On the NoisyVision website we did not talk often about Sign Language. Yet among our members and friends there are people who use this way of communicating.
Deafblind people may not have access to our channels and so it is difficult for us to reach them. Perhaps it was meant for Chiara to find us. She knows the tactile ASL and she could be the bridge between NoisyVision and this world of silence and darkness, because we also want to address the deafblind and communicate with them.
Here is the story of how Chiara learned the ASL Tactile
May 5, 2016 first day of volunteering. I get out of the car and go to Ippazio waiting for me at the door of a small town in Salento with 4,000 inhabitants, a square and a beautiful castle.
I introduce myself.
“Hello, my name C H I A R A, in sign language Sweet”.
“Hello, my name I P P A Z I O, in ASL Y”.
From the day of the first meeting, others followed, made of walks, festivals, dinners, seminars, the festival of comics, astronomical evenings, gym and pharmacies, stations … how many roads we walked together.
When the eyes meet the ASL in the hands of another person, they light up, become alive and the whole person lives.
Someone who speaks your own language, you do not have to do any effort to ask for a direction, a drink or a gift.
When we are on the road, Ippazio always has his hand on my shoulder and if all goes well during the walk he taps his forefinger to make me understand, sometimes he draws a U on my back, it’s a smile!
With him I learned the Tactile ASL and from the first times I used this communication method I understood what I wanted to do when I was older, despite my 30 years.
It is in a game of concrete perceptions that communication between hands takes shape.
An authentic relationship, the possibility of sharing one’s real and imaginary world is at the base of emotional and physical well-being.
Not having the right to self-expression is a condemnation to loneliness, demotivation and frustration.
My friend is a very strong man, with his white and red cane he travels the world, he does not fear dangers, certainly he must be careful because his vision is tubular and in addition he is profoundly deaf, but nothing stops him.
With him we discuss everything, even of aliens!
ASL has no limits of expression, it is a drawing in the air, something that fades way, but remains inside of you.