| There are quite a few innovations that came about | | | | Cincinnati Reds. Well, it was their deaf centre fielder, |
| because some of the participants were deaf. You can | | | | William Hoy, who began all the hand signals that you |
| frequently see these innovations in every day life and | | | | now see in every baseball game. |
| you may even use some of them yourself without | | | | Shorthand is maybe not used so much now as it once |
| knowing where the notion came from. This ought not | | | | was, but it used to be indispensable on a secretary's |
| be unexpected given that almost ten percent of | | | | curriculum vitae not very long ago. It was or still is |
| people are either deaf or hard of hearing. | | | | considered the only way to take down conversations |
| In fact, some level of deafness affects about | | | | at, say a board meeting verbatim. Shorthand was also |
| twenty-two million US citizens and they are spread | | | | invented by a deaf person, namely John Gregg. |
| fairly evenly over the entire spectrum of the population | | | | Most deaf people use sign language, which is known |
| - men, women and children; young an old; black and | | | | as signing. It is a shame that every spoken language |
| white; upper and lower class. Some were born with | | | | developed its own sign language, so that deaf people |
| deafness and others developed it as the consequence | | | | did not have the first truly international language, but |
| of an accident or through old age or several other | | | | there is a lot of although in that direction. Signing may |
| ways as well. | | | | become the first truly internationally understood |
| I would like to give a few instances of how people | | | | language. |
| suffering from deafness have influenced our everyday | | | | Scuba divers were fast to pick up on the usefulness |
| society. | | | | of signing and it is extensively used by divers all over |
| The huddle in American football is not done only so | | | | the world. Scuba or deep sea divers do use an |
| that the opposition cannot overhear strategy, often | | | | internationally acknowledged set of signals. |
| they are quite far away. It was first arranged by a | | | | Being deaf is recognized as a disability and rightly so, |
| college for the deaf, because otherwise the captain | | | | but imagine what the world of music, or even the |
| would have had to shout, which of course would have | | | | Western world itself, would be like if it had not been |
| been overheard by the opposition quite a long way | | | | for Beethoven? He was totally deaf when he wrote |
| away. | | | | the Ninth Symphony. |
| If you like baseball, then you will have heard of the | | | | |