On the Job: Communication at Work

On the Job: Communication at Work

In this video Harvey Goodstein, Sue Ayers, Dennis Legler, and Penny Herbold describe the various communication strategies utilized by Deaf printers.

Zilvinas Paludnevicius

Drs. John S. and Betty J. Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center Collection

2022

This Item has been made available for educational and research purposes by the Drs. John S. and Betty J. Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center at Gallaudet University. This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You may need to obtain permission for your intended use if your use is otherwise not permitted by the copyright and applicable related rights legislation. For specific information about the copyright and reproduction rights for this Item, please contact the Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center: https://www.gallaudet.edu/drs-john-s-and-betty-j-schuchman-deaf-documentary-center

American Sign Language

A video featuring ASL interviews with several subjects. Harvey Goodstein, a white older man seated in a darkened studio; Sue Ayers, a white woman seated at home; Dennis Legler, a white older man seated at home; and Penny Herbold, a white woman seated at home. The video begins with a still black and white image of the Composing Room at the Washington Post featuring a row of linotype machines with fair-skin white men seated at each machine, with the text Communication at Work.

Harvey Goodstein: Really, how did I communicate with my bosses who didn’t know how to sign? Really, I just when they came over I’d gesture, MINE? and point at my machine. You know there were many machines there, so I’d check, was that my machine? Okay, then my work was ready for me to type. The copy. If they came over, they’d point at what needed to be done. That kind of thing. Mostly just, pointing, finger pointing. That. There wasn’t much to communicate - I knew what I needed to do. When they handed it off, I said okay and got to work. That’s it. Later, after I handed it off, maybe there they had more conversations in make-up? Maybe there was more over there - like “move that”, or “that would be better.” I don’t know. The Washington Post had two or three editors, I remember. They’d change out over time.

Sue Ayers: Gesture and pointing. Some could fingerspell. Some couldn’t. But most of us that worked on the floor worked with the editors. The editors knew how to point and gesture to things they didn’t like. So our communication wasn’t through sign language. It was all in relation to the work. They would point and gesture that they wanted something removed. I would show them my work, they would point down and I would move it down. They couldn’t physically touch our work. They had their guild separate from our union. I was the only one that could touch my work, they were not allowed to rearrange it. They had their work and I had mine. It was different.

Dennis Legler: They signed too! Yes, many of them signed. Before I got there? Maybe. But I can talk too. So I didn’t feel lost. If a coworker couldn’t sign, I would just speak with them too. Really, they were good people to work with.

Sue Ayers: Some. Through us. They were around us for some 28 or 30 years. So they picked up some signs in the process. Like in ASL: WORK, FOOD, THIS HURRY, TIME. When they signed TIME I knew they meant that we had to meet the deadline. Something like that.

Penny Herbold: So during my work hours I did training at the same time so that was nice and all of the workers, well, not all, the majority of the workers knew how to finger spell or knew work-related signs. They weren’t fluent, some were skilled. But most knew some work-related signs. That made it easier to get along.

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