A student asks:
Question:
If I'm with more than one person on Zoom, how would I refer to a person as
he/she on camera?
For example, if Alice, Bob, and I are chatting on a 3-way video call, and Alice
asked me "who taught you to sign?" -- how would I sign "He taught me" referring
to Bob? I can't point to the camera or my screen! Would I have to fingerspell
Bob's name every time I need to refer to him?
Response:
The best approach during teleconference meetings with three or more participants
usually is to spell the person's name to who you are referring or use their name
sign (if they have a name sign and all of the participants in the conversation
know to whom that name sign belongs).
If you on on a 3-way teleconference session and one person asks you who taught
you sign -- technically if you pointed off to the side a bit to indicate the
third person in the group the meaning should still be fairly obvious because you
are not pointing at yourself or the person who asked you the question.
(That is assuming you are being asked a real question and not just a practice
sentence from a lesson). Since two of the three participants (you and the person
who asked you the question) are eliminated by context, pointing off to one side
would leave the third person as the only referent (of your pointing gesture)
that would make sense. It could also be an option spell the third person's
preferred pronoun if there is only one person in the conversation to whom that
pronoun would apply.
However just because something "could" work doesn't mean we should do it.
I recommend you practice and get good at both fingerspelling and the reading of
fingerspelling because online interactive sign-language-based meetings
consisting of four or more people certainly will almost certainly involve the
fingerspelling of names. However, if I felt the need to expedite (make
faster and more efficient) the naming and referring process during an important
and/or time-limited meeting (especially if there were less skilled individuals
in attendance at the meeting) I wouldn't hesitate to print up name cards and
hold up one of those cards and/or use the electronic equivalent of such a name
card if the teleconferencing system being used has attention getting tools or
signaling methods.
Notes:
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