Hello to all...I'm new to this list...

[skoreapv83 at FUSE.NET]

To the list:

My name is Adam Paul Valerius, & I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. I have mostly normal hearing & vision, but I communicate most comfortably when using tactile signing like the Deaf-Blind use. I've been fluent in Signed English for 8 1/2 years & fluent in ASL for 4 years. Please DON'T mention family because I don't one due to having been abused & neglected as a child & for the first 4 years of adulthood (almost; I'm NOT yet 22). I learned sign in the first place because I have extreme difficulty expressing myself verbally (using words). I speak w/the same type of speech impediment as the Deaf & Deaf-Blind who are able to speak. Also, knowing sign helps ME equally as much as other signers. My visual & tactile systems work well together, so I know sign both visually & tactilely. If I lose my visual memory, I'll still remember sign language because it's still in my tactile memory, which I can't lose without getting some kind of seriously debilitating disease or dying. 

I joined this list cuz I really like the idea of SignWriting. SignWriting on a tactile mobile device would really help me. I'll NEVER write English again once that technology is available. I understand some people may feel uncomfortable with it, but the courts in the United States insist on writing everything down to keep records of everything said, done, & ordered. If SignWriting became widely used in the United States, & mobile devices could translate between SW & English, no interpreters would be necessary. Also, no signers would have to learn English, either, which would enable physically Deaf & physically Deaf-Blind signers to remain independent when telecommunicating WITHOUT knowing how to write English words in a syntax that resembles their signing.

I saw what some others said about "mainstream non-signers taking over ASL". I DON'T believe the mainstream non-signers would take over ASL. It's already a worldwide language with thousands of dialects anyway, so how could they do more than just make their own written dialect, just like they already have their own signed dialect?

Deaf people already know the difference between the way they sign ASL & the way a hearing person signs it. That difference in dialect is all I could think of that hearing people would do to it. 

Whatever y'all do, please DON'T express any anger towards me. In Cincinnati, I seem to be the only person out of 740,000 people who is smart, gentle, & emotionally stable. EVERYONE else seems to LOVE aggression, irritability, & ignorance.

I probably am developing sensorineural Deaf-Blindness cuz I had surgery 4 years ago to correct a brain malformation I was born with. I just haven't been to the neurologist yet. I've been misdiagnosed with several mental illnesses & developmental disabilties for my whole life due to emotional extremes resulting from others' refusal to meet my communication needs.

Later,

Adam Paul Valerius