ASL and HOH
This web page originated as a collection point, dedicated to the issue of hard-of-hearing (HOH) people learning American Sign Language (ASL). I started it two days before my final ASL 101 exam at SPSCC. Therefore, it's a little crude, but hopefully it will communicate some of the issues, and its creation will help express my appreciation to the folks who have taken the time to share their stories with me.

I've attempted to protect the privacy of those who have shared by including their initials (and sometimes the initials AFTER their initials). In a few instances I've omitted some personal information or corrected a few typographical errors. But generally, the contributions stand as I've received them.

I'll continue to add input as I receive it for the time being. If you, the reader, manage or know of a site where this kind of information is already being captured, I'd be happy to transfer the information. ~ Janis Aaron Moore ~

On November 27, I sent an email to Penny Allen, President of WASA-SHHH. The subject (my "pitch") was ASL and HOH. I asked her to broadcast the email to her network to see if anyone had "walked a mile in my shoes". Apparently a significant number of people can relate to the situations I faced as a HOH student taking ASL. Below you'll find the gist of the email I sent, and the responses I've received.

Meanwhile, several responses included web sites which may be of interest to you:

Here's my "pitch":

I am a 57-year-old HOH student at South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC). This quarter I have been learning ASL. Although I normally pick up new subjects quickly, I have discovered ASL is very challenging. After much thought on my difficulties, I have decided part (at least) of my problem is lip / speech reading. I have spent the last 20+ years focusing on people's lips when they communicate. But with ASL, you must focus from head to waist, shoulder to shoulder - watching eyes, expressions, fingers.

As you might expect, this has come as quite a surprise to me. I assumed my hearing loss would not be an impediment in an ASL class with a Deaf instructor.

I've conducted initial searches on the Internet, but have been unable to find anything. Is this because I am the only HOH person who has had difficulty learning ASL, or is it because people don't know about the problem, or is just my faulty Internet searching? :-)

I'd like to "hear" from other HOH folks to see if they have experienced difficulty learning ASL as I have. I'd also like to receive information anyone has gathered (Internet links, publications with dates, etc.) about HOH and ASL experiences.

As a HOH student, I am taking advantage of SPSCC's Disability Support Services, and the TRiO program (one of TRiO's criteria is the students must have a physical or documented learning disability).

If, indeed, other HOH folks have had problems, I feel it should be brought to the attention of those in charge. My hope is future HOH students will be offered a "heads up" about possible difficulties. I'm also hoping to raise the consciousness of students, teachers and administrators to find ways to help people like HOH succeed in learning ASL - both for academic reasons and for the more-important personal desire to be able to learn to communicate using this wonderful language.

11/29/2005 Afterthoughts

First, to those thoughtful folks who have suggested real-time captioning, etc., you must realize that ASL is a SILENT class at SPSCC. Neither the instructor nor the students speak at all.

Viewing Deaf Culture (and ASL) Videos

I have had difficulty viewing most of the Deaf Culture videotapes my instructor has shown in class. Typically, these videos have someone on screen signing, with English voice overs, and do not have captioning. As I wrote in an addendum to one of my ASL assignments (a book report on Deaf Like Me):

I have had trouble understanding radio, TV and movie speaking for many years. I would "hear" (in the 1970s) "Danny and the Jacks" when the song was Elton John's "Benny and the Jets".

ASL & Me – When viewing Deaf Culture movies in ASL 101, my mind goes into mental mush: Lips move to ASL, not English voice-over / hands and arms moving. To understand voice-over, I need to shut out other input (visual) and focus really hard. When I watch, I find myself automatically focusing on the lips. Then I start to get confused because lips aren't in synch with speaker. Sometimes I drift into watching the signing and suddenly realize I haven't been focusing on English speaker, so I miss content. Evidently I need to watch several times: once for content, once for content plus sign, and again to mimic / copy sign. This is a unique dilemma, and sometimes very frustrating.

Unfortunately, while the videos we have seen are excellent, most of them are not captioned. The producers evidently think it's sufficient to have a person signing with a voice over. I don't think the Deaf appreciate that their HOH "cousins" have unique needs.

Now for the "testimonials".

I am severely hearing impaired, and I attempted to learn ASL several years ago. I, too, found it very challenging. I took two classes, then decided that I got along better on my lip reading ability and hearing aids. For me, the issue was that I had no one to practice signing with. I believe that practice with someone fluent in ASL is the key. I agree that the HOH person's tendency to focus on lips can get in the way, but I still maintain that regular practice with someone fluent will get you past that hurdle.

Quite frankly, I am of the opinion that the HOH population (whose disability is invisible) has a much more difficult time maneuvering through society in general than a totally deaf person.

Good luck! ~ JAL ~

I am a 55 yr. old lady who has been hard of hearing all my life. Deaf in one ear and been a lip/speech reader for most of my life. An SHHH member too.

I realized not too awfully long ago, that I am a Body reader, as I put it, from head movements and gestures down to the leg movement. Really helps me know if a person is really sincere or if they are getting angry, frustrated, etc., etc. and longggggg before a normal hearing person even realizes what is going on. An advantage I think.

Just wanted to share that and glad to read I am not the only one with this situation. ~ PR ~

I am now 47. I've been HOH all my life I took my first course in ASL when I was 21. My community college instructor in Spokane warned against the pitfalls you mentioned of lip-reading and having to learn to shift your focus to the body and hands.

I can only say that after 20 years of educational instruction and about as much time in industry that norms change, practices change, and some people sleep through the key items you and I expect instructors to be aware of ... such as the difficulties you raise. additionally, there are only so many hours to complete the coursework. How much time does the instructor have to devote to what you and I believe are important vs. what the instructor believes is important. We may raise awareness for a couple years and some will get it, other's won't.

As one who is faced with the challenges of disability, I have found that even with services provided, such as educational support services, we are truly alone in are battles for growth. But then isn't that the issue? you're pursuing an AA BA or a PhD., and the rewards have to be your own, not that of others. You do have a major challenge to overcome and I support you in attacking this challenge.

If you have time, you might wish to visit the SHHH Chatroom M-W-F, I believe it's either 5 PM or 6 PM and can be accessed through the SHHH homepage. There are usually several people there who may be able to help you a bit more. ~ VCH ~

I am a late deafened 40 year old woman from Redmond and will give you my history with ASL. 5 years ago I took three quarters of ASL, 1,2 & 3 and one quarter at Seattle Central for ASL 4. Though not easy, I did lots of studying and practicing, I really liked learning ASL and got A's in it. I found for the first time since before high school over 20 years ago, I was on equal standing with all the other students since there was no voicing from day one. That was wonderful for me. I really can't give you any advice about ASL other than keep at it and study, especially with videos and computer programs if you have any. Go to as many deaf events as you can also.

I decided knowing ASL was really not a big help for me other than giving me confidence in going back to school and meeting lots of interesting people. None of my friends knew ASL and my family knew little and certainly it didn't help me when I was out in public.. Also by the time I got to Seattle Central and met many people in the Deaf Culture I concluded (my opinion) that I would never really be welcome as I am late deafened and not DEAF. So I looked into seeing if I qualified for a cochlear implant at Virginia Mason. Several months later (4 years ago) I had the surgery and it has absolutely changed my life. It took several months to get used to it but soon I was listening to the radio and understanding it perfectly. I score in the 90 to 100% speech recognition tests and I now hear at a mild hearing loss level. I am still deaf when not wearing it and I find not after all these years, even when home alone, I never take it off.

Last year I went back to school at 39 yrs old at Lake Washington tech college and completed their Medical Assistant program in 1 1/2 years. I never needed any ALDs and I swear no one even knew I had an implant unless I told them or they saw it, or my batteries died in class and I changed them. I graduated on the presidents list with high honors and am now working as a medical assistant at Valley Orthopedic Associates. The only problem I ever have is taking care of my voice mail there. Sometimes messages are too difficult for me to understand due to accents and fast talking and I just ask someone else to listen to it for me and it usually isn't a problem.

I do know that not everyone has such success with their implants as I have had. I think it had to do with though I was always mild to mod hard of hearing all my life, I was only profoundly deaf for about 2 years. So my brain seemed to understand what I was hearing. I had a friend who was born deaf and had the implant the same time as me. He has never been able to have good speech recognition with it and might not ever.

So, I have given you probably way more than you wanted to know about me. I do hope my story is maybe an inspiration to you. I know the implant isn't for everyone but it has enhanced my life and my family's life so much I just have to tell everyone who is HOH about it, that it is an option. Getting the implant was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Best of luck ~ SS ~

Yours is the first question of this type that I have encountered. Let's consider all the factors:

~ CR ~

I am the President of SHHH, Everett Area Chapter. I am 52 years old (Going on 53 in 2 days -- YIKES.) I've been hard of hearing all my life. I have a severe to profound hearing loss.

Being raise in a hearing community, I never learned ASL. Majority of my friends and family are hearing. I have tried to learn ASL by myself but it is hard when you don't have someone else to sign with.

I have speech read most of my life. I wear two hearing aids. I cannot do without either one of them. Meaning, If I don't have my hearing aids, I cannot speech read well and If I cannot see the person face /mouth I cannot understand what the person is saying. I need both Speech Reading and Hearing aids. I do quite well with both.

I'm going to Cascadia Community College in Bothell right now. They have FM system to loan out. I use an induction silhouette with it and it helps me a lot. In addition, when they show a video, they make sure it is captioned. ~ DP ~

I am a person who lost their hearing progressively over the years. I'm now 58 and I'm still able to hear environmental sounds with a hearing aid.

I took ASL at our local community College when I was about 31.

I have been a life long lip-reader like yourself. When I learned ASL I did notice the shift in my visual focus. However, over time that went away and I was able to take in the whole picture. Lip-reading, facial and body language and the signing. It doesn't happen over-night. But the more proficient you get with understanding ASL the better you will become at seeing all. After awhile you will be able to watch the lip-reading and collaborate that with the Signing.

I hope this helps just a little bit. ~ SC ~

I was relieved to see that I am not the only one who has had this problem in learning ASL. I took the ASL course at GH College last year, but from an instructor who was neither HoH nor deaf. I also had a hard time focusing on the hands and body, when all my life I have depended on the face for clues to meaning in speech. I made my way in life as a nearly deaf person relying on lip reading that was self-taught.

I don't know what the answer is for people like us. I have always excelled in school by studying harder than others. I bought several learning games with ASL themes. These can be found in the Harris Communications catalog. You may borrow the things I have since I am not using them right now.

I my opinion the habitual lip reader needs some extra help in a class like this. I don't know what all we need, just that we need something. Unlike others in the class, we have to break a lot of life-long habits before we can begin to learn ASL. ~ WB ~

You're finding out what every HOH person eventually finds out about ASL classes. The teachers and curriculum are simply not set up for teaching ASL to the HOH. Their main focus is to train hearing people to become interpreters for the deaf/Deaf.

I know several HOH people, including myself, who've actually quit ASL classes because of this frustration. And my first ASL classes were more than 20 years ago. So it's not changed much.

I have learned ASL, because I stuck it out. Found the classes where I could learn. Asked for ASL interpreters in courses and lectures even when I still didn't know that much ASL yet, because that was the best way to expose myself to it. Yes, I missed a lot, but I did learn some.

I'm by no means fluent in ASL, but I still request ASL interpreters whenever possible, so I can get more exposure.

I believe HSDC has ASL classes for the HOH and their friends and families. This is the best kind of class you can take.

Good luck. ~ K ~

I am also HOH. I have two hearing aids and will be totally deaf sometime in the future. I wanted to learn ASL for my own use as well as a possible career in interpreting. I have taken ASL I and II and plan to take ASL III this spring (when it's offered at Olympic College, Poulsbo campus).

I have had problems learning ASL as well, but I don't think its related to my HOH issue. I have been lip reading unconsciously for years, but lip reading is NOT the proper way to communicate or interpret others. You need to get rid of the notion that any lip reading will help you with ASL. It is a language all its own, just like any other foreign language and lip reading is NOT useful in learning it. I was under the impression that it was useful, but have since discovered from experience and having also been told by a deaf ASL teacher that it can actually confuse you if you depend on it too much. This is not to say that lip reading is not a useful tool, but you need to separate it completely from the learning of ASL. Its hard to do, I know! But since I have stopped concentrating on the mouth and trying to interpret what is being said by watching the mouth I have found ASL easier to learn.

I hope this helps. Regards, ~ FLB ~

ASL is not easy to learn. I'm HOH also, so I understand the transfer of attention you are experiencing. But I think part of my problem in learning ASL was that I didn't practice. I also found that learning from a Deaf person, though she was good, was much harder than the classes I took later through the W. Seattle Sr. Center. There, Lyn Wiley teaches usually one morning a week, but also was holding informal drop-in sessions for people that wanted to practice.

I found it easier to learn with Lyn because of her more casual, informal, relaxed approach. I found my hands got sore in the stiffer, more serious class, but Lyn's approach is more fluid. I felt being more relaxed and graceful in the movements made it more comfortable for me to do.

I've heard other people mention how much harder the class was for them to take it from a Deaf teacher than from one that was late-deafened. Don't know that that is often true, but that was my experience anyway.

Then I got busy and am moving out of the W. Seattle area unfortunately, so won't be able to continue my classes with Lyn.

With learning anything, your attitude and the attitude of the class and instructor is vital. Relax and have fun with it. Find people to practice with. Play games with. And do mention your experiences to the school. I'm sure you are not alone. ~ JC ~

I am also HOH. I have spent the past 40 years lip-reading and living with a profound hearing loss.

I have made several attempts to take ASL classes. However, I did have some difficulties with body language and expressions with the ASL method of communications.

So I took a different tack on things. I took a signed English class with a community center and took my mother along. We discovered that our ability to relate objects to simple forms made the learning easier. For example. using the motions of peeling a banana conveyed the fact that we were eating a banana.

In spite of this, my efforts to learn ASL to a greater extent is often done through communicating with my son, aged 15 who is studying ASL in high school at this time. David and I had developed something of a sign language soon after he had figured out his mom was different from other moms. We created a language of our own that seems to work well enough within our home.

Ultimately, sign language classes do appear to be problematic for me. I spend many long hours reading lips and come home tired after working in this fashion. I did take an opportunity to spend a full Sunday with a group of ASL signing individuals and found myself even more exhausted by the experience than that of reading lips.

I hope this information is of some help. ~ D G-S ~

I will try to address your HOH concerns. I am also HOH but was fortunately introduced to a cochlear implant about 6 years ago. It has turned my life around and greatly improved the quality of my speech understanding.

Like you, I tried ASL and also went to Central Community college because they had so many courses for HOH. I did not do well in that endeavor in improving my speech understanding. I was already an excellent lip reader, but, as you know, so much is NOT on the lips. And it is quite difficult to communicate with someone who only lip reads the speakers get tired! And, I did not want to limit myself to only HOH companions, so sign language was not a viable option.

If you would like, I could meet you for coffee or something at the college one afternoon sometimes this month. I would like to tell you about the cochlear implant. If you are eligible, it would open so much for you and improved the quality of your life.

Let me know if you think this might help you. ~ NH ~

I'm going to respond obliquely. As a HOH person, I depend on oral communication which includes lip reading, paying attention to body language, taking advantage of other visual cues such as captioning on TV. But sign language is not in my repertoire.

I probably could replicate your struggles and learn sign language, but who would I sign to? Only an estimated 5% of HOH know sign language, I understand. No one in our group has more than a rudimentary knowledge of sign language.

I do attend meetings where deaf and hard of hearing people discuss their problems, but they are usually interpreted by a sign language interpreter for the deaf and an oral interpreter for the HOH. ~ BWG ~

Added 11/29/2005

Do you know about the SayWhatClub? It's an online club for deaf and HOH -- a good space to connect with other HOH people. You can read up more about it at www.saywhatclub.com.

In addition, I own a local list for local deaf/HOH people on yahoogroups. We mostly use it for announcements for get-togethers and events, but we also once in a while discuss various things. There's not a lot of email on this list, generally. If someone wants to join, they'd have to be referred to me, so I could invite them. Contact me at sophistikate@comcast.net.~ K ~

I will give you my experience learning asl and going to college. In 1987 at the age of 52, with the help of DVR, I started school at the University of MN at St. Cloud...Saint Cloud State University. I had been wearing hearing aids since 1980 and was considered a severe hearing loss.

I took four classes a quarter ...16 credits. I didn't work, but studied full time seven days a week. Going to summer school, I got a bachelor's degree in three years.

My first class was ASL #1 taught by a deaf professor assistant. She never spoke...ever. I also had a note taker provided by school for all my classes. I also started hanging out with the deaf community at the bowling alley trying to get into asl. The first final for the quarter for asl I couldn't even sign a complete sentence. She still passed me for the course and I took asl #2 the next quarter. You were suppose to have a partner to practice with, but it was difficult for me to get one. The deaf community would put up with me for a few minutes but then would shut me out as I was so slow trying to learn sign.

In short, the two classes were a waste of time and money for me. I joined alda and shhh. Alda is association of late deafened adults. I met several deaf people there and developed a friendship that I still have with a couple of them. SHHH was a waste of time as no one signs there.

I was determined to learn asl, as you seem to be, and I could not understand why I wasn't getting it. I talked my DVR counselor into getting me a tutor...deaf student to practice with once a week. That lasted for a month or more and I still wasn't getting much down.

In short ... practice daily ... sign daily with deaf ... is the only way you are going to get proficient with asl. I have some deaf friends, but I only see them a few times a year. I can now sign with them as a child would. If I see them steady for a couple of weeks, I get pretty good.

In my opinion ... forget the class ... you have to get into the community and somehow get friends there to practice with on a several times a week lengthy basis. Go to their functions and just knock your head up against the wall until you get it ... and it takes a long time believe me. My deaf friends have told me about interpreters that are getting paid $50.00 a hour and can't really sign worth a crap...but they think they can.

Yes it is hard to learn ... think about it ... there are hundreds if not thousands of words you must remember the sign for ... (laughing) ... only get there by constant practice and repitition.

I married a deaf woman ... late deafened adult. We now sign all the time around the house ... but we still would not make it in the deaf community without their patience. Hope this helps. ~ JIm ~

I'm not hard of hearing, but I did have similar frustrations when I was learning ASL.

I'm not aware of any commercial materials for HoH folks that address the experience you are having. Gallaudet University may have some research papers on the topic. You may want to contact them about that.

The tight focus needed for speech reading can make it difficult to pick up on the multi-layered information in ASL. In my case, I needed to get glasses with a wider field of vision.

However, looking at the signer's face is a good instinct, especially since the mouth shape can be an important element of grammar. The trick is to soften your focus so you start to perceive motion in the signing space as a whole. Video tapes can help to give you the 'big picture' view of the signer and are easier than asking someone to repeat themselves over and over.

Sometimes I used to put paper over parts of the screen so I could concentrate on body language, or facial expression or arm movements. Once these were familiar to me, it was easier to put it all together.

Fingerspelling, for example, is largely a matter of using peripheral vision. You want to see the shape of the word as a whole rather than each letter. This takes lots of practice, but the key is focusing on the face and picking up the shape of the hand motion involved in each word. Sounds more daunting than it really is. Video tapes make good practice material. Fingerspelling is really a matter of rote practice.

Personally, when someone is signing and vocalizing and the same time, I usually end up ignoring their mouth and paying more attention to the ASL. The two don't go well together due to the split attention problem that you have experienced.

The other problem that you may notice in the future is how the multiple meanings of english words and ASL signs don't always match. This makes signing in english word order a real puzzle sometimes ( but that is something to look forward to ).

This isn't exactly scientific information, but I hope its useful. ~ SH ~

Thank you for contacting ODHH in regards to social information within the dead/deaf-blind and hard of hearing community. I can provide you with information to one of the regional service centers in Pierce County whom would have some community information they could share with you. We also have a resource web site where you could browse through and contact some organizations that may have some events you could go to. There is also a deaf club here in Olympia and I could obtain that information for you.

I grew up oral through high school but learned ASL in college. I had an interpreter and a note taker in all my classes since I could not lip-read the instructors or professors very well.

I suggest that you speak with the disability services coordinator at SPSCC and see about getting a note taker if you are not fluent enough to actually read ASL. Another suggestion might be to bring in a CART captioner or real-time captioner who could caption the instructor's voice into text which you could read while in class. There is always a cost for this service, so not sure how SPSCC handles this type of service for their deaf & hard of hearing students. There is also some voice recognition technology that converts voice to text and generally is about 99% perfect at this point, but I don't have any information on hand in my office about this technology. However, I could search and provide you with some information later if you like. You could also search the web using the term "voice recognition" and I'm sure it will come up with a ton of information that you could browse through. Perhaps SPSCC might be interested in buying the technology at a future point of time.

Here is the contact information to Tacoma Area Coalition of Individuals with Disabilities (TACID) and the ODHH website. I'll get back to you on the deaf club here in Olympia at a later date when I have accurate information on this club. ~ SP ~

[As Director of Education] from my observation only, I noticed some HOH learn ASL easily and some HOH learn ASL but with some struggle and other HOH really struggle to learn ASL and gave up!! Based on my opinion only, I think it depends on the learning style. I noticed those HOH who are visual learner do well in learning ASL and those who are auditory learner do not do as well in learning ASL! But it is only my opinion.

My husband who was losing hearing has a hard time learning ASL and remembering how to sign correctly because he has visual processing problem from the brain tumor that affects visual processing!! That is unique. I also wonder if my husband has learning disability. I don't know.

I have some HOH who are struggling and some hard of hearing who do not struggle. Some hard of hearing who do not do well in learning ASL prefers to ask the college to provide real time captioning service or "oral" interpreter (sit in front of you and mouth the words that teacher or students voice) as an alternative, instead of ASL interpreter. ~ KR(C)S, MEd ~

I can relate to your frustration over ASL learning difficulties. I'm HOH and now have a cochlear implant, but twelve to fifteen years ago, as my hearing progressively worsened, I decided I would be well served to learn ASL along with my partner so that we could communicate should I become deaf. I was in my sixties at the time, but a very youthful sixties, with a well-functioning brain and a desire to learn. The outcome was not as I'd hoped; I did not acquire skill as an ASL "speaker." I attributed this to ASL requiring the use of new and different brain pathways from verbal language, in my case well beyond the maximal time for language learning. And, as you noted, we HOH are habituated to closely watching for the facial clues of speech reading, and ASL demands attention to a different visual plane and a very different symbolic means of communication. Furthermore, trying to practice outside of the classroom among ASL users is really difficult, as ASL "speakers" sign rapidly, use regional slang, and the signs are not clean and clear. And, of course, the syntax is different from American English.

I've read that someone who isn't a native speaker of ASL will never become fully fluent. Nevertheless, many hearing people become ASL interpreters, but, unlike us, they haven't previously relied on speech reading. Anyway, I quit in anger after a couple of years of struggle and feeling like a failure. Not sure why I was so angry: perhaps at the bad luck of bilateral hearing loss resulting from two unrelated adventitious events; or the realization that I never could nor never would want to be a part of the deaf community but felt isolated from the hearing community to which I wanted to belong; or the inability of the significant others in my life to accommodate to my hearing loss; or the demands of adapting to rapidly deteriorating hearing, etc. I was pissed! And to add more woe, my partner dumped me, at least in part because of my hearing loss. Turned out to be for the best but didn't seem so at the time.

My hearing loss became sufficiently bad that I qualified for a cochlear implant in 1999, which was a life-changing event! I'm still hearing impaired, but am again a participating member of society. Because I no longer feel hopelessly isolated I can better tolerate those times when I'm out of the sound loop. Although I no longer feel a need to learn ASL, I regret that I allowed myself to become discouraged and give up. Even without a personal need to know, it's a cool language, and I would derive satisfaction from understanding it. Maybe the solution is to put aside expectations of academic success and focus on the goal. Accept that this is a long-term, slow process requiring patience and dedication; forget about timelines, grades or the customary positive feedback and take satisfaction in gradual, incremental progress. Yeah, I know: that's a tough assignment!

As you suggest, it would be worth while to investigate whether there are special difficulties the HOH experience in trying to learn ASL, to pay them special attention and to seek ways to minimize or overcome them.

I wish you success in whatever direction this takes you. ~ MA ~

I am a hard of hearing person also (clinically deaf). I have learned to lip read to a fair degree and depend on it a lot. I did take a ASL classes years ago in 1986. When I first got around deaf people I was absolutely overwhelmed with the speed at which they signed. I knew that I had to find a better way to learn it than just classes.

I found that by watching tapes again and again I didn't have to feel pressured to understand. I could relax and just sit back and watch the tapes. Each word and each sign was carefully played out by a local teacher as well as lip-sinced. While it was time consuming, it was also very relaxing. By the time class rolled around I was far better prepared than my peers. In fact signing became almost automatic.

Too, I not only learned the signs really well. As I got better and better at this I began to notice subtle facial signs that went with the ASL some of which I was used to other not so...but could always ask my teacher or the other deaf people. I got pretty good at it and learned ASL to a fair degree in a very short time.

Many of the deaf would comment on how well I signed. Unfortunately, I had just one year of sign. I got really busy and just got away from the deaf community and using ASL. I sign poorly now.....(don't use it you lose it!) I am convinced if I had another year of sign I could have gotten really good at it.

I can't help but think that if you follow this path it would be much easier for you, you will see it will become pretty automatic. ~ BM, LAc ~

I have had a hearing loss for 30 years. It is not an easy road to travel. I sympathize with you on learning ASL but you know it is a wonderful language and I'm sure worth the effort to learn it. I went to some classes years ago and could do well but what I have found is that a person needs to communicate with those who also know sign language in order to keep using it and learning. It is hard to be HOH because we cannot hear the instructors well. My story is a long one but I just wanted to say to you that if you can, keep it up and learn it well because it will serve you well to know it. ~ F ~

ASLandHOH.htm
Created 12/2005 for help with ASL, modified 4/9/2006
Web Page by Janis Aaron Moore
(Send a complimentary email to infocus@techline.com.)