Signs of Our Ideas Introduction (Part II)

(jazzy music)

Technology is incredible.

Historically, new words have entered a language by way of publications

like newspapers and books.

That doesn't work for ASL,

but this kind of technology does.

Now, with YouTube, anyone with a camera can broadcast their images and ideas

for the world to see.

People can see new videos every day,

like this one.

YouTube has agreed to be part of our experiment and help us come up with some new signs

for the concept of poverty.

Stay tuned,

and I will explain the process for this study.

All of this is to tell you about our contest.

We call it the Signs of our Ideas.

And we want you to come up with signs that you think encompass the concept of poverty.

Let me give you an example.

Maybe you understand poverty as a lack of access to necessary resources.

So you use the root sign "access", and alter it to show a barrier to access.

Maybe you use a compound sign that expresses limited resources, such as combining

the two signs for "everything" and "limit".

The options are only as limited as your imagination.

Whether you are an ASL student, Deaf, Hearing, oral, or a native signer,

use your experience with ASL and the Deaf community to inform your sign choices.

We want submissions from everyone.

No one group of people is more valuable

than any other.

Participating is easy.

Just videotape yourself and upload it to YouTube sometime between now and March 23rd.

Then we will invite everyone to look at the signs and vote for the five best submissions.

A panel of experts will then evaluate the top five and make a final determination.

Finally, in May, we will announce the winner.

So give it a shot!

The more people who are involved, the more fun we will have.

You're a hearing person, aren't you?

I know you're worried about offending the Deaf community and overstepping your bounds.

You've always been told

that you can't create signs,

and you don't want to do anything wrong,

because you respect Deaf Culture

and Deaf people.

I get it.

I do.

But this project gives us a safe place to take these kinds of risks.

So go ahead.

Create.

Play with words and signs.

Decide what you think poverty means

and submit your signs.

Now I'm gonna talk to my Deaf friends over here for a minute.

Are you Deaf?

Me too.

And I know what you're thinking.

You look at those Hearing people over there, and can't stand the idea

of them making up signs.

Respect for Deaf Culture is vital.

But this is a language experiment, and I would ask you, for the sake of research,

to put your concerns on the back burner for now.

When all is said and done,

we want to improve communication between Deaf and Hearing people,

and develop our community ties.

This discussion about poverty is important,

and we just want an easier way to be able to have that conversation.