[sw-l] Denmark and SignWriting...

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
May 9, 2005

Thank you, Bill, for sharing your experiences with us...It is
interesting to read about Cochlear Implants...I did not know some of
that...That is an education to read about the dangers of equipment
hurting a device in your head....ouch! That would make me hesitate to
place them in babies, but I know people do that...

There is one important note, regarding SignWriting...

SignWriting was not invented to help deafness or deaf people.
SignWriting was invented to preserve and respect a group of languages
that deserve to have a written form, because those who use those
languages, both deaf and non-deaf, have created beautiful poetry and
literature that should be on library shelves. The fact that SignWriting
can also assist some Deaf people to learn to read and write languages
better, was a blessing I personally would never have believed, when I
first began with SignWriting...that happened later, when we all found
out that was true...at the time I first got the idea to write signed
languages, back in Denmark in 1974, I wanted to preserve the languages,
and that was all...

The development of the Cochlear Implant has made this even more
obvious. Once I got this question from a non-deaf person:

...If the Cochlear Implant or future medical developments cure
deafness, then SignWriting will not be needed, right?....

My answer: SignWriting is for anyone who uses a signed language, or
mime, or gesture...it has no connection to whether a person can hear or
not...It has nothing to do with the physical issues of deafness...and
signed languages will not go away, even if there were no deaf people in
the world...

And my private reaction...Even if modern medicine could operate on
everyone and get rid of deafness, not every person in the world could
afford such an operation...and I do not believe that deafness will go
away competely, no matter what medical science produces...especially in
poorer countries...

Meanwhile I know hearing children, like Stefan's children, who benefit
from SignWriting, so all this is irrelevant...

And regarding Denmark...they are still using SignWriting, when Danish
Sign Language is used...it is simply not the focus of a Deaf Education
project, that's all...instead it is used with interpreter training and
with parents of deaf children...

Val ;-)

--------------------

On May 9, 2005, at 7:45 AM, Bill Reese wrote:

> Hello Val, Lucyna, Shane, et al.
>
> In 1997 I was implanted with a CI.   I am totally deaf but my first
> language is english, as I had grown up hard-of-hearing in mainstream
> schools.   So, while my perspective is not cultural deaf, I'm still
> deaf.   :-)
>
> Let me just say a few things about my CI.   I hate it.  I can't do
> without it.  :-)
>
> I'm not one of these stellar cases of CI's.  I still need to
> speechread when using it and I still need sign language or realtime
> when in a group.  Indeed, every week now, a realtimer (CART) helps me
> at business meetings - at a cost of  US $125/hr.
>
> Some of my inability to utilize the CI fully is simply because I was
> implanted at age 42.   But I didn't go deaf until age 35, so I
> wouldn't have been implanted as a child anyways.
>
> Right now I'm sitting in my office without my CI on.   My grandson
> comes to me in the mornings wanting crackers I keep at my desk.  He
> signs "crackers, please."  Then he shows me all his fingers and says
> "five".  :-)
>
> At night I don't wear my CI.   Nobody with one wears it at night.
> What should I do if I need to rush out of my house at night, without
> my CI and people want to talk to me?
>
> So, I know that the CI is not a panacea.  People with CI's are still
> deaf and there are times when they will not use their CI and they will
> still need to communicate.  Even if sign language is used this way as
> a backup, it would still be valuable and needed.
>
> Further thought:
> 1. Don't go swimming with a CI.
> 2. Or scuba diving
> 3. Or sky diving
> 4. Or playing or walking in the rain
> 5. Or having a food fight
> 6. Or any kind of fight except a shouting match  :-)
> 7. Or playing a contact sport
> 8. Or rolling down a grassy hill
> 9. Or stomping in mud puddles
> 10. Or spraying with the hose while washing the car
> 11. Or being licked all over by the family dog (or any dog)
> 12.  Or when sweating profusely on Saturday while mowing the grass.
> 13. Or anytime you sweat profusely (pardon the image)
> 14. Or when playing with other deaf kids without a CI
> 15. Or when talking with a deaf adult
> 16. Or when meeting a deaf person in a foreign land
> 17. Or when hauling crab pots in the Bering Sea.
> 18. Or working at a sweltering furnace.
> 19. Or high in a tree chopping limbs
> 20. Or anywhere a wire would be dangerous to have attached to your head
> 21. Or wherever the new behind-the-ear CI would drop into oblivion
> (did I mention sky-diving?)
> 22. Or working on a car close to metal (the CI magnet "pops" off your
> head and attaches to the metal)
> 23. Or when showering or combing your hair.
> 24. Or when the CI pains you (yes, wearing the CI a long time can
> cause pain).
> 25. Or whenever you don't want to wear it (personal choice is freedom
> of expression).
>
> Bill
>
>
> Lucyna Dlugolecka wrote:
>
>>
>>> What they stopped, was their bi-lingual Danish Sign Language program
>>> for Deaf children in the Danish School System - The cochlear implant
>>> was invented, and when it came to be, they thought that Deaf children
>>> did not need any sign language any longer...so the Bi-lingual Deaf
>>> Education program was dropped, or at least placed on hold...
>>>
>>> I recently wrote to one of the best bi-lingual teachers in Denmark,
>>> and
>>> one of the most skilled Signwriters in our history. Bente Sparrevohn
>>> wrote some of the most beautiful SignWriting on this earth...and you
>>> can see her in this picture with me, while I was visiting one of her
>>> bi-lingual classrooms back in 1984...but Bente today tells me that
>>> sign
>>> language is not used much any longer in the school system because of
>>> the cochlear implant, and it makes it hard for her...
>>>
>>> In this picture, that is me with the long hair (yes...I had hair
>>> then!), and that is Bente to the left in the picture...and those
>>> lovely
>>> Deaf Danish children were all fluent in SignWriting!!
>>
>>
>> Oh, a sad story, indeed... Here in Poland, our government has limited
>> resources, so few deaf children can get CIs. Unless their parents pay
>> for it, and it costs 17.000 euro, whereas the average (monthly)
>> salary is about 575 euro... But then, the professor (Henryk
>> Skarzynski) who is one of several surgeons implanting CIs, demands
>> that the child with CI attend a mainstream school. But I could see
>> children with CIs also in schools for the Deaf, and such is the
>> reality...
>> I wish PJM was recognized and widely accepted in Poland but, on the
>> other hand, in some 20-30 years most Deaf children of rich countries
>> will not use any sign language... Because of the CIs and the
>> technology, of course...
>>
>> Lucyna
>>
>>
>