Student opinion: The perspective from a deaf student

The deaf community has many different stories, communication preferences and hearing abilities. With almost 40 million Americans facing difficulties hearing, deaf individuals come from various upbringings, backgrounds and cultural experiences.

Often, deaf people grow up in the hearing community but live isolated from it. They grow up feeling out of place and like they cannot relate to or communicate with anyone. They cringe at the dreaded words, “Never mind.” These words and others like them can make deaf people feel excluded and isolated. 

Unfortunately, the hearing community is not always willing to slow down and learn a deaf person’s communication preferences to converse with them.

There is a rare exception to the hearing community now and then: someone willing to slow down and communicate with a deaf person. Sometimes, this is as simple as learning a few basic signs or writing back and forth on paper. Sometimes, a hearing person will fully immerse themselves in deaf culture and learn ASL. Most deaf people appreciate this effort to bridge the gap between hearing and deaf communities. Despite the possible awkwardness of learning a new language and culture, the deaf community appreciates seeing people who have a “deaf heart” and take the time to learn about deaf culture and communication styles humbly.

 Deaf people, with the support of the National Association of the Deaf, agree that the best way to learn is through deaf content creators or ASL professors. Sometimes, there are resources put out by hearing people, but they are not always accurate and can confuse people. 

One important thing to note is that to learn the language completely, you must learn the culture. Granted, there are a few exceptions, but it is nearly impossible to learn about deaf culture from someone who is hearing simply because they do not have the experience of being deaf and living in a deaf world. Look for opportunities to get involved. Many cities and towns have silent dinners, signing socials or other deaf community events. 

Learning a new language is always intimidating, but something important to note with learning ASL is that most deaf people have had to learn a new language, sometimes two. Naturally, deaf people fall behind in language development and have needed to catch up, so the community understands the struggle.

Most deaf people remember struggling to understand and comprehend spoken or written languages. This is all to say that deaf people deeply identify with language struggles and do not want to contribute to those struggles for hearing people learning ASL. 

I would encourage anyone who wants to learn ASL to get started. Get involved, ask questions and ask for clarity or repetition. Learn about the culture, learn the language and learn the different communication preferences, remembering that even in a community, no two individuals are the same. 

At Liberty, we have two amazing deaf ASL professors and an incredible interpreting professor. Liberty also has an ASL club (Facebook @luaslclub, Instagram 

@lu_aslclub) that works to plan signing socials and other opportunities for community engagement and learning. 

Root is the vice president of the ASL Club