Eli5 Why are there different variants of sign language? Couldn’t one form become universal and be understood by all people regardless of language?
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Why are there different spoken languages? Couldn’t one language become universal and understood by all people?
Questions like this are audist and ableist. I understand you’re not in a position to realize that and it’s not how you intended, but you should be aware that deaf people hear this all the time, and it diminishes their world and their culture. This is like the 20th time I’ve seen it either here or in askreddit, and the hearing population by and large really needs to start accepting that this is not an okay question to ask so publicly.
It’s kind of like saying “why can’t women just learn to drive better?” Would you accept the excuse of someone asking that and saying, “well I don’t see why it’s offensive,” and then say sure, you should just keep asking it in public?
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