GRE - Use of Voice (Lesson)

Use of Voice

Respect Deaf Culture

It is important to respect Deaf culture. Develop the habit of always signing when you know a deaf person is in the same room with you. This helps to ensure equal access to what has been communicated. Using your voice to talk to another hearing individual, instead of signing, when a deaf person is near is considered rude. If you must speak to a hearing person who doesn’t know ASL, then inform the Deaf individual of that first before speaking. 

Simultaneous Communication

Simultaneous communication, also known as simcom, is a  "communication method" in which one "speaks" both spoken English and manually coded English at the same time, that is, speaking and signing at the same time.  This is problematic because English and ASL are two separate languages with their own syntax, semantics, and structure. They are as distinct as any other spoken and signed languages. One cannot produce two languages at the same time.

When attempting to use both English and ASL at the same time, more frequently, if not always, one will speak full English and produce a broken ASL.  When attempting to simcom, the dominant language (in this case English) corrupts grammar in the oppressed language (in this case, ASL).  It also impacts the intonation, contextual meanings (words in different contextual sentences), and other linguistic features of ASL.  This indicates that ASL tends to be regarded as inferior and English tends to be chosen or prioritized over ASL.  It's part of a history-long oppression of audism and linguicism. (Discrimination against those who can't hear and use a different language.)

Don't try to sign and speak at the same time. 

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