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86 For Thine Is the Power and the Glory . . . Communication can take various forms each no less meaningful than the other: a pat on the head that reassures, the signal for okay or the language of the eyes. Need two lovers say more? The hand manipulations of the stock market auctioneer under all the pressure and noise, the attendant on the ground signaling with his hands to the pilot in the cockpit of the airline jet, the hand and body histrionics of the baseball coach giving orders to the batter are each a remarkable testimony to the ingenuity of man. Since the dawn of history whenever there was a need to communicate or to find substitute methods of communication man would find a way. Any method of hand communication used anywhere, no matter how ingenuous, even those used by Indian tribes, would pale into insignificance when compared to the range, versatility, flexibility and colorfulness of the language of signs used by us deaf people. Who else in this world of ours could use just two hands and make them recite poetry, ring out lines from Shakespeare’s plays, make dull prose come alive with rich, descriptive imagery? Who else could from airy nothingness create pictures , spell words, give information, impart knowledge? Who else could make facial expressions—the weavings of the eyebrows, the wrinklings of the nose, the convolutions of the lips—work in synchronization with the hands? This is the miracle that we deaf have wrought, that we have polished and refined (although more could be done) until we can communicate with each other and with an audience instantaneously, clearly and with more than common surety and grace. Being no exception when it comes to satisfying man’s basic need and urge to communicate, to develop himself, to participate in cultural activities, we sought and molded substitute methods of communication for different situations. Because of distance, angular vision, lighting how The Deaf American (November 1968) 87 else could we view and follow with understanding dramatic presentations on stage (brought to exquisite perfection and the highest peak of art by the National Theatre of the Deaf)? How else could individual deaf virtuosos infuse rhythm, pitch and tune into poetry and song renderings in such a way that an audience of 500 or more could visualize and be stirred as our hearing counterparts are at a songfest? This is the type of signs taken out of common everyday usage and transformed so that it will with a cadence of its own appeal to the eyes of the deaf in the same way that talented voices appeal to the ears. And there are our own lectures, storytellers, and pantomimes who can hold an audience spellbound with exaggerated body movements, timely pause and emphasis and large movements and convolutions of the arms and hands. On a professional level, born deaf Bernard Bragg using his body, face and hands has been able to communicate to hearing audiences at nightclubs, on television and with one-man stage presentations. Conferences, workshops, committee, club, state and national association meetings could never have mushroomed and functioned effectively without the utilization of manual communication. The constitutions of some of these organizations of the deaf must be read to be believed. Their professional style and language, their sheer brilliance could not have been brought to paper without the numerous give and take, made possible by manual communication, of committee and assembly sessions. Even at the churches the deaf attend the sermons are either delivered or interpreted in the language of signs. Finally, a visit at the home of a typical deaf couple will find them conversing more or less with their hands. Manual communication has been and continues to be used and welcomed at most places where the deaf congregate except where it is needed the most—in many schools, especially the classrooms of the deaf. At school assembly programs does anyone believe that hearing handicapped children of various ages and different levels of maturity can speechread a person or persons speaking or acting on stage? On field trips is the teacher going to bring a blackboard with her? During discussions in the classroom will deaf children often be able to follow what is going on with ease and certainty? Weareindividualswithvaryingdegreesof hearinglossandspeechreading skills. If speechreading were truly effective even with the help of a hearing aid, if it came more than halfway close to giving the majority of [18.117.81.240] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 14...

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