Students taking American Sign Language courses, sponsored by the Humanities Council’s Program in Linguistics, are now able to fulfill their Princeton language requirement with a 100-level ASL sequence.
The addition of several new ASL courses, including a course on “American Deaf Culture,” is part of an expanded focus on disability, accessibility and inclusion across the University, including Princeton’s physical campus and digital assets, services and programs for students, and new academic programs.
Student interest in ASL has increased since the first credit-bearing course “Beginning American Sign Language” was offered in spring 2017. The course was co-sponsored by the Program in Linguistics and the Program in Translation, and taught by Noah Buchholz, who is a lecturer in the Humanities Council and the Program in Linguistics.
“Princeton embracing sign language and Deaf culture is a powerful asset,” said Noah Buchholz, in a story on the University homepage. “This pushes academia to acknowledge Deaf people’s culture and language. Hopefully, this will lead mainstream society to become more inclusive of Deaf people as well as disabled people in general.”
