Born Deaf people (or those who became deaf before speech was acquired) will state categorically that they are a linguistic minority … utilising British Sign Language (BSL) (or Portuguese Sign Language) as their first language. They will say that ‘hearing’ people discriminate against them by not learning their language and are therefore forced into using the language of the majority which does indeed disable them in a variety of ways. Dear reader – you will perhaps understand this when you are forced to communicate in Portuguese when your first language is English!

Born Deaf people will characterise themselves by the capital letter ‘D’ which differentiates them from the hard-of-hearing and those who have become deaf overnight or a longer period of time…and who rely on lip reading or attempting to hear the spoken word. This latter group tends not to learn BSL as they rarely mix with BSL users.

The Deaf Community is a distinct group of Deaf people whose culture and method of communication is common. Most Deaf people have Deaf partners where the ease of communication means that life at home is much more relaxed than at work where spoken and written English reign supreme! ‘Hearing’ children who live with them develop BSL as their first language but then go on to learn the language of the majority world when they start nursery. Some of the best Sign Language interpreters emanate from this group as they have had a head start in interpreting for their parents at an early age.

Recognition

British Sign Language has now gained legal recognition in that it is a language in its own right with its own grammar and syntax – quite distinct from spoken English. It is a fascinating way to communicate and, as a ‘hearing’ individual I can never hope to achieve a full understanding and fluency despite having worked with the Deaf Community for almost 50 years, initially as a social worker with Deaf people and later as a professional interpreter.

When communicating in BSL it says it as it is. For example: “it’s raining.” You know exactly how hard it’s raining by the fingers/hand movements…it can be absolutely pelting down or just drizzling – there’s no mistake in understanding what it’s like outside. And, of course, thunder and lightning can add drama to the visual effect. Where the problems do occur is the juxta position of the English language. A ‘hearing’ person may say: “it’s raining cats and dogs” to emphasise the picture in speech but Deaf people get confused with these euphemisms. “Going bananas” is another one and any decent interpreter will avoid these distracting words and settle for signing the meaning of what has been said.

Facial expression, body language, and visual clues all go towards communicating the intended message in a seamless flow which, to the untrained eye, can seem meaningless … in much the same way as a Deaf/deaf person watching a purely verbal conversation. In recent years there has been a surge of interest amongst ‘hearing’ people in learning BSL. Well, that’s to be applauded and you can learn the basics – and more – at a variety of venues. The problem is of course that - like any language – if you don’t use it you lose it! People have told me that when meeting a Deaf person, they’ve tried to dredge-up signs that they learned years ago – having never met a Deaf person since – and the Deaf individual’s eyes have lit up assuming that they’re a fluent BSL user…their hopes becoming dashed when the conversation turns out to be somewhat basic and laboured.

Regional variations

What’s also confusing to the learner is that BSL has regional variations in much the same way as spoken English has dialects. Deaf people aren’t fazed by this and adapt their communication accordingly when travelling around the country. I’m aware of six different signs for the word “man”… but all denote a male beard. For “woman” – it’s usually a finger sliding across the cheek denoting the notion that all women of course have soft skins! German Sign Language tends to be a little more graphic and their sign for “woman” denotes two cupped breasts! I took a group of British Deaf children on an exchange visit to a huge residential school for the Deaf near Frankfurt back in the seventies. Well, the youngsters naturally picked up quite a lot of the more colourful German signs and it was the devil’s own job to dissuade them from using them once we got back to the UK! Their parents were not best pleased!

When you consider that one in one thousand per population is congenitally Deaf, the likelihood of you meeting a Deaf person on a regular basis is pretty remote unless they’re a close relative, a colleague at work or you attend a Deaf club.

Tread their own path

As in the ‘hearing’ world each Deaf person is an individual in their own right and each treads their own path in their own way. Most grow up in a family where their parents and siblings have normal hearing; only 10% of Deaf children are born to Deaf parents. Prior to the seventies, parents of Deaf children were actively discouraged from signing by the health professionals and educators on the premise that, once in the big wide world outside education, sign language would be of little use to them. Other professionals argued that Deaf children could be educated to a high level through the medium of sign language and then choose whatever method of communication that suited them.

On a personal level, my elder sister was educated in a day school for the deaf within a purely oral/aural system whereas my younger brother attended a residential school for the deaf where he was educated using sign language. As a result, my sister’s speech is akin to that of a ‘hearing’ person and she lip-reads exceptionally well. She has a Deaf partner; she has three ‘hearing’ children and is able to interact easily around both Deaf and ‘hearing’ individuals. My brother is a well-balanced and respected member of the Deaf Community; he also has a Deaf partner and two Deaf children.

Both my siblings worked throughout their lives and are now enjoying a well-earned retirement. That’s two very different individuals in the one family!

And that is the story of Deaf/deaf people the world over.

I hope you enjoyed reading my three articles and that they went some way in understanding what deafness means to different people.

Remember… it’s not a case of if you become deaf. It’s a matter of when!

If you would be interested in learning the basics of Sign Language the author may be contacted at kgbutterfield@hotmail.com