Firstly, I'll apologise for the tone of my response, but I'm tired, and should've gone to bed hours ago.
I also wish to encourage you to continue learning about the deaf community, as you already are, but please don't get defensive, because that will make your journey even more difficult.
It should be mentioned before people start to become defensive and this conversation becomes a huge fight, that you did come in - barely introducing yourself by the looks of things, and vaguely ask for information about challenges, general support, and general information. As a result, you got a (hopefully) helpful link to some existing notes. You did not mention any specifics, nor that you wanted to contribute and provide potentially provide substantial services as one who will be quite knowledgable about the deaf, although I suspect that as an initial question, you would've still gotten the same answer - to check existing resources, because this is not something that can easily be answered in a few short catch phrases. Additionally, there is sometimes a profound difference in understanding what that cultural gap is between deaf people and hearing people, often by both parties. (For instance, many deaf have no idea why hearing people find using an interpreter is weird for hearing people!)
Additionally, lets address a few points:
1) The sign language used by the deaf community is part of its culture, is not distinct. To learn and master ASL means to learn and become part of the deaf community.
2) Only a minority of people in a population tend to want to evangelize and break through to new ground. PhD's tend to be part of that minority in the academic community. Most students who attend university just go through the motions, get their bit of paper, and enter the workforce. It is the same with the deaf community, with one difference: The same points that are still being raised today were already raised before, but the deaf community often feels that they fall on "deaf ears". By contrast, the PhD researcher who helped you with your assignment likely felt that it would make a substantial difference to a field he is passionate about.
3) It is commendable that you want to help deaf people in the field of counselling, however it is imperative that such counselling is done with an understanding of their culture, community, history, and language, and the deaf community is one with a history of having people make decisions for them, without their consultation. This won't be easy to overcome.
4) The deaf community isn't neccessarily as singular as you may believe - there is a lot of smaller subcommunities within the whole - we are all individuals. Taking your point about signing and singing, some deaf people love that, others, such as me, really couldn't care less if there wasn't a song in the world. Music holds no passion for me, even if I can feel it, and even if it is intepreted. If the interpretation is very good (ie, it's practically translated, with weeks of preparation), then I may enjoy it, but at a symbolic/poetical level not because of the music, so don't feel surprised when you discover that not all deaf people will react and encourage you with your song signing.
Finally, may I wish you well as you continue to become a part of the deaf community.
