Twice

When I’m out with Deaf friends, I put my hearing aid in my purse. It removes any ability to hear, but far more importantly, it removes the ambiguity that often haunts me.

In a restaurant, we point to the menu and gesture with the wait staff. The servers taking the order respond with gestures too. They pantomime “drinks?” and tell us they learned a bit of signs in kindergarten. Looking a little embarrassed, they sign “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day” in the middle of asking our salad dressing choice. We smile and gently redirect them to the menu. My friends are pros at this routine and ordering is easy ― delightful even. The contrast with how it feels to be out with my hearing husband is stunning.

Once my friends and I have ordered, we sign up a storm, talking about everything and shy about nothing. What would be the point? People are staring anyway. Our language is lavish, our faces alive. My friends discuss the food, but for me, the food is unimportant. I’m feasting on the smorgasbord of communication ― the luxury of chatting in a language that I not only understand 100% but that is a pleasure in and of itself. Taking nothing for granted, I bask in it all, and everything goes swimmingly.

Until I accidentally say the word “soup” out loud.

Pointing at the menu, I let the word slip out to the server. And our delightful meal goes straight downhill. Suddenly, the wait staff’s mouths start flapping; the beautiful, reaching, visual parts of their brains go dead, as if switched off.

“Whadda payu dictorom danu?” the server’s mouth seems to say. “Buddica taluca mariney?”

“No, I’m Deaf,” I say. A friend taps the server and, pointing to her coffee, pantomimes milking a cow. But the damage is done. The server has moved to stand next to me and, with laser-focus, looks only at me. Her pen at the ready, her mouth moves like a fish. With stunning speed, the beauty of the previous interactions ― the pantomiming, the pointing, the cooperative taking of our order ― has disappeared. “Duwanaa disser wida coffee anmik? Or widabeeaw fayuh-mow?”

Austin “Awti” Andrews (who’s a child of Deaf adults, often written as CODA) describes a similar situation.

“Everything was going so well,” he says. “The waiter was gesturing, it was terrific. And then I just said one word, and pow!! It’s like a bullet of stupidity shot straight into the waiter’s head,” he explains by signing a bullet in slow motion, zipping through the air and hitting the waiter’s forehead. Powwwww.

Hearing people might be shocked by this, but Deaf people laugh uproariously, cathartically.

“Damn! All I did was say one word!” I say to my friends. “But why do you do that?” they ask, looking at me with consternation and pity. “Why don’t you just turn your voice off, for once and for all?” they say.

Hearing people would probably think I’m the lucky one ― the success story ― because I can talk. But I agree with my friends.

  —  I’m Deaf And I Have ‘Perfect’ Speech. Here’s Why It’s Actually A Nightmare.

Stereotypes

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Stereotypes in American Sign Language. The sign labels: fingertips of U shape brush across open B handshape a few times. And the sign universal: hands in Y handshape, palm down move horizontally in a circle. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green, blue, purple, and pink in different stages of the sign.

End ID]

Ujamaa(Collective Economics)

Support black business!

Collective Economics

Sources: National Black Deaf Advocates

[Image ID:

The Sign for Collective Economics in American Sign Language.

Collective is signed with both hands linked in bent, open B handshape, arms parallel to the ground. Hands pull each other in a circle motion. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent black in different stages of the sign.

Economics is signed with hand in E handshape, palm up tapping base hand in open B handshape with palm up. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green in different stages of the sign.

Background is white.

End ID]

I had a question about your commissions- is it $5 per word on the finger spellings or $5 overall? I presumed the former but wasn’t sure

I'll say up to 20 characters

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.

End ID]

Turtle

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

The sign for Turtle in American Sign Language. A handshape with tumb up covered by base hand representing a turtle shell. Thumb on dominant hand wiggles. Movement is illustrated by hands that are translucent green and brown in different stages of the sign. Background is white.

End ID]

Yes this. Because ASL is a full language, but not the one being used to tell the story, only the meaning rather than the form is kept.

However, I think Sara Novik's way of showing ASL dialogue in True Biz is cool and represents how space is used in ASL. I don't have the book so I can't post a picture but I wrote about it for a paper.

[Image ID: Screenshot of an essay. the paragraphs each have their own column. The first on the left, the second on the right, and the third in the middle.

The POV characters dialogue was in one area of the page,

And the other characters dialogue was in a different area.

If there were multiple characters in a conversation they would get their own space as they entered the conversation.

End ID]

Something I get mildly annoyed about in writing (mostly in fanfics, since I haven’t encountered a published book with this), is when sign language is depicted identical to speaking. Like, commas, contractions, stuttering, etc.

When I was taught ASL in high school, we were told there was a way to write down sign, but it’s not like how you’d write a spoken English sentence. Words are typically in all caps, lack any -ing/-ed, and have a different grammatical structure.

For example: “I went to school today” would be made into something like “TODAY SCHOOL I GO TO”

Obviously, I’m not someone who’s remotely fluent in ASL, and high school classes do not give me the right to winge and criticize on behalf of those who do speak it. I just found it odd that I’ve never seen Glossing used at all in writing, and it bugged me that signs were used essentially like spoken dialogue (how does one stutter in sign language?), when there’s a uniqueness to the language that gets erased in the process.

I'm learning how to do websites in my Ed Tech class, so I made The Sign - Resource. It's a bunch of reasources for learning ASL and Deaf culture.

Heres a transcript from their website:

[Image ID: screenshot from the DailyMoth.com. Its logo, a lightbulb with a moth on it, is in the top left corner. A transcript reads:

Did you know that the famous Greek philosopher Socrates who lived in the fifth century B.C. may have been the first person to write about sign language? He said, “Suppose that we had no voice or tongue, and wanted to indicate objects to one another, should we not, like the deaf and dumb, make signs with the hands, head and the rest of the body?”

[Sponsored Video from GlobalVRS: www.globalvrs.com]

I got this piece of history from this book.

[“The Deaf Community in America: History in the Making”]

The authors Melvia and Ronald Nomeland said the remarks by Socrates “illustrates that deaf people existed then…”

End ID]

Deaf History: Socrates on sign language

More interesting information to share about Deaf history, thanks to Alex at The Daily Moth Deaf news.

Video & captioning by kerriclarkcreative This post features a video of a deaf individual using sign language to express her thoughts about streaming services. She highlights the convenience these platforms provide, allowing users to access a wide range of content from the comfort of their homes. She also shares her perspective that movie theaters may be facing extinction, as more people opt for the ease and flexibility of streaming. Captions are provided for hearing viewers to follow along with her insights.

Transcript: Regarding the future of streaming platforms, I strongly believe that movie theaters will see a decline in attendance. Instead, everything will be streamed at home. Streaming is more affordable and convenient; you can pause anytime, enjoy your own sound system, and eat your own food—all within your own space. This setup allows for a greater sense of control while enjoying movies with your family, partner, friends, or even by yourself. This is the future, and we are already living in that era.