The Kennesaw State American Sign Language (ASL) Club holds weekly student body meetings, potluck silent suppers, showings of movies like A Silent Voice and recently added ASL courses to inform members about ASL.
Co-Presidents Jessica Osborn and Victor Rodriguez collaborate to teach their organization how to communicate using sign language and understand different aspects of deaf culture. According to Osborn, one of the main objectives of this is to “increase inclusivity and diversity on campus.” Rodriguez added that another one of the main objectives is “to spread even more awareness.”
One aspect of deaf culture mentioned in this week’s meeting was respect within the deaf community. Rodriguez emphasized the importance of looking at a person’s eyes rather than their hands while they are signing and relying on peripheral vision to watch hand signs. If the person signing has an interpreter, it is respectful to look at them instead of their interpreter. This signifies to the other person that the conversation is only being held between the people conferring.
During their first student body meeting of the spring semester, all attendees were gifted a cheat sheet picturing the hand signs assigned to every letter of the alphabet, as well as numerical digits. Everyone was able to practice signing the alphabet and spelling out their name to introduce themselves.
Afterward, Rodriguez led an activity on asl.ms in which a computer-generated short word was signed by a picture of a person’s hand and had attendees decipher the word. Words varied from three to six letters and used speeds ranging from slow to “deaf speed,” or the speed a person who is fluent in ASL would understand.
Foreign language tutor Salma Huerta aids the co-presidents in teaching club members the language and educating them on different dialects of it. An example of this is in sign names, or specific hand signs created for a friend’s name to avoid spelling it out each time.
One of the biggest triumphs of the ASL club is succeeding in adding American Sign Language courses to KSU’s foreign language program. Currently offered courses are ASL Basics I and II. However, Osborn strives to continue to advocate for an ASL major for students who intend to work as interpreters and translators.
Osborn describes the way the club has grown since she began it roughly four years ago as “awe-inspiring.” Now in her last semester of her undergraduate classes and of leading the club, she spoke of the legacy she will leave behind at the ASL Club as impactful.
For more information on how to get involved with the American Sign Language Club, visit their website on OwlLife.
