Please read until the end.
The main reason I’m on X, and why I started posting here a few years ago, is to advocate for deaf children’s access to American Sign Language.
I am not exaggerating when I say there are organized groups of people who work very hard to deny them this access. Part of it comes from ignorance. Some people see ASL as a barrier rather than a legitimate language and a vital visual mode of communication. There is an overwhelming emphasis on speech, without understanding a basic truth: you cannot have speech without language.
There is also widespread misinformation about what deaf children can hear and learn through technology. And then there are darker reasons...ones that are much harder to talk about.
The following is one experience from when I worked as a deaf interpreter for deaf children who had been sexually abused. It is one of many that shaped who I am as an advocate today. This one still haunts me.
Parent: “We don’t use sign language because we want him to learn how to use his new ears (his cochlear implants) so he can enjoy music like we do. So he can talk like us.”
Me: “We’re sitting in a hospital. I was called here to interpret for your son. I had to use drawings, pictures, and gestures because he can’t sign. And he can’t speak.”
Parent: “He’ll be able to… talk… someday.”
Me: “He’s three years old. He had a broken rib for a week. He couldn’t tell you what was wrong.”
Parent: “He will… talk… someday. Right? Someday.”
That is why I call out people who mock sign language not because I have thin skin (Gen X here), and not because I lack a sense of humor but because this mindset causes real harm to deaf children. Currently many ASL-based programs are getting cut because they are mistaken as being a part of DEI programs. And parents are thinking ASL is just a performative woke thing when in reality it may be the child's saving grace to communicate.