I Made It Spacey

It was in my inbox for a month. I think I've made them wait long enough

it's a little early for this but could we get a happy Halloween if you haven't already?

Sure, it's close enough

Halloween

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Halloween in American Sign Language. Both hands in bent B handshape rotate to cover the eyes. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent purple and orange. Eyes and fangs are purple.

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Mourn

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Mourn or heartbreak in American Sign Language. Hands in C hand shape mirror each other with one hand palm up and the other palm down on either side of the heart. Then they twist as they close into S handshape. Movement is illustrated with arms that are translucent white. There is also a silhouette of a head and shoulders. The arms and silhouette are divided by lines radiating from the heart. Background is black.

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I ment to post this sooner because it's the last day to pre order but...LOOK AT THIS!

[Image ID: a book called Visual Stories in Sign Language by Brittany Castle. Illustrations show how various classifiers are used to describe birds. Text underneath reads:

Love American Sign Language? Support Deaf Artists!

ASL is a real, valuable, and beautiful language, used every day by members of the deaf community. It has a rich history, its own rules, and culture. Even better? When you purchase from a deaf artist, you are connecting with and supporting the deaf community and you can be confident that the signs in your art are correct because you bought from a native signer. 58 Creativity was founded to show ASL in clear, visual art that is easy to understand, even if you’re seeing ASL for the first time!

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School

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

School in American Sign Language. Both hands in open B handshape. Dominant hand palm down hits base hand palm up twice. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign.

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out of curiosity, do you have a favorite variation of the sign for “queer”? ive seen the rainbow one propped up lately but ive always loved and preferred the variations with the open 8.

anyways fjfkfskdjg thats all.

- @asl-emojis

I hadn't seen the open 8 one before. In looking it up I found two.

There was one where the middle finger brushes past the side of the signers head. The author said about the sign "To me, this sign reflects our history as a resilient community"

The other was flicking out from under the chin. "this sign succinctly can be interpreted as an identity of “I’m not queer as in gay, but queer as in f*ck you!”"

I've always liked the rainbow version but the "queer as in fuck you" might be a new favorite

HuffPost

Queer Signs and What They Tell Us

The only place that I felt I could appropriately learn these terms was by socializing with my LGBTQ Deaf and signing peers.

What kind of technology do you think would help d/Deaf / HoH people in the future? Should there be more research into improving hearing aids, or making real-time captioning glasses, or maybe AI that can translate sign language instead of a human interpreter? What would be super useful if it existed?

Hello,

hearing loss is very varied, as are the types of communication people use. As such, I wouldn't focus on one single technology, since it wouldn't fit all deaf people.

Hearing aids can't be much improved, imo - they work on making sounds louder for existing hearing. They can be fine tuned, but they are more akin to glasses. The biggest issue with hearing aids isn't technology, but their price - they often aren't covered by insurance and as such, remain inaccessible for lot of people. There is also a significant stigma about their usage, esp for people who lose hearing later in life and discomfort with using them. I think that should be the priority.

Cochlear implants are a hearing device which can still be improved and does keep improving every year. Ideal end goal would be hearing identical to natural hearing and smaller size of implant. Current implants do work well, but sounds from them are different compared to "ordinary" hearing (more robotized, less fine) and they are still fairly big. Of course, you can't make them too small, otherwise you wouldn't be able to operate them. And same as hearing aids, price remains a problem - not just price of surgery and implant itself, but of batteries and upkeep.

I would honestly love real time caption glasses! They do exist in some way nowadays, but not in any practical form. One of the biggest issues is that automatic caption is still pretty... hit or miss. Especially in louder environments, extra especially if your language isn't English. I do think its a neat technology that could be useful, but we are far from its ideal existence. (not to mention, problems with privacy, connection to internet, how to power them, price, etc etc.)

There already has been some attempts into artificial interpreter, but nothing really workable. Big issue is that you need both technology that produces very fine tuned movement of all top parts of body (including face expressions) and is able to capture movement and recognize movement. Another issue is that you would need to have a workable library of all signs in a specific sign language. ASL is probably the closest to it, but it would need to be likely captured for that technology specifically and that's insane amounts of work. Unlike with written English, you can't just scrape internet for signs - they are in various video forms, differ slightly, lot of signs aren't on internet at all... To have AI interpreter, you first need to have a great, indexed sign language dictionary and that doesn't really exist at the moment.

(there are various online dictionaries but their quality... is in my opinion not up to par for this)

The biggest problem often isn't technical limit of technology itself, but the amount of time and money it would need for these technologies to exist. That's why cochlear implants get most "updates", bcs its funded by big medical companies and it brings lot of money.

In ideal world, I would love to have all of these technologies. If you focus on just one, you risk leaving part of community in the lurch. Not all deaf/hoh people use sign language. Not all deaf/hoh people want or can use hearing aids or cochlear implants. Not all deaf/hoh people are good readers (either due language issues or additional disabilities).

Hope this helped,

Mod T

Show

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[The (directional) verb show in American Sign Language. 1 handshape with finger on palm of base hand in 5 handshape moves towards the person you want to show, in this case you. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign.

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Mistake

Accidentally deleted my account ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

The sign Mistake in American Sign Language. Hand in Y handshape touches side of chin then twists to the front. There is a purple ":/" symbol for the face. Movement is illustrated by hands that are translucent blue and pink in different stages of the sign. Background is white

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🤞

I really like hiking, painting, and game nights. My favorite games are Hand and Foot, Rummy, Spit, Spanking Yoda, Dinosaur Tea Party, and Quiplash.

Game

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID: Game in American Sign Language. Both hands in open A handshape palms facing signer. Knuckles tap each other 2-3 times. Hands are black and red with card symbols cut out. End ID]

Cherry

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID: Cherry in American Sign Language. O hand shape pinches pinky of base hand in "i" handshape then twists. End ID]