Deaf Flyer is right, most of the hearing parents of Deaf children have very little ASL skill. Most, not all. Often I have to interpret between a hearing parent that is like 60 years old, and their 30 year old Deaf son because the parnets never learned the language.

That really is terribly sad .


I can't help but suspect that there will be a backlash against English as a Lingua Franca in the not too distant future. The 'dream' I'm describing would merely be a pragmatic approach to solve mainly the problems of the hearing. It seems so natural to use your hands when attempting to communicate with someone who's language you don't share.

Humans are pretty selfish, I doubt a SL could take off for purely altruistic reasons (and It's awful folks won't learn to communicate in their child's language), but given a choice between learning basic Mandarin Chinese or basic ISL in order to get by, I can't help but wonder if an ISL could be given a proper chance, especially now/tomorrow when Sign Languages can be supported in so many different formats.

My mother never learned ASL... she didn't have to and I would very much prefer she didn't.

I still do not understand the importance of ASL and I wasn't raised using ASL despite profound deafness since birth. I am truly grateful for SEE (signing exact english) giving me the ability to read and I would rather see more schools embracing SEE. After all, the average reading grade of Gallaudet University students are in the 4th grade which is an utter disgrace!

Woah...what a groovy and awesome thread...kudos to the op

As a Deaf individual, I speak Italiano and Deutsch fluently along with English as my primary language and American Sign Language as my secondary. I know the manual alphabet for British Sign Language which is also the manual alphabet for New Zealand & Australalia (where I learned).

Now...as for airplanes...I'm always caught traveling up front in the F cabin on US Airways, and soon to be Continental but it seems like it's all XJT to CLE for me then a 737-500 to BWI...if I'm going to DCA, it's another XJT flight...What gives but...

To answer the OP's question...it's indeed like riding a bicycle. The reason you don't see that many Deaf people on airplanes is because unfortunately they fly LCC like Southwest, JetBlue, or AirTran but...there are some who fly on legacy carriers...

In my lifetime I have only flown w/ other deaf people four times that was not in my "party" out of 2,000+ flights revenue and nonrevenue...Odd huh

I usually do not identify myself as Hearing Impaired anywhere...I don't want the special treatment and I certainly do not play the deaf card unlike 75% of the Deaf world

RJ

As someone who's hesistant about being a student at GU (atleast I am in the top 5 of my class) I wholeheartdly agree about your statement...I would prefer SEE with a combination of ASL (PSE) which is my primary communication w/ sign language...and I get grief over it all the time from the kindergarten reading kids "You too much english no good" Im like huh...sorry I would rather sound smart than sound dumb

There is an International Sign (not a language because it is mostly gestures).

We used it at the World Federation for the Deaf Congress in Madrid, Espana last July...all I can say is WOW and I want to learn more of it...It is so fascinating and at the same time...it's hard to describe the feeling I had but...it's so far out of the world to be learning an unique language as this!


By the way DHammer...that's not the sign for work that's "salt" I think

Wow! A deaf person saying what my wife and I have been thinking for over 10 years!!!! Its very tough to go and interpret for people that I KNOW are just using their deafness to get away with bad behavior! I understand the difference between the deaf and hearing cultures, but that does not mean its ok to be a complete jerk to everyone just because you are deaf.

Maybe it's because I was raised in the Hearing world, treated as an equal. I do admit communication is always an issue but I was never treated any special...My HS Baseball + Football coaches never treated me any different...they yelled the same

I'm personally sick and tired of when people play that card. They will get an "eyeful" from me then take that left turn into First Class as they sit in Economy.

I frown even on deaf people trying that just to get a discount to get into museums.

Nauseating!

Great Thread!!!

I am new here but definitely not new to flying. My father worked for the airlines so I grew up on a plane.

I am also an Interpreter and fluent in ASL, PSE and SEE. I work post-secondary so I deal mostly with PSE.

Out of all my years of flying, there was only one flight where the majority of the plane were Deaf. I was on my way to an interpreter convention in San Antonio and the flight was connecting from DFW.

A lot of the airplanes now have the little TV that comes down and I notice at least the safety demonstration is captioned.

My wish is that all airports or airplanes could have a "ticker tape" type box at each gate that has the announcements that roll across the screen. I am not sure what these boxes are called but you see them everywhere except airports. Most of them are a LED type format and in red letters.

Great to see Deaf/deaf people on the boards!!!! Howdy to my fellow terps!

I'm only hearing impaired, with ridiculously expensive hearing aids. Fortunately I had an employer with an insurance plan that covered them. I no longer do. Eh.

I'm an ASL student at MCC in Mesa, AZ. I find languages fascinating in general, I travel a lot on personal trips. I've often wondered if there'd ever be a market for translators between different national sign languages, or for ASL tour guides leading deaf Americans overseas. Even if so, that's a bit off in the distance as I'm only completing Sign Language 101 right now.

Pity there's not a way we can easily sign here - I would love the repetitive practice with another patient signer. There aren't a lot of regular options where I live.

Agreed

......

So, I don't often see Deaf people traveling at airports... but here's my reasoning.
Most of the time, people travel by themselves on an airplane. Why would a Deaf person be signing to themselves!?!?!?
Secondly, as someone mentioned before, people are texting a lot now-a-days. Even if flight personal was assisting a deaf person, they'd probably text on the device, or show them pictures. OR, make sure they saw their safety video in CC, etc.

As for your last question, depending on how many years you took the language, and how often you used it, etc it will either come back no problem, or you will definitely have brush up on some signing videos

I would really really love to learn sign language. I have considered taking classes or watching videos but I am afraid if I learned it I would lose it quickly as I really have no one to practice it with. Any suggestions?

I'm a bit biased but it's quite easier to learn than any of the romantic languages There's some Deaf Coffee Chats for ASL Students to go to in local communities so the best place to start at would be the Community College and go from there... The pieces will fall in place I promise you.

I've flown multiple flights a year to China in the last five years. Never seen anyone sign on any of those flights or for that matter in China.