(Part 2) Top products from r/deaf

I don't know of any websites, but yes, there are books on ASL grammar! This is a good place to start; it's by a non-native signer, but it's also affordable...there are some ASL grammar books out there that aren't! Here is an example of the expensive type. :)

To answer your question about active/passive hands...yes and no. It doesn't matter which you use, but it should be consistent. If you are right handed, then your right should be your "dominant hand" (DH) and your left should be your "non dominant hand" (NDH). If you're left handed, then your left is DH and right is NDH. As long as you don't switch back and forth all the time, you're fine. There are some people who switch for a few signs here and there (I have been guilty of it myself), but you're supposed to stick with one DH and one NDH. :)

Now, as for every half-turn of your wrists...actually that does kind of matter. I hope you don't mind if I explain the four components of a sign:

• Location - Where the hand is on the body. For example, in cat, the location is the cheek.
  
  
• Handshape - The shape of the hand, positions of the fingers. You can see most of the handshapes here, note that it goes beyond just the letters! For cat, the handshape is (usually) F.
  
  
• Palm orientation - Is the palm facing forward, back, left, or right? For cat, the palm is facing forward or "out" as most people call it.
  
  
• Movement - What does the hand do? Up, down, back and forth, in a circle, etc. For cat, the hand moves out from the face.
  
  If any one of these are changed, you're not signing cat anymore - in fact, if you change only the movement, you sign fruit! That's called a "twisting" movement. In the case of "every half-turn of the wrists" that would be palm orientation (PO). If PO is back (behind you), left, or right, you're not signing cat. So it does matter. Obviously if someone is sick, injured, etc they might make signs differently - but the way to be understood is to perform the sign accurately. There are slight variations from person to person, just like there are various accents in spoken language - but for the most part, everybody forms a sign with those four criteria intact.
  
  Of course, all that said...you can sign really really badly and people can figure it out. This video made the rounds among my friends a while back. The guy's signing is absolutely horrible but we all understood him. We wouldn't want to chat with him on a regular basis until he improved his skills...but we figured it out. :)

> It stated that hearing people were close minded and self involved.

This is true, but your teacher made the statement out of context.

With regard to deafness and Deaf issues, I would actually agree that the majority of hearing people are closed minded and self involved.

As an example: I'm starting a new job soon in the video relay industry. I recently sent a farewell letter to co-workers and in it I mentioned my new position. Later, I was approached by one of them who had been thinking about it and asked "Can't they just use SMS? That already works fine. " Even after explaining about English skills, native language, SMS being slow and error prone, etc he still didn't quite get why a deaf person would rather use sign language to communicate with someone instead of sending a text.

Obviously, hearing people aren't any more closed minded and self involved than any one else. However, people experience the world through our senses and our understanding of it is shaped by those experiences. Hearing people understand deafness (cannot hear) but cannot easily understand Deafness (experiencing the world without sound) and encounters such as I described above are the norm. This lack of understanding influences their behaviors and opinions towards deaf people.

Likewise, deaf people, whose own understanding of the world is also shaped by their experiences understand what sound and hearing is (vibrations of air turned into electrical impulses and interpreted by the brain) but lack understanding of what it's like to experience the world with sound. And just like hearing people, this lack of understanding influences their behaviors and opinions towards hearing people.

So far so good right? This is mostly just what you'd expect to find with any two cultures with a language barrier - except that's not JUST a cultural and language barrier. Deaf people learn to read and write spoken languages and hearing people learn sign languages but still tensions exist.

In the case of hearing people, the historical approach towards the deaf has been "make them Hearing, like us!" because that's what they understand. Give them hearing aids and implants and make them speak like we do. "Fix them", etc.

This Deaf oppression, oralism and audism has left it's mark on Deaf culture. Like in many cultures, there is a strong cultural memory in the Deaf community. For some people they are drawn to the Deaf Power subculture and in even more extreme cases develop reverse audism and persecution complexes but that's a very small minority. I find it hard to believe that 50% of the Deaf people you've encountered believe born Deaf are superior people (which is the very definition of reverse audism.) Superior signers maybe, but not superior people.

More subtle issues derive from just plain, run of the mill assumptions, misunderstandings, and miscommunications. What might be considered perfectly normal behavior to one person is taken to be intentionally motivated by malice on the other person's part, and it goes both ways.

I started this response hours ago and since then have had lunch and left and come back, so I might have veered off track at some point. For sure I lost my original train of thought and I don't think I can catch it again. Train Go Sorry.

So I'll just stop here. I hope this response helped.

A CI was put into me at around 18 months old. I was mainstreamed.

My school system had a magnet deaf/HH program that attracted students from five different school townships. As result, I wasn't the only deaf student in my grade, although it was still lonely company since only one of them only really grew up with me, with others coming and going. At most, there was five others, at lowest, there was two others. I never tried to interact with those who were in grades below or above me after elementary school.

I had interpreters in all of my classes. They started out with SEE and then slowly changed to ASL. Later, I found out that this was due to conflicting philosophies from my elementary, middle, and high schools. There wasn't an unificated plan at the time even though there was a person who oversaw all three programs.

Far as I know, the most "successful" people who came out of the magnet program was HH. I was an abnormality in that I had 0% access to spoken English after Elementary School. In fifth grade, I determined that my CI was nothing but a distraction and gave off the false image that I was HH instead of deaf. I still wore the CI for a few years, turned off, and then eventually I built up enough confidence to stop wearing it. Nothing changed although my Middle School's TOR made a bit of fuss but considering how well I was doing in my classes, it didn't last for too long.

I did pretty good, academic wise. I was involved in extracurricular activities (Cross Country, class officer, and so on). I had scholarships thrown at me. But it was three years after I dropped out of university (after three years of alienation and isolation) that the fact that something was missing was noticed by me. I'm sure that my father and others have noticed it before but they either didn't tell me, or if they did try to bring it up with me, I just brushed it off. I wasn't making progress with my emotional and social life.

At least in the meatspace. Around fifth grade, I discovered Internet and with that, I acquired Written English and a social life. Even today, my cyberspace social life is more active than meatworld's.

There's a couple of books that might be of interest to your research; Madness in Mainstream and Turning the Tide.

Feel free to ask more questions if you have any. I have plenty of tidbits.

That's great. I think this book has some good advice for you, even though it's a little dated. I don't really know of other books as I'm an adult and this book came out when I was a kid.
One of the really important points the book makes is self-care as a parent. You have to have a support system that understands you. Another really important point in the book is the agency of the child, in other words, the capacity for your kid to make their own decisions instead of putting them into a box.

It's great that you go to monthly meet ups! Feel free to continue this chat if you have any questions.

I used to collect For Better or For Worse comic strip collection books. Same with Zits. I don’t have the Zits collection anymore but I still have my FBoFW books.

Anime... I’ve never gotten into that genre. Maybe lack of exposure or proper introduction? Idk.

Marvel or DC? MARVEL! Although I do like me some Dark Knight, though...

Visual essays are also one of my favorite things. Good example is this one: Huxley & Orwell.

This is a difficult thing to recommend, given the restrictions your friend is up against. Most of the books I want to recommend depend on a supplemental DVD, which I understand is out of the question. A couple more that I know of are spiral-bound, which I'm assuming would also be disallowed in a prison setting.

The American Sign Language Phrase Book is really the best one that I can personally think of that doesn't rely on additional material and would probably be allowed.

I'm not a doctor & never tried to be, but perhaps a good read: When The Phone Ring, My Bed Shakes.

Could buy an ASL book... I (hearing) grew up referring to The Joy of Signing once in a while.

Really, any fire alarm with a strobe light attached would work. I have one similar to this that I've used when living alone. She'd be able to plug it in wherever, and it has a backup battery if the power goes out. Good luck. :)

https://benjamins.com/catalog/z.199

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/study-abroad-ucl/study-abroad-guide/modules/plin7309

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Deaf-Culture-Search-Deafhood/dp/1853595454

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seeing-Voices-Journey-into-World/dp/0330523643/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526106775&sr=1-1&keywords=seeing+voices&dpID=41p5gh8h4XL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

Although don't buy from amazon as Jeff Bezos is an arse.

I can see where they are coming from. Hearing types and tech-bros combining together has the potential to monetise and exploit deaf culture something horrible. My NVQ tutor was big into "deaf power" and an advocate of destroying cochlear implants as they were slowly eroding the standard of BSL within the Deaf community. http://www.beautifulbsl.co.uk/about-me/

Being monolateral deaf, a lipspeaker, a signer, oral and eloquent I find it hard to judge anyone or make a verdict myself.

I am doing an MSc in Digital Education and the general consensus is that AI is here and will continue to develop in both beautiful and horrifying ways. But compassion needs to be where we begin. You are designing a tool but in order to have good design you need to understand who you are making it for first.

and here's the link to amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Gallaudet-Exposed-University-Discrimination-Incompetence/dp/0972118756

If you want to read precisely about it, check The Black Book of English Canada. The author cut through all of Canadian history to extract just those things. It's copiously sourced but most sources are in French.

We were told to "speak white" until late in the 80s. French school only became legal in all of Canada in the 90s. But then French had been wiped out of most of Canada.

The level of animosity/hatred toward French speakers in Canada is still very high.

Hands of My Father. (http://amzn.com/0553806882)

Written by a CODA about spanning his parents deaf world and the outer hearing world.

I looked to see what was even available regarding CODA picture books, and its really difficult to find anything!

I found one book, but it's 38 years old and not sure if its too complex for a read along: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0807592129/myshelfdotcom-20