Tuesday, April 1, 2008

AG Bell is very quiet lately

I am not aware of any news or any actions coming from AG Bell other than their upcoming conventions. On June 27, 2008, AG Bell members will gather in Milwaukee for AG Bell’s 48th Biennial Convention wearing those ugly t-shirts. I was looking at one of the sponsors for the convention and noticed that Gallaudet University is one of them. AG Bell does not use ASL, promote ASL in fact, they do not accept ASL.

What I am wondering is what is Gallaudet University doing about AG Bell Association and its oppression of Deaf culture? Gallaudet University should be leading in finding ways to build bridges with AG Bell. I also recommend that National Association of the Deaf (NAD) do the same. I am getting tired of seeing many professionals accepting AGbell's agendas without checking all other aspects. AGBell's agendas toward the Deaf Culture are very biased and they are stereotyping through prejudice. We can change AGBell's attitude by making postive actions to let them know that we disagree with them.

For years, they have been promoting myths that Deaf culture using ASL isolates themselves from mainstream society including hard of hearing. This type of stereotyping is causing strife between many deaf individuals. I believe parents are to help their deaf children endure with deafness by having the early intervention to successfully acquire language is to use combination of sign language and/or spoken language. We must remember that the Deaf culture is based on the heritage and traditions of the Deaf community, not about deafness itself. We are to treat all deaf individuals equal opportunity to undertand all aspects of the deaf community, culture and education. This is really about about non-culturally Deaf people learning to accept Deaf culture & language without judgements.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes,
Many people in the Deaf community as well as (low-rank) members of AGBell are getting fed up of the ideology of focusing one method and not the bilingual method.

Come to Milwaukee and TELL AGBell to "TEAR DOWN THIS (BERLIN) WALL".

AGBell's "BERLIN WALL" holocaust (ed) thousands, if not millions of Deaf babies, children, adults all over the world of their natural communication language for over 128 years.

If AGBell wanted Deaf babies and children in schools to learn oral method, why must sign language be eliminated back in 1880.

Bilingual method have proven to progress so much better...but AGBell's self interest ideology with their millions of dollars... controled the minds of many people, including parents of Deaf babies at start to learn how to learn.

We need to convince AGBell to "TEAR DOWN THE WALL"

JOHN