Certainly, few of these students are deaf themselves and only a handful go on to become interpreters.
But, are there curb cut effects to this increasingly widespread use and comprehension of ASL?
What might some of the curb cut effects be?
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More students taking ASL may mean more employment options for deaf educators.
Communication is obvious, but is there a network effect? (Like email, the more people who have it,
the more it gets used.)
Appreciation for Deaf culture, history, and traditions. Will broader understanding increase the
enrichment that comes from sharing the diversity in our human experiences?
Will more exposure to Deaf culture make it easier to adopt measures that support deaf employees,
customers, and patrons?
Are we seeing the beginning of a more universal teaching and use of sign language in the U.S.?
Who’s to say? One thing seems to be certain and that is that unexpected innovations and their
resulting curb cut effects seem to be everywhere. Why wouldn’t we expect them to show up in
education or sign language? The key is to keep our eyes open and look for ways to leverage them.
(Original source: GoReact for ASL, June 2, 2018, https://aslblog.goreact.com/category/asl/, reprinted by permission)
Reprints
From All Over The Place
Lawmaker Pushes for ASL to be Legally Recognized Language in Nebraska
Published in January 2020
https://keyt.com/news/national-world/2020/01/07/lawmaker-pushes-for-american-sign-language-to-be-legally-recognized-language-in-neb/?fbclid=IwAR0yoKJFrxysPXfYFvxXelJlQLWDYdrH63jp94crSOAfn7GUZb6pHedqjk0
How the Deaf Community is Preserving Maritime Sign Language
Published in December 2019
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/preserving-maritime-sign-language-msl-deaf-community-1.5402328?fbclid=IwAR2fsv0NHn7qJM-b6o-OUf7EtDrGt_TqK3xYBv-Op7GS2XaSOr0DPa6N3ho
Studying an Emerging Sign Language Won’t Kill It…
Published in February 2019
https://mosaicscience.com/story/research-emerging-sign-language-linguists-ethics-bsl-asl-deaf/?fbclid=IwAR0E5dPIrQUbkHcIGnBVTUUR5m0PB8OvRKxuatt5tajh928nOC9zvzCR80g
The Power of ASL
9
Winter 2019 – Issue 16