I have very few soap boxes..
This is a massive one.
A.S.L (American Sign Language) is a complex, complete language with its own grammatical rules.
If you live in the USA this is the language of many of the Deaf/hard of Hearing communities near you.
Until a few years ago, I had no concept of how vital this community and language would be to my life.
I got dropped into that world and had to learn to swim. When someone from my family lost their hearing in one side in less than an hour. Yes. One hour. A nap and our lives changed. I was granted access to a wonderfully, diverse, rich, linguistic community. I went from clueless to being an advocate in less than a year, it took me longer to become functionally fluent in ASL.
If you can hear and you live in the USA, I would highly recommend learning ASL. Because while you may never travel out of the country, anyone, at any time, can loose their hearing. If you meet someone who uses ASL and you try, I can almost promise that you will get a smile and respect for the attempt. More than just the ABC's, but the basics go a long way .
"Equal Access" is something we talk about, brag about, but honestly we are still behind our potential.
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