptive thematic analysis, we developed five themes: (1) requesting communication access can be stressful, frustrating, and time-consuming; (2) perspectives and experiences with Video Remote Interpreting (VRI); (3) expectations, benefits, and drawbacks of using on-site ASL interpreters; (4) written and oral communication provides insufficient information to Deaf patients; and (5) ED staff and providers lack cultural sensitivity and awareness towards Deaf patients. Findings are discussed with respect to medical and interpreting ethics to improve ED communication for Deaf patients.

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