Inequity and social injustice: audism, including the use of discriminatory or offensive expressions, and stereotyping; linguistic imperialism; omitting ASL as a requirement in a job posting for a position in an organization that serves the ASL community; spaces and buildings that do not reflect how ASL people usually interact, such as narrow sidewalks that are not conducive to ASL discourse

• What prejudiced beliefs, such as audism, have influenced the ASL community’s use of their own language in the past and present? How has audism affected the well-being and identity of ASL people?
• What is cultural humility? How can cultural humility inform an individual’s responses when encountering an unfamiliar culture? How can cultural humility inform policies and practices to address inequity and injustice related to ASL and ASL culture?
• What are the responsibilities of those in positions of power or privilege towards those who are less powerful or privileged?

Teachers can:

• invite an ASL guest speaker, with supports such as visual aids, to discuss their specific ASL community’s historical and/or contemporary relationship to social injustice. Teachers can support students by having pre-visit lessons focused on the topic of social injustice so that students can prepare questions in advance of the ASL guest speaker’s visit;
• identify examples of cultural humility that are evident in legislation such as section 32 of Regulation 298, “Operation of Schools – General”, R.R.O. 1990, made under the Education Act;
• ask students to describe something they can do to demonstrate cultural humility.

Practices, processes, and coalitions: efforts to revitalize Indigenous Sign Languages; protests leading to ASL and LSQ becoming languages of instruction in the Ontario education system; ongoing activism to ensure that public information is available to the ASL community in their language; the implementation of bilingual/bicultural education and anti-audism policies; the development of organizations that advocate for the ASL community; the creation of architecture that is more conducive to ASL conversations and culture

• What was the significance of the Ontario Deaf Movement for the education of ASL students in Ontario?
• How did the ASL community respond when the rock group KISS attempted to trademark the ASL word ILY?
• How have specific ASL people advocated against audism and rallied the ASL community to collectively address inequities?

Teachers can:

• lead a discussion about the 1989 Deaf Ontario Now movement and consider how frustration and feelings of powerlessness, along with pride in ASL language and cultural identity, led to the protests;
• ask students to investigate how various racial or cultural groups within the ASL community have been formed to address intersectional issues of racism and audism in the ASL community.