Bridging deaf and hearing communities

Since April, a small group of women huddle around a table at Emiliano’s Market on Tuesdays, with printouts of the American Sign Language alphabet before them. Seated between a stack of shopping baskets and shelves stocked with jarred Italian goods, all eyes were on tutor Julie Schlecht, a bilingual educator at St. Joseph’s School for the Deaf in the Bronx.

On this particular day, their session piqued the interest of a server. Balancing a tray of beverages, she paused to watch, and expressed her desire to learn the language. When the Schlecht offered up an alphabet handout, she enthusiastically accepted before continuing with her tasks. At a table nearby, two curious schoolgirls in matching uniforms and gelato-stained faces glance over from their table while an adult explains ASL to the pair.

Roughly half a million individuals nationwide use ASL as their native language. The language is becoming more accessible, both in formal education and community settings. Often marginalized and misunderstood, it is steadily finding a home in classrooms, universities, and community spaces across the country.

Over the last 25 years, it has emerged as one of the few growing languages in U.S. higher education. According to the Modern Language Association’s 2023 census, enrollment in college language courses fell by about 17 percent between 2016 and 2021 – the sharpest dip since the organization began tracking such data more than six decades ago. Despite this, demand has grown in three foreign languages – Biblical Hebrew, Korean, and ASL. Since 1998, enrollment in ASL classes surged more than 800 percent, reaching nearly 108,000 college students by 2021. 

Still, that momentum may not be enough to close the longstanding gap between Deaf and hearing communities. 

“A lot of people have this fantasy of learning it,” Schlecht expressed. “They want to learn it, but they don't understand it for years. I’ve been studying it for 10 years now, like hardcore. I’m still always learning.” 

Although fluent is a subjective term, the American Council on Teaching Foreign Language established a framework for measuring proficiency levels in ASL. The scale includes four tiers -- Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Superior -- each with low, mid, and high sublevels. Moving through these levels reflects the learner’s increasing comfort with expressing themselves in a variety of settings. 

Based on ACTFL’s guidelines, fluency generally aligns with the superior level, where individuals can communicate both abstract and professional topics with accuracy and ease – indicating near-native proficiency. Advancing through the stages requires consistent practice, immersion in the Deaf community, and a commitment to understanding the cultural nuances of ASL. On average, it takes about eight years to reach fluency. 

But for Deaf people, ASL is far more than a language – it’s a cultural cornerstone.

 “It’s a lot of gestures, your hands are your voice,” Jamil Haque explained, who lost his hearing at three-months old. “You use your eyes a lot. You don’t use your ears. You’re using different expressions or mouth shapes, so you can show anger or frustration. You use your body.”

Born in Bangladesh, his parents brought him to the U.S. when he was 18 months old, seeking better medical and educational opportunities for their son. Neither knew English or ASL. Instead, the family communicated with each other through what the 40-year-old calls “home signs,” developing their own personal sign language system.

His first exposure to formal ASL came at three years old, when he began attending at St. Joseph’s School for the Deaf.

Most deaf children in the United States are born to hearing parents, and nearly 70 percent of those parents don’t learn or use sign language. Mark Patrick, superintendent of St. Joseph’s, sees that disconnect regularly. 

“It’s a national dilemma,” Patrick expressed. “ Like, if a student’s family are native Spanish speakers learning English, throwing in ASL on top of that can be truly challenging.” 

But technological advancements in assistive communication devices are helping to ease the gap, regardless of the hearing individual’s native language introduced in 1967, the teletype, or TTY, allowed individuals to send typed messages over phone lines, often used by people with hearing or speech impairments. Many modern tools, including speech-to-text apps and video relay services, trace their roots to that early innovation. 

“Growing up you had to write and you had to have paper, or you just had to gesture,” Haque said. “Now technology has just taken off and improved so much. There are closed captions. You can use text to speak. But technology is technology, signing, when you can look someone in the eyes, is just the best way to connect with someone.”

That’s where a growing wave of ASL programs comes in. The Deaf community has long led the charge, pushing to make ASL more visible and accessible. Now, more institutions are listening.

In Westchester, Yorktown Central School District introduced ASL classes for the first time ever last fall. The decision followed a March report outlining the district’s strategic priorities, including expanding language offerings.

“Growing up, you didn’t see a lot of sign language,” Haque reflected. “You know, our world, the world that we live in it’s amazing to see. But there’s still a lot of more work to be done.”