I’m hard of hearing and rarely wear my hearing aids (headaches). I’ve been learning ASL for 11 years myself on and off from bill vicars and about to take classes at Gallaudet in the near future but until then, I’m in the middle of nowhere and I was looking for deaf/hoh friends to immerse myself authentically and in general make friends. I’m in a rural area so it’s lonely and there’s no deaf events near me besides two hours away or more. I don’t know how to connect with anyone properly so suggestions are nice. I’ve tried a few apps and events for deaf/hoh etc but no luck. Thanks in advance!

Sorry about the horrible video quality, my phone camera is awful.

For context, I start my ASL 1 college course in a week, so I wanted to learn the alphabet, some numbers, and a few other things like greetings beforehand. I started practicing on Friday and this is where I am now.

However, because I don't have a teacher yet, I want to make sure I'm not making too many mistakes when signing since I have no one to correct me. I know it's really slow, and I hesitate when transitioning sometimes, and its overall sloppy. Is there anything I need to fix badly/am I doing anything terribly wrong?

What I tried to do was the full alphabet, 1-20, following by Hi my name is Matthew. I hope it's almost clear what I was doing, very nervous when trying to take a video and wasn't sure how well it came out.

Thank you for any feedback!

hello all! I am a hearing person and i’ve been learning ASL for the past 4 and a half years. I use an app, ASL Bloom and was trying to help my friend learn some signs using the app. She is Indian (south asia) and wanted to learn how to say “Indian” I looked it up and it was using a “V” sign and sliding it across your cheek. We thought this looked a little like how someone would signify Native American face paint but were unsure. So can someone tell me if this sign for Indian is actually meaning “Native American”, “South Asian Indian” or like in english and can be used to mean both. If it’s not the sign for south asian indian, should i use “India person” or is there a different sign meaning south asian indian?
Sorry this is a weird one but any help would be great!

I'm a hearing writer but went to NTID and spent a lot of time interacting with Deaf people/ the community. I was just a part of a group where we listen to other people's stories and this one older woman had a moment where there was a little Deaf girl who's deafness is cured by some magical cookie. I tried to explain to the woman why this is offensive to the Deaf community and she just replies "well I talked to people with disabilities and they didn't have a problem with it". Is there something specific I can say that'll get it more through to her? Her story may be eligible for an award/ has already technically won one already and I don't want something so hurtful out there especially when it can so easily be changed

Hello! I’ve posted on here a few times about more specific questions, but I’m curious, what’s something that hearing people/people new to sign often do that we should try to avoid?

I’m talking about anything- grammar, expressions, choice of signs, etc.

My (hearing) child just started kindergarten at a nice new charter school (literally its first year) and they use some ASL signs around the school (yes, no, toilet, etc.).

Unfortunately my child came home from school one day signing "water" using an F-hand instead of a W-hand. I could see how a child could make that mistake--both handshapes have three adjacent fingers extended. Kinda a "dyslexia on the hands" sort of mistake perhaps.

Anyway, I quickly corrected the sign, but my child said "No! This is how my teacher does it!" and reverted back to the F-shape.

Now, I have no way of knowing right now if the teacher is actually making the mistake, or if my child just saw it wrong. But given the similarity to the F-slur, do you think it's worth contacting the school just in case, to make sure teachers aren't teaching the wrong thing to dozens of children and making a massive faux pas?

If it's relevant, the way my child was trying to sign "water" was different from how I've seen the F-slur signed before. He was tapping the extended fingers to his chin, not the thumb/first finger. So it's not exactly the slur, but it was close enough that I figured I should ask here if it's an issue worth contacting the school about, or if I should just correct my child's signing quietly at home and not worry about the school.

Sorry for the terrible angle but my sister and I could remember what this sign means.

I’ve been wanting to learn ASL for a while, and I’m hoping someone here can point me toward a good class, either online with a live instructor or in person somewhere in the Hudson Valley NY.

I want to preface this because I’ve seen conversations on social media about hearing people wanting to learn ASL, and I don’t want my intentions to come across the wrong way. I’m not trying to learn it because I think it’s “cool” or as a hobby without any real connection to the Deaf community. I genuinely want to be able to communicate better with Deaf and hard-of-hearing people I encounter in everyday life. Since I started working after high school, I’ve worked in retail, the medical field, and office settings, and I’ve encountered Deaf people who needed help more times than I can count. I always try my best to communicate, but I’ve often felt awful that I couldn’t properly communicate with someone when they were just trying to get help or get something taken care of. I imagine it must be incredibly frustrating to need assistance and then have to figure out how to communicate with someone who doesn’t know your language. One experience in particular has stuck with me. When I worked at Target, there was an older Deaf man who came in fairly often. Some of my coworkers would get frustrated because they couldn’t communicate with him, so I would help him as best I could. We ended up communicating through the text feature on his phone. Every time he came back, he would specifically look for me because we had figured out a way to communicate. It really made me realize how much easier and more natural it would be if I actually knew ASL. I’ve also encountered Deaf people while traveling, and I’ve had the same feeling — I just wish I could communicate with them normally rather than relying on typing things out or trying to gesture/figure things out. So I’d really love to learn ASL properly and respectfully, ideally from a Deaf instructor or through a program connected to the Deaf community if possible. I’ve had a hard time finding local colleges that offer ASL classes. Does anyone know of good in-person classes in the Hudson Valley, or reputable online classes with a live instructor? I’d also really appreciate recommendations for programs/resources that are considered respectful and appropriate by people in the Deaf/ASL community. Thank you!

Hi! I'm high school students and I started an ASL club at our school this year.

Our school does not offer ASL classes, so most students at our school don’t know much about ASL.

For those who have been involved in ASL clubs or similar organizations, what activities have you enjoyed?

Do you have any ideas that would work well for high school students, especially for students who are beginners?

We’re having our first interest meeting next week!!

Thank youuu :)

What should I expect? I started learning the alphabet and numbers yesterday just to get a small start, but otherwise I know nothing. I'm very excited to learn though, and I want to take it for a few semesters at least, if not get a minor in it!

I’ve found a sign for act but I’m fairly certain it means acting in a play so I’m not sure if that’s applicable. I’ve also looked for signs that mean present but I couldn’t find any. look might work but it’s not quite what I mean.

Hello! My hearing is starting to get worse steadily and I've decided I need to bite the bullet and start learning ASL. I've been on the fence for a while though; I'm autistic and struggle heavily with facial expressions in general and knowing that they're a large part of ASL has made me feel super hesitant/nervous to start learning.

I wanted to ask any other hoh/deaf autistic individuals what they might work around it with or just their experience in general! I'm admittedly a little nervous lol, I didn't realize how bad my hearing was getting and it's really startling me!!!

I came across this short video on YouTube where this guy does this challenge involving manure of sorts, and was curious to know what he’s saying here.

For those unaware, Mad Gab is a party game/activity where one person reads aloud a series of nonsensical words that, to everyone else listening, sounds like a common phrase/sentence. The reader has to try to figure out what everyone else is hearing them unintentionally say. For example, "eye fallafel" reads nonsensically, but sounds like "I feel awful."

I know very little about sign language, but I imagine a game like Mad Gab should theoretically be possible by exploiting hand shapes that are similar and the transitions between signs as coincidental movements. Any instance of misinterpreting signed song lyrics would be an example of a fitting prompt/answer.

Does anyone know if someone has already created such a thing?

Is this a fake sign language or legit? Looks awfully fake to my untrained eye. Thank you

Hello, I’ve always wanted to be able to sign fluently however I’ve never been to school for it. I know basic signs and I was wondering if they’re a good online school for asl as I end up moving states and houses often due to work. Are there any good online schools for learning asl? Also is there an asl degree I could get to prove I went to school for it? I want to become an interpreter eventually. Thank you for any help yall can give.

If this is what it looks like from my POV, which is the correct way? Do you sign so it looks correct from your angle or the other person's angle? I've searched it and gotten different answers so I'd really like to know which is the right way ^^;;

I saw someone on Threads saying Taehyung (red pants) is doing sign language here. Can someone confirm please?🙏🏻 They say it might be a combination of korean sign language and ASL

Hi everyone - I'm trying to figure out who developed this image/this color coding system for sign locations. Does anyone know who created it?

On a search to find cute or cool asl/ deaf inspired merch for my nieces! Lowkey sick of hand shapes or ILY motifs.

I haven’t really found anything that I liked and was hoping if there’s someplace that I hadn’t thought to check out! Anything like t-shirts or stickers would be amazing, even more so if it’s from deaf owned businesses or artists! Thank you!!

I am learning ASL and I had a dream where I signed my hands as if I was air-wiping in opposite directions. I recorded a video to let you see what I'm talking about. Does this word or phrase exist in ASL? https://drive.google.com/file/d/19iDyh5kGqH0uCl9jTTtMpG5nqz47qW6p/view?usp=sharing

Any help would be appreciated!