2008 Woodie Awards
Deaf Awareness Day to help spread knowledge of sign language
By Christopher Schilling
Rocket Contributor
Issue date: 9/21/07 Section: Focus
In a classroom with more than 20 students in front of her, Keri Davis, a senior elementary and early education major, teaches her fellow students the words to the song "Under The Boardwalk" by The Drifters.
The students, arranged in the circle, look at Davis while moving their lips to the lyrics with music playing in the background.
But instead of the students using their voices to sing the song, they use their hands to practice while hoping to master their performance for a special event that they will be performing next week in front of their peers and professors.
On Sept. 27, SRU's American Sign Language Club will be hosting its first-ever "Deaf Awareness Day," which will be dedicated to not only promoting awareness of deaf culture, but also at teaching students about the importance of sign language.
While sign language has been used to help people with hearing impairments communicate in the past, it is also being used today to help individuals with autism and other disabilities and is also being taught in classrooms as well as to professionals in the business community.
The point of Deaf Awareness Day is to toss away the idea that sign language is a method of communication only for deaf people.
"Sign language is recognized as a foreign language, and should get the recognized credit it deserves," said Davis, the president of the American Sign Language Club. "The deaf population is alive and growing."
For the event, the American Sign Language Club will not only have various tables around campus to inform students about Deaf Awareness and American Sign Language, but will also host a keynote speaker, Mary Ann Stefko, the Mainstream and ASL Coordinator at Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.
Stefko said her speech next Thursday will center on the history of deafness to show people how it has changed throughout time and will also include some words of encouragement.
"We want people to know deaf folks are just like hearing folks," Stefko said. "When you set out into the workforce, these are the people you are going to be working with."
The students, arranged in the circle, look at Davis while moving their lips to the lyrics with music playing in the background.
But instead of the students using their voices to sing the song, they use their hands to practice while hoping to master their performance for a special event that they will be performing next week in front of their peers and professors.
On Sept. 27, SRU's American Sign Language Club will be hosting its first-ever "Deaf Awareness Day," which will be dedicated to not only promoting awareness of deaf culture, but also at teaching students about the importance of sign language.
While sign language has been used to help people with hearing impairments communicate in the past, it is also being used today to help individuals with autism and other disabilities and is also being taught in classrooms as well as to professionals in the business community.
The point of Deaf Awareness Day is to toss away the idea that sign language is a method of communication only for deaf people.
"Sign language is recognized as a foreign language, and should get the recognized credit it deserves," said Davis, the president of the American Sign Language Club. "The deaf population is alive and growing."
For the event, the American Sign Language Club will not only have various tables around campus to inform students about Deaf Awareness and American Sign Language, but will also host a keynote speaker, Mary Ann Stefko, the Mainstream and ASL Coordinator at Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.
Stefko said her speech next Thursday will center on the history of deafness to show people how it has changed throughout time and will also include some words of encouragement.
"We want people to know deaf folks are just like hearing folks," Stefko said. "When you set out into the workforce, these are the people you are going to be working with."
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