Helen Keller

American Sign Language (ASL) is a unique language with its own vocabulary, grammar, and syntax rules. One uses their hands to communicate, rather than speaking with their voice. The language’s origin dates to 1814, when a minister in Connecticut, Dr. Thomas Hopkins Galluadet, desired to communicate with a deaf neighbor, a nine-year-old girl. He traveled to France, where deaf education—which was nonexistent in the United States—was underway at the National Institute for Deaf Mutes. After studying there, Galluadet returned to the US, bringing instructor Laurent Clerc with him. In 1817, they established the American School for the Deaf, a free institute in Hartford, Connecticut. The students who arrived at the school brought with them a variety of signs that were understood only by their family members or by other small communities. ASL would evolve out of these various languages as well as the unique sign languages of European countries, such as France and England (Jay, Michelle. “History of American Sign Language.” Start ASL, 14 July 2023).

Today, ASL involves not just physical hand signals but also eye contact, facial expressions, and other body language. Like spoken language, ASL has regional dialects, where terms vary.