Read on Twitter
Ok, since i’m trapped by a adorable cat on my lap here’s a thread on why expecting English captions to ASL videos is problematic —
What most people do not realize, including ASL Deaf people themselves, is how insidously English has invaded ASL and continues to dominate cultural expectations of ASL. US Deaf children are taught from birth that English is their measure of success at the cost of everything else.
Even bilingual ASL-English education emphasizes English. A kid may be the most eye-popping fluent ASL speaker but they’re still a failure if their English isn’t up to par. There’s this false subconscious narrative in Deaf ed that hearing people are perfect English speakers.
hence Deaf kids are pressured to measure up to their “perfect” hearing peers. Signed English came about because hearing educators thought it’d be a great way to visually program English into Deaf children’s minds.
What really happened was that a few Deaf children with linguistic aptitude made it to the head of the class with everyone else left behind. ASL itself became intermixed with English — to the point where arguably one would need to know English to understand ASL.
I think this is a terrible linguicist travesty. It’s absolutely understandable that when two languages come into regular contact, some borrowing will happen. But the relationship between ASL and English is not equitable. The more English in your ASL the more privilege you have.
Which means privileged Deaf speakers often have the most opportunity to make videos, etc., propagating the spread of that English-corrupted ASL dialect. Bringing English captions into the deal often means this:
The ASL speakers work from a written English script. What do they translate in their head? That’s an extra layer of processing that usually leaks English through. Well now we have captions and a transcript ready but do we have ASL?
Now what if they aren’t working from a script and decide to go straight out ASL? There is no commonly-used written ASL so this would depend on their experience and practice. They finish the video and edit it. But alas, they have to wait for English to “permit” sharing.
And even with asking for community assistance, English holds weight on their message. The fact that it is in the picture is linguicist. If we want empowered sign languages, we need to be thinking of SL-centric solutions.
written SL captions, networks of volunteer IS or local SL translators, etc. The power ought to be in the hands of our signing communities, NOT imperialist audiocentric languages. Think about things in new ways. Offer support in visual languages.
P.S. Do NOT drag DeafBlind people in as an excuse to push English onto Deaf people. The DB community has their own discussions on access. It’s rude to only show interest in DB people when one wants to “win” a discussion. @johnleeclark is a good contact for serious inquiries.
