American Sign Language (or ASL) is the main form of communication for over one million people. Despite the fact that over thirteen percent of Americans – one in eight – have hearing loss in both ears, only “[one to two percent] of deaf children receive education in sign language.” In fact, due to “dwindling education funding and technological alternatives,” ASL could become a dying language.
The lack of education for non-hearing students and adults alike is disheartening but remediable. ASL can be resurrected by incorporating required ASL classes into the American public school curriculum. This will create a more inclusive, fair and equal ground for hearing and non-hearing individuals alike. Requiring an ASL class during a student’s formative years will create a generation that is not only bilingual, but far more communicative with their peers, teachers, and parents. A large portion of the population is facing challenges and discrimination based on the inability to orally communicate, and the American school system could change the way it, as operating in a majority hearing society, treats non-hearing individuals by considering these statistics and transforming public school curriculum across the country.
Teaching ASL to Children
Because children learn more quickly than adults and are able to absorb information like a sponge, implementing ASL into young, school-aged children’s curriculum is dire in order to save the language, which some believe is on the brink of extinction due to technological advancements and other forms of communication. During early childhood, “the period from birth to eight years old,” a child has the potential to see “remarkable growth with brain development at its peak.” At this point in a child’s life, it is critical to educate them as they are able to more easily retain the content than they would be later in life. Providing all children with ASL education has a plethora of benefits, including increased communication skills between hearing and non-hearing populations. Children are able to speak to others who know the language, whether it be a parent with limited hearing abilities or a deaf school friend, and are able to communicate with a much wider variety of their peers.
This would also give children who have little to no speaking ability an efficient way to avoid burnout and frustration by being able to communicate with their parents. Babies and preschool-aged learners are also able to retain their ABCs much faster after learning their hand sign counterparts, becoming able to communicate “better and sooner” than those who are not exposed to ASL at an early age. Babies as young as eight months old were able to explain to their parents that they felt “hungry, thirsty, or in pain” by signing with their hands.
ASL’s Positive Effects on Employment
By educating the country’s earliest learners, the existing unemployment gap between hearing and non-hearing people could steadily decrease as ASL-educated students enter into adulthood. The U.S. Department of Education reports that “disabled employees generally have a higher average rate of attendance, flexibility, performance, quality and quantity of work.” However, with an employment gap of 22.5% between hearing and non-hearing candidates, there is still a disproportionate amount of non-hearing workers without an equal chance of employment. 70% of deaf individuals do not have a job or are underemployed, and one in four non-hearing individuals report leaving a job due to invidious discrimination. Equal opportunities for non-hearing candidates can be achieved if both hearing applicants and hiring managers were able to communicate effectively with non-hearing candidates.
Basic respect for non-hearing individuals is long overdue. Many live in a world where it is near impossible to communicate with others without the help of an interpreter, where something as simple as ordering a coffee takes much more effort than the average hearing American. A Starbucks barista who learned phrases in ASL for a deaf customer was coined as “[going the] extra mile,” instead of the coffeeshop learning from its customers and implementing the language into their curriculum for new and existing workers. Krystal Payne, the Starbucks barista who went viral for learning ASL phrases for the deaf customer, explained that it only took around three hours to remember the new signs. Ryan of the Sign Duo YouTube channel expressed that he “felt human” after a barista spoke to him in both sign language and lip reading in a drive thru, saying that it’s “normally how [a fast food interaction] should go.”
This is a completely achievable future. Teaching children sign language at a young age and including it in their school curriculum would transform future generations and their ability to communicate. The benefits of ASL class requirements for children – increased communication skills, less frustration, and a quicker learning style – are enough to push the United States into a much more inclusive direction.
In Closing
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. The ADA has achieved many things, such as mandating wheelchair-accessible bathrooms in Hilton Hotels and increasing the availability of accessible housing. The ADA requires that Title II and Title III entities “communicate effectively with people who have communication disabilities,” including auxiliary aids like readers or Braille for those who are blind, a sign language interpreter or note taker for those who are deaf, and a speech translator for those with speech-related disabilities. The requirement of ASL into the public school curriculum would fit in perfectly with the existing requirements that the ADA has put in place. In a perfect world, it could even eradicate the need for sign language interpreters.
With this requirement put in place, deaf students will no longer have to feel socially isolated. Non-hearing people will be able to comfortably communicate with those around them without feeling stigmatized or non-independent. Young people will have the capability to become “bimodally bilingual” at a young age and demonstrate its many benefits, such as the ability to “foster analytic thinking, enhance multitasking, and improve social cognition and executive control.”
But most importantly, widespread ASL education creates an aura of normalcy for those who may not live as comfortably as a hearing individual. Despite the fact that many may never meet a deaf person in their life, the opportunity to create a secure and enjoyable environment is only a few classes away.
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