Florida: Calling All Deaf Advocates!

[Dan Parvaz]

Some of us actually managed to take ASL *and* other languages, if we were so inclined. It happens all the time. Over a decade ago, when ASL did not fill foreign language requirements at Brigham Young University, there were still around 15 sections (each approximately 30 students) of ASL being taught in any given semester. Once ASL fot approved, the figures swelled slightly, but no-one really suffered. The language departments kept on keepin' on; the three students taking Afrikaans didn't flee the kraal.

The crucial event in getting approval was in waiting for one person to vacate their position in the department of Honors and General Education, who in a display of completely predictable intellectual rigour offered the following advice to someone: "Listen, you'd be happier if you just studied French." They resented the fact that *Korean* was taught. If they had it their way, there'd be Classics, Hebrew, Modern (read: Western European) languages, and that's it, leaving plenty of time/space for us to dress in togas, walk around the statuary, and discuss the nature of Beauty.

Sometimes, it can just be about people.

-Dan.