A deaf diver with a project!

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Michael McKinney

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Hello, SB! I'm a deaf diver living in Overland Park, KS, and I have a wife living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I've dived several times, both in the Honduran waters (usually Roatan) and in the lakes around the Mid-Western USA (mostly in northern Arkansas and western Missouri.)

For my entire life, I've been very fascinated by underwater world, and jumped into scuba diving last year and couldn't be much more happier!

However... I've noticed that everybody are required to verbally communicate about whatever they wanted to say on the surface BEFORE they enter into the water, then they're pretty much "mute" beyond doing some basic gestures such as "Out of air", "Ok? Ok.", "Turtle", etc hand signals. If people wanted to say anything more complicated than that while underwater, they have only two choices: Swim up to the surface and talk before swimming back down underwater, or bring a slate with them.

How I communicate with my instructor, on the other hand... During my AOW, Rescue, and DM trainings in the water, my instructor and I just kneel down on the bottom in the water and communicate using sign language as to what I will need to be doing, and complete the task, entirely without having to surface to explain what tasks we need to do.

During the dives out in the open water, while we're underwater, we're able to chat, form plan, etc, without having to swim up and talk. Here's couple of examples:

While I was doing a search and recovery exercise with another person that knows sign language, we did a sweep, then when I felt as if we've been going in circle, I simply stopped my buddy and we signed, "I think we're going in circle, let's going that way." "Are you sure we're going in circle?" "Yeah, I've seen that rock before, I'm pretty sure." "Okay, let's go."

Or when we're in the ocean in Honduras, we talked underwater, "I saw a turtle over there, it was awesome!" "What color was it? Green?" "I think dark green, with yellow spots." "Cool, I haven't seen that one, where is it?" "Over there, behind that reef." "Okay, thanks, I'll BRB!"

You wouldn't be able to say all of these with just gestures taught in the classes. All you would be saying is "Turtle" (pointing). Or fumbling around with slate trying to write stuff down while floating mid-water. I don't even know how you would tell your partner that you're going in circle underwater and to go the other way?

Here's an important one - what if you're allergic to a sting from certain fish? Suppose your buddy got stung by one, he would be able to sign to you while underwater, "I got stung by a fish, I'm allergic to the sting, we should surface before my symptoms gets worse." then if the buddy passes out halfway up to the surface, you already know WHY he passed out and would be able to treat him right away on the surface without trying to find out the cause of his passing out.

I'm going to make a post about this somewhere else on the board later, but I would like to start a project to develop a type of sign language designed for underwater that would be easy to pick up and use by anybody, anywhere. (I can't just teach people American Sign Language, because people in, say, Honduras or Thailand doesn't know American Sign Language at all.) I'm hopeful I would gain some support for the project on the SB. I'll talk about this some more this weekend.

I was fortunate to have an instructor that believes in my project enough to allow me to get AOW, Rescue, DM, and various specialties for free or for cheap in order to encourage me to develop my diving skills and to develop my project.

Well, I should stop this long post, thanks for reading! :)
 
I think this is a great idea for a project.

Although there is already a hand signal for "I got stung by a fish, I'm allergic to the sting, we should surface before my symptoms gets worse." - it is the thumbs up :)
 
I completely understand what you are getting at. I mean you get to have full underwater conversations while we can barely have a statement. I encourage your project and I'm subscribing this thread to see if anything more comes of this.
 
I've thought sign language would be extremely useful for diving ever since I was certified. It's really too bad that sign isn't the same in other countries. I guess I don't know enough about sign language to understand why that is.
 
There is someone who has already set up something like this. Check out www.aquahands.com. Not only is he increasing the deaf diving community but he has plans to teach hearing divers to talk underwater with their hands.
 
Not the first discussion of this on Scubaboard, for a recent one, see http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...arning-american-sign-language-your-buddy.html
In particular, see post #8 (and followups) regarding SeaSigns™

I'm not particularly excited about the idea, but it's kind of what you're talking about, so you should be aware of it.
For myself, see post #11; fingerspelling seems the best bang-for-the-buck balancing effort to learn vs. utility for diving, but others may choose a different balance.
 
Since I posted this thread, I've been in touch with SeaSigns. They have offered to train me in SeaSigns and give me a PADI c-card for SeaSigns (would be a very quick session, since SeaSigns is about 95% ASL and I'm already fluent in ASL) and to train me to become SeaSigns instructor and instructor trainer. Unfortunately, PADI requires me to be a scuba diver instructor before I can become instructor/get c-card. I'm currently undergoing training to become divemaster.

SeaSigns also expressed interest in the fact that I'm an "international" diver (Honduras) and has discussed translating their materials into Spanish (they currently only have English materials.) They also have been talking to me about various sign languages in the world (I get the sense they're trying to see if they can "spread" to all areas outside USA.) I've been talking to them about Honduran sign language and how they could adapt the SeaSigns to Honduras people.

Progress!

As for AquaHands... unfortunately, every attempts at contacting them (for diving courses or for any other reasons) usually get an e-mail or a phone call from them with them saying they'll get back to me... then I never hear from them again until I make another attempt at contacting them. :( I ended up just doing OW with Anemona Divers at Roatan, Honduras and AOW/EFR/Rescue/Divemaster with an instructor that also happens to be my interpreter in KC. I would ABSOLUTELY love to go diving with them, since they're all deaf, but... :(
 

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