Emily Glenn-Smith
MA, Sign Language Education
ASLTA, Nationally Certified
The Human Right to Language
"At the heart of our constitutional system is the principle that all Americans should be treated the same under our laws." (Siegel, pg. 95)
The 14th Amendment applies to government policies and programs from the government, such as education. (pg. 97)
The Fourteenth Amendment includes protection from any legal decisions that reduce the rights of any citizen and guarantees equal protection under the law. (pg. 93) Men and women, black and white are protected under this law equally. Does the same apply to deaf and hearing children in our education system? "Deaf and hard of hearing children have a right to access and develop communication and language in school, and the failure to provide both is a violation of the constitutional right to be treated equally." (pg. 95)
We have the equal right to marry, pray, vote, and work but are we required to do those things? No. And yet we ARE required to go to school. (pg. 101) The educational system has perpetuated in many cases a violation of the 14th Amendment for deaf students.
In The Human Right to Language by Lawrence M. Siegel, examines several instances of a deaf student's access to language being denied. The examples provided illustrate that when a deaf child is provided less rights than a hearing child in the same scenario by not providing access to the language medium used in their learning environment it is a violation of the 14th Amendment because the law is not equally protecting the deaf and hearing student.
These types of injustices and legal violations have been historically fought in court. For example in the issue of racial segregation in schools ended after one famous case, Brown v. Board of Education, which proved that the funding and conditions within white and African American schools was far from equal. (pg. 96)
While deaf students attend school "equally" with hearing students, the lack of equal access to the language of their peers and lectures of their teachers through the absence of a qualified sign language interpreter is a violation of the equal protection under the law. It is not equal. (pg. 96)
It is time to provide our deaf children with the same right to have access to education. "Deaf and hard of hearing children should not be treated differently from other Americans whose language is rightfully protected by our laws." (pg. 124)
Works Cited
Siegel, Lawrence, M. (2008). The Human Right to Language Communication Access for Deaf Children. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press.
Preservation of ASL
American Sign Language is a threatened language for a variety of reasons. Some reasons to consider are cochlear implantation, mainstreaming education and lack of legislation set in place to preserve and ensure ASL is recognized as the natural human language of Deaf people.
The majority of deaf infants are born to hearing parents who have little to no understanding or experience about what to do with a deaf child. Their first encounter is with doctors and medical professionals that routinely focus only on hearing and speaking and that the deafness is something that they need to “fix”. Sadly, these medical professionals most often do not provide information on language or communication access through bilingual options.
While mainstream educational environments do provide options for deaf children, typically the options, again, focus on speech and listening skills, so that students can better assimilate into their “hearing” environment. Most, if not all, of the educators and support staff surrounding the deaf child are hearing. This leaves the child without access to learning and producing a natural, visual sign language.
Lastly, there are no current laws that have been established to recognize American Sign Language as the natural human language of deaf people.
There are ways to preserve American Sign Language. Deaf people within the Deaf community are the key. Video recording of natural language production and collecting linguistic information is essential to preservation of our visual language. Comprehensive, published documentation disseminated and shared throughout the United States as well as establishing a network nationwide is essential. In addition, we need language-planning groups consisting of members of the Deaf community working together to strategize ways to gather information to establish a law to preserve our linguistic rights and to prove to our government that American Sign Language is the natural language of our community.