N.Y.C. Gives Nod to Sign Language for Deaf

By Jeff Archer

As a student at New York City's Junior High School 47 in the 1950s, Dorothy Cohler had a teacher who kept a chart showing how often the students, who were deaf, used sign language. Those who signed too often couldn't go on a field trip to Coney Island.

It was just one of the ways her teachers, none of whom was deaf, discouraged signing, she said.

So the recent decision that the New York City public schools will adopt a "bilingual" approach to deaf education that emphasizes the use of American Sign Language was particularly welcome news to Ms. Cohler, who has taught at her alma mater for the past 20 years. The school, the city system's only one devoted exclusively to serving the hearing-impaired, will teach students ASL and then use that as a base to teach both...