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<h1 class="entry-title">Brothers fight to change Baylor’s ASL policy</h1>
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<div class="gmail-td-post-author-name"><div class="gmail-td-author-by">By</div> <a href="http://baylorlariat.com/author/christina-soto/">Christina Soto</a><div class="gmail-td-author-line"> - </div> </div> <span class="gmail-td-post-date gmail-td-post-date-no-dot"><time class="entry-date gmail-updated gmail-td-module-date" datetime="2018-02-07T21:56:42+00:00">February 7, 2018</time></span> </div>
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<p>Story by Christina Soto | Broadcast Managing Editor</p>
<p>For over 20 years, Baylor students have wanted to take American Sign
Language as a foreign language. However, ASL is not considered a foreign
language at Baylor and is only offered to certain majors.</p>
<p>Marnie Abrahams, a lecturer in the Department of Communication
Sciences, and Disorders- Health & Human Sciences, attended Baylor
in 1998 and encountered the same issue as a student.</p>
<p>“I think that we need to understand this not as an academic issue,
it’s a human rights issue,” Abrahams said. “It’s discriminatory to judge
one person’s language and culture as not worthy of academic study.”</p>
<p>But this year, two brothers from Austin have decided to take it upon
themselves to change the policy and make ASL available to all students.</p>
<p>The students, Tyler and Tanner Wright were both born with hearing impairments.</p>
<p>Tyler was born with some hearing however, he was diagnosed with
severe hearing loss at two years old. This differed from Tanner, who was
born completely deaf on both ears. The brothers both went through
surgery at a young age to get a cochlear implant.</p>
<p>“I couldn’t hear a single word growing up until I got the cochlear
implant and at a year-and-a-half-old I was implanted, I went to surgery
and I got my cochlear implant over my right ear,” Tanner said. “I’ve
worn this every day of my life since I think I was about a
year-and-a-half-old.”</p>
<p>In middle school, the Wright brothers said they struggled taking
classes like Spanish and French and were only able to take ASL once they
got to high school. They were excited to take the class and learn more
about the deaf community. Being born into a hearing family, they said
they never knew what it was like to be around other people that shared
the same experiences as they did.</p>
<p>Because of this, the twins said they were disappointed when they realized they could not take the class at Baylor.</p>
<p>“You know I come to Baylor and I’m excited because I’m like, ‘Hey they’ve got<span class="gmail-inline-comment-control"></span>ASL,
I’m gonna take it. That’s great, you know?'” Tyler said. “And I
actually learned that I couldn’t take it because of my major.”</p>
<p>The Wright brothers are both part of student government and are
hoping to change the policy through their positions. Right now, they
have a petition which has gathered over a 1,000 signatures. Tanner and
Tyler, along with other Baylor students, are also working on drafting
bills for each department to present to student senate.</p>
<p>The brothers said they understand that this change would not affect
their careers at Baylor, but are hoping to change it for the people
after them.</p></div>
<br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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