In the early 70s, ASL had not generally been recognized as a language in its own right, let alone that it was the main cultural artifact of the Deaf community. Misconceptions abounded among professionals who worked with deaf people, parents of deaf children, and indeed among deaf people themselves. This seemed to be true as well among faculty and students at Gallaudet. Common notions about ASL ranged from the view that it was not a language at all to the idea that signs are crude representations of spoken English. It was also believed that the acquisition of ASL harmed the intellectual development of deaf children, including literacy development. I took advantage of an opportunity offered to me by Bob Weinstock, then the student editor of the Buff & Blue, to write a series of articles in which my goal was to debunk one by one the typical misapprehensions about ASL.
Following the publications of the series, Lorraine DiPietro who worked for Public Services Program at Gallaudet College, offered to publish it as a booklet to inform the general public about the true nature of American Sign Language. She consolidated the articles and also arranged to have the artist Ruth E. Peterson do the illustrations. Requests for the booklet continue to be sent to me and it is also listed as a reference in several websites which deal with ASL. It was reprinted in 1978 but has been out of print for many years so I decided to make it accessible by posting it on the web.
Harry Markowicz
English Department
Gallaudet University
June 21, 2002