[ksaj]

A lot of deaf people have terrible grammar because ASL greatly simplifies and in some cases omits things that aren't really needed to get the idea across. There is Signed English, but that is primarily for English speaking people and basically meets hearing and non-hearing people part way. To a deaf person, SE is overly verbose and the word order is strange. (For example, SE has 'running,' which is the word 'run' followed by a sign for 'ing.' ASL does away with 'ing' because it is obvious in context.)

Also, intent is a lot more clear in ASL than in written language, since expressions are part of the language, as is openness/closeness of the signs, etc. (To use a previous example, you can easily 'run quickly' or 'run awkwardly' or 'run with barely any energy left' in ASL using only the word for 'run,' and what type of running is pretty clear. Not so if the word 'run' is written or even spoke by itself!)

So I would expect most deaf people to find ASL a whole lot easier to understand than spoken English in written format.

The fact that live political presentations use a signer, and not the typical news floating matte banner along the bottom suggests pretty much the same. If text was preferable, they'd just feed off the teleprompter. So I do think ASL is preferable for many reasons.

PS: If you ever wrote down what those signers are saying verbatim, a speaking/reading person might find it baffling because of just how different ASL grammar is, and the lack of expression and space in plain text.

[gus_massa]

> you can easily 'run quickly'

Is it somewhat like typing RUN in allcaps?

In Spanish, in informal messages, we also sometimes repeat vowels, like in a loooooooooong word. It makes more sense in Spanish because repeated vowels sound like a single vowel. But in English an "oo" sounds like a "uh" instead of "oh-oh" so it's difficult to use that trick.

[ksaj]

That's a good analogy. You can perform a signed word different ways. Faster. Slower. Sloppily. Etc. And then you have your expression to go with it - surprised, bored, funny, sarcastic, etc., to demonstrate how the verb occurred.

Allcaps adds AN element to the written word that mimics speech in a SIMILAR, but LIMITED way.

The Spanish thing is interesting. As a kid, sometimes we would say something like "I love ice cream so muh uh uh uh uch!!!!" so there might be a small amount of universality to that

[gus_massa]

I think in the oral language we use it to make an adjective stronger.

largo -> laaargo -> very long

chico -> chiquitito -> chiquitiiito (with an acute voice ) -> very small

rápido -> rápido (faster than usual, perhaps say it twice or three times) -> very fast

lento -> leeento (slowwer usual) -> very slow

Note that all this uses are in informal oral language, some leak to informal written language. And they may be regional. [Hi from Argentina!]

Anyway, all the cases I can remember now are used to make an adjective stronger, not to tell an adjective and a noun at the same time as you describe with signs language.

[Things4People]

Wow - thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts with us! There are a lot of good examples in your text which makes it really easy to understand that there is a real difference.

Do you have an idea why people nobody is taking care of that problem? Because it’s simply too expensive so far?

I’m really curious about this, because we identified how we could potentially fix this problem and help a lot of deaf people. But it’s always a problem if you think you solve a problem if there is no real need out there.