Today is International Sign Language Day! The past month has been absolute chaos, so we have been unable to plan an event this time around. Instead, I made a quick informational video. (I’m still a learner, so I can’t guarantee I signed things correctly!)
For those who haven’t heard yet, we have a deaf person with us, Nacho. Due to a lack of proper education growing up, he largely invented his own signs instead of learning Sign Language. He’s catching up now, as well as learning to read and write in Spanish.
Nacho has made so much progress, both with sign language, and with reading and writing. Look at this poster he made to welcome me and Hannah back!
Does he know what all the words mean?… Not likely. “Keychain” doesn’t make much sense there, and why mention Yucatán? But this does show a lot of his progress, and how much he loves the people around him. His progress is also reflected in the signs he gives people.
He gave me a sign a year and a half ago, and it’s entirely based on my mustache. (Almost all of his signs for people are about their appearance.) It also throws some people off because it looks like the sign for gratis (free/no cost), but Nacho didn’t know that when he gave me the sign. Hannah’s sign is more recent, and it’s based on how her name is spelled. Nacho was very interested in her name being a palindrome. So even the signs (names) he uses for people are a demonstration of what he’s thinking of as he’s learning.
Here’s a demonstration of my sign and Hannah’s sign:
Sign Language Day is a good opportunity to raise awareness about deaf culture. Yes, “deaf culture” is an accurate term, for reasons I may get into in a future post. Sign languages are just as important as spoken languages, and, when you think about accessibility, maybe even more important!
Do you know any deaf people? Wish them a happy Sign Language Day! If you have the time to go the extra mile, learn how to say it in your country’s sign language!