Senate Class of 2024
#twentyfoursforasl
The Elizabethtown College Class of 2024 is advocating for students rights to ensure the voices of the student body are heard. We strive to work hard on expanding resources to make campus more accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
CURRENT EVENTS
to be announced . . .
WHY ASL?
Below are some of the benefits that learning American Sign Language can offer:1. Introduces you to a new culture and community
2. Creates more opportunities for career advancement
3. Helps you to become a better listener
4. Able to assist others when communication barriers arise
More Information
Want to learn more about ASL? Check out these resources!!
Etown's ASL Club Instagram Page
National Association of the Deaf
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Hoping American Sign Language Can Find a Home at DHS
ASL DAY
Thursday, April 15th is National ASL Day!
On this day, our class held an event where we heard from several speakers in the campus community. We also discussed what we have been working on with our class advocacy project.
If you missed our virtual event, click here for the zoom recording!
BOOK CLUB
Want to follow along?
Here is the link to the book!!
You can also borrow the book from the Etown interlibrary loan!
Link to interlibrary loan form!
GLOSSARY
Capital "D" Deaf - Used when referring to cultural aspects, as in the culture of Deaf people
Lowercase "d" deaf - Used when referring to non-cultural aspects such as the audiological condition of deafness
Culture - a set of learned behaviors of a group of people who have their own language, values, rules for behaviors, and tradition
Community - a general social system in which a group of people live together, share common goals, and carry out certain responsibilities to each other
Deaf Community - a group of people who live in a particular location, share the common goals of its members, and in various ways work toward achieving these goals. A deaf community may include persons who are not themselves Deaf, but who actively support the goals of the community and work with Deaf people to achieve them
__Communication __ - a process of sharing what things mean to us with ourselves and with other persons.
ASL monolinguals - Deaf people who are comfortable expressing themselves only in ASL, and in understanding only ASL. They have no skills in English.
ASL dominant bilinguals - Deaf people who are more comfortable expressing themselves in ASL than English, and are able to understand ASL better than English (either printed or signed English).
Balanced bilinguals - Deaf people who are comfortable expressing themselves in both ASL and English, and who are able to understand English both equally well.
English dominant bilinguals - Deaf people who are more comfortable expressing themselves in English, and who are able to understand English (in printed English or signed English) better than ASL.
English monolinguals - Deaf people who are comfortable expressing themselves only in English (oral or signed English) and in understanding (in printed or oral or signed English). They have no skills in ASL.
Semi-linguals - Deaf people who do have some skills in both English and ASL, but are not able to master either language fully.
Attitudinal deafness - When an individual has, on the basis of certain characteristics, identified themselves as a member of the Deaf community and is accepted by other members.
Total Communication - A philosophy of teaching, not a method, that states teachers should use whatever method deemed appropriate for the child.
Attitudinal Deafness - Self identification as a member of the Deaf community and identification by other members as a member.
CHAPTERS 1 & 2
Key points:
↳ Location: Each deaf community in the United States is uniquely affected by its location.
↳ Language use: Since a deaf community is composed of people from different cultural groups, language use within the community is different from language use within the particular cultural group. The language of the Culture of Deaf people is American Sign Language (ASL).
↳ Goals: A primary goal of the national deaf community is to achieve public acceptance of deaf people as equals. They work to achieve equality in fields of employment, in political representation, and in the control of institutions that involve deaf people, such as schools and service organizations. An equally important goal is the acceptance and recognition of their history and their use of signing as means of communication.
CHAPTERS 3 & 4
Key points:
↳ Deaf people identify themselves as deaf or hard of hearing, no matter what their degree of loss is.
↳ When a deaf person meets a hearing person, the word "English" is strongly attached to that hearing person, so a deaf person tries to communicate on a hearing person's terms-- using voice or signing in English order or both.
↳ Deaf people share what things mean to them with themselves and with other deaf people. They do not usually share their own special meanings with hearing people for several reasons:
1. Hearing people will never understand what it is like to be deaf.
2. Deaf people do not have a chance to share what things mean to them with hearing people.
3. Deaf people think hearing people are not interested in hearing what we would like to share with them.
↳ Many deaf people do not miss hearing because they never heard in the first place.
↳ ASL did not emerge because of what deaf people cannot do, it emerged because of what they can do: see.
CHAPTERS 5 & 6
Key points:
↳ 70% of the words when appearing on the lips are no more than blurs.
↳ Lipreading is a precarious and cruel art which rewards a few who have mastered it and tortures the many who have tried and failed.
↳ In group discussions where you alone are deaf, you do not exist.
↳ Because you cannot present your ideas through a medium everyone is accustomed to, you are not expected, much less asked, to contribute them. Because you are deaf, they turn deaf.
↳ To go around and say “it is a hearing world” is a self defeating prophecy.
↳ Through sign language we learn everything about the world, its evil, its goodness, its ugliness and its beauty.