Trinidad & Tobago
The first residential school for deaf children, Cascade School for the Deaf (CSD), was established in the 1940s. Although CSD adopted oralist teaching methods, forcing children to speak and prohibiting them from signing, when they returned to the dormitories they started to develop their own ways of visual communication. Through the 1950s and 1960s, subsequent cohorts came to the school and a new language took hold and was transmitted.
In 1975, the principal of CSD arranged for Peggy Parsons, a leading advocate of Total Communication to come to Trinidad and teach Signing Exact English and American Sign Language, which were subsequently adopted as primary languages of education. As a result, there is a complex language situation, with significant differences between the signing of those who went to school prior to 1975, and those who came afterwards.
Research on the sign language has been conducted at the undergraduate and postgraduate level, including an MPhil thesis by Alicia Lamb (Trinidad and Tobago Sign Language (TTSL): Its emergence, development and transmission, 2016), amongst other work by Kesica Brewster, Kristian Ali, Lily Kwok, Felicia Bisnath, and Lyasha Lewis. In addition, Dr. Paulson Skerrit has performed research on literacy and bimodal bilingualism amongst deaf children in Trinidad and Tobago. Members of the local Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, such as Ian Dhanoolal, Cheryl Maniram, [other names], have been integral to such research projects.
A Diploma in Caribbean Sign Language Interpreting (CSLI), originally developed at the Mona, Jamaica campus of the University of the West Indies, coordinated by Dr Keren Cumberbatch, was first run at the St Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago in 2010(?).
A project to compile a dictionary of Trinbagonian signs was launched by the Ministry of Social Development in 200?. The project team included members of deaf organisations from around the country. The dictionary was completed in 20??, though it was never widely distributed. A group of deaf leaders who had participated in the dictionary project decided to form a new advocacy organisation, originally called the Deaf Empowerment Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago, now known as the Deaf Empowerment and Advancement Foundation (DEAF). In recent years many new deaf-led organisations have been established (see Resources page).
The Trinidad and Tobago Association for the Hearing Impaired (TTAHI) is the largest and oldest Deaf organisation. TTAHI was established at the same time as the first deaf school in the 1940s. TTAHI is registered by an Act of Parliament meaning that the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago provides support such as subventions and providing salaries. The DRETCHI arm of the Association is an audiological clinic which administers hearing tests, distributes hearing aids, and provides services such as speech and language therapy. Historically, TTAHI has been run by hearing people on the levels of management and the Board. It was only in 2018 that Bryan Rodgrigues was elected President, becoming the first Deaf President of the Association. To date, there has been no Deaf Executive Officer.
List of resources:
Info about TTSL Corpus: Trinidad & Tobago Endangered Languages RDI Fund http://sta.uwi.edu/rdifund/projects/ttel/index.asp
Bimodal bilingual storybooks in TTSL
Caribbean Sign Language Centre
Deaf Basketball Association T&T
Deaf Empowerment and Advancement Foundation (DEAF)
Deaf Fustal League Trinidad & Tobago
DeafSkills of Trinidad and Tobago
Deaf Sports Trinidad and Tobago
Speech-Language and Audiology Association of Trinidad and Tobago
Touch of Christ Catholic Deaf Community
Trinidad & Tobago Association for the Hearing Impaired // Facebook
Voice of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Trinidad & Tobago
Ali, K. (2017). Grammatical Functions of Non-Manual Markers in Trinidad and Tobago Sign Language. The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. Undergraduate Thesis.
Bisnath, F. (2018). Wh-questions in the Trinidad and Tobago Signing Community. University of Amsterdam. MA Thesis. https://scripties.uba.uva.nl/scriptie/658796
Braithwaite, B. (2018). TTSL: From Secret Language of Resistance to National Language. International Day of Sign Languages. https://www.facebook.com/dmlluwista/photos/a.2154183168188797/2154183254855455
Braithwaite, B. (2018). Language Contact and the History of Sign Language in Trinidad and Tobago. Sign Language Studies, 19(1).
Braithwaite, B. (2015). Deaf Perspectives on Deaf Education: An Ethnographic Study from Trinidad and Tobago. Caribbean Educational Research Journal, 3(1), 18–26.
Braithwaite, B., Drayton, K., & Lamb, A. (2011). The History of Deaf Language and Education in Trinidad and Tobago since 1943. History in Action, 2(1).
Conrad, D. A., Paul, N., Bruce, M., Charles, S., & Felix, K. (2010). Special Schools and theSearch for Social Justice in Trinidad and Tobago: Perspectives From Two Marginalized Contexts. Caribbean Curriculum, 17 , 58–84.
Conrad, D., Paul-Fraser, N., Bruce, M., Charles, S., & Felix, K. (2010). Social justice and the education of students with disabilities: Perspectives from two marginalized contexts. Caribbean Educational Research Journal, 2(1), 54–62.
Dhanoolal, Ian. (2018). Deaf Must Lead Their Own Cause. International Day of Sign Languages. 5. https://www.facebook.com/dmlluwista/photos/a.2154183168188797/2154183391522108
Kwok, L. (2015). Investigating constituent order in Trinidad and Tobago Sign Language. The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. Undergraduate Thesis.
Lamb, A. (2016). Trinidad and Tobago Sign Language (TTSL): Its emergence, development and transmission. University of the West Indies, St Augustine. MPhil thesis.
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