The article is an opinion piece written by a deaf woman, Rachel Kolb. It is about communicating in sign language and ASL’s conflict with our hearing culture’s social norms. She described an incident in elementary school where one of her friends scolded her for pointing because it was “rude.” As a child, she was absolutely shocked; it had never occurred to her other people might interpret her signs as disrespectful. Although her mother reassured her that her signing was not rude, Kolb was still left feeling self-conscious and embarrassed about communicating with sign language.
Kolb recognized that same self-consciousness twenty years later in her friends who were learning sign. One particular instance that stood out was a lunch with one of her friends. She and her friend had lunch and conversed in sign. Kolb was thrilled to …show more content…
While that might have been a welcome addition, this article is clearly meant to be a personal essay. It may or may not provide an accurate portrait of her experiences; the reader has to take her word for it because there is no outside point of view to examine. There is an element of exasperation that permeates the article, as if Kolb is resigned to her outsider status. She has been forced to learn how to navigate a world not made for her and has successfully done so for most of her life. She recognizes herself as someone who can challenge other people’s perspectives on what is acceptable. Kolb writes a fine line between recognizing why sign language can be uncomfortable for the hearing population and demanding that it still be included and accepted for what it is: an essential tool for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. Kolb’s friends are not in the wrong for being uncomfortable, but Kolb does not excuse them from trying. Kolb argues that Sign Language deserves recognition and its place in public, just like any other form of