How often have you heard of a public elementary school that teaches sign language to everyone? Did your high school offer the option to take an ASL course? What about an ASL university course?
Chances are, your answer to any of the statements above was ‘no.’
With the exception of going to college for a career in interpretation or taking private lessons, the greatest chance of encountering ASL in an academic setting would be at an accredited university. Unfortunately, ASL courses at Canadian universities are only offered at a couple of institutions, and are often few and far between.
As a small disclaimer, I make a case for specifically ASL simply by virtue of demographics. However, all of the benefits described below hold true regardless of which particular sign language is taught!
Just as there are benefits to learning a new spoken language, there are also a wide variety of reasons why sign language should be taught at the primary, elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels!
Image credit: Photographee.eu - Fotolia
Accessibility & Communication
The Canadian Hearing Society estimates there are approximately 3.15 million Canadians who are Hard-of-Hearing (HoH), and another ~340,000 Canadians who are profoundly deaf. These are no small numbers by any means! As a result, the need for proper accessibility is incredibly high, and teaching ASL at school is a step in the right direction.
ASL integration into school curriculums would also have the added benefit of providing an extra layer of understanding about the barriers the Deaf/HoH community faces on a day-to-day basis. This can cause a positive shift in attitudes and outlooks toward the Deaf/HoH community and result in a more significant push for accessibility within society as a whole.
Some elementary schools also have both hearing and Deaf/HoH students enrolled in the same classes. Teaching ASL to the entire class will allow classmates to form new bonds with each other for a much friendlier environment between all students, and it would decrease communication barriers between Deaf classmates and their fellow peers.
Image credit: https://www.svvoice.com/kindergarten-students-learn-american-sign-language-from-high-school-students/
At a high school or university level, optional ASL courses would likely be more targeted towards the hearing community. Regardless, the goal would be to enable hearing students to properly communicate with their Deaf peers without an interpreter/assistive devices (including pen & paper). Hearing students would also gain a level of understanding of the barriers their Deaf peers regularly face, can properly help advocate alongside them, and participate in the extended Deaf community.
By introducing ASL curriculums in schools across the country, sign language as a whole would become more accessible to the Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, and hearing communities. Many deaf children are born to hearing parents, who often have the mindset that teaching the child ASL before putting them through extensive speech therapy would ‘enable their deafness.’ This is an incredibly problematic viewpoint for Deaf children's parents to have, as it might result in many Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing children struggling with understanding and integrating Deaf culture as a part of their heritage as they get older. If sign language is accessible in school (on top of extracurricular ASL AND speech therapy), deaf children would be able to interact with and be actively part of the wider Deaf/HoH community.
Basic understanding of ASL is so crucial because it can help prevent so many avoidable issues regarding communication barriers, as well as miscommunication leading to misunderstandings. There have been instances where Deaf people, often those of African- or Native-American heritage, have been unfortunately hurt by those that misinterpreted their sign language as gang signs or even because they were shouting too loudly. While it goes without saying that hurting anyone is wrong, regardless of the reasoning, it also shows that including ASL in curriculums would help avoid such misunderstandings in the future through accessibility and proper understanding.
Diversity & Culture
All sign languages are unique and beautiful— each movement can truly tell a whole story by itself. Every single sign language is rich with culture, and it has the incredible power of bringing people together.
Learning ASL increases sensitivity to the nuances, accepted social norms, and taboos of the Deaf/HoH community. It allows students to engage with and build a better understanding of the community as a whole, which helps ‘bridge the gap,’ step by step.
Young, deaf children without exposure to sign language (due to their parent’s priority to integrate them into the “Hearing world”) may find it difficult to make an autonomous choice about whether or not to embrace a Deaf identity due to this lack of experience. Should ASL be taught in school at a general level, many deaf children—who otherwise would not have gotten this exposure to this aspect of Deaf culture—would be able to make this critical decision for themselves.
Image credit: Nancy Rourke
Inclusivity
This point would be much better with a demonstration—after all, actions can speak louder than words!
Here’s a fantastic example by TikTok user Chrissy Marshall (a big online advocate for the Deaf/HoH community):
Words don’t need to be spoken aloud for the message to be crystal clear: this is the kind of positive impact a few passing conversations in ASL with a member of the Deaf/HoH community can have at this moment. Just imagine how much more inclusive our society would be if this was the norm!
Personal Milestones, Growth, and Health
Learning a language—regardless of which one—is always an accomplishment to be proud of! Making the conscious effort to learn ASL can be a wonderful step towards self-growth and improvement. It also allows you to form deeper connections and friendships with a wider group of people—and isn't that wonderful?
Also, learning ASL at a young age has been linked with many positive impacts on a child’s overall health, regardless if they are deaf or hearing. Firstly, teaching a second language early makes it easier to learn, and it stimulates the language centers of the brain to develop faster. Several studies have also found that children's communication skills, cognitive abilities, multitasking, literacy, and vocabulary development would be strengthened as well!
In the long term, having ASL under your belt as a second language can even help protect against common cognitive decline in old age. It can even potentially delay the onset of dementia for 4-5 years!
Image credit: https://shortcourses.ridbc.org.au/events/social-perspectives-on-deafness-and-deaf-education/
Teaching ASL in school—from primary all the way to post-secondary—removes big communication, accessibility, and cultural barriers between the Deaf/HoH and hearing communities. It’s also one of the best ways to ‘bridge the gap’ and truly make an inclusive society that benefits everyone in many different ways!
Hopefully, with enough push now, future readers would be able to answer ‘yes’ to all of the first three questions asked at the beginning of this post! :)
If you’re interested, here’s a great petition you can sign and share to further the cause!
What do you think? Leave a comment down below!
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