Language barriers negatively affect access to social services, particularly for D/deaf populations who use Sign Language. "D/deaf" is used to encompass both the cultural conception of capital-D Deafness and the medical conception of lowercase-d deafness. Language translation/interpretation is a common need among practitioners of social,…

The intersectional identities and lived experiences of Signing Latinx are insufficiently documented. Reflecting on my own lived experiences, I began to question traditional research paradigms that often neglected the stories shared by individuals from different communities within the larger Signing Latinx community. As I was introduced to Critical…

During the summer of 2022, Ashley Greene, a professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, and a co-author of this article, began a discussion on American Sign Language (ASL) literature with her doctoral students. The students, most of whom had backgrounds in K-12 deaf education or ASL education, explored what ASL literature means, how such…

Tailored support is crucial for deaf and hearing-impaired children to overcome learning difficulties, particularly during primary education. The absence of listening profoundly hinders the progression of the learning journey, as it plays a pivotal role in language acquisition. Employing assistive technology is one approach to address this issue in…

International Sign (IS) and American Sign Language (ASL) have both been used as lingua francas within international deaf contexts. Perspectives on the uses of IS and ASL as lingua francas in such contexts are connected to discourses pertaining to the form, function, status, value, languageness, and global reach of IS and ASL. While there are some…

The idea of a sign language town, or a Deaf utopia, where Deaf and signing people can come together to live in a geographical or figurative homeland has long persisted in US Deaf life, letters, and literature. In the wake of the Milan Congress of 1880, Alexander Graham Bell's alarming rhetoric concerning "a deaf mute variety of the human…

Productions can be made more accessible for Deaf and hard of hearing (DHoH) dancers, performers, and audiences. This article provides ideas and guidelines on how to include and accommodate them. Reflecting on our experiences developing the dance theatrical production of "Within Dreams," we describe the need for making space for DHoH…

All parents of deaf or hard of hearing children face challenges as they strive to provide an environment rich in language for their child. For parents on active duty in the military, however, perhaps this challenge is most acute. Faced with decisions about their child's medical or educational needs, military families must act despite geographic…

Videos, generally a fun and effective teaching tool, can be a source of stress for students who are deaf or hard of hearing--especially when shown in classrooms in which a handful of deaf or hard of hearing students find themselves surrounded by students who hear. In fact, for deaf and hard of hearing students, video watching may be a source of…

The first step in engaging deaf and hard of hearing children in language-rich environments is getting their attention. Hearing teachers intuitively raise their voices as they enter their classes to get students' attention; Deaf teachers intuitively wait for the students to look at them. Deaf sign language teachers report that when hearing students…

Young children do not develop language skills by studying grammar and rules for forming sentences. Children's brains are wired to acquire language naturally; all they need is exposure. Many opportunities for language learning are lost to deaf children if they are not surrounded by other signers. In fact, the loss can be so severe that deaf and…

Historically, deaf and hard-of-hearing students (D/HH) who solely rely on an interpreter during organic chemistry lecture courses at the Rochester Institute of Technology consistently performed below the average in the class. A barrier attributed to this D/HH student performance is the lack of standardized methods in sign language to effectively…

At the New York School for the Deaf, Fanwood, students participated in a school-based community arts program designed to use creative movement to enhance deaf and hard of hearing children's literacy skills. This program brought together professionals from a variety of disciplines, including deaf education, speech-language pathology, and dance…

The field of language documentation continues to grow, but an historic split between sign language documentation and spoken language documentation persists. In order to fully understand the linguistic context within a community, it can be necessary to overcome this split by designing language documentation projects to address threatened and…

Sign language is the natural way of communication of speech and hearing-impaired people. Using Indian Sign Language (ISL) interpretation system, hearing impaired people may interact with normal people with the help of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). This paper presents a method for automatic recognition of two-handed signs of Indian Sign…