By Carina George
Although most people may think of a language as words that are spoken, they have forgotten about one of the most important of them all: Sign Language. This very beneficial skill to learn allow us to communicate through hand gestures. Students at Guyer are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to learn ASL, which stands for American Sign Language.
A selected group of ASL students were invited to participate in the Veterans Day celebration at Guyer. The students signed while the choir sang the National Anthem. It may seem confusing as to why students would need to include sign language in this event, but after being in war, not all Veterans are able to hear as well as they did before. Sign language not only helps in events as this one, but also benefits members of the deaf community in general. Being hard of hearing presents everyday challenges, but having a way to communicate with others gives them one less challenge to worry about.
Students in ASL said that learning the language is easy enough. They memorized the signs for the National Anthem without difficulty in one day. Knowing ASL can provide people with a lot of benefits like job opportunities and the satisfaction of being able to communicate and help those who can not do it. One of the students in the ASL program was able to help his mother, who is a nurse, to take care and explain health related details with a patient who is deaf. Another student who works at a gym, has a regular customer that is deaf. She has been able to have great conversations with this person at work.
A student in ASL himself used to be hard of hearing, which gave him personal reasons to learn sign language. “My favorite thing about ASL is how we are able to give inclusion to members of the deaf community.” he shared. People may not realized how impactful learning sign language is, specially for those struggling to communicate. Knowing ASL provides awareness about the deaf and hard of hearing community.
Not only does Guyer offers ASL classes, but they also give students the opportunity to join the ASL club and ASL honors society. As part of their activities, the ASL students hosted a Christmas party for an elementary school students that are hard of hearing or deaf. Learning ASL can really open up a window of opportunity for better communication and inclusivity in our society.
