![]() ![]() This lack of visibility makes it all too easy to ignore or forget about it. This essentially means that you cannot see that someone is deaf the same way that you can see, for instance, that they are in a wheelchair. I believe that this lack of recognition is at least partly due to deafness being an invisible disability. In other words, five states do not recognize it. Only 45 states consider ASL a world language. Still, it’s hard to blame the school systems for not including the language in their curriculum when the whole of America fails to legally recognize ASL. Out of about 6,000 colleges, only an estimated 204 offer this language-a meager 3%. Out of these, only roughly 1,000 offer ASL. Currently, America has 26,727 high schools. ![]() ASL is not widely taught at multiple school levels across the country. I want to make something clear: this is not a Berry-specific problem. I almost didn’t come to Berry because of this, and it is my opinion that this should be changed. Unfortunately, Berry only offers Spanish, French and German. The four years of classes really showed me how important it is for more hearing people to learn ASL and of the large need for interpreters. I was thinking of completing a double major between English and ASL, or at least minoring in ASL. ![]() When I was deciding where to go to college at about this time last year, ASL was a factor I took into consideration. I’ve taken American Sign Language, or ASL, classes for four years. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |