Deaf Community: Sue Ayers

Deaf Community: Sue Ayers

In this video Sue Ayers describes how Deaf printers engaged in language play during breaks.

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 an ASL interview with Sue Ayers, an older white woman seated at home.

Sue Ayers: And my favorite time was when I worked on the floor, let’s say working in the A Section, or Sports, or Metro, the different sections. Editors would come down at a certain time and tell us what they wanted us to do, how to lay things out. In about a half hour we would finish, send all of the pages out, and be done. We could then rest and relax. We would wait until the next edition, the second, and third edition and push those out on time too. We would have maybe 20, 25, or 30 minutes to do what we wanted. It was easy for us Deaf to see each other seated across the room. It was easy to chat, joke, and tease one another from where we were seated. Sometimes we would play a short game. We would get everyone involved, and play a sign game. We would ask everyone for their sign for the word “gray”. I would show my sign for gray, and each person would demonstrate theirs. You could see that each state had their own sign. Each one was different. Then we would move on to the next word and share. I enjoyed that part other times we sat and chatted until the editors came. We would then disperse and get back to work to do what the editors wanted.

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