So it happens? ASL Advocates are right...The Gallaudet Campus is a sacred ground for American Sign Language since its founding It has no place for audism, oralism and anything pertaining to false facades of oralism.
With the recent debate on using voice to communicate with the deaf community, it can be joke one way or another. I remembered speaking to deaf audience without signing and using my voice. It did not work out as my voice may not be perfect. Interpreters may have misinterpreted... I never hear my own voice so who cares. Whether it be good or bad, I do not mind. If my hearing peers can understand me, that is great. If they were not sure, they should have spoken up sooner. They should not have let the issue remain unsolved. Communication is a two way street!
So back to Gallaudet Campus, it is a sacred ground since the 1860's...many deaf leaders have passed through the halls of Gallaudet including Laurent Clerc, George Veditz, Robert MacGregor and many others. It would be very considerate if anyone on the campus would choose to use sign language first.
Staring at the picture above with Reverend Thomas H. Gallaudet and Alice Cogswell, this is a proof of the beginning of American Sign Language and how he went to bring Laurent Clerc to the new world in 1816.
So I tell anyone who wants to use voice to stop jowling and use sign language please! Let the interpreters be your voice and accept the dignity of the deaf culture to use American Sign Language when communicating to the Deaf community.
and also more credits to Sophia Fowler Gallaudet - the wife of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and mother of Edward Miner Gallaudet. More information about Sophia can be seen at http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Sophia_Fowler_Gallaudet
So considerably please take your (spoken) voice elsewhere!
