Upon The Formation of a Visual Variety Reflection

Throughout his article, Upon the Formation of a Visual Variety of the Human Race, Benjamin Bahan brings to light the importance of vision in regards to sign production in ASL. Bahan states that deaf people are “people of the eye” and are highly visual as well as tactile.
He elaborates on that point with the story of a deaf child that was able to identify another deaf individual just by examining him on the street. The importance of the vision in ASL community is expanded to sign production. The eyes are able to convey distance and size in conversation. Bahan states that when signing, person’s eyes are always moving in a saccadic manner. Gazes are particular important in classroom settings, Bahan breaks gazes down into individual gazes and group gazes. Within the concept of vision in ASL, symbol plays an important part as well. Doors and windows are symbols in the community as barriers. Doors are barriers in communication for the deaf, while windows are barriers for the hearing. Light and night are consistent themes in the deaf community as …show more content…
The idea that the deaf need to be constantly looking around them and being aware of their surroundings must be overwhelming. An aspect that I have always overlooked is the visual cues given off constantly. Visual cues are reactions that give an indication to people of what is happening around them. The cues are often ignored by hearing people and not paid attention to because they just don’t have the need. Deaf people have had to adapt and acquire a skill that many other people do not have. I think that this idea gives more to Behan’s claim that deaf people are “people of the eye” and have increased visual ability. Without the ability to read the world and analyze their surroundings, deaf people would have a much more difficult time within their day-to-day