SASL Newsletter - Winter 2016 Issue | Page 2

SASL Executive Council 2015 – 2017
President Samuel J . Supalla University of Arizona ssupalla @ email . arizona . edu
By Andrew P . J . Byrne
Alexander Graham Bell ’ s Proficiency in American Sign Language
Vice President
Deirdre Schlehofer
Rochester Institute of Technology dxsnss @ rit . edu
A while back , I stumbled across a picture of
Alexander Graham Bell , Helen Keller , and Anne Sullivan in
Chautauqua , New York in 1894 . Best known as the instructor and lifelong companion of Helen , Anne was
standing over Helen and Bell who were sitting next to each
Recording Secretary /
Newsletter Editor
Andrew P . J . Byrne
Framingham State University abyrne @ framingham . edu
other . Helen , the first deaf-blind individual to earn a bachelor of arts degree , placed her right hand over Bell ’ s right hand to feel the letters of the one-handed American manual alphabet being produced . What is interesting about the picture ( see page 3 ) is that Bell appeared to be able to use the manual alphabet . It is well-known that Bell used the
two-handed British manual alphabet to communicate with
Treasurer
Harvey Nathanson
Austin Community College harvey . nathanson @ austincc . edu
his mother who was hard of hearing . I could not help but wonder if he was familiar with signed language in addition to fingerspelling . This prompted me to dig even further into
Bell ’ s knowledge and use of signed language .
According to Van Cleve and Crouch ( 1989 ), the
Membership Director
Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of
Ron Fenicle
Deaf and Dumb Persons ( now known as the American
ronfenicle @ gmail . com
School for the Deaf or ASD ) in Hartford invited Bell to the
school in the spring of 1872 to teach Visible Speech . While
SASL Journal
Editor-in-Chief
Jody H . Cripps
Towson University jcripps @ towson . edu
residing there for two months , he “ learned enough American
Sign Language [ ASL ] to use it with some ease ” ( p . 117 ).
Lane ( 1984 ) noted , “ At commencement , he talked to the graduating class in sign ” ( p . 349 ). However , Lane presented a somewhat different story . Before arriving in Hartford , Bell
had already begun learning ASL in Boston , Massachusetts
with several deaf adults , especially William Chamberlain , a
brilliant graduate of ASD and one of the founders of the
Members-at-Large
New England Gallaudet Association .
Patrick Boudreault
Gallaudet University patrick . boudreault @ gallaudet . edu
What convinced me that Bell knew ASL is the book that I read : The Deaf Mute Howls by Albert Ballin ( originally published in 1930 and re-published by Gallaudet University
Press in 1998 ; see the next page for the book cover ). Ballin
Russell Rosen
was deaf and born to deaf parents and attended the New
CUNY – Staten Island russell . rosen @ csi . cuny . edu
York School for the Deaf ( Fanwood ) for a number of years .
He was heavily involved in the deaf community as a painter ,
Gabriel Arellano
Georgetown University ga430 @ georgetown . edu
an American representative to the 1889 World Congress of the Deaf in Paris , a film actor , a writer , and a storyteller
( Lang & Meath-Lang , 1995 ). He was a native signer in every
right .
( Continue on page 3 )
The Power of ASL
2
Winter 2016 – Issue 4