Deaf Resources Project

Author: Keiro

  • ASL Teachers and You

    In most cases, you should be fine in learning from an ASL teacher in community colleges, a vocational rehabilitation program, or classes from your local community.

    In others… it’s not, and here’s how to tell. Your life may very well depend on knowing this.

    Learning from a TikToker? Youtuber?

    Ask where they learned ASL from. If their answer is that they’re learning and wanting to teach others ASL, run far away. You should not learn ASL from an unqualified teacher. If you see multiple deaf individuals calling out a person for teaching dangerous or incorrect signs, this is another sign that you should run far away.

    Do they have a certification from a local authority such as RID, for example?

    If not, run away, as well. Not having a valid certification means that you won’t know if what you’re learning is correct and safe to use to communicate with friends, family and emergency services.

    Important Questions and Why

    Why is it so important to ask these questions, such as where they learned and if they’re a native signer?

    The quick answer is simply that native signers will know when an incorrect or unintelligible sign is used and can correct individuals on the usage of such signs.

    The darker answer is that your life may well depend on relaying accurate information to police, emt and doctors that may be working to help you deal with an illness, injury or other such life-threatening situations.

  • The Importance of Learning ASL

    There’s usually a few common scenarios where one might need to learn ASL, or American Sign Language. Or your preferred local sign language, as there are many across the world.

    For some, it’s learning as a child, growing up as a native signer. For others, it’s because they have a partner. And yet still more others, because of an injury that rendered their hearing useless. Whatever the reasons as to how or why, most people who learn sign language will often find it easier to communicate with others with the same language, and in some cases even different ones.

    This language is composed of visual and physical gestures and even if we don’t necessarily know the meaning of all the signs, the magic factor of sign language is that we often can figure out the context almost immediately.

    Another important reason for learning ASL is the ability to communicate in an emergency. For example, bad weather, earthquakes or other common emergencies could render communication difficult or impossible.

    Lastly, knowing and learning ASL from a native signer is your best way of safely learning ASL. Why? Well… would you be willing to bet your life in an emergency on someone who didn’t know ASL, or worse, someone who learned ASL from places such as TikTok where signs are often either unintelligible or outright wrong and could be a danger to you, your children, or even your pets?

  • Welcome to DRP!

    Hello!

    Welcome to the Deaf Resources Project by moi, Keiro. This website is designed to provide you with valuable resources that can be extremely helpful in your journey to becoming knowledgeable in ASL. This will be particularly helpful in convention contexts as well, such as Midwest FurFest, Furry Weekend Atlanta and so many other places.

    This website will have more resources added, such as videos, images and other such items to help with understanding how things work for new and old users of ASL.

    For now, please have a look and check out what I’ve got. It may be worth contacting me on various social media platforms if you have specific questions or use the Contact Me page to leave questions and the like.