So this is something that has been picking up recently. It feels like an aggressive cultural surge is forming in the deaf community.  The last one I was cognizant of was almost 15-20(?) years ago where there was this large push to try to eliminate initialized signs from ASL because they viewed as being too connected to English, which AFAICT was being viewed by some as a type of undue influence or control over, or oppression of, ASL.

This surge finally died down seemingly with the realization that an initialized handshape is an important and intrinsic part of certain signs, and probably should be left alone. That is not to say that some changes were not made, for example, I remember the sign for LIVE/LIFE changing so that it no longer uses an L handshape, while LIBRARY still uses the L handshape. Continue reading Perceived Hostility Between Hearing and Deaf Communities →