Sign Language Cut Sends Bad Message

I was reading the article  by Stacie Chan which was published on August 26, 2011. What caught my eye is that American Sign Language was eliminated at College of San Mateo.

There's something uncouth about this decision to eliminate American Sign Language. If the claim is that there isn't enough student interest, then College of San Mateo is ignoring the Modern Language Association survey in 2009 which shows that it's one of the fastest growing foreign languages taken by college students. In fact, it is the fourth most popular foreign languages in colleges and universities across America not too far behind German.

I understand there are budget challenges, but targeting American Sign Language in spite of the evidence is sending out the wrong message to society that Deaf people and their language are inferior.

Sincerely,

Daniel J. Girard, President
California Association of the Deaf