[DEAF]

Part of the SIGNS OF TIMES series.

This is the face of the series SIGNS OF TIMES, a snippet from the Australiasian Signs Dictionary, otherwise known as Signed English. Signed English was a communication tool that was spread across deaf schools and facilities in Australia between 1980s and 1990s in an attempt to circumvent the ever-expanding gap of language deprivation between deaf and hearing children.

Sign language has always been ours and the concept of adjusting sign language to match the English syntax was conceived by a deaf academic, Marsheck, who underlined that the use of this strategy was to be limited to only English classes in school. However, hearing teachers of the deaf did not read this clause and appropriated the concept to spread various versions of Signed English (or Signed Exact English) across institutions, replacing sign language development. By the time research came out that invalidated the use of this system, Australia was picking up steam and implementing it in the 80s to 90s. Predictably, it did not succeed - so the hearing teachers of the deaf shuffled off into the teacher’s offices, leaving deaf people with the question: what was the impact of replacing a rich language with a communication tool?

I grew up with this dictionary as Auslan was not a recognised language and thus had little to no access nor resources, leaving my parents to rely on the “expert” advice of hearing teachers of the deaf. Their suggestion: replace my language development with Signed English, an exceedingly limited system where the focus was on the auxiliary verbs, not concepts. linguistic overprotection at full force.