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Deaf Culture

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Submitted By nikapickwood
Words 2381
Pages 10
Nika Pickwoad
Ms. Ruiz
Deaf Culture
November 18, 2013 Deaf culture
#1) Sign language has been around for as long as its existence of deafness. Deafness, in the early centuries of American life caused many problems for those that were deaf. Doctors did not understand the root causes of deafness and books were rare at the time. Until the most recent years, doctors finally understand why deafness occurs and the deaf communities in the world today are being respected and admired, with the aid of American Sign Language. “ASL has many roots not only is it rooted in the French ideas, but also the ideas of the Great Plains Indians in America” (Butterworth & Flodin, 1995).The man responsible for bringing sign language to light in the United States is Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Gallaudet studied the French ways and returned to America in 1817 where he founded the first school for the deaf in America, near present day Hartford, Connecticut. The college was appropriately named Gallaudet College, after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. ASL is starting to be referred to as a foreign language. The reason for this growing idea stems from colleges and universities recognizing ASL as a success for foreign language credits in many college degree programs. “Gary Olsen former Executive Director of the National Association of the Deaf, referred to this notion of ASL as a foreign language as an American ground swell” (Butterworth & Flodin, 1995). The future of ASL is bright and vibrant with the number of people in the deaf community growing every day, as well as the number of ASL classes that occur on a daily basis. ASL is now being recognized by many schools across the U.S. as a foreign language, and more schools are jumping on the idea every day, so ASL will be around for a very longtime. After all, ASL is the fourth most

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