Way back in 1842 in New Orleans a Deaf man named P.D.J. Roger declared the importance of teaching in signed languages to both groups of people; one group who speak with MOUTH (i.e. spoken English, spoken French and so on) and the other group who speak with HANDS (i.e. American Sign Language, British Sign Language and so on) in the 30-year-old Statehood Louisiana in then 66-year-old America. That means the idea of teaching in signed languages to both people who speaks and those who signs is NOT a new thing today! ♥️
[Video Transcript]
Adonia: Hello! Guess where I am? I’m in New Orleans, LA! Why am I here? I’ll tell you a very interesting story…Back in the year 1842 in this exact road…Chartres Street….where a Deaf man named P.D.J. Roger notified people to meet him at one of three places to sell them the manual alphabet (or ASL). He quoted, “Speak with Hands (which means signing) and Hear with the Eye” (reading signs). Pretty neat. He stated that his quotation was for two groups: one for those Deaf children/people who speak ASL/SL and the art of teaching them in their native language at school; the other one was for hearing people who desired to learn ASL/SL for the entertainment of conversing with Deaf people. And this was in 1842! See the street sign (pointing at it). This one —Chartres Street— was one of three places where Roger notified people to meet him. Other two places are over there (point in front) and the other one is over there (pointing in back). There’s more details in the story about Roger. He was traveling from Montgomery, AL, promoting in public the importance of ASL/SL and the need to teach ASL/SL as an art of teaching (known as Deaf education today) to people from 1841 to here in New Orleans in 1842. He was traveling and advertising, sharing and publicizing the importance of speaking and understand ASL!
