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Dr Jim Cromwell is a clinical psychologist working in BSL for the last sixteen years, and trying to work in BSL for the ten years before that. He has worked with Deaf people in the NHS and for charities, is co-Chair of the Applied Deafness and Psychology Special Interest Group, has been Chair of the British Society for Mental Health and Deafness, and is also a qualified interpreter. He is also an excellent ukulele player. He’s also written a manifesto calling for hearing people who work with deaf people to learn to sign. Here, we explain more…
Jim Cromwell is a hearing clinical psychologist working in a Deaf school, and previously in a mental health service for Deaf people. He is a big supporter of BSL and so as a result makes no friends with hearing non-signers and particularly with hearing signers who choose not to sign…!
Recently he wrote this – Dr Jim’s Little Red Book.
It began when somebody said to him, “I think I understand why you sign for yourself in mixed meetings, but I don’t understand well enough to explain to everyone else why they should.”
So he started off making notes to explain it better, and it became a bit of a treatise. His 16-page informal book is the result of that.
It is written by a hearing person for hearing people, so it begins – uncomfortably perhaps – by talking about what “disability” means, and goes on:
- to show how BSL is a civil rights issue
- to explain why hearing people in a Deaf organization should sign whether or not a Deaf person is present
- to demonstrate why BSL is better than non-fluent signers think it is
- and why sign-supported English is much worse than non-fluent signers think it is
- and to explore why interpreters are not the solution to all problems.
He argues that when two people communicate, there is a lot of interpreting going on already. You interpret your thoughts into words/signs, the other person interprets your words/signs into their own thoughts/understanding, they form an idea for an answer and interpret that idea into words/signs, which you then interpret into your own understanding.
That’s without an interpreter. Four interpreted steps.
With an interpreter there are eight steps – and in both cases you are only aware of the shortcomings of one interpretation – the one between your thought and your statement – and there are always shortcomings.
He says that being ignorant of all the other imperfect interpretations, plus the (quite appropriate) cultural as well as linguistic interpretation that interpreters provide, can lead to a misleading sense of easy and seamless accuracy.
This misleading feeling of effectiveness also happens when hearing people use sign-supported English – because they feel like they are saying/signing exactly what they want to say (especially because they can hear their words spoken out loud) – but lots of important grammatical information is lost including tense, who did what to whom and so on.
The visual component of SSE is just a fraction of the intended content, but to the hearing person it does not feel that way at all.
Jim argues that for these – and lots of other – reasons, it is more effective for hearing people to sign for themselves, even if they are not as fluent as the available interpreters, and that hearing people in Deaf organizations should sign even if a Deaf person is not there.
Jim hopes the Little Red Book will enlighten hearing people who make life difficult for their Deaf colleagues and for themselves by misunderstanding the issues.
As he says – true communication is a meeting of minds not a meeting of words.
Download it for free here http://bit.ly/drjimslittleredbook and leave an opinion in the comments. What do you think?
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Mandy
March 26, 2016
Love the book! I work in Deaf education and so many things in here ring true. A teacher of the deaf once told me that “deaf children should learn to listen and use their voice because it is a hearing world out there”… (I swear to god, she actually said it) Wish id had the little red book then id have hit her over the head with it! I’m going to insist all ToDs read this now. And the section on signing when a Deaf person is in the room…..often leads to talking and signing at the same time, and a 3 second pause between each word while trying to remember the sign for that word, or more often silence as its avoided altogether…..yes it happens and is painful to witness. Thanks limping chicken for posting!
Cathy
March 26, 2016
Interesting book! I haven’t read it, but I may do.
Iam profoundly deaf and bilingual myself. It is interesting that this bloke expects hearies to sign even when deaf people are not there!
Personally, I do not agree. Speech is a natural first language for hearing people so I don’t expect this naturalness to disappear.
There is a fundamental difference between English and BSL. Even simple things like: “what is your name?” Becomes “name what?” in BSL. This is obviously back to front, which means making hearies think “back to front” all the time! This is not natural for hearies and when you are trying to explain a story to someone you are not thinking about translating your story in this way: you are TELLING your story.
As Iam bilingual I know how natural it is to switch between speech with hearies and sign language with the deaf. In deaf clubs hearies are not always signing either but I appreciate the difficulty if they are only level 1 or 2.
Personally, I do not agree with forcing hearies to sign ALL the time, even when deaf people are not around. After all we are not forcing deaf people to learn English are we?! My motto is that if you do not expect your own to do something, then you cannot expect others to do something.
And what is going to happen with the next generation? Many children now have cochlear implants and as far as am aware they are NOT signing, so are we going to force them to sign all the time also?!
Iam sorry but I think this “forcing” of sign language is both unatural and unrealistic especially if no deaf people are around! It does not even come naturally to me and Iam deaf and fully bilingual, so what chance do hearies have?!?
MW
March 26, 2016
Very troubled by the perception and attitude towards SSE. Jim is very fortunate to have teaching in BSL and not many deaf people get this opportunity hence the randomisation of mixed signing out there. I was institutionalise by the medical profession, I was taught oral, I was taught English badly and I had to learn BSL outside the school but not like hearing interpreters in their training, I was struggling and even to this day still do, but I can happily sign with deaf people, but I can only on my term and if I find Deaf BSL and BSL interpreters judgemental and proud – then I find them disappointing as if inclusion and integration through enablement and empowerment is not their norm. I do share the sentiment and frustration deafness can bring where communication are concern and I do share the values that sign language is another way to communicate. What I don’t like is picking out people who communicate differently just because they can and think they do better. By the way, I haven’t read the book! I can rant on but I won’t – simply it will send me to the loony bins where Jim practice and that the last place I can get support without being judged as he does.
Tim
March 26, 2016
Right on, MW.
Fortunately, there are plenty of BSL Deaf and BSL interpreters out there who understand what you’re saying and recognise and respect the diversity of the Deaf community.
Hartmut
March 27, 2016
Better call it “Little Turquoise Manifesto”. The title Cromwell chose smacks of the totalitarianism in China which the oralism has done to the Deaf. The graphic on the title page is indeed unfortunate and injurious to the Deaf Cause that he advocates. Turquoise was selected in Austria and Germany to be the Deaf color, which spread to France and Italy. See YouTube videos how this color is worn by German and Austrian Deaf demonstrants.
It would be a blunder of a grand scale to keep the title and use the same cover graphic.
Roger Beeson
April 5, 2016
Even though I’ve used BSL socially since childhood, and used it all my working life as a ToD and as a BSL interpreter, I wish I’d had this Little Red Book at the beginning instead of the end. I love its directness and common sense-ness. It should be mandatory reading for all those who have contact with Deaf people. It sets a standard by which we should measure how we and others use language, and the assumptions behind that.