Why American Sign Language is important

Sign language is very important for our world. I have a close deaf friend my age who wears cochlear implants and a deaf adult in my life who mainly signs. This language is also good for when you need to be quiet but still want to talk to others. ASL is a real language with its alphabet, grammar rules and even poetry. 

As the ASL President at Fuquay Varina High School in North Carolina, I know it’s important for people to learn some signs so they can talk to a larger population. Some signs also travel across languages, even though American Sign Language and British Sign Language are different. 

More than 4,000 children are born deaf, according to the Dallas Hearing Foundation. The World Health Organization says that 2.5 billion people will have some degree of hearing loss in 2050. NIDCD says that 15% of adults report they are losing their ability to hear, and one out of three people from the ages 65-74 have hearing loss. 

Some people with neurological disabilities can go selectively mute. Knowing sign for events like these help people feel heard when they are too scared or overstimulated to talk. So with this information, learning sign language is good for the community. 

Sign language is needed for the deaf, mute and families of deaf people. It’s a crucial part of deaf culture that can create beautiful words. Some people don’t believe sign language is a real language because it’s not vocal, nor does it have a writing system. There have been languages before that don’t have a writing system along with the fact that people can understand each other. 

So learn some ASL. Just learning little phrases is a good start. There is a whole new world that you can talk to and the community will love that you want to learn. Search up online or on social media about events near you where you can learn sign language.