On deaf people.
by
, June 14, 2019 at 05:17 PM (4324 Views)
On deaf people,
So I know this title is somewhat controversial perhaps. I mean what could could come from an opinion peace titled "on deaf people"? I don't blame you. I assure you though that it won't be bad, or at least it wont be for me. So my woman's father and brother are both deaf. Both from birth although her father now uses a Cochlear Implant. So you might imagine that after a year and spending some decent amount of time together with her family I've learned a thing or two about deafness in general. My woman is of course fluent in sign language and I must say, as someone with somewhat impaired finer motor skills I now too can say a couple of sentences.
So what really grinds my gears(insert meme) is that people always seem to think; "If there's no sign language translator available on TV the subtitles will do..." Well yes and no... What people seem to always forget is that deaf people their first language is sign language. Considering I'm a Dutch national that would mean a Deaf/hearing impaired person would have NGT(Nederlandse Gebarentaal - Dutch Sign Language) as their mother tongue and not Dutch. The gammer of NGT/DSL significantly differs with that of the Dutch Language. Couple that with the fact that a large portion of understanding and feeling with language comes from the ability to hear it. You might imagine that it's relatively hard for a deaf/hearing impaired person to learn a secondary language.
So next time when you think of saying "yeah but it has subtitles so they don't need a translator" you will know that it isn't as black and white as it sounds. Now I'm not saying none of them can read but it is a challenge for a of of them. Having said that the USA has excellent services in place for it's deaf community. There's even sign interpreters at some festivals... Something we can learn something from over here. Last night new was brought out that during emergency pres conferences sign interpreters would finally be utilized. Much too late if you ask me!
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed the read.