Accessibility in History

[ysabetwordsmith]

We often think of accessibility and tolerance for people with disabilities as being a modern point of etiquette, and one that's often hard to maintain. I was delighted to find this tidbit of ancient Egyptian etiquette deeply buried in an article about literature:

"If a deaf man is present, do not multiply words; it is better thou keep silent"

That is, instead of expecting deaf people to accommodate a hearing culture -- as is often expected today -- the hearing were asked to respect the deaf.  It makes me wonder if they had a sign language going back then.  Like, shut up with your mouth when someone is trying to talk with his hands.

Comments

[gehayi]

Yes, they did.

...evidence of the existence of finger alphabets can be traced from Assyrian antiquity to the seventeenth century, and there are numerous references in the literature to single- and double-handed alphabets (Winzer, M.A. 1993, p. 53). The earliest finger alphabet is contained in a later production of the Venerable Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (History of the Anglo-Saxon Church) of 731, which refers to three different forms of manual alphabets used by the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans.

"Early Vatican manuscripts show the hands making numbers to one million; European paintings, from the late fifteenth to the seventeenth century, also depict manual rhetoric. There is evidence, that two-handed or mixed alphabets of various forms were in use among school boys in Spain, France, and England centuries ago, and monks under rigid vows of silence and other scholars who had special reasons to prize silent, secret methods of communication doubtless used many forms of manual communication." (Lane 1976, Plann 1991, in Winzer,M.A. 1993, p.53).

SQUEE!!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I love my audience with a deep and fiery passion, because you people bring me awesome things like this.

[xenologer]

Wow thanks for this link.

Now I have learned more things! Thanks to both of you.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Hm. As for the respect to the handicapped, several items in Lewis's Appendix to THE ABOLITION OF MAN could be read like that.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's fascinating! I, too, would love to know if they had a sign language.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Apparently there is evidence for that. One of my other readers found some references, see the link.