Recently, a discussion on American Sign Language came up at my job. We had a patron who is hard of hearing come in needing some typical library help.

The issue was that none of my coworkers are fluent in sign language and while my coworker was quick to think of having a written conversation over some Post-it notes, that’s simply not enough to make our hard-of-hearing patrons feel totally understood or comfortable. 

This situation got me thinking, why do many American public schools not offer ASL courses? I know my high school never offered it, nor do I hear about many of my peers having had access to classes at their schools.

According to a 2019 study, the Communication Service for the Deaf said that around one million people use American Sign Language as their main source of communication. That means that there are around one million people that a large percentage of our population can’t even communicate with due to having no ASL background. 

Sure, there are YouTube videos and classes outside of school that offer the basics and so on. But not everyone has the time to sit through these. We have other school stuff, job duties and commitments to worry about. If there was more access to these classes in high school, where most people are required to have a foreign language credit anyway, then many of us would already have ASL knowledge that we’d carry with us.

And I know there are those that don’t consider ASL a foreign language, but like any other language, it’s useful and should be taught in more schools around the U.S. The benefits definitely outweigh any disadvantages. Maybe the classes wouldn’t be as popular as Spanish or French, but they would allow for a larger population of ASL communicators. It should be an option no matter what.

Even knowing a handful of the fundamental phrases can help break down the barrier between the hard of hearing and the hearing. Over 35 million people in the United States experience some amount of hearing trouble so it’s likely that we will all encounter a hard-of-hearing person eventually. 

Not to mention, many who suffer from hearing loss suffer from the stigma and discouragement that comes along with it. Imagine only being able to communicate through sign language and knowing that you’re bound to be misunderstood most of the time or having to communicate through pen and paper at all times. This population already faces fewer educational and job opportunities, why make things even more difficult?

We need to be a more accommodating society to the hard-of-hearing community. High school students are a great way to target these issues. I know that if I’d been offered it, I would have taken ASL courses in high school (when I had more time to dedicate to learning new language skills) so that I could communicate with those who use ASL. 

Offering ASL in more high schools is a definite way to make the hard-of-hearing community feel less excluded, and students would be able to communicate more effectively for the rest of their lives.