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April 8, 2006
Club to offer sign language classes
The Central Illinois American Sign Language Club has formed after two years of planning to help deaf and hearing-impaired people socialize and introduce the deaf culture. "We want to show off the deaf population and promote that we are the same as everyone else," said member Jackie Cole. "We also want to get hearing people to see who we (deaf people) are."
Cole and fellow member Gregory Shaw are both deaf and initially thought about forming a club exclusively for deaf people. They later decided to have a club that would be an outreach to the hearing community in a fun, social setting.
"The club is for everyone who knows sign language or wants to, and is open to all of Central Illinois," said Shaw. "We started meeting in February and already have 50 members."
The Club meets on the first Saturday of the month at the Towanda Community Building, 103 Jefferson St.
Cole said the club will provide plenty of practice for interpreters, and future meetings will feature performances from deaf comedians and an evening of theater.
Julie Barth, a hearing associate who will help Cole in the initial signing classes, knows how difficult social settings for deaf people can be. Her husband Wayne is deaf and serves on the club's seven-member board.
"Deaf people have few opportunities to communicate with each other, so it's always nice to for them to get together," said Barth. "They will come from miles around just to gather. We've had people come from Champaign, Springfield, and Peoria just to play games and talk."
Cole works at the Life Center for Independent Living of Bloomington and estimates the 150 to 200 clients she works with in the Bloomington-Normal area are deaf or have some degree of hearing loss. She believes the deaf community is growing and said there has been a corresponding interest from hearing people to learn sign language.
"Most of us lip-read or write notes to communicate (to the hearing audience), but it would be great to go to a restaurant have a waitress who understands how to talk to us in sign," said Cole.
"We're going to offer sign language classes because we need advocates and interpreters," Cole said. "I'd also like to see doctors, nurses, firemen or policemen learn a little bit of sign language because we need to be able to talk to them."
Cole and Barth will begin teaching American Sign Language courses on April 12 at the Towanda Community Building and will offer classes Wednesday evenings through the summer. Cole also said the club meetings also will feature meals, games and other social activities.
By Dave Tompkins
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/04/08/news/111299.txt
Posted by 4HL on April 8, 2006 1:06 AM
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