WEBVTT

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I'm Deaf.

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I'm profoundly Deaf.

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My parents didn't know I was Deaf
until I was 18 months old.

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My parents' world fell apart,

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primarily because of the hearing society's
view on Deafness as a negative.

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My doctor, an ear, nose
and throat specialist,

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told my parents that I should not
learn sign language,

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because it would make me isolated
from the hearing community.

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I had to learn to speak and to read lips
to fit in with hearing culture.

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So I did.

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I grew up learning to speak and read lips,
trying to fit in with hearing society,

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and man, it was a challenge.

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Frustrating.

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Communication was not always there
with a hundred percent access.

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When I was three years old,
I spoke my first word - boat.

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My parents were driving,
and out the window,

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I saw a boat and kept repeating the word.

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That's, I guess, why I have
a 29-foot cruiser today.

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(Laughter)

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My parents, upon looking back, realized
that the doctors didn't really understand

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the critical part of language
development for infants.

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It's so critical that Deaf babies
have a first language,

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American Sign Language.

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It's a natural, visual language
for them to develop as a basis,

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and then they can learn
to speak and read lips later in life.

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That's the most important part
for Deaf babies -

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to have that critical access,
that first language.

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Today, I'm 53 years old.

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I'm proud to be Deaf.

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American Sign Language
is something that I greatly value

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because it flung the world
wide open for me,

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even more than I had before.

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I love American Sign Language,
Deaf culture and Deaf history,

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and the Deaf community.

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We know we're not disabled.

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We just have a different language.

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We know who we are.

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We can do everything just as you can.

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We have successful Deaf attorneys,
Deaf doctors, scientists, engineers,

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college professors, athletes, actors -

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we even have a Deaf receptionist
in the White House.

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When I talk about culture,

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what do I mean by
that I love Deaf culture?

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We have a culture,
just like any other group -

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Hispanic, Asian, Black -

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they value their language
and their own culture

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such as we value our own Deaf culture
and our own language.

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Let me give you some examples
of normative Deaf culture.

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We can be really blunt.

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(Laughter)

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I mean, if you come up to someone Deaf,

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they'll say, "You've gained weight!
Wow, you've gotten fat! What's wrong?"

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(Laughter)

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Hearing people will not say that.

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"Oh, you look good."

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If that's a bad haircut,
you know, we'll tell you.

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"Those clothes aren't right for you."

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(Laughter)

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Hearing people are so nice, culturally.

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(Laughter)

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"Oh, you look good," is all they'll say.

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It's nice to get that honesty.

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We typically are very detail-oriented.

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If someone passes away,
we'll ask questions.

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"What's wrong? What happened?
How'd they die?"

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and ask for a lot of details.

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But in hearing culture, they'll say,
"Oh, I'm sorry that they passed."

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If a hearing student
comes into my classroom,

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they'll say, "I'm so sorry
I was late," and sit down.

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But if a Deaf student comes
into my classroom, they'll say,

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"Oh, sorry I was late.
You've got to know why!

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A truck on the highway
that was full of egg crates fell over,

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and the police and ambulances
came in and blocked the road!

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I couldn't get through" - and on
and on for two or three minutes,

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and then they end with, "Sorry I'm late."

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(Laughter)

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That's part of our culture.

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We value that information sharing.

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Let me tell about our five-stage goodbye.

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If hearing friends come over
to my house for a party,

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they'll stay about an hour,
hour and a half, and they'll leave.

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"Bye."

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"Oh, okay."

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But if my Deaf friends come over,
they will stay forever.

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(Laughter)

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I mean, forever.

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Even if I'm urging them to leave!

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(Laughter)

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If we're in a restaurant together,

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we'll be talking,

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and the manager will come up
to the table and indicate,

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"We're closing in about five minutes."

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"Okay."

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But we don't leave - we still talk
for another 10 to 15 minutes.

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Then we realize it,

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and we step a little further
away from the table,

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but we're still talking
for 10 or 15 more minutes,

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sharing information.

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Then we're standing by the door
in a group, talking,

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and the manager's
angrily shutting the lights off

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and motioning us to leave.

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That's the third stage.

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Then we're out in the parking lot,
and that's our fourth stage of goodbye.

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And in our cars, still talking.

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We're still catching up.

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And finally, we leave.

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That's the reason we really depend
on each other to share information.

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For hearing culture,

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you, typically, can hear the radio
or talk amongst yourselves

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to get news and information

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whereas we rely on sign language
for our information, between ourselves,

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and that's how we communicate.

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That's the most important part
of our culture.

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Talking about sign language,
sign language is nothing new.

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It's been here for thousands of years.

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When we have to fight, almost daily,
to protect sign language,

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we experience a lot of oppression
and discrimination,

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just as any other cultural group
experiences oppression on their cultures,

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discrimination on their languages;

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we are the same.

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Looking back, historically, in 427 B.C.,

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in the essay Cratylus
by the Greek philosopher Plato,

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the character of Socrates is quoted,

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"If we do not have voice or tongue

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but we wish to communicate
our feelings and thoughts,

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what should we do?

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Such as those Deaf people,

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who use gestures, body language,
facial expression and movement

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to express their thoughts."

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That's the earliest documented
use of sign language.

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It's been here ever since.

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Here in America, in the 1700s,

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the island Martha's Vineyard

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had the largest rate
of generational Deafness.

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Every one out of twenty-five individuals
was hereditarily Deaf,

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and everyone on that island
both signed and spoke.

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Everyone, hearing and Deaf,
knew sign language.

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It was one cohesive community
that understood each other.

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The community's events, meetings -
everything was conducted in sign language.

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No barriers - Deaf people
were fully included and successful.

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Now, later on, in 1817,

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the American School for the Deaf,
America's first Deaf education,

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was established in Hartford, Connecticut.

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That's when many of Martha's Vineyard
residents moved to that school,

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and graduates from the American School

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went on to other states
to found Deaf schools all over the US.

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That was the most glorious moment -

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a well-educated Deaf community -
college educated,

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the establishment of Gallaudet University,

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the world's only liberal arts
university for the Deaf,

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founded in 1864,

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which provided a college degree
for Deaf individuals.

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Many Deaf graduates
from the American School for the Deaf

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went to Gallaudet University.

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It was the best time for us.

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We had access to education;
we were successful business owners;

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we conducted business
and our lives on equal footing.

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66 years later,

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in 1880 -

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that was the year we will never forget.

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It's indelibly etched on our minds
within the Deaf community.

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The world delegates
convened in Milan, Italy,

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for the Second International Congress
on Education of the Deaf.

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There, the delegates voted
to forbid sign language,

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and mandated that Deaf children
learn to speak and read lips,

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just as hearing society does,

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and that's what vastly
changed the Deaf world.

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The result of the impact on America
was that they fired all Deaf teachers,

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most of whom couldn't speak,

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and replaced all of them
with hearing teachers

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who taught Deaf children
how to read lips and speak.

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The impact was felt worldwide,

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and that was the darkest,
most oppressive era of the Deaf world.

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Job opportunities vastly declined.

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The world's hearing
and Deaf were rent apart -

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our world using sign language,
hearing world using spoken English -

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and it was the darkest time
we've ever been through.

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Finally, in 1960, at Gallaudet University,

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an English professor, Dr. William Stokoe,

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recognized that Deaf students on campus
were signing very fluently and similarly,

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and recruited two Deaf researchers
to work with him.

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They researched American Sign Language
and finally proved definitively

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that American Sign Language
is its own language -

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its own grammar, syntax,
morphology, mouth movements,

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hand shape, locations,
and the Five Parameters of Sign,

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spatial movement, facial expression

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and that it was not a form
of English, after all.

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It was a completely different
and separate language with its own rules.

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People would assume that sign language
was based on English, but it was not.

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That, finally, brought our Deaf community
back to where it should've been all along.

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The use of ASL flourished.

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At that time, many children
who had Deaf parents,

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that had been born into that Deaf world,

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had American Sign Language
as their first language,

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and they had grown up
in the Deaf community.

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Those individuals
took on the responsibility

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as our first interpreters
because of our worlds being so separate,

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and communicated between both
the hearing and Deaf worlds.

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But we didn't have enough,
we needed more interpreters.

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There was a baby boom
and we needed more interpreters,

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so finally, in the 1970s,

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college programs were established
nationwide, all over the US,

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to train interpreters,

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and many students who are hearing,
with no prior knowledge of sign language,

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entered those interpreter
training programs

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but realized that you can't learn
the cultural nuances of the language

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in two or four years,

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because of the deep roots of our language
and the cultural implications.

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The interpreters, themselves,
experienced challenges

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learning to interpret
between Deaf and hearing cultures.

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Over the years,

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as the interpreting field has grown,

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you'll be seeing a new movement -

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Deaf individuals taking on
the responsibility to be interpreters.

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American Sign Language
is their first language.

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A full understanding of language
and culture, intrinsically.

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They take signed language
and interpret it to a hearing interpreter,

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who will then translate it
to spoken English, and back and forth;

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a team of interpreters, Deaf and hearing.

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If you look back to the year 1880

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and to now,

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we're seeing more Deaf interpreters.

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We'll see them interpreting
in legal settings,

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in medical and hospital settings,

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working for a more complete interpretation
between our two separate worlds,

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interpreting back and forth.

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But in that year of 1880,

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if those delegates had never voted
to forbid sign language,

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remember the Golden Era
of the Deaf community -

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the Deaf teachers, the children
with full access to language,

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with everyone on one level playing field -

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if 1880 had never happened
and rent our worlds apart,

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suppose that had never occurred,
that that vote had never happened,

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would that mean that you would
be signing today along with us?

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Signing fluidly, we would be one world.

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We wouldn't need interpreters.

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We could go back to those days
of Martha's Vineyard,

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and have that experience
from then until now.

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It's a nice idea that we
would be one world with no barriers,

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back to our Golden Age

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of successful, well-educated
Deaf individuals -

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it's something to think about.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)