Louisiana Establishes ASL and Deaf Studies Minor

A pinkie, index finger and thumb raised in unison means, "I love you."

It's a phrase in American Sign Language almost everyone understands. It's also become a ubiquitous symbol of Ragin' Cajuns pride. The same fingers that represent "ILY" in the ASL alphabet outline the shape of "UL."

Leah Dawsey embodies these overlapping realities. Dawsey grew up as part of a vibrant, multi-generational Deaf community in Lafayette, where many of her friends have Usher Syndrome.

The genetic condition is linked to hearing loss at birth and eventual vision loss. Acadiana has one of the nation's highest concentrations of Usher Syndrome. "People know so much about Cajuns, but they don't realize that there's a subcategory of Cajuns who are here, who are us," Dawsey signed. Dawsey communicates primarily through ASL, and this interview was conducted through her interpreter.

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Props to UL.

As bad as my vision is, I am a far cry from being legally Blind (you’d be surprised at how blind you have to be to be legally blind)

it’s really just a major inconvenience and hampers many equality of life issues for me.

Given the choice between being visually impaired or hearing impaired, I’d rather deal with my eyes, then my ears.

Proud of my alma mater for taking this step.

My sister is an ASL interpreters in Hawaii, while I am illiterate when it comes to speaking ASL.

There are so many educational as well as research avenues this curriculum can eventually go down.

Props for addressing a need.

This adds to our LIFE program which UL initiated for Down Syndrome kids and now has been, I understand, expanded to autistic kids.
As you guys said, Well done. Proud to be an alum.