Group Of Deaf People Research Articles

Análisis de los Rasgos Distintivos en la Lengua de Señas Peruana (LSP)

This research focuses on the following objectives: 1) to document and describe the distinctive function that has phonological value, and 2) to identify the distinctive features in Peruvian Sign Language (PSL) in the area of manual configuration (point of articulation, movement, space) and non-manual features. In this sense, it contributes to the study of one aspect of the phonology of PSL. For this purpose, filming was carried out and language users were consulted. The methodology included fieldwork with a group of deaf people in Lima. This exploration is pioneering for LSP, since it constitutes a first effort to provide empirical evidence on the distinctive functions of manual forms in this system. To this end, it is shown that sign language has a phonology whose basic elements (distinctive features) can be identified using the same methods as in spoken languages.

Formação superior de professores de libras: primeiros desafios ao reconhecimento do sujeito multifacetado

As instituições federais de educação que ofertam cursos superiores para formação docente em Libras devem obediência à Lei no 12.711/12 e ao Decreto no 5.626/05, concernente às políticas de ação afirmativa que contemplam, respectivamente, os grupos de pessoas egressas de escolas públicas e o grupo de pessoas surdas. Considerando que em nossa sociedade contemporânea o sujeito é constituído por múltiplas e fragmentadas identidades, o presente artigo tem o objetivo de investigar a efetivação do direito à prioridade do surdo na formação de professores de Libras a partir de uma análise ampliada do sujeito multifacetado. Os resultados evidenciaram menor adesão dessas instituições ao cumprimento da prioridade no acesso aos surdos, bem como o desafio por parte de algumas em lidar com o sujeito pós-moderno constituído por diferentes identidades.

Conceptualizing the Place of Deaf People in Ancient Israel: Suggestions from Deaf Space

Building on the recent interest in disability studies within biblical studies, this article considers the place of the deaf in ancient Israel. Positive explorations of disability by Neil Walls, Saul Olyan, and Hector Avalos have moved away from the assumption that a deaf life in the ancient world was necessarily a squalid one. Using the insights into the complexities of deaf experience put forward by the Rev. J. H. Pettingell, a nineteenth-century clergyman who worked with what were then termed the “deaf and dumb,” this article explores the different potential scenarios for a male and a female deaf person. It then considers the potential life options for a priestly son deafened early or born deaf. The conclusion notes the possibility of communal Deaf spaces in ancient Israel and calls for an acceptance of one of the central methodological assumptions of deaf studies, that where a group of deaf people come together, a signing community is likely to come into existence.

How speechreading contributes to reading in a transparent ortography: the case of Spanish deaf people

The aim of the study is to describe the performance of deaf and hearing people while speechreading Spanish, a language with transparent orthography, and to relate this skill to reading efficiency. Three groups of 27 participants each were recruited: a group of deaf participants, a chronological age‐matched hearing group and a reading age‐matched hearing group. All three were tested on vocabulary, phonological awareness, reading speed, speechreading and, only in the group of deaf people, speech intelligibility. The results indicate that deaf people are better speechreaders than younger hearing people, but they are no better than their age‐matched peers, and that speechreading is related to reading only in deaf people.

Special Issue: Language Planning and Sign Language Rights

Special Issue:Language Planning and Sign Language Rights Joseph J. Murray (bio) Sign languages exist throughout the world’s societies with varying degrees of acceptance and recognition. Sign languages have emerged as a result of the establishment of schools for deaf people as well as within shared signing communities with sign languages used by both deaf and hearing people. The past half century has witnessed remarkable growth in the academic study of sign languages around the world, an endeavor that has given scientific support to deaf communities’ advocacy for full acceptance of their sign languages by the societies in which they live. Some countries recognize national sign languages in legislation, whereas others do not. Language standardization can threaten sign languages used by a relatively small group of people by favoring a designated “national” sign language or attempts to impose an extranational signed lexicon to take the place of a naturally occurring national sign language (Adam, this volume). The theme of this special issue is “Language Planning and Sign Language Rights.” The six articles in it look at the intersections of language attitudes, public policy, and deaf community discourse at national, regional, and international levels. This is the second special issue of Sign Language Studies on the theme of language planning in sign languages in three years, following an issue in 2012 edited by Josep Quer and Ronice M. de Quadros. This issue comes in the context of widespread interest in sign language rights among academics and within the deaf community. A number of articles on language planning and sign language rights have appeared, as well as two books: Larry Siegel’s The Human Right to Language (2008) and Language Planning [End Page 375] in Sign Languages, by Timothy Reagan (2010), both published by Gallaudet University Press. This interest in sign language rights and sign language planning parallels campaigns by members of deaf communities to use sign language as a means of securing equality for deaf people in the societies in which they live. The late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth saw decades of struggle by organized deaf communities to undo misguided attempts to remove sign language from educational settings for deaf children. As I write in “Linguistic Human Rights Discourses in Deaf Community Activism,” the academic legitimacy conferred by sign language research shaped a new discourse on cultural and linguistic distinctiveness that deaf communities could use to advocate for sign language rights as a means of achieving equality in their societies. The movement for sign language rights has had to overcome the perception of sign languages as not real languages. Verena Krausneker, in “Ideologies and Attitudes toward Sign Languages: An Approximation,” writes that this is one of five ideological constructions that influence this mind-set. Others include the contention that sign languages are of limited value in an ostensibly hearing world, the problem of either/or attitudes of viewing deaf people either as having a disability or as a cultural minority, thereby characterizing both deaf people and sign language as economic burdens. In addition to these four negative frameworks Krausneker suggests that a fifth, positive, attitudinal framework can be found in the concept of Deaf Gain. Robert Adam, in his article, “Standardization of Sign Languages,” explores a particular form of corpus planning with regard to sign languages: language standardization. Although agreeing with previous scholars that such efforts have been led by hearing people or guided by priorities established by them, Adam also notes that some groups of deaf people have been involved in these attempts as well. Adams’s article gives examples of language standardization in Australia, Japan, Kenya, the Netherlands, and the Arab region. It explores arguments against language standardization by the World Federation of the Deaf and concludes that such efforts should be studied, with careful attention paid to the prime actors and to whether deaf communities’ [End Page 376] primacy in determining the use of their language has been taken into account in the process. A number of countries have recognized sign languages in various ways. Some have done so with a declaration by a government official that the national or regional sign language is indeed a language. Other forms of acknowledgment...

Funeral Rites in the British Deaf Church: A Case of Disenfranchised Grief?

This article is based on material collected as part of a PhD thesis, undertaken at the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of Bristol, which focuses on funeral customs in the British Deaf Community. A particular custom related to mourning in the Deaf church is holding a religious memorial service for community members who have died, usually about a month after the funeral. This article explores why the memorial service has developed and why it continues to hold such an important place in the lives of this group of Deaf people. It examines this religious ritual in relation to Kenneth Doka's concept of ‘disenfranchised grief’ and suggests that the main reason for the importance of the memorial service to the Deaf Community is the frequent exclusion of Deaf mourners from full participation in funeral services.

Inclusive library services for deaf people: an overview from the social model perspective.

Inclusive library services for deaf people: an overview from the social model perspective.