Sign Language Blog

Project Documents Unique Inuit Sign Language

Dr. Jamie MacDougall likes to joke that he “discovered” Inuit Sign Language the same way Christopher Columbus “discovered” America - by getting lost.

The joke, of course, is that neither of these were real “discoveries,” for anyone besides the Qallunaat.

The indigenous peoples of the Americas knew where they were, and knew intimately the land they still call home. Likewise, deaf Inuit have always made daily use of their own sign language, and continue to use and develop it regularly with family and friends.

Nevertheless, MacDougall’s “discovery” led to a multi-year project, now supported by the Nunavut Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth (CLEY) and the Department of Justice, to document the use of sign language unique to deaf Inuit people, and to provide written and audio-visual learning materials to support it.

Like Inuktitut, ISL is an indigenous language under pressure, since many deaf Inuit experienced removal to southern schools for the deaf in recent decades where American Sign Language became their first language.

Seven of the deaf Inuit who use Inuit Sign Language and who participated in the project were at the Nunavut legislature last week to help Dr. MacDougall make a presentation to MLAs.

The group displayed the new ISL materials they helped develop, including a poster, an illustrated glossary and a DVD that shows the participants telling personal stories using either ISL or American Sign Language, accompanied by simultaneous translation from one to the other.

It’s “the ‘oral history’ of deaf Nunavummiut in three communities, Taloyoak, Rankin Inlet and Pangnirtung,” says MacDougall in his introduction to the material.

The printed glossary illustrates how to form 36 different words, shown side-by-side in both Inuit Sign Language and American Sign Language versions.

“We’ve been very involved in this project,” said Tocasie Burke, the manager of Inuktitut affairs with the CLEY department. “It is important to educate people that there is such a thing as Inuit Sign Language. We had no material even to show it existed until this.”

Like spoken and written Inuktitut, she said, ISL has a special focus on words for animals and other aspects of the environment.

“It carries the culture,” Burke said.

The preservation of ISL and the availability of interpreters to ensure access to justice, education and health services may also be considered a human rights issue for deaf Nunavummiut.

“If full access to Charter rights under sections 14 and 15(1) is to be guaranteed,” said MacDougall in a paper on the subject for the federal department of justice, “then concrete steps will have to be taken to ensure that the unique communication needs of the deaf people of Nunavut are addressed.”

The eureka moment for MacDougall, who runs the Canadian Deafness Research and Training Institute and teaches at Montreal’s McGill University, came in 1997.

He was in Baker Lake to assess Inuit hearing impairment, and went out on a caribou hunt with several people, including Bobby Suwarak, who is deaf.

A storm came up, and as conditions and visibility worsened, Suwarak and his colleagues began communicating in a sign language that was completely different from anything MacDougall had seen before.

They had been shy about using it in front of him, he said, until the situation became critical.

“I became very excited,” he recalls. “I said, ‘What’s this?’”

From that “discovery” evolved a project to document Inuit Sign Language, and to prepare the glossary and DVD.

Deaf people in all parts of the world have developed their own sign languages, appropriate to their cultural contexts, MacDougall said.

In Nunavut, MacDougall has been gratified to see how the family members and friends of deaf people have accepted them and learned to speak ISL.

“This is special,” he said, noting that in southern Canada, deaf people often feel isolated from the rest of the community, who are unable to use the common American Sign Language, and generally less interested in learning to do so.

“The Inuit have something to teach the rest of Canada” in this regard, said MacDougall. Down south about one person in a thousand is deaf, but in Nunavut “we think the ratio is about three times greater.”

Oh, and incidentally, the ISL sign to indicate Jamie MacDougall involves circling a pointing finger around the crown of the head, a reference to his gleaming scalp.

http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/80926_1564.html

ESU Color Guard Learns Sign Language

East Stroudsburg University’s color guard squad has added a new facet to its performance during football games — they render the words to the alma mater in American Sign Language.

“I’m glad we started doing it,” said Ashlie Grimes, the squad’s captain. “It’s more visual. It’s more audience participation than in the past.”

But while it has performed the song twice thus far this year, the squad hit a bump.

“We took the words too literally and, when actually translated, it made no sense,” Grimes said. “People looking at the sign language wouldn’t understand what we were saying.”

About 5,000 people in Monroe County are deaf or hard of hearing, and about 150 of them use American Sign Language as their primary means of communication, according to Jeffrey Weber, an assistant professor of public administration who has conducted a survey on their needs.

The squad sought out Weber and Sandy Shaika, the sign language interpreter at ESU, and asked them to critique their translation. They found out how far off they were.

“Just because the word sounds the same, it has a different meaning if translated a bit too literally,” Shaika said.

The team had tried to translate the phrase, “mystical charms bind thine children to thee,” from the song.

Instead, their translation said something more like, “ESU is a witch that casts its spell and binds up its children.”

In fact, the sign language translation is very different: “children fascinate connect with the college,” said Shaika.

American Sign Language is a conceptual and three-dimensional language, with different grammar and syntax from typical English, Shaika said. It also relies on facial expression and body language to convey meaning.

The team first got the idea of rendering ESU’s song in sign language when its lieutenant, Caroline Meyers, attended a football game in Syracuse. There, she saw — and was moved by — that school’s color guard doing the same thing.

On Wednesday, Shaika met the color guard on the university’s football field, where she led them in a properly translated version of the song.

Shaika lauded the effort to translate the song. “I’m so happy the color guard has thought of this,” she said. “It emphasizes the diversity in our school and how we celebrate.”

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080912/NEWS/809120353/-1/NEWS01

Sign Language Bridges Gap for Deaf Student

Students giggling on a school bus is an everyday occurrence but one special student has a deeper understanding thanks to the efforts of several local youth.

Holly Brumbalow, a senior who attends Salina special needs cooperative, is deaf. Kialyn Anderson, 12, a seventh-grader at Abilene Middle School who also rides the bus, and Parker O’Neal, 9, a fourth-grader, both used sign language to ask Brumbalow how she was doing. The deaf student smiled and through sign language told Anderson and O’Neal that she “was doing fine.”

Anderson had an interest in sign language. Her mother’s best friend had a child who doctors ruled was deaf at the age of seven months. The closeness of those families led her mother to buy a book on sign language and Kialyn and her mother learned some of the basics.

Bus driver Bev Riffel does not know sign language herself, but was thankful that she had at least one student who was familiar with the subject.

“When I first found out that a special needs student would be on my bus, my thoughts were, how would my students relate to her and how would she relate to them?” Riffel said.

During the first week of school, Anderson asked the bus driver if Brumbalow knew sign language.

“I said I did not know, but she could try to do some signs with her,” Riffel explained. “Well, Holly did and Kialyn has a sign language book, which she now brings on the bus.”

Riffel said it was a fascinating exchange and the smile on Holly’s face was an indicator that the two students were able to communicate.

Anderson remembers the first time they started to communicate when school started about three weeks ago.

“It was weird at first,” Kialyn said about Brumbalow’s reaction, which was probably the result of her world being silent when she was with regular students.

“She (Holly) made a lot of noise and smiled and?I know she felt good,” Kialyn explained.

With regular communication, Anderson also gained an appreciation for Brumbalow as she likes how the teen smiles and warms up.

“She has become one of my good friends,” Kialyn said.

Anderson said it is a challenge, but she is glad she volunteered. Her work rubbed off on O’Neal.

“I think it is hard,” O’Neal said about whether it would be difficult to communicate without being able to hear. “I think ‘how are you’ is the easiest to communicate.”

Anderson said O’Neal came to her house and started to learn sign language.

Kialyn said the success over the past three weeks has continued to spur her interest in sign language.

“If we point our fingers to our mouths, Holly we’ll act like we need to be quiet and she’ll smile and act like she’s throwing away the keys.”

Brumbalow is transported to and from Salina by Kari Beetch, another bus driver. Beetch takes her to Abilene Middle School where Holly is then put on Riffel’s bus and she is taken to Holland to stay with a sitter.

Riffel said Brumbalow enjoys the communication from other students in her language.

“You see her eyes light up and she gets a big smile on her face,” Riffel said. “She will make a noise when the excitement occurs, then the students will have to give her the sign to be a bit more quiet. God tells us to show kindness, care for one another, as well as love one another. I see this on my bus and every day.

“My students did not learn this on their own and I just want to thank their parents raising a child in a loving way, as this will stay with them the rest of their lives,” the driver said. “Who knows, maybe a special needs teacher may come from this.”

“I’m so thankful. I’m pleased with the kids that they want to interact. It’s not a chore for them,” Riffel said, about the students on the bus. “Kailyn was a Godsend for us.”

A typical conversation, Anderson said, is signing a message of “how are you?” and Brumbalow will respond with “good.”

O’Neal has noticed over the weeks that Brumbalow has relaxed. Other students on the bus earlier this week included Brian Wilson, 15, a sophomore; Kevin Wilson, 10, a fifth-grader; Madison Ferguson, 10, a fifth-grader; and Molly Myers, 10, a fourth-grader.

They listened as Anderson and O’Neal communicated with Brumbalow.

http://www.abilene-rc.com/index.cfm?event=news.view&id=5294B396-19B9-E2F5-46D85BAA33FD90AD

Two-month-old Ivy Using Sign Language

A two-month-old baby girl can tell her parents when she is hungry — using the British Sign Language word for ‘milk’.

Overjoyed parents Coun Dave Hollings, 46, and Chantelle De La Croix, 37, first thought it was coincidence when baby Ivy clenched her fist, shook it and moved it towards her mouth.

But then the next day Ivy did the same action again when she was hungry and has been doing the same ever since.

Ivy’s mum Chantelle is deaf and communicates using British Sign Language to her husband and daughter.

The actual sign for ‘milk’ in British Sign Language is a clenched fist with the thumb and little finger out which you shake.

Coun Hollings, of Weavers Mews, Darwen, said: “She hasn’t quite got it right but it is clear that is what she means.

“She first did it on Friday. We thought she was waving her hands around and thought it was a coincidence that she was hungry.

“But other people have spotted it. My older daughter saw her doing it too.

“We are really proud of her. The first time it could have been a coincidence but she does it when she is hungry.

“British Sign Language is Ivy’s mum’s natural language and she has to be able to talk to her mum.

“We always use sign language around her and I speak to her too.

“It can take up to a year for babies to say their first words and it is known they can use their hands to communicate before they speak because their vocal cords haven’t been devel-oped yet. ”

Chantelle, a family sup-port worker for the East Lancashire Deaf Society, said: “I had a midwife’s appointment and she saw it.

“The midwife was very surprised.

“Sign language is really important for deaf children and children with deaf family members because it enables them to comm-unicate.”

Coun Hollings, who represents the Sunnyhurst ward of Darwen, added: “We looked up on the Internet when babies can start signing from and the earliest we have found is three to four months old.

“We are trying to teach her the sign for tired and she likes the trees when we take her out in her pram so we are trying to teach her the sign for tree.”

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/darwen/3596229.Two_month_old_Darwen_baby_using_sign_language/

Marlee Matlin Speaking at Starr’s 95th Anniversary

Through American Sign Language and the assistance of her personal interpreter, Matlin will address the audience of students, staff, families and friends of Starr Commonwealth as the organization celebrates its 95th anniversary.

Matlin is an Academy Award winner for her role in “Children of a Lesser God,” which also happened to be her film debut. She is the first deaf actress to receive the Academy Award and one of only four distinguished actresses to do so with her film debut. Along with her Oscar, Matlin has won a Golden Globe and has been nominated numerous times for Emmy and People’s Choice awards for her television roles, including “Seinfeld,” “The Practice” and more. Guest star roles on “The West Wing,” “My Name is Earl” and “Desperate Housewives” have contributed to Matlin’s stardom and celebrity status.
A mother of four and deeply passionate about children, Matlin has hosted several educational and children’s programs and appeared in Disney’s “Adventures in Wonderland,” Nickelodeon’s “Blues Clues” and “Baby Wordsworth,” part of the “Baby Einstein” series aimed at teaching sign language to infants and toddlers. She is also the author of a series of children’s books.

Matlin also is a close personal friend of Henry Winkler, last year’s celebrity speaker, who has been supportive of Matlin and her career since her childhood.

“Marlee Matlin certainly has taken what some might perceive as a disability and has spoken volumes with her courage and tenacity,” said Starr Commonwealth President and CEO Martin Mitchell. “She is such an inspiration to her fans and people around the world. We are very fortunate to host Ms. Matlin during our 95th anniversary.”

Founder’s Day is held the first Sunday of every October at Starr Commonwealth’s Albion campus. The event is free and is open to the public. It marks the anniversary of founder Floyd Starr, his family and 13 boys moving into Gladsome Cottage on Oct. 3, 1913.

Starr Commonwealth is a nationally recognized children and family services nonprofit licensed by the States of Michigan and Ohio and accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Services for Families and Children. The organization serves more than 4,000 children, families and professionals through strength-based residential and community-based programs in Albion, Battle Creek and Detroit, Michigan, and Van Wert and Columbus, Ohio. Services range from specialized treatment programs, treatment foster care, day treatment, mental health therapy, substance abuse and private therapeutic residential treatment. Starr also offers a variety of training for professionals working with youth.

“Please save the date of Oct. 5 on your calendars and plan to join us for what is going to be another exceptional Founder’s Day,” President Mitchell said.

For more information, please call 800-937-5591 or visit www.starr.org.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/Starr_Commonwealth/Marlee_Matlin/prweb1178374.htm

Music, Story and Poetry in Motion

What does happiness look like?

How about musical rhythm?

Or poetry that you can’t see on the page or hear spoken?

Katherine Fager, Janesville, has spent the past week struggling with those esoteric questions, but by Saturday afternoon she’ll have all the answers.

Fager is a sign language interpreter. At 2 p.m. Saturday, she’ll be providing sign language interpretation for the SpotLight on Kids/footlights productions musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

Her job is to translate the dialogue, music and energy of the show. It’s not like translating a couple written paragraphs from English into another language.

That would be a cakewalk compared to this.

“American Sign Language (ASL) is a language of its own, with its own idioms,” Fager explained.

Certainly, an English word can be spelled out in sign, but ASL signs can be either a words or concepts.

Then there’s the music, with its rhythms, emotion and lyrics.

How does she do it?

For the past week, Fager has been rehearsing with the 70-member cast, studying the script and perfecting her timing.

“I’ve been working on the scrip to make it as ASL as possible,” said Fager. “The lyrics are like poetry—and that’s a whole craft in itself.”

For example, in the opening song, Joseph describes a dream he had. It begins with, “I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain.”

Fager looked for the literal meaning of the words—”I’m going to sleep and having a wonderful dream”—and the emotional feeling of them. Then she picked an ASL sign that displayed “I’m going to sleep and there’s a wonderful dream coming.”

Throughout the week, Fager performed such translations on more than 20 short songs. To give deaf audience members a sense of tempo and energy, she changes the rhythm of her signing.

Expression is crucial for meaning, too.

“Part of the language is facial; my face is part of the grammar,” Fager said.

Another challenge is timing:

“I want to make sure everyone in the audience is laughing at the same time,” Fager said.

This is the second year Spotlight has employed a sign language interpreter for its summer show.

Last year, one of the girls in the show “Honk!” had deaf parents, so an interpreter was hired.

Although the actress didn’t return this summer, SpotLight’s board members decided it was something they needed to do.

“It’s part of our mission to make theater accessible to everyone,” said Stacy McNall, board director and show director. “We all agreed that it was a way of opening up a theater opportunity.”

http://gazettextra.com/news/2008/jul/18/music-story-and-poetry-motion/

Signing with Your Young One Looks Promising

Communicating is one of the most difficult skills for toddlers to learn — yet one of the most rewarding.

The pure delight they show when they have made themselves understood is a treat to watch — but the frustration when they cannot is to be avoided at all costs!

That is why Sing & Sign is so good. It combines music and fun, while teaching your youngster how to make their needs and wants known.

I took Olivia when she was nine months old and I wish we’d started earlier. She loved every minute and still uses some of the signs now.

As part of typical development before speech is well established, babies naturally use a combination of gestures and sounds to help their parents understand them.

They may point, shake their heads, clap their hands and wave bye-bye.

Sing & Sign encourages extra gestures to help your little one communicate, so they can tell you: milk; more; change nappy; tired and a whole host more.

It is wonderfully rewarding and you will be amazed by what your baby is capable of telling you before being able to say the words.

Sarah Glover runs popular classes in Exeter and Honiton. She has eight sessions over three days and teaches more than 90 youngsters. Using nursery rhymes and action songs, she introduces signs that relate to those important first words in your baby’s world.

And not only is it really useful, but it is also great fun for you and your child.

Sarah, a mum of two, has been involved with Sing & Sign for three years and for her it is a dream come true.

Shortly after having her first child, Megan, six years ago, the family moved to Honiton.

Sarah looked around for something to do with her toddler but could not find anything she liked.

She then discovered Sing & Sign and realised there were no classes in the area.

“It all suddenly just started to fall into place. I knew sign language, loved singing and amateur dramatics and wanted to work with children,” she said.

“I contacted the national organisers, got the training and bought a franchise that runs from Axminster to Exeter and Exmouth.”

After giving birth to her second child, Jonny, three years ago, she started her classes and has not looked back since.

Sarah runs four sessions in Exeter on a Wednesday morning and two on Thursdays and Fridays in Honiton. The groups are small and informal and many parents go back again and again.

Sarah Rowe has been taking her two-year-old daughter Star to the Exeter classes for the past year.

She said: “It is fantastic fun and also very useful. Star picked up the signs really well and uses them. It helped with some of the frustrations when she was younger and did not have the vocabulary she has now.”

Steve Morely’s son, Luke, who is nearly two, has also been going to the sessions for some time.

“Luke loves the singing and the signing has really helped his communication. It has also been a good way for us to get to know other parents.”

Jo Kiddle has been taking her 18- month-old son William to the sessions for about a year.

“He loves the singing and musical instruments and Sarah is a great teacher,” she said.

Simon Greenwood said the sessions have helped his daughter, Sienna, aged 18 months, make herself understood. “It has stopped a lot of the frustration and really helped her vocabulary.”

For more details contact Sarah on 01404 548829 or www.singandsign. co.uk.

Online Video in American Sign Language Showcases Verizon Wireless’ Nationwide Messaging Plan

Verizon Wireless, the wireless industry leader in customer-friendly policies, announced that the company now offers information about its Nationwide Messaging plans in online videos in American Sign Language (ASL) to better serve customers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The videos feature Tom Boudrow of the Marlboro, Mass.-based Verizon Center for Customers with Disabilities, using American Sign Language to answer frequently asked questions about Verizon Wireless’ Nationwide Messaging plans. The video clips can be viewed at http://aboutus.vzw.com/accessibility/nationwide_faq.html.

“Verizon Wireless is always seeking new and innovative ways to use technology to make it easier for customers to do business with us,” said Jack Plating, chief operating officer of Verizon Wireless. “We are pleased to offer this important customer community an alternative and accessible way to learn more about a plan designed to serve their needs.”

The Nationwide Messaging plans from Verizon Wireless are available for use with most consumer handsets, select personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smartphones, including BlackBerry(R) devices. For $34.99 monthly access, the new Nationwide Messaging plans on consumer devices include unlimited text, picture, video and instant messaging; unlimited Mobile Web access and unlimited data usage. Customers can also make voice calls for an additional 40 cents per minute. Customers who sign up for the $34.99 monthly access plan have the option of adding Mobile Email to their accounts for an additional $5 per month.

Customers with BlackBerry devices or PDAs can sign up for the BlackBerry or PDA/Smartphone Nationwide Messaging Plan for $54.99 monthly access, which includes unlimited text, picture, video and instant messaging; unlimited e-mail; unlimited Web browsing and unlimited data usage. Customers can also make voice calls for an additional 25 cents per minute. The Nationwide Messaging plans are available for all BlackBerry devices, the Verizon Wireless SMT5800, the Verizon Wireless XV6800 and the MOTO(TM) Q 9c.

Other Services Available

Verizon Wireless offers customers with disabilities a number of other services. The Verizon Center for Customers with Disabilities — with offices in Marlboro, Mass., and Oxnard, Calif. — provides customers with disabilities tools and support specifically designed to meet their communications needs. In addition, Verizon Wireless provides 411 (directory assistance) free of charge to legally eligible customers with disabilities, as defined by federal law. The company also regularly enhances its corporate Web site to create a more user-friendly experience for visually- and physically-impaired individuals. Recent updates include improved global navigation, accessible online forms, and link and image descriptions — all making it easier for screen readers widely used by customers with disabilities to navigate the site.

For more information about the Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/200807210930PR_NEWS_USPR_____NYM016.htm

Deaf Teacher Finds Connection with ESL students

The small classroom where John Kuhlman teaches English to immigrants is a far cry from the large lecture halls and auditoriums where he used to lead 1,000 students in lessons on economics.

He no longer teaches on a platform, but sits just inches from his students, intensely concentrating to understand what they are saying.

Thirty-five years ago, while a professor at the University of Missouri, Kuhlman lost his hearing. A cochlear implant, lip reading and sheer dedication now allow him to spend five days and 21 hours a week teaching 15 immigrants how to read, write and speak in English.

Kids Learn To Sign To Reach Out To Deaf Classmate

Getting fifth-graders to skip lunch and recess to study is no easy task. But a local student managed to inspire her classmates to do just that.

NewsCenter 5’s Bianca de la Garza reported that the students spent the extra time learning Michaela Borstel’s language: American Sign Language.

“I feel really welcomed here,” Borstel said of the Governor Winslow School in Marshfield.