Who uses ASL?
American Sign Language is one of the most widely used languages in the United States and currently ranks fifth in non-English languages used in the country behind the "big four" Spanish, Italian, German and French. ASL is primarily used by Deaf and hard of hearing Americans and Canadians. In addition, ASL is used by: 1) hearing children of deaf parents; 2) hearing siblings and relatives of the deaf, and 3) hearing adults who are becoming deaf and are learning ASL from other deaf individuals. Additionally, a growing population of hearing, second-language students are learning ASL in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary classrooms. There are approximately 250,000 – 500,000 ASL users in USA and Canada (Baker and Cokely, 1980). Most of them use ASL as their primary language. However, these numbers have varied over time through research. Please read below. American Sign Language (ASL) is commonly said to be "the fourth most-used language in the United States" (alter
