As we have edited web texts for the Kairos 7.1 CoverWeb on Disability and Technology, we have found that the issues go deep and the answers are many. By looking only at one of the issues presented by the CoverWeb authors - accessibility and deafness - we see some of the complications of choosing from differing language media for a deaf child. The choices also have significant implications for the child’s later success in higher education and in adult life. Thus, understanding that no one position holds the answer, we invited Michael Salvo and Marlana Portolano to discuss their views and their webtexts.

Salvo has written an ethnographic web text about his own experiences and those of certain deaf students in an American university setting. His students primarily were users of American Sign Language (ASL). Portolano has written a semi-autobiographical, and yet ethnographic, web text about her choices to teach her newly adopted daughter from the Ukraine - who is profoundly deaf - to read, write, "hear," and speak English. She chose Cued Speech (CS) rather than ASL as her daughter’s language medium. Both Michael and Marlana are rhetoricians and experienced teachers of writing, which leads us to some unique views of accessibility and deafness. Here is the Instant Messenger™ chat Beth Hewett, CoverWeb Co-Editor, conducted with them.

Hewett: Michael, before reading Marlana's text, had you ever heard of Cued Speech (CS) and how does her discussion of teaching English as a first language to her daughter shape your thoughts about your own students' struggles with English in higher education?

Salvo: Interesting question. I have heard of CS, but have had no experience with that form of language instruction/communication. What it inspired in me was thinking about ASL as Deaf culture, at least in the USA.

Hewett: Could you tell us more about that?

Salvo: I went to school (for my MA) at SUNY Binghamton when both L. Davis and D. Bauman were there. Bauman was working with sign language poetry. He is a hearing child of Deaf parents, and was a huge proponent of Deaf culture. I became interested in the issues of performative sign poetry, as a part of visual language and rhetoric, and the interest was part of my interest in working with this population of students at this University described in my web text. Marlana, can you talk a little about CS?

Portolano: Sure. First in response to what you've said, your text also made me think in terms of ASL as Deaf culture, although I had thought of it that way before. I think ASL is the carrier of Deaf culture.

Salvo: I agree.

Portolano: Your text especially made me think more about the “exclusivity” of both cultures. More on that later. Back your request about on CS. It's a tool for making spoken English visible. Eight hand shapes cue the consonants in English to distinguish one from another when they look the same on the lips. Four positions of the hands around the mouth cue the vowels. To cue diphthongs, the speaker slides from one vowel position to another. It is a simple and elegant tool. In cueing to my daughter or other deaf cuers now, I don't even have to think about what I'm doing. It's automatic, like typing. For the receiver of CS, who has been receiving cues for a while, it is as easy to receive as spoken language is for the hearing. Children acquire internal, (sometimes) silent oral language using CS at the same rate that hearing children learn oral language

Salvo: Very interesting. And it is English, with visual cues, rather than a separate language like ASL. But I still cannot shake the sense that, as valuable at CS is, ASL will continue to be an important carrier of Deaf culture.

Portolano: Absolutely. It IS Deaf culture, as you've pointed out. CS is just a tool for conveying any spoken language. It’s been adapted to 50 languages. Really, CS is another MODE of English (when its in English): speech is one mode, writing another, and cueing yet another.

Salvo: An important distinction.

Hewett: As I listen to both of you, I find that I'm interested in hearing more about what is Deaf culture and how it is defined. To what degree does ASL as a language inform Deaf culture?

Salvo: I do not know if I can answer that question. My exposure to Deaf culture has really been limited to my ethnographic work that I have written about and my interest in ASL poetry as visual rhetoric.

Portolano: I think ASL is the carrier of Deaf culture, but it includes a lot of things, like poetry, literature, group identifications and histories. I don't feel I'm really qualified to define it completely.

Salvo: Marlana, can you talk about the exclusivity of English and ASL you mentioned above?

Portolano: Yes, I was struck by your description of the "deafened moment." Your student John could not understand the expectations made of him, and the institution could not understand his request for accommodation. There seemed to be no way for either side to get through.

Salvo: Yes - it became very frustrating for us both.

Portolano: There was not even an appropriate mediator or translator for each side to the other.

Salvo: Perhaps, but I think (in writing earlier drafts) I "went native" in the best sense of ethnographic research. I started to see what these students were facing, from their perspective, and was frustrated that their needs were not met.

Portolano: Did John enter the university under open admissions? And, was he tested at all for reading and writing level?

Salvo: No, this student was admitted as a regular admit. He had very high mathematical test scores and had significant engineering experience.

Salvo: Beth, the questions you asked me about an earlier draft, about the problems facing educators and the challenges of ASL being like ESOL ... those were interesting questions and challenges.

Hewett: Shall I restate them here?

Salvo: Please do. I think they are at the heart of my study and at the heart of the decisions Marlana made both about using CS and Cochlear implants.

Hewett: Although you acknowledge in your drafted web text that John could not communicate well in Standard Written English (SWE) because his native language is ASL, you still seem to have had the expectation that you/university should have been able to assist John better with SWE. Given John's lack of familiarity with English, that expectation seems a bit naive. Indeed, you appear to indict yourself and the university unfairly for not helping John more. I wonder if it is useful to draw an analogy with teaching ESOL students. For many ESOL students, little can be done in one semester and it may take them many attempts to learn and acquire fluency in SWE. If ESOL and ASL language based students are not analogous, then perhaps there is a correlation to developmental writing students. They often have been "failed" by lower education systems and will need much more time and energy (the likes of which we're still trying to figure out) to become fluent speakers, writers, and readers of SWE. Developing critical thinking within the scopes of their language deficiencies is challenging, too. Just as these students are "disabled" in language proficiency, John and other native ASL speakers may be similarly disabled. How does this analogy play out for you when you think of the difficulties of your ASL speaking deaf students who struggle in your classes and in higher education in general?

Salvo: I think the connection to ESOL is an important one. In the latest form of the web, I address ASL as foreign language proficiency a bit, but I wouldn't want to go too far in creating an analogy. There are different issues and concerns that go along with Deafness that make it distinct from second language acquisition. I mention similarities to basic writing because BWs were a misunderstood "new" population that the University (in the generic sense) had not intersected with. So, too, the GI Bill brought working class students into the University. Open admissions brought under-prepared. Women, African-Americans, Latinos entered in larger numbers later in the 20th century. And now we have a new challenge in Deaf and differently-abled bodies after the ADA

Portolano: Why do you think English must be different as a second language for the Deaf? (Different from other ESOL situations?)

Salvo: Deaf culture is an internal American culture. I'm not sure, really. I think I understand the argument as to why it is ESOL, but I would only go so far as to say that there are ESOL-like issues - it's not the same because of the history of discrimination against the deaf and hard-of-hearing. I think about the isolation of individual Deaf children finding, as in my stories of Sue and Jenny, friends with similar experiences at "Deaf Camp." That's not the same as a student coming from another culture with another language and trying to assimilate to mainstream culture in another language. Similarities, sure, but a world of differences as well.

Portolano: So, their isolation makes them different from other ESOL learners? They are not wishing to assimilate, just to participate marginally? I'm just wondering, what if English could be made visually accessible to adult deaf learners of written English? Aside from the question of assimilation and separateness, wouldn't writing be easier if someone could show them spoken English in natural conversational use? In immersion, perhaps?

Salvo: They are not wishing to assimilate, just to participate marginally? No, they haven't been able to participate, and the students I worked with found commonality and community in ASL.

Portolano: The uses of articles and prepositions would be easier to pick up, similar to the ESL learner in immersion. Ah, yes.... I see what you mean about not being “able” to participate, and finding community in ASL.

Salvo: But that assumes that spoken language is somehow more natural than sign language. Prepositions and articles exist in ASL, but in different ways/forms. I'm uncomfortable now because I am not a fluent ASL user - I picked up just enough to get by with my ethnography, and so I hesitate to represent ASL. I just got a glimpse into another community.

Portolano: Even deaf cuers usually prefer to sign among each other...it seems intuitive for people without hearing to communicate without oral language or reference to speech. Yes, ASL is a complete language. So, English should be within reach for them as a second language if it is accessible. I am not sure that the written form alone makes it as accessible as it needs to be, for fluent second-language acquisition.

Salvo: Yes, and yet they have been surrounded by English their whole lives . . . so it is and it isn’t second language.

Portolano: How many hearing people have learned fluent written foreign language just by reading the language and writing in it? There are probably no statistics on that.

Salvo: Yes, Marlana, I think that's the distinction I was grasping for. The ability (or inability) to interact with text vs. oral language.

Portolano: I think CS can help with that.

Salvo: Here, I refer back to Batson's essay "The Origins of ENFI." Batson developed tools (like this chat space) to support textual interaction among apprentice writers. And we take text-based discussion for granted now in 2002, but in 1984, it was a pretty radical pedagogical tool.

Portolano: I think it's a great idea, a good tool. And I think it might really help some deaf writers with the more ESL-like aspects of their learning process, but there is still a missing link without conversational oral language use.

Salvo: Yet I do not think that "link" can be replaced. I think we are approaching the discussion of the implant now, which was a huge topic during my ethnographic study.

Portolano: I'm imagining programs for ASL-users in mainstream American universities-where like the earlier ESOL students, they can immerse-perhaps with the help of CS. Adult deaf people can learn to cue.

Hewett: We’re coming up to the end of our hour now. I'd like to ask a final question, if I may. Both of you have had the opportunity to explore disability and accessibility regarding deafness in unique ways - at least, they're unique to many of Kairos' readers. Given that most of us are highly focused on the teaching and learning of the English language (and the ability to think critically with language), do you have any final thoughts for our readers, such as caveats about your web texts or advice for us when we encounter disability or accessibility issues in their varied forms as we strive to teach our students?

Salvo: For readers of my web, I want readers to be aware that I am not accusing the University of anything but trying to represent the perspective of the students I was working with. The students thought that accommodation meant something different than the office of student services, than the Dean of Students' office, and the office of Disabled Students. I want to look ahead and think about the issues we are currently deaf to, the challenges we cannot yet fathom, and always be re-forming the institution to accommodate difference.

Portolano: I think that's a clear point in your text, Michael. Readers of my text should understand that I am not against ASL culture because of my choice to use CS and English. I just thought that adopting a child, any child, and then learning a new, foreign language to teach the child in exclusively would not work for me.

Salvo: Marlana, I think that comes through. I never thought, either from your webtext or from this discussion, that you de-valued ASL or Deaf culture. The experiences you describe are powerful, and I am sure you faced and continue to face difficult quandaries every day. I appreciated reading your web, particularly in context to my experience.

Portolano: I'm hoping my readers may begin to think about Deaf issues in terms of multiculturalism, and an “exchange” between cultures from which both cultures can grow and learn if there is to be change, let it be a change because of growth and not one of decreasing expectations for higher levels of understanding, research, and writing.

Salvo: Yes - an important point, an important realization. There are many ways to be American, there are many ways to be Deaf, and there are many varieties of everything. This was a well-spent hour. Thank you for inviting me, and for spending the time. I have enjoyed it.

Portolano: I have, too!

Hewett: Thank you Marlana and Michael for your time.

vol. 7 Iss. 1 Spring 2002