Why Sign Language Should Be Accessible
For a while, I didn’t know what I wanted to be and frankly, for my future career. I was lost. All I knew was that I wanted to help people in some way, shape, or form.
Last semester, I decided to take a sign language course. It not only changed my life, but my perspective as well. I started to research more and more about the deaf culture and what it’s like being apart of the community. I decided that sign language interpreting is the path for who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do as a career.
As I learned more about the deaf community and how to become an advocate for it, I discovered that sign language isn’t as accessible as it should be. This was an important issue that I know needs to be addressed.
Despite the need to talk about this, I’ve seen really great progress on celebrities caring about sign language. For example, Chance the Rapper has his own personal interpreter, and famous interpreters such as Amber Gallego (who interpreted for hundreds of concerts) and Jack Jason (Marlee Matlin’s interpreter)
During the past few years, I’ve seen immense progress on sign language and the representation of the deaf community. A few examples include Nyle DiMarco, who won Dancing With The Stars and America’s Next Top Model. He was the first deaf man to win America’s Next Top Model and the second deaf person to compete on Dancing With The Stars.
Nyle DiMarco explains in the video about why sign language being accessed to deaf kids at a young age is important. He has his own foundation named by him. He has partnered with Lead-K to help individuals and parents gain resources on how they could become more involved in the deaf community.
Despite this, sign language should be even more accessible to deaf individuals.
When a parent gives birth to a deaf child, it could be the first deaf person they meet in their life and they might have a few misconceptions.
Many parents may think their child will get behind because they might be learning sign language instead of English. However, this is false. The child will become more school ready because they’ve already acquired a language that has its own grammar and syntax. They’ll learn and adapt to the school environment a lot more efficiently.
Within the first few years of a child’s life, it’s crucial for them to have language acquisition. This means that some type of language should be spoken, or in this case, signed to them. Babies can sign before they could talk, so why not start when they’re only a few months old? Some people would think otherwise, however, it’s important to teach your child the right language.
Even some deaf parents are teaching their hearing kids sign language because a lot of them prefer not to speak.
There’s misconceptions about how sign language is super easy to learn, is similar to English, and you only use your hands. All of these are false. Sign language takes lots of practice. It’s also its very own language, having its own grammar and syntax. You also use your entire body and facial expressions when signing, otherwise, a deaf person may not know what you’re talking about.
My friend Faith and I talked about the misconceptions about deaf culture, why it’s important to educate people on subjects such as the importance of sign language and how it’s used.
At some point, Faith talked about how she spoke with a kid who was deaf and had autism. She only knew a little bit of sign language, but it was cool to see how she talked about how happy he was to see the kid smiling, knowing someone knew his language.
All in all, it’s incredibly important to have sign language accessible. It’s such a fun, visual, and interactive language that is so unique. Whether deaf or hearing, I think people should at least learn about the deaf culture and maybe even learn some sign language along the way.
Originally published at medium.com on December 11, 2017.