A Note from the President
By Samuel J. Supalla
Some Thoughts on the Position Paper of the World Federation of the Deaf
As part of my job as President, I am here to affirm the need for an organization such as Society
for American Sign Language or SASL. One route to achieve this is to look around and see what other
organizations have done to date. I have chosen to discuss the position paper of the World Federation
of the Deaf (WFD) that was released in May of 2018 to help explain why SASL is so important. The title
of the position paper subject to my commentary is: Complementary or Diametrically Opposed: Situating
Deaf Communities within 'Disability' vs. `Cultural and Linguistic Minority' Constructs (see
https://wfdeaf.org/news/resources/11-may-2018-deaf-community-linguistic-identity-disability-position-
paper/).
The WFD seems to be supportive of what the United Nations has done through the Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as follows:
“The CRPD integrates both the language minority view of deaf people and their status as
'persons with disabilities' and seeks to support. This is a critical development for the Deaf
Community throughout the world” (p. 10).
The following quote from WFD's concluding remarks in its position paper is equally interesting:
"Rather than seek to create a hierarchy of rights, or preference [for] one instrument over the
other, or say that linguistic rights apply in certain circumstances and disability rights in other
circumstances, the Deaf Community must be able to avail itself of all the powerful tools available
to it under each of the international legal frameworks. Far from being irreconcilable or
diametrically opposed, they are complementary, and as a whole can assure that every deaf
person can thrive as citizens and learners in their communities." (p. 13)
From these remarks, it appears some lines are being re-drawn on the cultural and disability
constructs. However, I must note some things that the WFD acknowledges as being unique to the
international community:
1) The existence of hearing individuals "who are committed to the use and fluency of sign
language" (p. 3)
2) The existence of "community sign languages and even village sign languages" (p. 3)
3) "Sign language can become the mother tongue of the whole [hearing] family with a deaf child”
(p. 6)
This supports, in part, why SASL was created in the first place. While the WFD represents deaf
people, who speaks for signers? Very little is known about signers and the research literature on
hearing families who sign with deaf children is also sparse. I must say that in the last ten years in
Tucson, Arizona, the number of hearing people signing THANK-YOU to me after rendering services
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The Power of ASL
6
Summer 2018 – Issue 10