disabled / disability

Dr. Vicars:

 

I am giving an informative speech to my class this Sunday, November 11, 2007. It is going to be on a day in the life of a deaf person. It will be taken from a compilation of sources, including actual interviews. I know that deaf persons do not consider themselves disabled. I'd like to sign the phrase, "Don't call me disabled." I have been looking everywhere for the sign for disabled. So far, I've found "disability" on [another website] with first the letter d, then the letter a, being signed in a circle similar to that of "alone". Is this the same sign for disabled? Please help me, ASAP!

 

Thank you, for your time and willingness to help. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

Rose Cotten

Rose,
In my travels I'd have to say the most widely recognized sign for "disabled" is to fingerspell the letters "DA."
This is reminiscent of the sign for "handicapped" which is done by spelling the letters "HC."
Any special movement you might see for the spelling of "DA" is simply for emphasis to make it clearer.  That movement isn't like the sign "alone/single/someone/something" rather the movement is a small clockwise (by the signer, which appears counterclockwise to the viewer) circle or semicircular movement. That same movement is common in other abbreviations as well. For example, when spelling U.S. as in the "United States" you use the small clockwise movement.  Additionally, I wouldn't consider it wrong if the topic had been established and a person were signing quickly and didn't include the rotational movement.  I would simply consider that to be the "articulation" of the sign when done at high speed by a fluent signer as opposed to introducing the concept into the conversation, and/or emphasizing the concept for clarity.  Additionally I wouldn't consider the direction of the rotation as having any real bearing on the accuracy of the sign. For example if someone moved it "counter-clockwise" I wouldn't mark him or her down for it on a test. Nor would I mark him or her down if he or she used a single rotational movement and changed the "D" into an "A" partway through the rotational movement.
If signing a song, or doing platform interpreting for a large audience such abbreviations could have very large or exaggerated movements.

There are other signs for "disability." For example, you might see people initializing the sign "interrupt" with a "D."  I think of that "single movement" sign as meaning "disabling" or the verb form of "disable" as in "to disable."  If done twice, I would think of it as a noun form meaning "a disability."  I would accept either form (single or double) movement as an adjective depending on the rest of the sentence. Since the sign is based on the "interrupt" sign I encourage the use of this sign to refer to "disabling" conditions but I discourage the use of this sign to refer to "disabled" people. When referring to disabled people I stick with spelling "DA."

Versions of this sign that I do not encourage include signing "not," or "don't," or fingerspelling "DIS" followed by the sign "CAN/able."

Cordially,
Dr. V

 

DISABLED / DA:

 

DISABLED:

Question: Would you use the sign for disabled for "The computer account was disabled" or the "The car was disabled by spike strips"?

Response:
For the computer account -- some people might indeed sign DISABLED (the DA version) to mean "disable." Depends on my coworkers or audience. Not a perfect option here. Some would use the PAUSE sign to mean "put on hold." Some might sign CANCEL -- but that seems to me to be not an exact fit. The fact is computers in English speaking countries generally "speak English" (or in other words are English-based) and as such the dialog windows in computer screens will use specific English words for options. When two Deaf discuss such options it is common to use the sign that most closely matches -- even if that sign generally means something else in everyday communication.
For example, even though there is a specific depictive sign for MOUSE-[computer] -- it is not uncommon for typical Deaf to sign "MOUSE" (as in the animal) to refer to the peripheral computer mouse. The same goes for the sign BUG -- some Deaf use that in context to mean "virus." Others (like me) just spell virus when referring to a computer virus. Of course there are some purists who will pooh pooh any stretching of the meaning of common signs beyond their typical meanings but that just isn't how real language works.

I would not use DA to refer to the disabling of a car via blowing the tires on a spike strip.
For that I'd sign "TIRES FLATTENED!"