It’s probably not news to you that not all deaf people sign. We in the deaf world refer to those who don’t sign as orals because they use the Oral Method, or Oralism.
Deaf people do it manually or orally. Harhar yes I am being clever. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find an image. Le Pout.
Not all sign language in the U.S. is American Sign Language, or ASL. There is also SEE and PSE. For those who don’t want to bother clicking, Sign Exact English and Pidgin Signed English, respectively. FTR, Raina is fluent in ASL, but uses PSE most times to communicate with hearing signers.
Additionally, different countries have their own sign languages. The video below shows deaf people all over the world signing, “I am deaf.” At least watch the first 53 seconds.
If a deaf person tells a hearing signer that he or she signs like a deaf person, that is a compliment. Anybody can learn to sign, but it’s a lot more difficult to become fluent. This is why Raina uses PSE with those hearing signers. It’s just easier.
We in the deaf world refer to those who are not deaf as hearing. I’ve actually had a few people take offense at that. “Why would you label us this way?”
Well, those in the hearing world call a person who can’t hear deaf, so fair’s fair. :-P
I’m sure the good people of KTK know this, but you won’t believe how many times I’ve been asked if deaf people can drive. And when they find out that yes, deaf people do drive, they are agog. Why? It doesn’t take any special hearing talent.
Long before text messaging, video chat, and emails, deaf people relied on TTYs or TDDS (teletypewriter or telecommunications device for the deaf- both are the same thing), like the one pictured below. a more modern TDD
Long before that, they looked like this:
technically a TTY
The little box on top is a modem, with couplers for the telephone. Raina’s first TTY was similar to this one, donated by the Junior Service League in her county. What a behemoth. Deaf people also talked to hearing people on their TTY/TDDs via a relay person. It goes like this: text from deaf person to relay person to voice to hearing person, and vice versa.
Surprisingly, in spite of all the modern technology we are able to take advantage of, TDDs are still being sold. The modern one above is from Amazon.
Deaf people...that is Deaf with a capital D...tend to view their deafness as part of their cultural identity, rather than a medical condition that needs to be fixed. They...Deaf people are fierce advocates of ASL. From wiki:
Deaf culture is the set of social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values, and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label especially within the culture, the word deaf is often written with a capital D and referred to as "big D Deaf" in speech and sign. When used as a label for the audiological condition, it is written with a lower case d.[1][2]
FTR, Raina is Deaf with a capital D.
This means Big D Deaf or Deaf with a capital D, and it is not the way we sign the letter D. We are creative that way.
This is how we actually sign the letter D, regardless of whether it’s capitalized or not.
When you add an image from the image library, they have a box where it says “add a caption…” I’m slayed.
The National Captioning Institute was created in 1979 in order to get the cooperation of the commercial television networks.[3]
The first use of regularly scheduled closed captioning on American television occurred on March 16, 1980.[4]Sears had developed and sold the Telecaption adapter, a decoding unit that could be connected to a standard television set. The first programs seen with captioning were a Disney's Wonderful World presentation of the film Son of Flubber on NBC, an ABC Sunday Night Movie airing of Semi-Tough, and Masterpiece Theatre on PBS.[5]
You know what that means? Raina was 22 years old when CC made an appearance, so she grew up watching TV with no CC. She had to rely on her hearing family to keep her appraised of what was going on while watching TV shows. These days, nearly all programs are CC. Netflix is great because almost all movies and TV shows are CC, while Hulu is a hit and miss.
9. Long before TV CC, there was Captioned Films for the Deaf, set up by the US government. They provided captioned films to organizations and individuals who requested them, and by law, they were free. Raina went to a state school for the deaf. She watched captioned movies (movies that had the captioning added) on Saturday or Sunday nights, depending on whether there was a game on Saturday.
Though some were founded long before the Captioned Films thing, some Deaf clubs were set up across the country to show those captioned movies as many deaf people did not own a movie projector. Yes, they were movie reels like you’d get in a movie theater.
10. Deaf people love deaf jokes, so here’s an oldie. It’s kind of outdated with all the technology we have today, so keep that in mind. I learned this joke back in the 5th grade, probably.
A deaf business man goes to the check-out desk to reserve a room and he writes a note that says: I would like a wake up call at 6 am please.
The clerk nods and the deaf man leaves to go to his room
The clerk has a sudden thought, and turns to her co-worker, “Wait a minute...how am I supposed to give him a wake up call?”
Other clerk says, “Write him a note and slip it under the door?”
I want to note here that I am speaking of deaf people here as someone who was, and still is immersed in the deaf world and deaf culture. Late-deafened adults would likely have very different experiences and opinions.
