The workshop entitled "What is Sign Language" was organized by the Disability Action Council and was held at the National Institute of Public Health in Phnom Penh. The purpose of the workshop was to give a common basic understanding of sign language to all the groups in Cambodia working with deaf people. Here Charlie Dittmeier, as deafness coordinator for Cambodia, opens the workshop.

Sereyvuth, the assistant program manager of the Deaf Development Program (a Maryknoll project), gave a brief history of sign language in Cambodia, highlighting its development in the last six years.

Dr. James Woodward, a sign language linguistics expert, was the leader of the workshop. Now based in Vietnam and working with programs for teaching adult deaf people, Woody started off his career in deafness at Gallaudet University, then moved to Hong Kong and Thailand before beginning his work in Vietnam.

About forty participants attended the workshop, from a variety of NGOs and goverment ministries. A really positive result was the interaction among the participants and the chance to meet each other and spend two days together discussing different ideas and viewpoints.

The workshop was held at the National Institute of Public Health, one of the more popular venues for large meetings in Phnom Penh. (It has air conditioning!) It also has an outdoor pavillion where the breaks and lunches were held.

Here Woody and the Khmer voice interpreter look at a videotape demonstrating Thai sign language as deaf adults would sign it and as hearing people would sign it. The tape was very helpful in conveying the difference between just signing and using sign language, an important concept for the workshop goers.

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