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CULTURAL FACTORS Table B (page 61) is also very interesting as it highlights other factors which are damaging. The first factor which encourages the maintenance of the language is the existence of mother tongue institutions. This means that there is a centre or place where the language and culture is promoted actively. If we look for the Deaf culture centre we look in vain. Even the Deaf organisations carry out their business in speech and in written form. There is very little information distributed by say the BDA, which is in sign form. There have been some recent changes and it has to be said that signed videos are not the best way to give out information. Nevertheless, we can see that the Deaf organisations seem to have accepted the majority way. Even Deaf clubs are rarely really Deaf places. Most have hearing social workers and other workers. This might be OK if they were all bilingual. Although there can be criticisms of culture or language centres, in places like the ITE in Dublin, all the workers speak Irish - and to each other all the time. We do not yet have any centre where this happens in sign. This factor tends to go with an acceptance of education in the majority language. Even Deaf parents will accept the idea that Deaf children should be educated in speech-only environments. This relates to language status but it is in turn a way in which the value of the language becomes less. |
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