American Sign Language

1. Deaf Culture

1.1. They identify themselves as Deaf, as an ethnic identity, and not a physical condition.

1.2. The uppercase "Deaf" is used to identify those who are members of the Deaf community.

1.3. Composed of people who use American Sign Language as their primary means of communication, the Deaf community has over the past 150 years developed a rich social life and folklore.

2. Fun Facts

2.1. Deaf History Month is observed from March 13th to April 15th every year.

2.2. There are hundreds of sign language dialects in use around the world. Each culture has developed its own form of sign language to be compatible with the language spoken in that country.

2.3. Ludvig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He started going deaf at the age of 28 and by age 49 he could no longer hear. He continued to get worse but went on composing music.

3. Statistics

3.1. American Sign Language (ASL) is the third most widely used language in the U.S., after English and Spanish.

3.2. Many people with hearing impairments communicate by using ASL, which combines hand signs, gestures, and facial expressions to create words and sentences. As many as 500,000 people in the U.S. communicate using ASL.

3.3. Different countries have different sign languages. ASL also has regional and dialectal differences depending on age, gender, culture, and more. There are thousands of different sign languages, approximately 6,000.