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http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/14116605.htm
COLUMBIA, S.C. - High school students could earn foreign language credit by taking sign language classes under a bill that passed a Senate subcommittee Thursday.
Bill supporters hope the measure will encourage students to learn sign language and increase deaf students' interaction with their peers.
American Sign Language classes currently count as electives. Most four-year colleges require students earn at least two foreign language credits.
If they could earn those in sign language, more students would sign up, said Virginia Hall of Spartanburg, whose son, daughter-in-law and grandson are deaf.
Her grandson attends the state School for the Deaf and Blind and spends half a day as a 10th grader at Dorman High School. Only one student at the high school can communicate with him, but many students are eager learn, Hall said. She has made it her mission to increase teaching sign language statewide.
Access "has the ability to change lives, especially those who live with hearing loss," said Mariann Carter, an education associate for the deaf and hard of hearing at the state Education Department. Both of her parents are deaf.
"In order to be able to ensure these opportunities, we must begin somewhere - that somewhere is in our high schools," she said as an interpreter signed to the audience.
Carter said there are 33 certified interpreters in South Carolina, few of whom teach in schools. Making sign language a foreign language could lead to more students pursuing a career teaching and interpreting for the deaf, she said.
There are about 1,300 deaf and hard of hearing students in grades three through 12 in South Carolina's public schools, Carter said. Up to half a million people use American Sign Language in America and Canada,
"Our children want someone to talk to," said Roger Williams of Lyman, co-president of the American Society for Deaf Children. He and his wife, co-president Sherry Williams, have six children. Four are deaf.
Sherry Williams worries her deaf children won't be accepted into college because they can't take foreign languages now offered for credit.
"They're stuck," she said through in interpreter.
About 150 colleges, including Clemson University, accept sign language courses for foreign language requirements.
Clemson began offering a minor in American Sign Language this school year, and has offered courses since 2000.
About 160 students are in the program, and there's a waiting list of those who want to take the courses, said Alton Brant, an American Sign Language professor and founder of the school's ASL Club.
COLUMBIA, S.C. - High school students could earn foreign language credit by taking sign language classes under a bill that passed a Senate subcommittee Thursday.
Bill supporters hope the measure will encourage students to learn sign language and increase deaf students' interaction with their peers.
American Sign Language classes currently count as electives. Most four-year colleges require students earn at least two foreign language credits.
If they could earn those in sign language, more students would sign up, said Virginia Hall of Spartanburg, whose son, daughter-in-law and grandson are deaf.
Her grandson attends the state School for the Deaf and Blind and spends half a day as a 10th grader at Dorman High School. Only one student at the high school can communicate with him, but many students are eager learn, Hall said. She has made it her mission to increase teaching sign language statewide.
Access "has the ability to change lives, especially those who live with hearing loss," said Mariann Carter, an education associate for the deaf and hard of hearing at the state Education Department. Both of her parents are deaf.
"In order to be able to ensure these opportunities, we must begin somewhere - that somewhere is in our high schools," she said as an interpreter signed to the audience.
Carter said there are 33 certified interpreters in South Carolina, few of whom teach in schools. Making sign language a foreign language could lead to more students pursuing a career teaching and interpreting for the deaf, she said.
There are about 1,300 deaf and hard of hearing students in grades three through 12 in South Carolina's public schools, Carter said. Up to half a million people use American Sign Language in America and Canada,
"Our children want someone to talk to," said Roger Williams of Lyman, co-president of the American Society for Deaf Children. He and his wife, co-president Sherry Williams, have six children. Four are deaf.
Sherry Williams worries her deaf children won't be accepted into college because they can't take foreign languages now offered for credit.
"They're stuck," she said through in interpreter.
About 150 colleges, including Clemson University, accept sign language courses for foreign language requirements.
Clemson began offering a minor in American Sign Language this school year, and has offered courses since 2000.
About 160 students are in the program, and there's a waiting list of those who want to take the courses, said Alton Brant, an American Sign Language professor and founder of the school's ASL Club.
