The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) introduces Ashley Clark Fry as this month’s #NADhandwave recipient! Ashley is a deaf woman from Wyoming who promotes American Sign Language (ASL) in just 15 seconds using social media.
A social media platform, Instagram, allows users to post 15 second videos. Ashley saw this as an opportunity to promote ASL to those who are also on Instagram. You can find her at @signedwithheart). Her first post on Instagram introduces #signedwithheart to make learning ASL “easy and fun.”
Fact, as of Thursday, January 29, 2015 – 11:00am, there are 197,311 posts on Instagram using #ASL.
Fact, learning ASL is the number one hit on NAD.org search.
Fact, ASL Teachers Association (ASLTA.org) is an individual membership organization of more than 1,000 ASL and Deaf Studies educators from elementary through graduate education as well as agencies!
Fact, there are many deaf and hard of hearing people teaching ASL using Instagram – such as @ASL_NYC, @learn_a_s_l, and so on.
Ashley emphasizes that she is not a certified ASL instructor and encourages people to take ASL classes at a local community college or university if one is looking for class credits or a more formal curriculum. Using social media, Ashley has reached out to over 2,000 followers!
The NAD thanks you, Ashley, for being innovative and being an ASL advocate using Social Media!
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) gives monthly #NADHandwaves to people in our community. This is great opportunity for the NAD to recognize exemplary people who do the work they do. With such great people, the world continues to move. If you know someone who deserves a #NADHandwave, submit your suggestion online!
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The NAD was established in 1880 by deaf leaders who believed in the right of the American deaf community to use sign language, to congregate on issues important to them, and to have its interests represented at the national level. As a nonprofit federation, the mission of the NAD is to preserve, protect, and promote the civil, human, and linguistic rights of deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States. The advocacy scope of the NAD is broad, covering the breadth of a lifetime and impacting future generations in the areas of early intervention, education, employment, health care, technology, telecommunications, youth leadership, and more.