Originally Posted by rockdrummer

I never said it was the most important.

The same applies for hearing people learning to communicate with the deaf population. It's not easy. I constantly see posts where deaf people are blaiming hearing people for taking the easy way out. I believe its hard in either direction and if taking the easy way out for hearing is no excuse then it's should not be for deaf people either. There should not be a double standard. And it's not speech I am talking about, it's communication by any means. I understand that it's harder for a deaf person to speak than to sign. Again, for face to face communication you options are limited. You either sign, talk or read and write. The mode you choose is going to be dependant on the capabilities of those involved.

I'm sure it is nice to be amongst those that communicate efficiently using a common mode. The reality is that not everyone knows ASL. If you are not motivated to use spoken language that's your choice. You have then limited your ability in face to face communication with non-signing hearing to reading and writing. I guess that's where literacy in the native language of the hearing population becomes an important factor.

I agree. Total access is important and it's unfortunate that not everyone is on board with that. You also have to keep in mind that not every hearing person needs to learn ASL. I have said many times that most of the hearing population will not ever encounter deafness in any form in their entire life. That's a simple matter of the numbers. One thing I wish would happen is that schools should offer ASL as a second language that the students can get credit for. Like they do with French and Spanish.