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Office responsible for facilitating court heraldry for the deaf and hard of hearing.
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What do Sign Heralds do?
Sign Heralds are individuals who volunteer to use signed language or oral interpreting to communicate information to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing members of the populace during court, classes, and meetings.
Who can be a Sign Herald?
Any member of the populace who has the desire can become a Sign Herald. As an individual builds their language skills and becomes more comfortable, they may decide to sign increasingly long or difficult material. Someone with fingerspelling knowledge may feel most comfortable at the gate while those with more extensive knowledge may choose to assist with court or classes.
The Thuban Herald will be happy to work with anyone who wishes to start offering their time or developing their skills even if they don’t wish to become a Sign Herald right now.
How do I request a Sign Herald for an event?
Any individual who wishes to have a Sign Herald present for a specific event or activity at an event should contact Boiarynia Katalena Ivaniaia zhena Shishova via email. with the request including event name, date, and location. She will do her best to provide services based on the availability of a Sign Herald.
Learning American Sign Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual-spatial language used by Deaf, hard of hearing, and other individuals in the United States and most of Canada. If you are interested in learning ASL, the links listed will help you get started.
- SignSchool.com is a free web application that teaches ASL lessons from basic to advanced in a progressive manner. It covers signs, phrases, grammar, and has additional tools to assess your progress.
- American Sign Language University is a step-by-step lesson program developed and taught by Dr. William Vicars, a professor at CSUN. There is a tremendous amount of information available from signs to cultural and historical information.
- Spread the Sign is an online (and phone application) sign language dictionary. The website features the ability to search a term and find signs in several different signed languages from around the world.
Information about the Deaf
The use of American Sign Language does not happen in a vacuum. Individuals who are part of the Deaf community are part of a rich sub-culture that has its own language, dynamics, history, and traditions. While not all individuals who use signed language identify as members of the Deaf community/culture having an understanding of it will assist in rendering services as a Sign Herald.
Please visit some of the links below for additional information:
- NAD.org is the online home of the National Association of the Deaf. Information about the culture, community, history, and position statements are available on this website.
- The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center website has an exhaustive collection of articles about Deaf culture, community, history, and education.
- The Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf website has information specific to the Deaf community in Canada as well as to the culture as a whole.
More Information
The Sign Heraldry page at SCA.org has some articles that may be of assistance to those who would like to start acting as a Sign Herald in the Middle Kingdom.
The links above and in our Kingdom Document Library Sign Herald folder may provide more current information.
Library of Documents
Thanks to our Kingdom Webminister, we have a new home for our heraldic documents! Everything can now be found in the Documents Library, in the “Silent Heraldry” folder.