Here are some facts you should know about American Sign Language to help with the discussion. It is a signed language (a great deal of research has been done to determine this) and does not have a commonly used writing system Approximate number of speakers: 500,00 o Location(s) spoken: American Sign Language is the dominant sign language in the United States, English-speaking Canada and parts of Mexico. It is also used in the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Gabon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Mauritania, Kenya, Madagascar, Zimbabwe. o Closely related languages, if any: French Sign Language o External links to organizations that promote the language:
National Association of the Deaf www.nad.org ,
Canadian Association of the Deaf, http://www.cad.ca
American Society for Deaf Children www.deafchildren.org
Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf http://www.ccsdeaf.com/
American Sign Language Teachers of America www.rit.edu/~asltawww ,
Center for Accessible Technology in Sign, www.aasdweb.com/CATS .
You should also know:
The average deaf adult reads at about the 4th grade level http://gri.gallaudet.edu/Literacy/#reading . Thus much of the internet and encyclopedias in general are inaccessible to these users due to the level of reading required. A survey of the readability of internet sites showed popular sites such a the NY Times and Nickelodeon were above 4th grade level ( www.readability.info). The article on cats from Wikipedia receives the following scores
Readability report for The cat in wikipedia.doc readability grades: Kincaid: 11.0 ARI: 12.2 Coleman-Liau: 13.4 Flesch Index: 52.5 Fog Index: 14.4 Lix: 49.1 = school year 9 SMOG-Grading: 12.8 As you can see these are all well above the 4th grade level. Although simple.wikipedia.org strives to provide a version of English that is easier to read it does not totally meet the needs of deaf users. The readability of the “cat” article in simple wikipedia hovers at or slightly above the 4th grade level on 2 measures of readability and is above 7th grade on 3 measures of readability.
Readability report for A cat in simple wikipedia.doc readability grades: Kincaid: 4.6 ARI: 3.9 Coleman-Liau: 7.7 Flesch Index: 85.4 Fog Index: 7.4 Lix: 27.0 = below school year 5 SMOG-Grading: 7.7 To make information accessible to all deaf users sign language video is necessary that accompanies the English text. An ASL-English bilingual Wikipedia would provide deaf users with a tool for not only acquiring general world knowledge via an accessible medium (sign language video) but also a powerful educational tool for enhancing literacy by being able to compare the ASL video and English text. An ASL-English Wikipedia will also provide deaf students with a national project that all students can contribute to while producing their everyday reports for their classes in Social Studies, Science, etc… It will be a great motivator for students to produce a product that is actually of use to others and a great lesson for them to learn that their labor can help others. It will be a source of pride in the deaf community. A deaf fly fisherman in Montana may produce a signed article/video on trout and it will be in a medium (sign language video) that is comprehensible by the 500,000 users of American Sign Language.