[Wikipedia-l] Re: new request for ASL/English wikipedia

[Ros’ Haruo]

ASL is a completely different language from English. Comments like

 Uhm, why does that need it's own wiki? Couldn't the videos just be added to 
en wiki?
And also, can't most deaf people (in english speaking countries)
read/write english? — Phroziac
 ... the project would likely cope much better as part of the
larger en.wiki community. — Andrew Gray

(these are just a couple of random selections, nothing against either poster 
personally) could, I think, easily be taken as opposing the basic Wikipedian 
principle of people's right to access to information in their own languages. 
Yes, most people whose first and most fluent language is ASL have been 
educated largely in English (depending on where and when they were schooled 
this may have included deprecating ASL in favor of "Signed English" and 
finger-spelling, and may or may not have included acquiring a high degree of 
proficiency in lip-reading). 
 Regardless of the technical means and organization of a signed Wikipedia, I 
would encourage people discussing the matter not to use wordings that may 
suggest that ASL is not a language in its own right, or that deaf people 
have a less fundamental right to acquire knowledge through their own 
languages than have hearing people.
 Haruo