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Our Town: A Home for the Deaf (4 Letters)
To the Editor:
Re "As Town for Deaf Takes Shape, Debate on Isolation Re-emerges" (front page, March 21):
I silently applaud (hands raised in the air, fingers spread apart, palms twisting from side to side) the efforts of the Miller family to establish an American Sign Language community in South Dakota.
As the middle-aged hearing child of deaf parents, I can attest to the striking diversity among members of the deaf community. In short, the deaf community, like the hearing community, encompasses the range of human capacities, strengths and foibles.
One constant in this tapestry of diversity, however, is the near universal inability of deaf people to be fully engaged participants in social situations dominated by the oral language community. As a child, I saw my smart, effusive parents reduced to cardboard cut-outs of themselves when they confronted the language barrier posed by the non-signing community. This barrier is cultural as well as physiological.
American Sign Language, after all, is not a signed version of standard English. It is a discrete language with its own vocabulary, syntax and colloquialisms.
Few would dispute that the acquisition and use of language are essential to the full development of human capacities. The Millers would give signing citizens the opportunity to enrich their lives and become fully vested participants in the myriad social interactions that define our daily lives.
Joseph Szalay
Ashford, Conn., March 22, 2005
•
To the Editor:
The concept of a town for the deaf is lost on me. My 5-year-old daughter cannot speak. The last thing I would want to do is to isolate her in a community with so many others who don't speak. She benefits daily from interactions with other children.
If Marvin T. Miller gets his way, his deaf children will grow up interacting mainly with people who use sign language. I don't see how this would help them. It is a simple fact that the majority of people in the world can speak. To succeed, you have to learn how to communicate with them.
Ann Marie Feretti
Bronx, March 21, 2005
•
To the Editor:
It is certainly understandable that some people who are deaf would want to live in a town that addressed their concerns and made them feeling welcome as residents, shoppers and employees. What's not understandable is the lack of effort by municipalities, businesses and community leaders to create environments that are receptive - or, at least not cold - to those with a serious hearing loss.
For example, why not have more movie theaters that show closed-caption films? Why not have buildings where emergency information - like "please evacuate this building" - is also conveyed visually? And shouldn't public events be signed for the deaf?
It's sad when a country that values diversity has people considering a move to a "town for the deaf," not because they want to, but because they believe they have to.
Robert S. Cole
Bronxville, N.Y., March 21, 2005
The writer serves on the Westchester County Council for the Disabled.
•
To the Editor:
Try to imagine switching places: a hearing person in a deaf world.
Everyone signs and no one speaks. The signing is rapid and difficult to decipher. An alternative is to write and pass notes, but that slows everything down. Some people show impatience; others won't interrupt their signing to include you. You can only be patient and hope that someone will let you in on the conversation.
Marvin T. Miller says that the deaf are not integrated into everyday life today. Not much progress has been made since the 50's and 60's, when, as a hearing child of deaf parents, I ached to belong to a community where we were not always the outsiders. Who better to judge what is best than the deaf themselves?
Eugenia Lubell
Short Hills, N.J., March 21, 2005
Our Town: A Home for the Deaf (4 Letters)
To the Editor:
Re "As Town for Deaf Takes Shape, Debate on Isolation Re-emerges" (front page, March 21):
I silently applaud (hands raised in the air, fingers spread apart, palms twisting from side to side) the efforts of the Miller family to establish an American Sign Language community in South Dakota.
As the middle-aged hearing child of deaf parents, I can attest to the striking diversity among members of the deaf community. In short, the deaf community, like the hearing community, encompasses the range of human capacities, strengths and foibles.
One constant in this tapestry of diversity, however, is the near universal inability of deaf people to be fully engaged participants in social situations dominated by the oral language community. As a child, I saw my smart, effusive parents reduced to cardboard cut-outs of themselves when they confronted the language barrier posed by the non-signing community. This barrier is cultural as well as physiological.
American Sign Language, after all, is not a signed version of standard English. It is a discrete language with its own vocabulary, syntax and colloquialisms.
Few would dispute that the acquisition and use of language are essential to the full development of human capacities. The Millers would give signing citizens the opportunity to enrich their lives and become fully vested participants in the myriad social interactions that define our daily lives.
Joseph Szalay
Ashford, Conn., March 22, 2005
•
To the Editor:
The concept of a town for the deaf is lost on me. My 5-year-old daughter cannot speak. The last thing I would want to do is to isolate her in a community with so many others who don't speak. She benefits daily from interactions with other children.
If Marvin T. Miller gets his way, his deaf children will grow up interacting mainly with people who use sign language. I don't see how this would help them. It is a simple fact that the majority of people in the world can speak. To succeed, you have to learn how to communicate with them.
Ann Marie Feretti
Bronx, March 21, 2005
•
To the Editor:
It is certainly understandable that some people who are deaf would want to live in a town that addressed their concerns and made them feeling welcome as residents, shoppers and employees. What's not understandable is the lack of effort by municipalities, businesses and community leaders to create environments that are receptive - or, at least not cold - to those with a serious hearing loss.
For example, why not have more movie theaters that show closed-caption films? Why not have buildings where emergency information - like "please evacuate this building" - is also conveyed visually? And shouldn't public events be signed for the deaf?
It's sad when a country that values diversity has people considering a move to a "town for the deaf," not because they want to, but because they believe they have to.
Robert S. Cole
Bronxville, N.Y., March 21, 2005
The writer serves on the Westchester County Council for the Disabled.
•
To the Editor:
Try to imagine switching places: a hearing person in a deaf world.
Everyone signs and no one speaks. The signing is rapid and difficult to decipher. An alternative is to write and pass notes, but that slows everything down. Some people show impatience; others won't interrupt their signing to include you. You can only be patient and hope that someone will let you in on the conversation.
Marvin T. Miller says that the deaf are not integrated into everyday life today. Not much progress has been made since the 50's and 60's, when, as a hearing child of deaf parents, I ached to belong to a community where we were not always the outsiders. Who better to judge what is best than the deaf themselves?
Eugenia Lubell
Short Hills, N.J., March 21, 2005
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