2.1. Community characteristics
It is important to distinguish between the deaf community and the sign language community. The former usually only includes deaf people who are fluent users of NGT. The latter refers to a broader group that does not only include mainly early onset deaf people who use NGT, but also deafblind people using tactile sign language as well as hearing sign language users, such as hearing parents of deaf children and hearing children of deaf adults (codas), interpreters, and other second language learners. In this and the following sections, I focus on the latter category. I first address two geographically different groups of NGT users: outside the Netherlands (SOCIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Chapter 2) and within the Netherlands (SOCIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Chapter 2). Subsequentley, the characteristics of different subgroups of sign language users (within the Netherlands) are described.
Surinam and the former Netherlands Antilles
This dissertation describes NGT as used in the Netherlands, by the sign language community in the Netherlands. However, NGT is also known to be used in Surinam and the (former) Netherlands Antilles, which used to be Dutch colonies. Suriname became independent in 1975, and the Netherlands Antilles (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) were dissolved in 2010, each island receiving a different political status. At present, there are three sign languages in use in Surinam (Parks & Williams 2011), but documentation of and research on their current forms and statuses is lacking. It is known that NGT and Sign Supported Dutch (SSD) are used by teachers at the Kennedy School for Deaf Children in Paramaribo – the only deaf school in Surinam – due to contact between professionals and educators from the Netherlands and from Surinam (van den Bogaerde 2010 in: Parks & Williams 2011). Note that the children seem to use other signs/sign languages among themselves (van den Bogaerde 2010 in: Parks & Williams 2011). As for the (former) Netherlands Antilles, there is evidence for the use of NGT on the islands Aruba and Curacao. Parks & Williams (2011) state that NGT is used within the deaf community on Aruba. As for Curacao, there is one deaf school (the Scola Myrna Dovale), for which it is known that NGT and SSD are used, also due to contact between professionals and educators from Curacao and the Netherlands. For estimates about the number of deaf people in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles, see Parks & Williams (2011).
The sign language community in the Netherlands
People with early onset deafness constitute the core of the sign language community in the Netherlands. In general, deaf people who went to school together and used sign language among themselves, typically have a strong deaf identity and feel culturally connected to other deaf people, both within the Netherlands and abroad. However, this does not mean that all early onset deaf people identify with the sign language community. Members of the older generation of deaf people, who hardly had any access to sign language in school (see Section 1.1), but also younger deaf people raised orally, are examples of this. At the other end of the age-spectrum, this also holds for the most recent generation of deaf-born children, 95% of whom receives a cochlear implant, and, for the most part, do not automatically grow up with NGT. Sign languages are mostly transmitted in and around deaf schools and communities of deaf people. However, most deaf children are born to hearing parents and currently attend mainstream education, which does not offer education in sign language.It must be noted that children can use interpreters in class, and that Royal Auris Group offers sign language classes to children who attend mainstream education (Corrie Tijsseling, personal communication August 2020). Thus, it is more challenging for this group of children to get in contact with the sign language community, as their acquisition and use of NGT depend on the “language policy” of their parents, peers and teachers. The current position of NGT is, thus, vulnerable