ASL as Our Form of Speech

Deafness, whether total or only partial, is a biological condition that makes life, language and leisure (my favorite l-words) so human that each Deaf person know which mode of communication is best because of a lifetime struggle that their deafness imposes. For example, Gallaudet University President-designate Jane K. Fernandes’ educational discovery of ASL begs for a greater development that ASL is a linguistic mandate for her speech community.

We the Deaf have yet to integrate ASL community with creation of a just, sacred and sustainable world. By "just" it means that we the Deaf aspire to a world in which all forms of inequality and dehumanization among ourselves can be overcome through both conventional achievements such as the ASL-English bilingualism, as well as through emerging modes of social action that foster empathy, trust and mutual understanding. By "sacred" it means that we the Deaf aspire to affirm the inviolate beauty and interdependence between ASL and English and deepen the sense of awe and grace that accompanies an awareness of ASL-English bilingualism. And by "sustainable" it means we the Deaf aspire to a world in which all linguistic activity is expressive of a sensitivity that assures the extension of a just and sacred world of the ASL-English bilingualism.

Are we developing our Deaf Education programs and curricula, for instance, to create pathways for Deaf children to walk toward this ASL-English bilingualism? Do we teach the need to heal from the traumas of living in less than a just, sacred and sustainable world; to resist the further destruction of the ASL-English hegemony; to create alternatives which inspire us to promote ASL-English bilingualism? Does our ASL speech community combine a pedagogy of both ASL and English which emphasizes the development of a greater understanding of the world literacy? What does the creation of this ASL-English environment require to materialize both the process of learning and the content of what is taught?

In the realm of content, do we seek to transmit to our general society the knowledge of ASL-English bilingualism? Toward a just, sacred and sustainable world, we need to capitalize what Dr. Jane Fernandes has herself discovered: sign language, be it ASL, BSL, LSF or Gebarentaal, is undebatably a form of speech for Deaf people.