Why do some TV broadcasts show a person translating it to sign language instead of using subtitles?

PizzaDeposit@lemm.ee to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 140 points –

I assume there must be a reason why sign language is superior but I genuinely don't know why.

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In addition to the fact that it's not just English via hand gestures, I believe it's done because sign language is speech, with all of the benefits that comes with. There are extra channels of communication present in sign language beyond just the words. There's equivalents of tone and inflection, and (I beleive) even accents. Like, this video of this lady performing "Fuck You" in ASL is what made it click for me when I first saw it many years ago. She's just so fucking expressive, in a way that subtitles could never be.

EDIT: changed my wording to be more accurate, since sign language literally is speech through a different medium. There's no need to draw an unnecessary boundary.

Sign language is speech, it's just non-verbal speech.

Thanks for pointing this out, I've updated my comment to get rid of the unnecessary distinction.

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