Hi again, Richard! This is a continuation of my previous message to you:

My lady's eldest daughter learned sign, as she has
deafness in one ear, and a Sunday school program she
attended in Florida was very inclusive and got their
deaf members involved in all their church programs.

Good for them! Over the years I have noticed that some denominations
seem more receptive to folks with disabilities than others. When I was growing
up, there were two families with offspring in wheelchairs who attended the same
church my family did. For as long as I remember there has been a ramp into the
church... and when renovations were made to the church hall & office area, i.e.
some time before Nora was born, an elevator was added. At the other end of the
continuum, there was a woman in this echo years ago who said the members of her
church had shunned her family because one of the kids had a learning disability
& they interpreted it to mean the family weren't good Christians... (sigh).

HEnce, when she was a clerk at a fast food establishment
years later the deaf folks who liked to gather for coffee
gravitated toward the line she was working at the counter,
as they didn't have to write out their orders on a slip of
paper, but could converse with her naturally using sign.

They may even have been attracted to this place because they knew she
understood their language. We know which coffee shops in our neighbourhood are
receptive to folks with disabilities & we're glad to support them. On numerous
occasions these establishments have attracted groups of eight or more customers
who would otherwise be unable to get together... a win-win situation IMHO.

While I'm not fluent in sign language, I know a lot of people who use
it for various reasons. It's helpful with kids who have difficulty enunciating
certain sounds... e.g. the consonant blends in words like "please", "thankyou",
and "hungry"... and we still use it in certain social situations to indicate to
one another without interrupting the flow of conversation that we need to go to
the washroom. I can also relate to how this person's customers must have felt.
When Nora was younger & still using the stroller, I would often stop to let her
observe construction crews etc. One day, as the two of us approached the glass
door at the entrance to the community centre, we saw a woman washing the glass.
She started to make a move toward opening the door for us... but I indicated to
her in my best Sesame St. sign language that Nora wanted to watch, knowing Nora
couldn't see what I was doing from behind. The woman grinned from ear to ear &
cheerfully went on with her job. Only then did I realize she was deaf.... :-)

Even if you can't do things in the "normal" way the
important thing is that you get them done, and can
live a full life.

Absolutely... you do what works! In our bathroom we have a key chain
with a stuffed animal suspended from a toggle switch. Before that... when Nora
was too short to reach the light switch... we attached a bit of dowelling to it
as a less expensive alternative to the commercial product we'd seen in the home
of a friend whose husband was quadriplegic. Although Nora's needs have changed
we're still using the basic concept of modifying the switch so she can turn the
light on & off by herself. If other people think we're weird, chances are they
already realized that before visiting our home or before we invited them. :-))

Even if that's as simple as using our dry measuring
cups to measure liquids

I hadn't thought of using dry measuring cups that way, but I think it
might work well for Nora too. She often finds it difficult to read the numbers
on the graduated cups associated with liquids. Thanks for the suggestion. :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)