ASL Tour Held at Fort Phil Kearny

On Tuesday, June 11, The Trail End Mansion and Fort Phil Kearny both offered tours for the hearing impaired, with Amber Townsend, ASL Interpreter. She talked about how she learned it and about American Sign Language.

She also talked about how she translates speech into sign.

During the walk at the Fort, Shari Shada, Site Superintendent, talked about the history of the fort while Townsend interpreted the talk in sign language.

Townsend mentioned Martha Vineyard, where from the early 18th century up until in the early 1950s, all the residents knew and could discourse fluently in Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language MVSL as many of the people on the island at that time were hearing impaired, due to the fact that deafness was a recessive trait. During the 1950s, sign language on the island declined as more of the population began migrating to the mainland.