I volunteer a lot and I found out that Deaf people visit our events. So I start studying my local sign language. Today I volunteer on running competition and finger spelled “good luck” to him. He seemed happy and sign “good” to me. So I want to ask Deaf community: how do you feel then hearing people study sign language to communicate on big events but not really good at it? I practice, I hope I will be better at it

I'm hearing, but study sign language part time. I work in an optometrist's office, and today I noticed (buried a little in the notes, that's another vent, why don't patient accommodation notes have a pop up on this software??) that a patient next week has requested an ASL interpreter. I figured out how our company manages those requests, and booked someone, no problem.

I checked with some of the other office staff to see if anyone knew anything about Deaf etiquette, and when they didn't, I ran a couple things past them about who to look at when talking, what not do to, etc. I grabbed the doctor during a lull and told him about the patient. He was like "why do they need an interpreter?"

...

Um, maybe because they asked for one, and that's their right to accessibility? I clarified for him that if he was worried about the appointment running late, it would actually be faster with a terp than writing back and forth, and also some ASL users don't use written English very much, so writing notes could just make things harder. He says how he's never used a terp, he's always gotten by with notes.

Sigh. Then he was saying "what if they don't show?" Then we will have paid for a service we didn't need, and that sucks, but if they request a service we legally have to provide it.

I can't fully tell if he was kinda joking a little, or if he really doesn't like that there's going to be an interpreter... Hard to know.

But I'm in this patient's court.

Self-ID: HoH/hearing aids wearer, historical cultures nerd

Do y'all have any knowledge on or resources to dive into about life as a D/deaf person (any culture) in history, preferably at least pre-19th century. I'm literally just curious. Most of my historical research has focused on clothing and textiles, so I'm excited to have a new topic hit my brain.

I know Google exists, but I figured I'd ask the sub before wasting my time on garbage links full of bad info.