Receiving the Gift of ASL
(Continued from page 9)
Through advocacy of DeafBlind individuals and allies the national American Association of the DeafBlind was hosted in Seattle and the Deaf-Blind Service Center was established.
Pressured by funders to include Manually Coded English and “oral interpreting” (sic) in the
already crowded ITP curriculum along with college politics I decided first to seek a Master’s in
counseling (keeping options open) and after 14 years, to leave SCC. I travelled to Europe for the first
time, attended the 1987 World Federation of the Deaf Congress in Helsinki, and in later years joined their
Gestuno teams in Tokyo, Vienna and Montreal. I began that year to work on my doctorate at the
University of Washington (UW) in socio-cultural anthropology (dissertation on the Deaf Community)
and co-founded the ASL Interpreting School of Seattle (ASLIS), a not-for-profit, four-year program.
Everywhere the need for self-determination: freedom from outside political pressures and early access to
a natural Sign Language were evident.
Today, we are witnessing the evolution a DeafBlind lingua-culture, rooted in the ‘ProTactile’
philosophy spearheaded by Jelica Nuccio and aj granda (no capitals her preference). ProTactile is a
philosophy, a tactile variety of ASL (TASL), a culture (manners and morals, the arrangement of space
and time) and a political movement grounded in the DeafBlind experience.
My life has been forever enriched by the gifts from individual Deaf and DeafBlind people, their
language and culture. Because of their generosity I have three languages (English, ASL, and Tactile
ASL), perspectives, and modalities in which to understand and talk about the World. I have been able to
play a role in the struggle for social justice while enjoying an intellectually stimulating and emotionally
gratifying career.
aj granda (left) and Theresa Smith (right)
Notice the seating position so their legs (thighs) are side by side and their resting hands are on the
listener’s thigh for back channeling.
The Power of ASL
10
Fall 2016 – Issue 3