Danny De Weerdt
In the field of Deaf Studies, studies on deaf ontologies (‘deaf ways of being’) and deaf epistemologies (‘deaf ways of knowing’) show that diversity exist within deaf communities (Kusters et al. 2017). On epistemology, Holcomb (2010) states that the deaf way of knowing rely on personal experiences to document knowledge. As sign language studies mainly focus on the grammar, one critical point we need to take into account with linguistic accessibility is the perspective of deaf epistemology. Based on this, we see that adopting/changing ways of signing in any settings shouldn’t always be interpreted as ‘easy language’.
In this presentation, I’d like to move from ‘easy’ language’ to ‘epistemic accessibility’ to bring new insights. Whereas the visual-gestural modality only is not enough, we should understand how we structure and share our knowledge to the interlocutors in order to provide epistemic accessibility. Better understanding of this phenomena may lead to better linguistic accessibility so signers communicate with ‘ease’ resulting in positive well-being. I’ll present three concrete personal experiences in relation to ‘epistemic accessibility’. The three cases will involve two persons with different linguistic and/or auditory background where the structuring of thoughts or knowledge are different resulting in easier or harder communication, whether it occurs in fully signed environment or in interpreted settings.
Holcomb, T. K. (2010). Deaf epistemology: The deaf way of knowing. American Annals of the Deaf, 154, 471-478.
Kusters, Annelies, Maartje De Meulder, and Dai O’Brien (2017) Innovations in Deaf Studies: The Role of Deaf Scholars. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
