August 26, 2007
My good friend, Barry Siebert wrote a comment on my post #77
“Data Flow Rate…important?†and thought maybe you would be interesting in reading it too.
Comment:
I agree with John Egbert about the need for research and documentation about data flow.
Some time ago, I spoke to a group of about 200 people of which about 20 were deaf. I asked the audience to please stand up if you were a hearing person. About 180 hearing people stood up. Then I asked, “How many of you speak exactly the way you write, please remain standing”, and all of them sat down. The deaf were shocked by this revelation.
Then I went on to explain that spoken English was different than written English. Spoken English uses auditory tone changes, inflection changes, pacing changes and even body language movements as people speak to change or emphasize the meaning of their sentences and their words.
ASL does not have a written counter part . So it is decided that the deaf need to learn and read written English. It is at least a commonly shared language to use with hearing people in our own society. When ASL is used, body postures and movements, facial expressions, pacing, spacing, and sizes of the signs also changes the meaning of the sentences and words.
Now if hearing people speak exactly the way they write, they will have great difficulty expressing exactly what they mean. Many hearing people have trouble in school with reading and writing English. Written English is hard to speak and hard to understand if there is no tone changes, inflection changes, body language usage, or pacing. This is the data flow that John Egbert alluded to, hearing people won’t speak the way they write because it slows down the data flow and it slows down and hinders the undertandability of what is being said. There is more thinking on the part of the communicator to convey a message or the receiver to decipher and understand what was said.
Hearing people do not like written English because it requires a more exacting way to express what they want to say. Written English often loses its meaning that can easily be said in spoken English.
When you really think about it, spoke English and written English are actually two different languages with their own context, syntax, and usage. Much like deaf use ASL and written English which are two different languages with their own context, syntax, and usage.
For deaf people, SEE is the written English parallel. When SEE is used, exact signs have to be used and sentence structures have to be used. When SEE is used, the data flow rate changes and slows down, understandability decreases. SEE is not a visual language. It is an attempt to put some auditory discipline in a visual language.
ASL has been built up over generations and generations of our deaf ancestors over the ages. It has been refined and tried, and it still is. ASL is a living language and it changes over time. Despite the fact that there is a general disagreement about SEE, some SEE signs have made it into the ASL signs.
John Egbert talks about computer to computer communication or data flow. Within each computer there are buffers that control the rate by which data is sent to the other computer or the rate that data flow is received.
Human beings are much like that. We all have our own buffers to send and receive communication data flow. All of our buffers whether sending or receiving all have different rates and capacities by which you can understand something or transmit something. If you overwhelm your own sending buffer, your data flow to the other person doesn’t work very well. If you overwhelm your own receiving buffer, data flow in to your own head also doesn’t work all.
Data flow that John Egbert has alluded to is a very powerful concept that not only would impact deaf education but hearing education, business and international communications as well.
So, how can we do this? How do we proceed?
Barry Siebert
August 23, 2007
Press Release
Thursday, August 23, 2007
A Wall Street Journal editor wrote a book review which appears in the Wall Street Journal today which declares that the deaf education method/philosophy called “oralism” is …
QUOTE:
For example, she discusses an international conference for deaf educators in Milan that in 1880 declared “oralism” as the best way to integrate deaf people into general society. It was a bad idea that enjoyed high status among Western elites for many years. To show its wrong-headedness, Ms. Fox relates a rhetorical question posed to her by a linguist. Suppose an American were placed alone in a glass, soundproof booth in the middle of Japan. How on earth would he learn to speak Japanese?
UNQUOTE
Here is the article which appears in today’s edition of paper:
Signs and Wonders
An Israeli town where people talk with their hands–literally.
BY MICHAEL PHILIPS
Thursday, August 23, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
In the southern Israeli desert of Negev lies a community called Al-Sayyid. Inhabited by approximately 3,500 Bedouin, an Arab nomadic tribe that settled the area about 200 years ago, the village may seem rather humdrum at first glance. That is, until you see the villagers interacting–by making signs with their hands.
In Al-Sayyid, at least 150 residents are deaf, a rate 50 times greater than that of Israel’s general population. As it happens, a recessive gene for profound deafness–traced back to sons of the “founding” couple–has made its way, through large families and genetic probabilities, into an ever-widening gene pool. Thus over three generations an extraordinarily high number of deaf children have been born to Al-Sayyid’s villagers.
Of necessity, a special means of communication has sprung up: Nearly all the village’s residents, hearing and deaf alike, are fluent in a sign language unique to Al-Sayyid. Margalit Fox’s “Talking Hands,” in part, describes this language and chronicles the work of a group of linguists who were allowed by townspeople to study it.
Though rare, such “signing villages” are not unheard of. Certain conditions are conducive to their forming. “First,” Ms. Fox writes, “you need a gene for a form of inherited deafness. Second, you need huge families to pass the gene along.” The practice of polygamy, together with the habit of marriage among cousins, speeds the rate of genetic spread. Al-Sayyid has met all these conditions.
As it happens, Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, once met at least the first two. From the middle of the 17th century to roughly the turn of the 20th, nearly everyone on the island used a distinctive sign language that was (mostly) born there. Nora Ellen Groce detailed its history in “Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language” (1985). By the time Ms. Groce began her research, signing on the island had ceased, since the last deaf person had died more than two decades before. Her book is a kind of oral history, with colorful interviews of older islanders who remembered the signing days.
By contrast, Ms. Fox, a science reporter for the New York Times, visits Al-Sayyid when it is still in a signing mode. She offers a few humorous anecdotes but prefers to concentrate on the subject of how languages evolve. She devotes relatively brief space to her account of village residents’ interacting with the four linguists charged with documenting Al-Sayyid’s sign language. She devotes much more to a history of linguistics and of sign language in America and the world.
For example, she discusses an international conference for deaf educators in Milan that in 1880 declared “oralism” as the best way to integrate deaf people into general society. It was a bad idea that enjoyed high status among Western elites for many years. To show its wrong-headedness, Ms. Fox relates a rhetorical question posed to her by a linguist. Suppose an American were placed alone in a glass, soundproof booth in the middle of Japan. How on earth would he learn to speak Japanese?
The rhetorical answer: with the greatest difficulty. Learning a spoken language requires hearing it or learning it through instruction in a language one does understand. For the deaf, sign language may serve that intermediary function, but it must come first. After that Milan conference, it would take nearly 80 years before teaching primarily American Sign Language (ASL) to the deaf was accepted practice again in the U.S. and 90 years for linguists to come to a consensus that ASL is indeed a full-fledged language.
Linguists now believe that sign languages are processed in our minds in much the way that spoken languages are–and follow a similar evolutionary pattern. (This similarity is one reason why the study of sign languages is a growing subfield in linguistics.) The third generation of signers in Al-Sayyid uses its language with much greater speed than the first and with much greater structural complexity. Spoken language shows a kindred evolution.
We are well past the point in history where it is possible for a new spoken language to develop without the influence of other languages. What is so fascinating about Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), as the village’s sign language is officially called, is that it was born with no apparent influence from any language at all. A case in point: The spoken languages of the region–Hebrew and the local Arabic dialect–favor sentences with a subject-verb-object sequence. (English does too.) ABSL favors subject-object-verb.
A close look at a young language–tracing its structure and developmental arc–is rarely possible in the modern age. Hence the appeal of studying ABSL. The language may well give scholars special insight into the workings of the mind and the intricacies of its linguistic faculties. There are other signing villages in the world today, but none with languages so fully developed as Al-Sayyid’s.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much time. Israeli Sign Language (ISL)–an entirely different language–threatens to encroach on ABSL and, inevitably, to “corrupt” its distinctiveness. But Al-Sayyid’s residents know, as Ms. Fox explains, that learning ISL will give their children a better chance to thrive in the modern world, not least in the world just outside the village. Over time, it is unclear whether older residents, nurtured on a purer form of ABSL, will understand the younger ones. For now, at least, a unique sign language integrates everyone into a single community, whether they can hear or not.
Mr. Philips is The Wall Street Journal’s assistant Leisure & Arts features editor.
ARTICLE:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110010507
August 12, 2007
Would it be nice if someone start collecting numerous testimonials from deaf people who grew up in Oral education? I bet there are many, many “testimonials†comments on Blogs and Vlogs since Deafread.com formed.
Those testimonials are needed to show the world that most oral deaf people did not have a harmony childhood. And that discovered the fulfilled life after learning ASL and thus became a happy bilingual human being.
Email your experience to deafbilingual@gmail.com - redirect to Patricia Raswant. Or type in your blog and say it’s for the testimonials data base with Patricia Raswant.
Here is an example of a testimonial from Wanda
I was born with nerve deafness. At age 5 I was enrolled into Davison School of Speech in Decatur, Georgia. Using hand gestures was forbidden. Whoever got caught using hand gestures got punished. Punishments were severe. Standing in a corner with hands in back for an hour. Turn around, get an extra 30 minutes. There were no second chances. We all became obedient from the headstart.
We hid and used hand gestures. It was scary. This type of life…espionage-styled atmosphere and sneaking around in the name of Freedom became Deaf Children’s well known way of life before the age of 6 and before the age of 10.
We, the Deaf Children of all centuries will always find a way to use hand gestures. The hand gestures we used at Davison School of Speech was not ASL. Students before us invented it and we carried it on.
AG, Volta Bureau and other organizations against ASL and all forms of hand gestures lost the war since Time began.
It is time for these organizations to meld with the DEAF WORLD. Once they meld, wonderful things…………amazing acceleration in education.
I talk Engish. I write English. I sign ASL which has no effect on my English the tinest bit. I am a living proof against any theory claiming a Deaf Person cannot talk if allowed to use ASL.
I can contacted through my e mail address Wandadaxx1@aol.com for exhibition and for speaker engagements. I will talk for everyone to hear my voice and my speech.
Stanford University tested my hearing when I was a small child. The conclusion: Unknown. It is not hereditary.
No one can stop small Deaf Children from inventing hand gestures for the sake of a freedom to use total communications.
To prevent Deaf Children from using hand gestures resulting corporal punishments is a state of totalitarianism in existence in the United States of America. The state of totalitarianism for Deaf Children AND for Deaf Adults has always existed in the United States of America.
August 5, 2007
Press Release
John F. Egbert is the author of “MindField” (ISBN 978-0595421589,
iUniverse, Inc., http://www.egbertpress.com), a fast-paced suspense
novel in which a terrorist cell unleashes a virulent bacteria on the
U.S., causing millions of Americans to become deaf almost overnight.
The book is available at Amazon.com.
Besides the donation of $1,000, he also spent over $1,500 out of his
pocket since DBC was born 5 weeks ago.
Support the Deaf Bilingual Coalition’s work! One way is to donate-by
PayPal (and credit cards, too), go to http://www.cad1906.org
(California Association of the Deaf)-click Support for the Deaf
Bilingual Coalition on the left side. Checks should be made out to
“California Association of the Deaf” (be sure to say “Deaf Bilingual
Coalition” on your check) and sent care of California Home for the
Adult Deaf,_529 Las Tunas Drive, Arcadia, California 91007
Every dollar donated helps to increase awareness and support actions
to ensure that sign language is not banned from Deaf children’s lives.
Deaf Bilingual Coalition
August 4, 2007
Some of you may have read this somewhere…..
We all, Hearing and Deaf people are human bionic-computers. Before I go any further explaining more about what I will write on this post, you might ask this question, what is a bionic-computer?
Bionic-computer is a human being that its brain can compute to do things such as like calculating the coordination while walking or picking things up, etc. Your brain is always computing like a calculator doing the adding, subtracting, etc while controlling your balance, reaching for something, jumping or hopping over something, etc.
No one was born as a full functioning bionic-computer human being. Keep in mind that we all had to learn to crawl, walk, talk, sign, run, respond, think, etc since the day we were born. Our parents were the main educators, motivators, etc in the beginning of our lives. Then teachers, your peers, people, media, TV, etc became additional educators, motivators, etc. This process is the education of our bionic-computer body(mind) that goes on until the day we die.
One more thing that I want to say about the terminology of the two words;
Software and Hardware.
The computer that you are using right now while reading this post is call hardware.
The disc that you put in the computer contains data so you can watch movies or video game or Microsoft Word is call software.
The Human Bionic-Computer is the “hardware†of the human anatomy. This would include the brain, internal organs, and other human organ systems such as Cardiovascular, Endocrine, Immune, Muscular, nervous, Reproductive, Respiratory, Skeletal and Urinary systems.
Your bionic-computer has stored program properties and self- metaprogramming properties, with limits determinable and to be determined.
You might ask, what is metaprogramming?
Metaprogram is defined as a set of instructions, descriptions and means of control of sets of program.
How did we get the metaprogramming properties?
You got them since the day you were born, from your parents, teachers, etc. It is the “software†education that you have and it is stored in your brain.
Now, let’s go back a little about what I wrote above;
The bionic-computer has stored program properties and self- metaprogramming properties, with limits determinable and to be determined.
You might ask, what you mean by “with limits determinable and to be determinedâ€.
It means that it depends on how you have been educated, how much data flow you have gotten or able to receive from your parents or teachers in early childhood, etc.
It could also means that it depends on if you are deaf or hearing. In this society now days, a deaf person will have a good chance to get into the phrase of “with limits determinable and to be determinedâ€.
This is very, very important to keep this in mind as you read on in my post.
The title of this post is
“Differences between Deaf and Hearing Bionic-Computerâ€
This is the same as if I had said,
“Differences between Macintosh and IBM Computerâ€
What is really the different between a Mac and IBM computer?
They both look alike, same hardware, functions the same. They both have low level, average level and high level performance.
Just like in the society, we have low level, average level and high level minded human beings. You might ask, why do we have “three†levels.
With the computers (Mac/IBM), it depends on the speed of calculating, the amount of ram memory and the software program.
With human being (bionic-computer), it depends on the early childhood of language foundation, how much you’ve learned……the software program.
You might ask, what was our human software program?
Well, for a hearing person, it was the data flow of informations that enter through the ears.
And for the deaf person, it was the data flow of informations that enter through the eyes.
This means that the hearing person and the deaf person, both have different type of software input….for eyes or ears.
The software makes our bionic-computer to function and the more data flow of informations that each receives through its eyes or ears, will categorize each of us accordingly as low level, average level or high level minded person.
Macintosh are the Deaf people.
IBM are the Hearing people.
Hearing and Deaf people, both require different software to be able function for its highest potential capability to learn…..and the earlier, the better.
This is why Deaf people must have bilingual education- ASL/English(reading and writing) to be able learn to achieve the level at its highest potential capability.
These “Eye software input†bilingual education program are for people that don’t have the “Ear software input†capability.
Over the years, we, the deaf people, or should I say, the Mac computers have been using the IBM “eye†software indoctrinated by the so-call-experts ( i.e. AGBell ) thinking that we deaf (Mac) people could hear and speak 100% like hearing (IBM) people.
Parents of Deaf children need to grasp this simple concept.
John F. Egbert
August 4, 2007
Many hearing/deaf people now are coming out to speak what they believe is best for deaf children after their years of experience growing up deaf or parents raising their deaf children into adulthood.
They all have different views. Some rather promote the ideology how some successful oral child were able to achieve the ability to speak, but many others speaking up about how some biased ideology/philosophy have already ruined their potential of having good English language, the deprived of cognitive language to learn how to learn. And the parents that have realized American Sign Language should have been taught earlier to have the cognitive language to learn how to learn speech successfully for their deaf child.
As for me, a successful oralist, my speaking ability, from the perspective from hearing people and interpreters, say that I am “actually†a hearing person. And yes, I can talk on the phone too, despite of my 90 db. And I choose to speak up as unbiased person.
Yes, I have chosen to speak up for many of the deaf people in the Community that have been deprived.
I believe that every parent have the right to choose what is best for their child. And I believe that every parent should have the opportunity to learn from all unbiased resources.
Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf is a biased resource organization and I choose to be unbiased resource human being. I have nothing against speech/oral “accessory†education and AGBell/Volta Bureau choose to be biased to be against visual/sign language for deaf babies and school children.
What is important that we all need be unbiased but the problem is that the biased group (i.e. AGBell, AVT, etc) that have the leverage of having millions of dollars to promote their biased ideology.
Money does the talking.
You also have the choice, the right to choose, to be biased or to be unbiased.
Support the Deaf Bilingual Coalition’s work! One way is to donate–by PayPal (and credit cards, too), go to http://www.cad1906.org (California Association of the Deaf)-click Support for the Deaf Bilingual Coalition on the left side. Checks should be made out to “California Association of the Deaf” (be sure to say “Deaf Bilingual Coalition” on your check) and sent care of California Home for the Adult Deaf,
529 Las Tunas Drive, Arcadia, California 91007
Every dollar donated helps to increase awareness and support actions to ensure that signs are not banned from Deaf children’s lives.
John F. Egbert
Deaf Bilingual Coalition
visit: http://www.deafchildrenandsigning.com/index.html
August 3, 2007
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Improving the lives of people who have communication disorders
Take a look at this site;
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/asl.asp
It shows the content page about American Sign Language
What is American Sign Language?
Is sign language the same around the globe?
Where did ASL originate?
How does ASL compare with spoken language?
Why does ASL become a first language for many deaf people?
Why emphasize early language learning?
What does recent research say about ASL and other sign languages?
And on the bottom of the content page says;
Additional resources for acquisition of language by deaf children
And guess who is the first on the list to get resources from?
Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) _3417 Volta Place, NW_Washington, DC 20007-2778_Voice: (202) 337-5220_Toll-free Voice: (866) 337-5220_TTY: (202) 337-5221_Fax: (202) 337-8314_E-mail: info@agbell.org_Internet: www.agbell.org
Was NIDCD aware that AGBell knows nothing about American Sign Language?
I am pretty sure that NIDCD knows that AGBell is a Eugenic Philosophy Organization that bans visual/sign language from deaf babies and deaf school children.
Or is it that NIDCD knew that AGBell would successfully brainwash newly parents of deaf babies before other early intervention group would have a chance to tell the truth about American Sign Language?
And also;
National Cued Speech Association (NCSA)_23970 Hermitage Road_Cleveland, OH 44122_Voice: (216) 292-6213_Toll-free Voice: (800) 459-3529_Toll-Free TTY: (800) 459-3529_Fax: Call for number_E-mail: info@cuedspeech.org _Internet: www.cuedspeech.org
What does Cued Speech Association know about American Sign language?
I wrote an email nidcdinfo@nidcd.nih.gov to NIDCD telling them that National Association of the Deaf should be on the top of the list regardless of the alphabet method of having an eugenic organization first on the list that newly parents would get the “flawed†resources. And please remove those two biased/naive resources from the page.
Do you agree with me? If so, email them and tell them to remove it now!!!
Support the Deaf Bilingual Coalition’s work! One way is to donate–by PayPal (and credit cards, too), go to <http://www.cad1906.org (California Association of the Deaf)-click Support for the Deaf Bilingual Coalition on the left side. Checks should be made out to “California Association of the Deafâ€(be sure to say “Deaf Bilingual Coalition†on your check) and sent care of California Home for the Adult Deaf,
529 Las Tunas Drive, Arcadia, California 91007
Every dollar donated helps to increase awareness and support actions to ensure that signs are not banned from Deaf children’s lives.
Thank you.
John F. Egbert
visit: http://www.deafchildrenandsigning.com/index.html
August 3, 2007
Press Release
Friday, August 3, 2007
The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf currently does not appear to use the acronym “AGBAD,” but now uses the abbreviation “AGBell”.
However, the Alexander Graham Bell’s great-grandson, Edwin S. Grosvenor, approves of the use of the “AGBAD” acronym.
Here is a quote from a Web site that was created by Edwin S. Grosvenor showing that he uses the acronym “AGBAD”:
QUOTE:
Founded by Bell in 1890, AGBAD is one of the world’s largest membership organizations and information centers for pediatric hearing loss, and helps promote the auditory approach that Bell advocated.
<http://web.archive.org/web/20030211162850/www.alecbell.org/BellWebSites.html
UNQUOTE
This Web page created by the Library of Congress shows that Edwin S. Grosvenor is the great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell:
http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0012/father_phone.html
Here is Edwin S. Grosvenor’s résumé:
<http://egrosvenor.com/index.html
Culturally Deaf people object to the name “Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf,” because it contains the word “for,” indicating the paternalistic premise of its mission, whereas the the name “National Association of the Deaf” contains the word “of.”
Culturally Deaf people also point out that AGBAD’s mission goes far beyond that of paternalism, to the extent of being destructive of Deaf culture by design, according to Alexander Graham Bell’s original intention for the organization. Thus, the organization today follows the destructive policy of promoting a particular mode of language, i.e. speech, instead of actually promoting language and cognition itself.
Culturally Deaf people promote the use of natural, visual (i.e. signed) languages due to the fact that they are visual beings. AGBAD’s mission violates basic principles of ethics and human decency by ignoring this fact, while attempting to treat deaf people as if they were all handicapped, hard-of-hearing people. This is an immoral, inhumane, and destructive policy and is to be emphatically condemned.
John F. Egbert
August 3, 2007
Dr. Fleischer’s statement of support to the Deaf Bilingual Coalition:
Dr. Fleischer sent in his statement of support shortly before the protest began last Friday.
QUOTE
You have my deepest gratitude for carrying out a very important mission by standing in front of the AGB Conference site to let the whole world know the importance of signed languages for deaf youngsters in their first language acquisition. All the archaic and absurd ideas that result in miseducation of deaf youngsters must be stopped. Future generations of deaf people will appreciate your push toward a clear sense and direction for educating deaf youngsters. There is never a wrong time to do the right thing.
Lawrence Fleischer
[NOTE: Dr. Fleischer did not take part in planning the protest and was not aware of any specific tactics the protesters might use, but sent the statement in as a general statement of support for the concept of promoting the use of ASL with deaf babies and in deaf education generally.]
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Deaf Bilingual Coalition, We thank Dr. Fleischer for his statement of support.
And also special thanks goes to many of you for supporting the Deaf Bilingual Coalition by donating money. We have collected over $1,750 in less than one week and still more is coming in.
Support the Deaf Bilingual Coalition’s work! One way is to donate–by PayPal (and credit cards, too), go to <http://www.cad1906.org (California Association of the Deaf)-click Support for the Deaf Bilingual Coalition on the left side. Checks should be made out to “California Association of the Deaf”(be sure to say “Deaf Bilingual Coalition” on your check) and sent care of California Home for the Adult Deaf,
529 Las Tunas Drive, Arcadia, California 91007
Every dollar donated helps to increase awareness and support actions to ensure that signs are not banned from Deaf children’s lives.
Thank you.
John F. Egbert
July 24, 2007
I will be there around 8 am to 4 pm to discuss with anyone about the protest at the AGBell Conference on Auditory-Verbal Therapy and Deaf Bilingual Coalition’s mission.
And on Thursday, July 26th, we will have important discussion about the protest at the AGBell Conference on Auditory-Verbal Therapy and have T-shirts available.
Feel free to come and join in the discussion of why we need to make sure all Deaf babies have the opportunity to learn ASL in the age of 6 months likewise with many hearing babies all over the country.
You can contact me on this link, http://www.deafchildrenandsigning.com/contact-us.html
John F Egbert