Good morning to all of you. Thank you for having me here as your keynote speaker.The word keynote comes from the central stone in an arch- without the keynote, the arch collapses. So it is an important part of any kind of foundation. My topic today, as the keynote subject, is something I hope will become part of your day’s foundation, your career’s foundation. My name is Crom Saunders, and as for what I do, that takes some explaining. I tell everyone I have three full-time jobs, because the hours for each add up to about the same amount. I am an Associate Professor at the ASL Department at Columbia College, Chicago. This program offers two BA degrees, ASL-English Interpretation and Deaf Studies, the Deaf Studies program I am also director of. My second full time job is presenting workshops on ASL structure, creativity with ASL, ASL sociolinguistics, international sociolinguistics, Deaf culture, translation and interpretation of literature and theatre. I’ve been doing this for 16 years, so I must be doing something right. My third full time job is travelling internationally to perform. I do improv, stories, sketches, all related to how I grew up seeing the world. And I grew up at a very interesting time . . .the Eighties.
Growing up in the 80’s, I loved the music of that era. I still do. One of my all time favorite bands was OingoBoingo. They composed the soundtrack for the comedy film, “Weird Science”, the theme song being the source of the title of this speech. Here’s some lyrics from the opening (Slide #2). If you are not familiar with the story of Weird Science, it’s about two kids who create a fantasy woman using cutting edge technology- on an Apple IIe. So there’s clearly a strong reference to the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his creation. That’s a story I am sure even more of you are familiar with- a scientist who found out how to re-create life, but in the process created a monster.
The interesting thing about that story is that if you read it, instead of the Hollywood interpretations, the creation is not naturally monstrous. He is abandoned by his creator, Dr. Frankenstein, then shunned and treated horribly by everyone he encounters, because of his appearance, which is quite hideous. This turns him into a bitter, hateful being, which in addition to his vengeful actions against Dr. Frankenstein and his prodigious strength, equals monster. You’re probably figuring out that besides a huge 80’s music fan, I’m also a horror aficionado.
But why am I discussing this? What is my intention here? Well I’m setting up an analogy here. The story of someone going against the natural order of things, and it goes seriously sideways for him, and his creation equally suffers and gets maligned as a result of the doctor’s meddling. Kind of like what has been going on with American Sign Language in this country.
I do not want to enter into a debate or discussion of the medical and scientific approaches to deafness. I am here to talk about language. The power of language, and the use and abuse of that power. Language is an incredible part of our lives. Its function and impact upon each individual. One could even say that language can be . . . magical. (Slide #3)
I want to talk about the power of language. Specifically, the power of sign language for the Deaf individual. When I talk about ASL, and Deaf people, I’m also really talking about all sign languages- and here I must emphasize- languages, not systems. And I’m talking about Deaf people all over the world. Back to the power of language.That word- power. In the words of one of the coolest characters in our popular culture: (Slide #4)
Responsibility. The use, instruction, development, even media treatment of ASL has far too often been more irresponsible than responsible. And whose fault is that? No one’s.Because the entire ASL community all shares the responsibility.The entire community. That includes ASL students, Deaf people of all identities and backgrounds, CODAs, interpreters, everyone who learns and uses the language. I’d also suggest the ASL community also does include those who are exposed to it. In today’s world of social media and instant video documentation, that’s a lot of exposure.
I’ll begin with media, because I’ve done a lot of research on this- specifically the impact of social media on the perception of ASL and Deaf people. There is a great deal of footage posted online under the heading of ASL, but a close examination of the majority of the footage reveals that the signers are hearing people of varying levels of fluency. This does make sense. It’s been a great decade for ASL in terms of a language to be learned. (Slide #5)
Enrollment in ASL courses all across the nation has gone up over 1000%, ASL courses have grown in number in colleges, high schools, and now middle schools as well. Baby signs are now advocated by doctors as beneficial to cognitive development and emotional well-being. Thanks to the success of Spring Awakening in NYC and NyleDiMarco’s double victories in reality TV, and the proliferation of signed music and platform interpreting documented online, ASL is now enjoying an unprecedented height of popularity and awareness.
And yet, and yet- you all knew that was coming, didn’t you? These courses are offered almost exclusively to hearing people. We have many first language at home courses out there for Spanish speakers, European and Asian language speakers, Native American language classes. But there are virtually none offered for Deaf people, and Deaf students are often discouraged from taking ASL courses, because it would be an “easy A”. Makes me wonder why we don’t all get easy A’s in our English classes, then.
The only ASL classes designed for Deaf students that I know of are at colleges that have a high enrollment of Deaf students, many of whom begin their first year without much ASL vocabulary; CSUN, Gallaudet, and NTID/RIT. What this means is that the large majority of people learning ASL are hearing people. And only a percentage of them will really go on to use that language fluently. But outside that percentage, we have so many who are posting footage on social media. But we’ll get back to that later.
Baby signs is a growing trend, resulting in courses and programs cropping up all over America, with so many parents bringing their babies, at the advice and encouragement of their doctors. Parents with hearing babies, that is, because by some strange logic, sign language for deaf babies slows language development, is bad for cognitive progress, and impairs emotional well-being.
However, this trend has been brought to light and scrutiny thanks to advocates of ASL within the Deaf and ASL communities. Again, social media plays a large part in this. So, awareness and change have potential to influence this trend to create a more balanced view and approach to baby signs and beyond, yes? Perhaps.
With the exploding popularity of ASL in the media and in academia, we can all finally look forward to a higher standard of language awareness and dissemination, right?
Oh, don’t I wish. This is where responsibility comes in now. ASL is suffering from a major loss. The loss of integrity. Let me clarify that. Integrity. (Slide #6)
We have here two different concepts, two different definitions, but both are important when it comes to ASL. Let’s look at the second definition first, because I want to stress how important it is for all of us to understand that again, every one of us is responsible.
ASL is a new language, it is still growing, still developing, and like many other sign languages around the world, its progress has been handicapped many times over, with obstacles created of English and pidgin language structures hammered into ASL like square pegs into round holes. Unlike many other sign languages around the world, though, here in American, the native users, the Deaf (and when I say Deaf, that includes CODAs, fluent, acculturated signers as well) community members who use ASL, who also perpetuate these obstacles.
This was the subject of Ryan Commerson’s infamous “The Gallaudet Syndrome”, the article in which he pointed out that at Gallaudet University, the Mecca of the Deaf world, the largest hub of ASL growth and preservation, fluency and articulation in English is considered a sign of elite intelligence. And I ask the same question that Mr. Commerson asked, Why? Why are English skills – and here I do not mean reading and writing skills, but the ability and tendency to pepper, or saturate, ASL with specific English words, phrases, and idioms? These are two separate languages, but the Deaf community has long been exposed to the idea that the more English, the better.
Again, these are two separate languages. It is possible to be fluent in English, and fluent in ASL, without combining the two. And yet, and yet- yes I know, again, “yet”- Corrupting ASL with English is seen as an acceptable, even desirable result. But we don’t go around adding ASL to English. Why only one direction? This affects the integrity of ASL. We have Sim-Com, which enforces the superimposition of English over ASL, and we have perhaps our greatest obstacle to the integrity of ASL; fingerspelling.
Hear me out- I know this is perhaps a strange and controversial statement for me to make- but I have traveled the world, and seen Deaf communities and sign languages that are on opposite sides of this spectrum- these affected by fingerspelling/spoken language corruption, and these free of it. Fingerspelling is detrimental to ASL development. It has become a crutch for us all, even us Deaf ASL users- because it has become the easiest go-to solution for new vocabulary. Because it’s somehow more intellectual to spell it out in English than to create a linguistically correct sign in ASL. We as a linguistic community have become irresponsible in our lack of continuing to expand and deepen ASL as a language with full integrity. We have shown ASL disrespect as a language capable of so much more.
In Europe, Deaf Americans are often ridiculed in terms of how we fingerspell so much. We have the Mecca of the Deaf world in D.C., and yet our language is the butt of many jokes about how we don’t sign anything. Even in Italy, which is ground zero of the Milan Congress, fingerspelling is eschewed in favor of a much larger and richer lexicon in LIS. Also, I visited a Deaf Village, a term used to describe a community with sufficient geographical isolation and high enough incidence of hereditary deafness to generate an uniform use of sign language amidst its residents, much like Martha’s Vineyard in the 1800’s. There are currently 20 or so identified Deaf villages around the world- and the one I visited is a farming community in Adamarobe, Ghana, with a population of around 2000 people. Every generation has seen around 50 Deaf people there, long enough that Adamarobe Sign Language, in daily use by the entire community, has been documented as going back 1500 years. Six times older than ASL’s history. And there is no manual alphabet in Adamarobe Sign Language. And it is a beautiful, complete language.
I understand that fingerspelling has a function. It is a contact language, a bridge for communication at its most basic. A bridge between English and ASL.A bridge between new terms, proper nouns, names and designated signs. But a bridge is intended to provide passageway, not a place to remain. A bridge gets enough wear and tear as it is, but if everybody remains in place on the bridge, eventually the bridge may collapse. And passage into the destination is blocked. We have a responsibility to show ASL the respect it deserves by helping it to grow, by constantly adding to the lexicon. All of us. You. Me. Waiting for someone else to do it will not advance the language or the community. We fingerspell too much. We have no signs for so many words, in science, technology, math, literature, art, even name signs for our historical figures.
The one name sign we have for a classic author, Shakespeare, only exists because it is a portmanteau of two unrelated signs. BSL has two, TWO different name signs for Shakespeare, based on his appearance, as per the norm for name sign origins. But we fingerspell all our household names. And the cycle of not allowing ASL to flourish continues.
However, this is where the second definition of integrity comes in. The people best qualified to represent a language are these most proficient in it. Therein lies the problem. Too many people are not maintaining integrity in their fluency in ASL. In today’s world of instant internet fame via social media and uploading videos, we have way too many people purporting to be fluent in ASL presenting work or art, and teaching ASL to an audience that does not know the difference between an articulate, fluent user, and a duffer. Here is where integrity suffers the greatest blow: mainstream society pays more attention to these who can display superiority in Spoken English alongside their ASL skills, whatever level that may be at. If you do a YouTube search of “Learning ASL”, the first ten results that come up only feature one Deaf person’s videos. The rest are hearing people, and in 7 out of these remaining 9, they use sim-com the entire time. One vlogger in particular defends her sign language skills, saying she is not actually learning and using ASL, but PSE, another sign language used in America.
Stop right there. There is one sign language in America. One. Everything else is pidgin, or a manually coded system. But try explaining this to mainstream society. The voice of these vloggers drowns out the collective expression of the Deaf/ASL community. We have been irresponsible in allowing this to continue. We share videos of “cute couples” signing music badly. We do not caption videos done in ASL for the benefit of these new to ASL/Deaf culture. We do not speak out against people who perpetuate poorly executed ASL and promote it as language, or worse yet, profit off it.
We make excuses. We say, “Well, that video won’t circulate much longer.” We say, “ Oh, so-and-so is an advocate for the Deaf community. He or she will get on this.” We say, “But that person is trying! They’re helping spread awareness of ASL!”
We have had the wrong impressions of ASL circulate far too long. We have depended on a handful of advocates (some who never caption their ASL videos) too long. There are vloggers whose videos have been up 5, 7, 10 years, still modeling incorrect, corrupted ASL. This is inconscionable. This is unacceptable. The language you have learned, this gift from the Deaf people of America, the language many of you not only earn a living from, but also rely on for communication with colleagues, friends, family, your gateway into an entire culture and community deserves more respect than that.
Kristin Henson, who never took an ASL class, but taught herself from books how to sign phrases in completely non-conceptual sign languages, should never have had her book on how to sign slang and dirty phrases in ASL published. She had no right to profit off her cultural appropriation, her exploitation of the ignorance of her fans and supporters who do not know what true ASL looks like.
The media should not be allowed to keep on interviewing and publishing articles only on sign language interpreter at events; rather than the entire reason they are present; the Deaf community members at these events. Balance is necessary. Interpreting is hard work, and deserves recognition, absolutely, but without ASL, without Deaf people, sign language interpreting would not exist.
Deaf people should be cast in Deaf roles in movies, especially roles that call for fluent ASL, and if they are not, these movies should not be watched, not even “just to see how bad the ASL is”- this just encourages writers, directors, producers to continue disrespecting the language and the culture and the community. It also allows for “bad ASL” to be modeled as the real thing. Talk about horror movies!Out your support behind #DeafTalent, the recent movement behind casting Deaf actors in Deaf roles, especially these that require fluency in ASL.
Maybe I come across as passionate, even emotional, about this topic. Of course I am. This is my language, my identity, my means of communication, learning, sharing, teaching, expression, my joy, my art, my knowledge.
And I see absolutely no reason why it can’t be yours!
This goes beyond the concept of equality- we are talking about equity. (Slide #7) If we all strive for ensuring that ASL has integrity, and the people who use ASL have integrity, then we are being responsible. We are being responsible language stewards. Cultural stakeholders. Allies. And all the while we are enriching our own minds and worlds. You’re bilingual at the least! How cool is that?
These Deaf villages I mentioned earlier, there was actually equity. Because there was no language barrier. None. In Adamarobe when I was there, the hands were flying. The laughter, the camaraderie, the kinship was apparent, and there was no difference between the Deaf and hearing villagers. No difference. That is equity. If we approach ASL with the same equity as any other language- keeping it uncorrupted, feeding it, adding to it, maintaining its proper usage (with plenty of space for creativity and experimentation, just like any other language) then it will become equal in the eyes of everyone in America. There will no longer be the need for the terms “within” and “outside” the ASL community.