"American Sign Language"

“American Sign Language”
American Sign Language is a very organized language that relies on gestures such as body movements, specific hand-shapes, location of the hands, and facial expressions. American Sign Language and English are similar, they both convey ideas, but both have their own distinguished characteristics. ASL is visual, processed through the eyes, rather than audible, and has it own structure and grammar. ASL is not another form of English; it is a language used among the deaf community. “Between 21 million and 28 million people in the united states are hard of hearing or deaf” (“Deaf Culture”).
It is not exactly known when and where American Sign Language began. Despite this fact, ASL has existed since deaf Americans began communicating with one another. In 1815 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a minister, was seeking a way to help his deaf community. Gallaudet wanted to learn how deaf people communicated with one another. Europe offered this;...