In Deaf Culture, is it appropriate to use the light switch to flash the lights on and off to gain the attention of someone that is a distance from you in a room.

Question

Approximately how many times to flash is acceptable?

Is yelling acceptable?

Answer 1

This is an interesting question.

I have worked in Deaf education classrooms in which the method of turning lights on/off has been used for attention grabbing purposes. However, this was usually used in a group setting rather than to gain the attention of an individual person in the room. For example, the lights method would be used in the event that we needed to gain the attention of the entire class to signal it was time to clean up and get ready for our next activity. In this case, because Deaf students are highly functioning visual learners, this method proved to be effective.

On the other hand, when a signer would want the attention of an individual person in a room, the approach is quite different. If the light method were to be used here, the entire group would be distracted and to do this in order to get one person's attention is then unnecessary. In the Deaf World, the appropriate way to get a single person's attention can be accomplished by a gentle tap on the shoulder or a wave in their line of vision. These simple gestures will gain the person's attention quickly and effectively.

When I attend Deaf events in my local community, I tend to use these gestures when I want to get the attention of a Deaf or interpreter friend in the room.

Answer 2

It depends.

Usually, yes, flashing the lights on and off is acceptable especially if it is a group (i.e., a classroom).

However, it really depends on person/situation.

**If you know the person might have epilepsy, light triggers, PTSD, or something akin to those then you would not.

Normally flash the light about once maybe twice slowly (try to avoid fast flashing) or until the person notices.

Yelling is not, usually, acceptable for this situation.