I am soon traveling to speak out for Deaf Language Rights.
We, the United States, have signed the UN Charter for the Rights of Disabled People. Now we need to integrate those rights and principles into our policies. The charter states that EVERY deaf person has the right to a signed language. This seemingly sane and sensible idea - visual language for visual babies - is foreign to most of the "experts" advising new parents of deaf babies. They are often told "Do not sign to your baby" while we are told in many books and articles to sign to our hearing babies. This ludicrous irony must stop.
Please help me in encouraging all parents to sign to all babies. Babies love signing. Why? Because all babies are visual, if born with working eyes.
The promise of some electonic connection to the auditory part of the brain via cochlear implant surgery does not have to come at the expense of no or little linguistic input while testing, discussing, cutting, healing and training (1-2 years of precious-essential- language learning time).
Idea: BILINGUALISM Give the baby a visual language for an equal chance to language from the crib, while discussing additional (not alternative) avenues for language or language reception/expression. Many Deaf people would not be against cochlear implants if they were offered in the spirit of bilingualism instead of an alternative to deafness, as if the baby could be "cured."
Idea #2: Let us learn from each other by letting people be fully who they are. For example, we could learn how to see better from our deaf babies, and celebrate a beautiful visual language.
For vision and an amazing visual world,
susan schaller at www.susanschaller.com
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