The CCSD remembers Clayton Valli and his contribution to ASL and Deaf literature in Canada. A generous as well as an accomplished man, Dr. Valli gave numerous workshops about ASL poetry and linguistics for students and staff at the Ernest C. Drury School for the Deaf in Milton, Ontario. He provided teacher training workshops in ASL poetry, classifier structures and linguistics for members of the Ontario ASL Curriculum Team. His expertise greatly benefited the work of the ASL Curriculum Team, who are pioneers in the worldwide movement to develop an ASL-as-a-first-language curriculum for Deaf children.
Dr. Valli was born in Massachusetts and attended the Austine School for the Deaf in Vermont. He attended the University of Neveda-Reno, where he graduated with a B.A. in Social Psychology in 1978. In 1985, he received his M.A. in Linguistics from Gallaudet University. His Ph.D. in Linguistics and ASL Poetics from the Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio which he received in 1993 made him the first person ever to achieve a doctorate in ASL poetry. He was also the first individual to identify the features of ASL poetry as a literature genre in its own right.
Dr. Valli authored and co-authored several books about ASL linguistics and literature, and was a reviewer for the Ontario monograph Teacher Research in a Bilingual Bicultural School for Deaf Students. He was an adjunct professor at the Miami Dade Community College in Florida and a senior editorial consultant for the preparation of a Gallaudet University Dictionary of ASL prior to his death. But it is his craft as an ASL poet and his contribution to ASL literature for which he is most remembered. His poems "Cow and Horse" and "Dandelions" are known and loved by Deaf children and adults across the continent. He was scheduled to give a workshop about ASL metaphors for the ASL Curriculum Team before his untimely death on March 7, 2003.
The CCSD honours Dr. Valli as a giant in the field of ASL literature. The Deaf community's work to further the development and study of ASL literature-especially at schools for Deaf children-will ensure that his legacy lives on.
References: Teachers at the Ernest C. Drury School for the Deaf, Milton, Ontario for their "In Memory of Dr. Clayton Valli" slide show.