American Sign Language is a visual gestural language, composed of shapes and movements to convey meaning and abstracts ideas. ASL was created in 1817 by Hopkins Gallaudet, a hearing American minister and Laurent Clerc, a French deaf man. Clerc was one of Gallaudet’s teachers who taught him sign language in Europe when he showed interests in learning and teaching signs to other deaf people. Gallaudet and Clerc established the first American school for deaf people in 1817 (Baker, C. & Padden, C., 2). ASL is learned through the context and usage of the language instead of English words. ASL is also related to French Sign Language combined with signs from 1817 and is used mostly by Deaf people in Canada and United States of America. Some deaf people may and may not use sign language, depending on how they identify themselves. Members in the Deaf community use ASL and see themselves as a part of the Deaf community. The members who are in the Deaf community share a common language, common experiences ad values, and a common way of interacting with each other and with hearing people (Baker & Padden, 4). Deaf people who does not use sign …show more content…
It is where Deaf students eat, sleep, study, and play together (Baker & Padden, 4). The residential school allows the students to interact and share their experiences together, which causing them to be closer together. Most Deaf people stay connected by joining the same sports and meeting each other by attending sports and events for Deaf people. They also like to be informed about the environment, the community, and its member (Smith, viii). Deaf people have a sense of duty to inform other Deaf people about the society and any news within their community and the broader world. This way of sharing information help to develop a long -term relationship and a closer networking system between the Deaf