This week in ASL, we learned how to sign where we grew up, where we currently live, and what we live nearby. It felt like another meaningful step toward being able to describe ourselves more fully and connect with one another in sign. Our class includes students from all over North America, so it has been fun to ask where everyone is from and share where we are from using ASL.

 In the video to the left, I sign:  “I grew up in Campbell River, now I live in Victoria, near the ocean”

Deaf Culture and Community

This week we also learned about Alexander Graham Bell. While he is widely known for inventing the telephone, within the Deaf community he has long been considered as one of the enemies and is remembered for his strong support of oralism and the eugenics movement. Bell was immersed in the Deaf community from childhood, his mother was deaf-oral, and he later married a deaf-oral woman. Despite his family, he advocated for banning sign language in education and promoting oral-only instruction. He believed Deaf children should be integrated into hearing society through speech and lip-reading rather than sign language, and he supported the elimination of Deaf schools. In 1880, sign language was banned in many educational settings. This decision had huge consequences, resulting in generations of Deaf individual’s being denied access to their language. The effects included illiteracy, underemployment, and loss of culture. It was not until the 1960s that sign language began to be recognized again as a legitimate and important language. 

Learning about Alexander Graham Bell in this context was powerful and complex. It is a reminder that history often has multiple layers, something that is all too familiar in other Canadian contexts. As I mentioned in a previous reflection, Deafness is not something to be cured or fixed. ASL is an important language that is used and celebrated worldwide. Understanding this history deepens my appreciation for the resilience of the Deaf community.

Favourite Sign of the Week

Victoria

Next Week

Next Week is our final ASL class!! We are going to come together and practice signing a small auto-biography.