My wife is an ASL interpreter and illiteracy or reduced reading proficiency are common issues in the deaf community. ASL is obviously based on English but it’s not a 1-to-1 mapping of words to signs. Also, written language is usually based on spoken language and since they can’t hear the language it’s a big disadvantage. Imagine learning written Chinese but without ever hearing it spoken.
It’s hard to imagine how you would even begin to learn to read. You see text and you have to translate that directly to meaning without imagining the sound in your head? Witchcraft I say.
My wife is an ASL interpreter and illiteracy or reduced reading proficiency are common issues in the deaf community. ASL is obviously based on English but it’s not a 1-to-1 mapping of words to signs. Also, written language is usually based on spoken language and since they can’t hear the language it’s a big disadvantage. Imagine learning written Chinese but without ever hearing it spoken.
It’s hard to imagine how you would even begin to learn to read. You see text and you have to translate that directly to meaning without imagining the sound in your head? Witchcraft I say.