YES, #NO, Visibility, and Variation in ASL and Tactile ASL
Quote:
However, when a deaf-blind person fits the characteristics of those listed in this study (e.g., they used ASL before they started signing tactiley, they are fluent tactile signers, and they regularly interact with the deaf-blind community), we would argue that the language they use is a sociolinguistic variation of visual ASL. In other words, the variation used by these deaf-blind signers has naturally evolved within the deaf-blind community and is shared by other members of that group. The systematic variation that correlates to gender, age, and role is in conformity with the findings of other sociolinguistic studies and would not be expected if Tactile ASL were merely an adaptation to a physical condition.
This was the most interesting part and as I read it on my computer, I can't use a pen to mark it. So I copied it and put it here xp
