Mission
VoiceSign is an organization and resource committed to creating a complete English-based sign system for people who can hear yet need signs to communicate, those who lose their hearing, and everyone who wants to talk with their hands.
Communication is a right not a privilege. This is why classes are offered for free.
The founder of VoiceSign scrambled for years trying to learn American Sign Language (ASL) for her hearing/non-verbal, special-needs child. Available classes were either few, far in between, free and very basic, or at a college and costing an exorbitant amount of money. Over the years she tried to enroll her daughter in deaf schools several times, only to be consistently told, “Your child is not allowed at our school because she’s hearing. Deaf is different.
It was when the mother began homeschooling her daughter that she realized ASL really wasn’t their best choice.
ASL was created for people who are deaf. Signing Exact English (SEE) was also created for people who are deaf. Since deaf is different than hearing, a new sign system is required, one which is implemented based on what the hearing need. Additionally, both ASL and SEE contain, at the most, signs for 6,000 words, yet the English language contains well over 750,000 words.
VoiceSign’s goal is to use as many existing ASL signs as possible in effort to bridge the communication barrier between hearing and non-hearing, while simultaneously creating new signs to accommodate the remaining ~744,000 English words. As we compile our list, VoiceSign’s dictionary will always provide reference to the origin of each sign, so visitors can make informed decisions when building their signing skills.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please contact us.
You can also get a story about the founder and her daugther (while learning some signs, too!) on Amazon.
