A Different Kind of Imposter Syndrome: The Appropriation of American Sign Language and Deaf Culture

Abstract

This chapter explores the ongoing, growing issue of hearing people using their social media accounts to teach American Sign Language (ASL) and promote Deaf culture/ASL related merchandise, often for profit. This chapter presents an overview of American Deaf culture and identity, and their close ties with ASL; then how the cultural appropriation of ASL by non-fluent signers can do harm to the Deaf community, especially within the scope of social media platforms. This chapter also contrasts these themes with a discussion of how successful Deaf social media influencers have been doing their part to increase awareness and understanding of ASL, Deaf culture, and the Deaf community’s perspective on Deaf identities online.

1. Introduction

As digital technology continues to advance, as does digital communication and social interaction. Social media grew out of instant text messaging software and apps such as AOL Instant Messaging (AIM) and iChat, the latter which did not require logging in directly, but could be accessed via notifications on one’s smart phone. However, once video-based social media platforms began to appear, Deaf people quickly realized the potential of networking that could incorporate using American Sign Language (ASL). The significance of this is that ASL constitutes the foundation upon which American Deaf culture and the Deaf community were, and continue to be, built upon. Deaf people who identify as culturally Deaf include ASL as a cultural marker and highlight of the cultural connection with other Deaf people. Therefore, with each advance in video-based social media platform interfacing and video messaging apps, Deaf people found themselves able to reach wider and wider audiences with their ASL communication and content. The relative ease of creating video content and links to websites with merchandise such as t-shirts or artworks created by Deaf people for the Deaf community or anyone interested in ASL appealed to numerous Deaf individuals who might want to teach ASL, share their creative content, or sell Deaf-related merchandise. This appeared to have great potential for spreading awareness of Deaf culture and ASL, which could ideally lead to greater acceptance and ease of communication with the hearing community. There have been Deaf individuals who were able to become well-known in the Deaf and ASL communities due to their social media accounts. Those individuals often fall into one of three classifications; storytellers, Deaf rights advocates, and ASL instructors/models.

Unfortunately, there has also been a constant presence of hearing content creators throughout the evolution of video-based social media platforms, ranging from YouTube to Facebook to Twitter, to TikTok and myriad other platforms, some already defunct, that have allowed them to post various videos, images, links, who have appropriated ASL for their own gains; primarily for profit and clout. Those hearing creators have also consistently garnered large numbers of followers, usually due to spoken language privilege and timely content distribution. This has hampered the overall efforts of the Deaf community to reach out to the hearing world, even contributing to the discrediting and condescending attitudes towards the Deaf community. Rather than giving in to frustration and resignation though, Deaf social media influencers and Deaf content creators have continued to push back in efforts to educate the general public about cultural appropriation of ASL. In very recent years, this countermovement has begun to gain real traction.

2. The role of ASL in deaf culture

The dichotomy of the terms deaf/Deaf is the result of the development of a cultural lens regarding the Deaf experience for both d/Deaf individuals and the Deaf community. Individually, a d/Deaf person may identify as deaf (note the lowercase d), which denotes the physical state of having hearing loss, or Deaf (with the uppercase D) which traditionally characterizes the use of sign language as the primary mode of communication, identifies with Deaf culture, and interacts with the Deaf community. As a result, the use of ASL has become synonymous with Deaf identity in America, its etymology dating back to when schools for the Deaf were first established in America, starting with The American School for the Deaf (ASD) in Hartford, Connecticut which was founded in 1817. This was the first permanent school for the Deaf, and provided the means for ASL to form as a fully-fledged language central to the students’ daily lives, especially since ASD was a boarding school, and the students had much more limited communication at home with their hearing family members whenever they went home on weekends [1].

While Deaf people around the country had regional signs, homemade signs, and brought older sign languages from other countries they might have emigrated from, a central location gave ASL the opportunity to grow from a hodgepodge of signed vocabulary and gestural/visual communication into a developed language with syntax and linguistic markers as advanced, if not more so, as any other language. The four root languages of ASL drew upon local origins, making ASL uniquely American home-grown. While French Sign Language (LSF) provided some fundamental elements of ASL in early days, the other three roots were closer to home. The first being Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) from the era during which Martha’s Vineyard was a Deaf village, which meant that a high incidence of Deaf people were born in Martha’s Vineyard; approximately 25% of the entire population of the island from the 1700’s until the last Deaf native resident in the 1950’s [1]. The other two root languages which helped comprise ASL were indigenous sign languages and homemade signs that Deaf people introduced to their peers at Deaf schools. Now, using ASL is not only expected of American Deaf individuals, it is considered the natural and dominant language of the Deaf community [2].

ASL also has a well-deserved reputation as a vehicle for storytelling. ASL storytelling has even branched out into several genres. One genre is ASL poetry, which follows certain conventions in regard to parameters and production that allows the subject matter to be expressed in very different form than ASL prose. Another genre is Visual Vernacular, a much-beloved genre globally although it was introduced and refined in America first, since this genre does not incorporate signed vocabulary, but other elements of sign language syntax, which are more universal to the other dozens of sign languages worldwide. There are also many jokes and stories that have been passed on through generations, often highlighting Deaf experiences in a hearing world. Not to mention the body of ASL translation of written and spoken literature; famous speeches, seminal texts, published stories, plays, and poetry. Deaf people therefore take great pride in ASL, crediting the ability to express themselves visually via this language for their community, culture, autodidactism, independence, even humanity. Small wonder the deaf community has taken to using social media platforms as a means to communicate directly to their ASL-using peers, to celebrate the language itself, express their content and creativity in their most natural mode, and to spread awareness of ASL and Deaf Culture.

2.1 Defining deaf culture

The concept of Deaf people having a culture of their own can come as a surprise to many hearing people, also does the fact that Deaf people refer to non-deaf people as “hearing”, not “normal”. Deaf people, however, assert that they have a culture that grew out of shared experiences through commonalities such as seeing hearing loss being a way of life rather than a handicap; experiencing micro-aggressions and oppressive attitudes and actions by hearing people (also known as audism [3, 4]; certain honored and revered individuals that have helped shape the Deaf way of life; and a shared visual language which allows communication, intellectual discourse, and artistic expression [2, 4]. Deaf people often express eagerness to interact with their peers, since they do not need to explain their everyday experiences or seek accessibility and can just jump directly into conversation without dealing with assumptions or preconceived notions [2]. A well-known example of this is the Deaf community’s answer to the Dinner Table Syndrome. Deaf people often feel isolated at large family gatherings or even at the family dinner table, if ASL is not in use by the other members of the family. They miss a great deal of information, and are unable to have full-fledged conversations with multiple family members. As a result, many Deaf people prefer to get together with each other during family-oriented holidays such as Thanksgiving, creating their own surrogate families [5].

Deaf culture is a topic of much pride and discussion within the Deaf community-its evolution and influence in shaping Deaf people’s identity as a collective and as individual. Many cultural norms grew out of pragmatism; Deaf people could not hear, so they developed social cues and interactive behavior based on visual communication [1]. Examples include Deaf people’s use of touch and vibrations to get each other’s attention, such as tapping each on the shoulder (this action is so commonplace that the sign for getting someone’s attention is an iconic re-enactment of the shoulder tap) or stomping the floor. Another common method is to flick the lights on and off in a room where at least one Deaf person is located, to ensure they will look at the person by the light switch.

Long distance communication by any means other than letters was not possible for the Deaf community until the late 70’s, when early modem devices allowed Deaf people to finally access telephone communication. Deaf people therefore developed strong tendencies to share large quantities of information with less small talk or preamble whenever given the opportunity to converse in person. Deaf events and gatherings were notorious, and still are, for running over into the wee hours, since Deaf people tend to maximize their time together to converse in ASL, to converse with peers, and to catch up on large amounts of information, which was only possible in person for many decades, then still preferred to text-based communication via telephone modems and emails up until he start of the 21st century [2]. When video-based communication technology finally became available in the form of videophones, webcams, and video-based messaging apps, in addition to social media platforms, Deaf people found in-person communication to be less urgent, but not less desirable. There is an idiom in the Deaf community which translates loosely to comparing interaction with each other to shooting up with an invigorating drug; an escape from the everyday mundanity of the hearing world, and a much needed boost to one’s sense of identity and expression in ASL.

Deaf cultural behavior also contains core values that may not be outwardly visible to people who are not affiliated with the Deaf and ASL communities. One example of this would be the lack of a premium placed upon speech skills. While many Deaf people do utilize speech, with varying degrees of success and capability, they see it as a tool or a necessary evil in navigating the hearing world. This is in strong contrast with the idea of speech as a desired skill or the ultimate goal for any Deaf person in mainstream society, an idea believed by many hearing people to be of the highest priority for Deaf individuals, and also seen as a typical display of audism on a hearing person’s part. Another example might be the reaction Deaf parents have regarding the possibility of having Deaf children. Although 90% of Deaf children are born to hearing parents [2], many Deaf parents do not worry if their children will be Deaf, and even may prefer that they are indeed born Deaf. After all, they know what to teach their Deaf children in regards to language acquisition via ASL, how to navigate a society designed around spoken communication and audio-based information, and most importantly, Deaf culture and pride from day one. In contrast, many hearing people find the concept of hoping for a child to be Deaf to be horrifying and even oppressive. This is one of the many facets of audism- seeing deafness as affecting one’s quality of life or sense of humanity before the child is even born.

2.1.1 Defining audism

According to Tom Humphries’ unpublished (but widely circulated) 1975 essay, the definition of audism is “the notion that one is superior based on one’s ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears; s system of advantage based on hearing ability” [3]. Audism applies to any discriminatory behavior directed at Deaf people because of their deafness. This can take the form of prejudice, micro-aggressions, seeing ASL as less than a language, and finding Deaf people to be inferior because they do not access spoken language the way hearing people do. Audism can also be expressed as trying to give unwanted “help” to the Deaf community- treating Deaf individuals as if they are incapable of advocating for themselves or functioning independently in the hearing world. This is known as the “Mask of Benevolence”, where hearing people’s attempts to guide and aid Deaf people to fit in better in the hearing world by assimilation, using speech, emphasizing the use of listening technology, and discouraging the use of ASL often ends up doing more harm than good [6]. Attempting to erase one’s disability does not solve the issue of being disabled, since it is the stigma created by society and lack of equitable accommodations that creates the barriers. The term audism may be unfamiliar to many, but it officially became part of the English lexicon after being added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2011. The given definition is “discrimination or prejudice against individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing” [7].

2.2 Preserving and protecting ASL

Deaf people are therefore understandably protective of their language. A few extremists might try to act as gatekeepers, but the general majority of Deaf people just want to ensure that ASL continues to thrive, evolve, and remain the primary means of communication for the Deaf community. This dates back to George Veditz’s film series created in 1913 titled “Preservation of the Sign Language”, in which Veditz featured various presentations done in ASL as a means to spotlight the beauty and expressiveness of the language at a time when pressure from hearing administrators to implement speech-only curriculum and pedagogy in schools for the Deaf was on the rise [8]. This was largely due to the two resolutions put forth at the end of the Milan Congress, a conference hosted in Italy in 1880 by educators and administrators of the Deaf from the western world. 167 delegates from Italy, France England, and the U.S. met to discuss the future of Deaf education, only one of whom was Deaf. 161 delegates voted to put forth two resolutions, both of which endorsed speech-based education (commonly referred to as oral education or oralism) over sign-language based education. While these resolutions never became law in the U.S., they influenced policy heavily. This caused many schools for the Deaf to change their approach in educating Deaf children, Deaf teachers lost their jobs or were relegated to staff positions. Sign language became stigmatized, and in the U.S., ASL became an endangered language, surviving behind closed dorm doors and at off-campus gatherings [1]. ASL did not see a resurgence until the 1960’s, when it started to gain legitimacy as a fully-developed language, and research began to support that ASL fluency in children allowed for greater English literacy skills [1, 2].

With the seminal events of Marlee Matlin receiving an Oscar for Best Actress in 1987 and the 1988 Deaf President Now protest at Gallaudet University, during which the students successfully lobbied for a Deaf president to take office at the university, The Deaf community came into the national spotlight much more prominently than in all the decades before, and so did ASL [9]. Enrollment in ASL courses across the country began to rise exponentially, especially after the introduction of the ABC Family TV series, Switched at Birth, which featured a Deaf actress as the lead, a solid ensemble of Deaf actors, and highlighting ASL as the language of the Deaf community in 2011. Enrollment saw another surge when Nyle DiMarco, a Deaf model and advocate, won America’s Top Model in 2015, and then Dancing with the Stars the following year. DiMarco made it clear that he credited ASL for his success in school and life.

The American with Disabilities Act, signed into law in 1990, gave Deaf people a greater legal standing for seeking reasonable accommodations, which often included access to ASL as a means of communication with service providers. Unfortunately, this law is often under-enforced and even challenged by service providers, who would prefer the free option(s) of using family members to “interpret”, using written or typed communication, or lip-reading, rather than pay for ASL interpreter services. Oralism advocates also seek to push their agendas in schools and in local legislature, requiring Deaf children to use speech and listening devices and/or making ASL fully optional in the classroom, if not outright banned.

Consequently, Deaf advocates and activists are always on the lookout for legislature that might harm ASL’s legitimacy in the classroom, in the workplace, or in any other aspect of Deaf people’s lives. Those same advocates also seek to protect the right of Deaf people to have access to ASL anytime, anywhere for communication with service providers, employers, medical professionals, in educational settings, and so forth. Deaf people collectively acknowledge that while d/Deaf individuals have varying levels of preference for ASL and/or speaking, the right to ASL access and use benefits the entire community.

Despite resistance and even outright opposition from several fronts, primarily the medical professionals, education system administrators, and speech-only advocates, Deaf people have advocated for decades for Deaf children to have the right to use ASL from the earliest age possible, for optimal language development. This does not exclude the use of hearing aids or cochlear implants, despite rhetoric often used by hearing people who believe d/Deaf people would best benefit from only learning speech, via speech therapy, lip-reading, and reliance on listening devices. Deaf people generally are not opposed to the use of listening devices or speech, they simply believe that those tools and skills should not be available or utilized exclusively at the expense of learning ASL [2].

Because of this continuous advocacy in the face of equally continuous resistance, awareness and acceptance of ASL has been very slow to spread, even as it gains ground inch by inch. For example, the Modern Language Association founded in 1883, did not formally recognize ASL until 1980. Since then, there have been presentations on ASL given at the annual MLA conferences, but those presentations are often under-attended, with attendees numbering in the single digits [10]. The same can be said for Deaf culture, and what it means to be Deaf in today’s America- two topics of great interest to the Deaf community yet virtually unknown to the hearing mainstream society. However, in recent years, Deaf people have found an invaluable asset in creating think tanks, collaborative research and discussion, and disseminating cultural information and Deaf experiences to the public: social media.

3. Social media as a community network

The Deaf community is not alone in discovering social media as a powerful platform for advocacy and education. Many communities that have experienced marginalization including, but not limited to, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, and disabled communities, have taken to using social media as a mouthpiece for their issues. Those communities discuss their grievances, their research, their shared experiences, and their own individual selves. They also celebrate their identities, their communities, and share inside jokes about what it means to be a part of their community [11, 12, 13]. Deaf people are no exception to this [13, 14, 15, 16].

While Deaf people have traditionally denied the label “disabled” [2, 4], however, younger generations of Deaf people have come to embrace that the idea that deafness as a disability does not necessarily erase the cultural aspect of being Deaf. In denying that deafness is a disability, Deaf people have expressed ableism towards other disabilities. There is a paradigm shift upon the horizon, however. A very definite factor in this is the presence of Deaf influencers and content creators on social media platforms with the capability to reach large audiences sharing their thoughts, opinions, and research on the changing definition of Deaf identity [15, 17]. These influencers and content creators have had an impact on the Deaf community in generating conversations about important issues, current situations that call for attention and action from the Deaf community, and shaping the future of the collective Deaf experience. Several have attained some measure of recognition amongst the Deaf community and also ASL community members that, while not Deaf themselves, interact with the Deaf community such as ASL interpreters, ASL students, relatives and family of Deaf individuals.

Some have attained celebrity status, being instantly recognizable to many Deaf individuals and their social media content reposted, shared, and discussed extensively [13, 15, 17, 18]. Queer-identifying Deaf social media influencers such as Phelan Conheady and Hannah Fisher create video content discussing their experiences as LGBTQ+ Deaf individuals and as members of both communities. Sheena Lyles, known as Queenie on her social media platforms, is one of the earliest BIPOC Deaf digital creators to gain a large body of followers due to her content which consists of equal parts irreverent comedy and sign language advocacy. Sandro Hatibović is another Deaf comedian who gained recognition through his comedic video posts on social media. Not to mention Deaf performers who perform ASL covers of songs and/or create their own music, such as Sean Forbes, Warren “Wawa” Snipes, Beautiful the Artist, Raven Sutton, Sho’Roc or Savannah Dahan, to name a few. Then there are those who discuss new ASL signs to match new English terms, like Rogan Shannon or Joseph Wheeler.

On a more collectively-based note, ASL as a language itself has undergone rapid linguistic evolution since the advent of social media. When ASL first began to emerge as its own language, a merging of several root sign languages (and home signs developed by Deaf people in hearing households) it did not develop uniformly across the United States. Regional signs were common in different parts of the country, and the influence of manually coded English signing systems created by educators of the Deaf attempting to create a visual version of English to bolster fluency in English without utilizing ASL during the late 20th century upon many Deaf people’s language acquisition of ASL; in addition to segregation creating a widening schism between “mainstream’ (white) ASL and Black ASL (BASL) meant that there was not only a fair variation of sign vocabulary across the country but also differing opinions on ASL syntax and classification. However, as social media allowed for more discussion and exposure to ASL, new signs were quicker to appear and spread amongst the Deaf community nationwide, and certain signs started to become more standardized. Deaf people could also learn regional signs more easily and recognize them at later opportunity [13].

3.1 The other side of the coin: Cultural appropriation

Unfortunately, there is a disturbing trend that the Deaf community has had to contend with nearly as long as social media has been in existence: hearing individuals taking up space in social media platforms in terms of representing, or rather, misrepresenting, the Deaf community and ASL. There is a number of hearing individuals with social media accounts devoted to producing content which features ASL, and they often gain large followings. This in itself is not a problem for the Deaf community. Deaf people welcome the notion of more hearing people being able to converse with them in ASL. All the better to break down language barriers and to be less disabled, so to speak, by society.

The problem lies in the fact that a distressing majority of those hearing ASL content creators are not fluent. They produce poorly articulated sign language, often lacking in grammatical and conceptual accuracy. To add salt to the wound, when Deaf community members address those content creators with comments or making their own content to call out those language impostors, the backlash from the hearing community is often strong, quick, and vitriolic [4]. Despite the very high likelihood of Deaf people having more expertise in ASL linguistics, ASL fluency, and ASL accuracy, they are often dismissed as being zealous gatekeepers trying to keep ASL all to themselves.

Deaf people have had a long history of being denied access via language. One reason for this is a prior lack of legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (which stipulates the right to reasonable accommodations, often interpreted as ASL communication being made available to Deaf people via interpreters), which was not signed into law until 1990. Another reason would be the lack of qualified interpreters, a profession which was not legally or even socially recognized until the seventies. Another reason would be the continued attempts to reinvent the wheel by introducing various alternate manually coded systems to create a “visual” English system, rather than using ASL as a foundation language through which to learn English. Yet another reason would be the high number of non-fluent signers in positions of authority in Deaf education, as teachers and administrators, who can barely communicate with the students they are meant to serve and mentor [2].

Small wonder, then, that Deaf people often speak out when they not only see their language being mangled, but worse yet, presented as authentic and accurate to an audience who cannot discern the difference. This is not an act of gatekeeping, but of concern that people will be learning ASL incorrectly, and perpetuating the language barrier, in addition possibly creating the impression that Deaf people aren’t as fluent in ASL as they profess to be. This could be a result of the hapless Deaf person being unable to understand all those individuals eager to show off their newly acquired sign skills learned from unqualified and inarticulate, unintelligible even, social media personalities.

This has led to blogs, vlogs, posts, and articles all pertaining to the need for screening ASL content to separate the qualified from the unqualified. The National Association of the Deaf has a published list of guidelines regarding now to represent Deaf people in media, and this list includes the exhortation to let Deaf people be the experts on all things Deaf-related whenever something of that nature is made public via media in any form [19]. There are numerous resources online addressing the ethics of teaching ASL via social media, for example, the 2015 article posted on the Handspeak website. (See [20]) Many Deaf scholars and content creators have also addressed the subject of cultural appropriation, to clarify that hearing people learning and using ASL is not cultural appropriation, but teaching it when not qualified to, or making profit of doing so is definitely cultural appropriation [21]. There have also been calls to create language policy, which does seem to enter the realm of gatekeeping and limiting ASL access to non-Deaf people, but as Tawny Hlibok’s paper discusses, establishing sign language recognition and access in any given country/government is for the benefit of the native sign language users [22] and therefore needs regulation and monitoring. It follows, then, in a space created for a specific community, that the community should have say in what is acceptable in that space or not [22].

Even mainstream media has picked up on this from time to time, as evidenced by written by The Washington Post disability reporter Amanda Morris and posted on The Washington Post website in May of 2023 [23]. Morris explores the concerns of the Deaf community over the widespread inaccuracy of ASL signs produced by hearing ASL creators who purport to be teaching the language. The Deaf community gives examples of how this can harm the Deaf community beyond miscommunication with would-be signers who do not have the correct production of sign vocabulary or ASL grammar by indicating fake interpreters. There have been several incidents on broadcast television during live events where a person who was hired as an interpreter turned out to be neither fluent or qualified to work as an interpreter. Consider the 2017 press conference given regarding Hurricane Irma, where the interpreter was near-incomprehensible. This meant that vital information regarding safety, evacuation protocols, and other potentially life-saving details were not made accessible to Deaf viewers.

3.2 The worst offenders: those who will not listen

When hearing influencers and content creators post ASL content that constitutes cultural appropriation, they are often defensive when called out on their posts by the Deaf community. Excuses are made, comments are blocked and deleted, and sometimes content removed. Some creators stop posting the content, crying foul. While their rationale might not be aligned with Deaf community values, the harmful content is at least removed. Regrettably, far more creators do not and even continue to post more ASL content, despite the Deaf community’s collective chagrin. The individuals that have garnered the most outcry, however, becoming infamous in the Deaf community, are of two types. The first being one to monetize their content. They charge for ASL lessons, they sell merchandise based on their ASL content, or they ask for funds to create more content. The Deaf community sees this as profiting off Deaf people’s language and hearing privilege.

The second type is the individual who publicizes their content as a victim of bullying by the Deaf community, doing interviews and making videos to discuss their suffering from the oppression caused by the Deaf community [4]. These individuals often double down and triple down on their content, decrying Deaf people for being so mean and denying them ASL [23]. The irony is that if those individuals listened to the Deaf community, their ASL skills would potentially become more fluent, as well as increasing interaction with the Deaf community and learning more about Deaf culture and history. While there are a few individuals whose names are now etched as anathema in the collective memories of the Deaf community, there are still new offenders appearing on social media platforms.

One of the most recent persons in this category, known as Lola, has created quite the consternation in the Deaf community. She has created numerous videos with badly signed content, under the guise of teaching ASL. Many Deaf social media personalities have drawn attention to her videos as a prime example of cultural appropriation at its worst. The final straw however occurred when Lola contacted a university, representing herself as an ASL interpreter, requesting be featured as a guest signer of the National Anthem at a baseball game on campus. Given that her ASL wasn’t fluent, the bigger offense was that she posed as a professional with years of training, a degree, and certification. When she was called out on this, she replied to one commentator that she signed an exact copy of the National Anthem as performed by a Deaf artist. This raised even more concerns about cultural appropriation. This story was featured on several news outlets, including The Daily Moth, an online news site that presents all their stories in ASL [24].

This is hardly a new situation. Another example of a hearing content creator taking advantage of ASL for both clout and profit is Kristin Henson who rose to infamy in 2011 for her YouTube channel, “Dirty Signs with Kristin” in which she produced new videos weekly on how to sign dirty words and offensive phrases in ASL. The catch was that she was not fluent in ASL at all. She taught herself the signs she used from texts and videos, but her sign choices were not conceptually correct at all. She would cobble together individual signs to create English phrases, but ASL does not work that way. ASL is a conceptual, visual language, not a lexical one like English. Henson acknowledged that she was a novice in ASL, but still garnered tens of thousands of followers/subscribers on her YouTube channel. When concerned Deaf viewers began to leave comments about her poor signing, she had two types of responses-to ask Deaf people to teach her so she could keep making videos, and to delete all negative feedback. This gave new viewers the impression that the Deaf community not only approved of her videos but were also helping her out. But as Henson gained recognition and her followers’ numbers swelled, she drew the attention of social media content promoters, and she ended up being interviewed on Comedy Central. This brought her viewership to over a million. The Deaf community became more concerned and more vocal about how Henson was not only misrepresenting ASL, but also how the Deaf community felt about it. Deaf content creators began to post more and more text and videos about how Henson was taking advantage of her hearing privilege to garner views, since she spoke in all of her videos and also by censoring the Deaf online users leaving comments that she would delete. They pointed out that some Deaf people had already made similar content with more accurate ASL, but they got much fewer views because they did not speak or use music in their videos [25].

The real controversy began, however, when Henson secured a book deal to publish “Smutty Signs with Kristin”, which caused quite the outcry in the Deaf community, because this only further proved that Henson was seeking clout, and now profit. The Deaf community created a petition two days after Henson announced her book deal, asking the publisher to reconsider. Her agent replied in public by stating that ASL was an ever evolving language and that Henson was contributing to that, despite the fact that neither Henson nor the agent were fluent in ASL. The Deaf community mobilized a campaign to minimize sales of the book as much as possible by leaving reviews that explained the Deaf community’s concerns and viewpoints about the book and Henson’s attitude on every website that the book was sold or reviewed on, which also met with resistance from hearing people who criticized Deaf people for trying to hoard ASL or for being prudes, or both.

There are numerous situations concerning hearing content creators who have skyrocketed in popularity with their ASL content which is not fluent or accurate, and the outcome is nearly always the same; the more followers they get, the more likely they are to delete comments by Deaf community members posting their concerns or displeasure at the appropriation of their language, especially if it is for profit.

4. Fighting censure and erasure

On the other hand, there is a great deal of positive change and representation in the Deaf community’s social media spaces. Around 2018, Deaf representation and presence, not only on social media, but in other media, erupted. More Deaf actors were getting bigger roles that garnered critical acclaim and award nominations, culminating in a few wins as well-for example a Tony for Lauren Ridloff in her role as Sarah in the Broadway revival of Children of a Lesser God, for starters. In the following years, Deaf people gained more recognition on TV, in film, and on the stage. This in turn bolstered interest in Deaf-related and ASL-related content online, giving Deaf social media influencers and content creators a boost. There are now Deaf social media personalities with very large and respectable followings, and Deaf people have continued to receive recognition and renown in other media. Troy Kotsur won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2022; Keivonn Woodward was nominated in 2023 for an Emmy, becoming the first black Deaf person to be nominated for the prestigious award, and also the youngest ever, at age ten.

This means that the Deaf community has a greater platform than ever for making their collective causes heard; for advocacy and activism. Another very important factor in allowing Deaf people to have a greater voice, pun very much intended, is that with the advent of listening technology, more and more Deaf people have grown up with cochlear implants and powerful hearing aids that have allowed them to develop stronger and clearer speech skills than previous generations.

While this might seem at odds with the traditional Deaf identity being rooted in ASL, it should be noted that there is more than one paradigm shift happening in the Deaf community. The use of spoken English is increasingly becoming common in the younger generation of Deaf individuals, even as they embrace ASL, Deaf pride, and belonging to the Deaf community. This allows many Deaf people to overcome the once-formidable barrier of language privilege that often made it difficult for Deaf people to gain audiences online equivalent to those of hearing ASL content creators [4].

The evolution of social media platforms has also become a very empowering tool for Deaf content creators. TikTok in particular allows any user to add music as an underscore to their video content, something that has often benefited hearing influencers on other platforms by allowing them to add more flair that attracts viewers by editing music into their content, something almost always missing from Deaf people’s ASL videos on other platforms: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter/X and so forth. Tiktok, however, allows for music to be added without the need for any editing software, making it very easy to add this feature for any user. TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, amongst others also allow for captions to be added to the video with very simple user-friendly features in each app. Captions makes ASL as accessible to non-signers as much as they make spoken English accessible to Deaf viewers. This reciprocity of inclusion is a newer phenomenon in social media, and allows for greater interaction across the language barrier.

Corporate sponsorship and/or affiliation has also helped amplify Deaf social media accounts. Brett Shaffer, a Deaf Canadian (ASL, while only one of three hundred or so sign languages around the world, is also used in Canada, Puerto Rico, and a few other select locales worldwide) promotes livebearded products with his videos on beard care. Matt Maxey, a Deaf rapper and music interpreter, was interviewed by hearOclub, a hearing aid battery distributor that keeps Maxey in stock for his hearing aids. Both Shaffer and Maxey have tens of thousands of followers on their social media accounts, with Maxey nearing a hundred thousand followers. The aforementioned Lauren Ridloff, thanks to having been cast in Marvel’s The Eternals, with the media juggernauts that are Marvel Studios and Disney as her sponsors has amassed over eight hundred thousand followers on Instagram alone. The other Deaf actress who also plays a Marvel character, Alaqua Cox, who portrayed Echo in the Hawkeye miniseries on Disney Plus holds her own with over a hundred thousand followers on Instagram.

Some Deaf social media influencers have built large viewerships on the strength of their content alone. Patrick McMullen and Ben Bennett, better known as Big Ben, are a comedy duo that have posted numerous videos of pranks and skits, but also responses to questions about Deaf culture, Deaf identity and life as Deaf individuals. Their TikTok channel has over 1.3 million followers at the time this chapter was written. Scarlet Watters, a Deaf fashion icon who first went viral with her Deaf Kardashian skits, has over 6 million followers on her TikTok account as of 2023. When she called out Felix Kjellberg, more popularly known as PewDiePie who has the most-subscribed YouTube channel with over 110 million subscribers, for mocking her signing and her appearance in one of her TikTok videos, the tide of support for Watters was large enough for Kjellberg to remove the video of his reaction to her video, and to post an apology, which while many doubted it was sincere still showed that Watters had enough support to get his attention and show him how unpopular his actions regarding Watters had been. It is worth noting that nearly every Deaf social media influencer and content creator, regardless of the nature of their posts, have posted at least one serious video addressing a current issue that impacts them individually as Deaf people or the Deaf community in general.

Those influencers have helped to begin turning the tide of mainstream opinion towards favoring the Deaf community, but not without allies. Stephen Torrance, known as CaptainValour on his social media platforms initially created ASL covers of songs for several years between 2009 and 2014. However, he eventually wrote an open letter online stating that he realized that what he was doing was inappropriate in terms of taking up space in the Deaf community’s digital presence. He apologized and also stated that he would no longer create new ASL content, but instead, leave that to Deaf content creators. The Deaf community recognized Torrance’s allyship and hailed his decision and humility as a positive change [26]. Torrance’s letter also encourages viewers/readers to follow Deaf social media influencers, not hearing ones, if they really want to learn ASL and Deaf culture.

4.1 Rise of the deaf social media influencers

Using their voices, younger Deaf social media influencers address Deaf issues such as cultural appropriation, ASL language rights, identity, accurate representation in media, and numerous other subjects of interest to the Deaf community. They also address non-Deaf related issues that are still relevant to their respective identities as Deaf people; sexuality, mental health, racism, other disabilities and so on. In short, they mirror their hearing peers online, especially Gen Z, in breaking down taboos about stigmatized subjects, spread awareness about how they live in, and see, the world around them, and in doing so, they are changing the face of social media, and also the cultural norms of their respective communities. They can even host podcasts or video series. For example, Rikki Poynter and Ahmed Khalifa’s YouTube channels are very successful products of d/Deaf individuals who both sign and speak their content. Ahmed Khalifa even has one video where he makes a point to explain why hearing people should learn ASL from Deaf ASL content creators, and he provides the explanation in spoken English to make sure there’s no misunderstanding or any information lost in translation [27].

More and more Deaf social media influencers have had the opportunity to see their content go viral at least once; if not on their own accounts, then through others reposting and sharing their content. In the case of Justina Miles, her ASL performance of Rihanna’s halftime show during Super Bowl LVII in 2023 went viral, which increased the followers on her social media accounts by tens of thousands, seemingly overnight.

Of equal significance, is that the increase in visibility online for Deaf content creators and social media users is allowing for communities within the Deaf community to also make their presence more noticeable. This is the beginning of breaking barriers that have existed within the Deaf community since before the internet. The Deaf community has also long been represented very unevenly; with straight white male Deaf people occupying much of the space in academia and media for overlong, and straight white women dominating the ASL interpretation profession.

4.2 Growing space for marginalized deaf community members

BIPOC Deaf social media influencers and content creators are increasingly becoming prominent on social media platforms, as are Deaf queer social media influencers and content creators, not to mention Deaf individuals whom identify as both queer and BIPOC. Deaf people with other disabilities are creating content, Deaf people who identify as neurodivergent are creating content, Deaf people who live with mental health challenges are creating content. Trans Deaf people are creating content. Even deaf people are making content about being deaf, even if it’s not through the Deaf cultural lens, as they have every right to do so. Consequently, Deaf people that were made invisible by the traditional cultural façade of the Deaf community are now making connections with each other, other communities, and the hearing world on their own, and with their colleagues and peers.

The American Deaf community has the same history of systematic racism, misogyny, ableism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and generally all the intolerance that American people have. American Deaf people are, after all, American. Social media allows for conversation to happen that can lead to unpacking internalized oppressive behavior, learning about other cultures and histories not covered in traditional curriculum, calling out oppression, and more examples of interaction that will hopefully lead us all, Deaf or not, to a better and stronger society. Social media has allowed the idea of identity to become a very powerful idea in society, because now instead of only reading words upon a page or screen, we see and/or hear individuals sharing their thoughts directly to the camera, making eye contact with us as they tell their personal truth.

Another benefit of the potential cross-cultural collaborations that could and should exist between Deaf community members and other communities, especially those seeking a platform for social justice and equity is that any time inclusion is made possible, the number of people that can and will engage with a social media account will grow. This would foster a greater awareness of the Deaf perspective not only on other identities and disabilities, but also being Deaf/deaf as well. In addition, the typically greater collective numbers of followers/subscribers for hearing social media content creators could help bolster the numbers of Deaf content creators in collaboration with liked-minded hearing creators. This in turn would increase the number of non-Deaf allies and people developing an interest in Deaf culture and learning ASL from the appropriate parties.

With more allyship, support and visibility burgeoning in social media, activism, identity development and confidence, self-esteem, and awareness of social issues would grow rapidly. Increased accessibility and inclusion creates a stronger community with a stronger presence [16].

4.3 The ethical approach to maximizing deaf space online

How, then, can ASL and Deaf-related content, regardless of who creates it, be a tool of cultural awareness and representation, rather than appropriation and misrepresentation? Here are some guidelines for any social media creator- from individuals to brands- to keep in mind when producing and posting ASL and Deaf culture/identity related content:

1. Leave it to the experts. If one is not fluent in ASL, do not make ASL content that purports to be authentic or linguistically sophisticated. If one is a beginner sharing what they are learning or their enjoyment of ASL, they should make that clear in their content. They should never attempt to pass along what they are learning in the form of lessons or language instruction. The same goes for Deaf culture information.

2. Listen to the Deaf/deaf community. If they leave comments, feedback, and even criticism of content on social media, do not delete their comments. Do not allow non-Deaf/deaf commentators to attack the Deaf/deaf people posting their thoughts and feelings. Allow them to express their perspective and try to understand why the content maybe inaccurate, inappropriate, or offensive. Respecting the Deaf community is vital to allyship and promotion of community values.

3. Make all content inclusive. Many hearing ASL content creators do not caption their videos and often speak a great deal of the information, which excludes Deaf ASL users from fully understanding what is being discussed, which negates the Deaf community’s engagement. Add captions, image and text descriptions, and transcripts.

4. Consult the Deaf/deaf community for firsthand experience and commentary. Any content about Deaf people or ASL should include input from Deaf people. Also, if the content includes multi-identity content, be sure to consult with people who belong to those communities. Is the content about DeafBlind people? Get input from DeafBlind individuals. The content about Black ASL? Get input from Black Deaf people. The content discussing oral deaf people? Check in with oral deaf people for their perspective.

5. Redirect to the appropriate sources. If people ask for more information on where to learn ASL, where to learn more about Deaf culture, or about material the content creator may not be familiar with, the creator should refer the inquiries to the appropriate parties. There are many qualified ASL instructors from the Deaf and ASL communities on social media. There are many Deaf social media influencers that can share their own life experiences and perspectives on language, identity, and culture without any guesswork or fabrication. Let the Deaf community speak for itself.

4.4 Beyond ASL: the global deaf community

For the Deaf community, allowing them the space to express themselves is powerful. Indeed, all sign language users feel the same, regardless of which sign language they use. Deaf people all over the world share many of the same experiences as disabled members of their society who prefer and crave access through their most natural language [14]. Different sign languages around the world may differ in vocabulary production and facial expression choices, but they all share visual syntax, expressive structure, and cultural behavior associated with visual discourse. Eye contact, visual expression, and the ability to share their perspectives as they make their connections has always been a way of life for Deaf people. So when social media became a part of Deaf people’s lives, it allowed Deaf people to connect even further, to reach more of their own community, and at the same time, to reach out to the hearing world and invite them into the Deaf world. As social media platform technology continues to develop and become more accessible in terms of text, captions, visuals, user-friendly editing, and whatever else continues to unfold in the world of social media, Deaf people will find themselves less and less separated from the hearing world, yet their world stronger than ever, free of cultural appropriation, trolls, and people who just will not listen to the Deaf community. Finally, then, Deaf people can show everyone else the full richness of the culture and language Deaf people have had the privilege of knowing their whole lives.

5. Conclusion

This chapter explored the connection that Deaf people have made with social media, how it has become integrated in their lives as a resource for networking, sharing information and advocacy for Deaf rights and culture. Deaf culture and ASL were examined and defined, looking at American Deaf history. Today, online and in all other aspects of life for Deaf people, being Deaf includes hearing oppression, audism, taking up Deaf space and cultural appropriation. Deaf people, however, have faced this adversity in the past and continue to do so, now using social media as an advantage to broadcast their identity, language and culture to an ever-widening audience. This chapter also noted that the Deaf community has its own internalized oppression, but is slowly working through that, giving individuals and other communities within the Deaf community more space and recognition on social media platforms. There are obstacles to be overcome, especially in the form of hearing content creators who exploit ASL for attention and monetization. This continues to be countered by Deaf social media influencers and content creators, whose presence has grown and strengthened in recent years. The rise and prominence of Deaf social media influencers and content creators, not only in the United States but globally, is certain to act as a vector on changing the Deaf community’s culture and interaction with the hearing world in the future. The diversity of Deaf social media creators is also of importance- representing a greater spectrum of identities existing within the Deaf/deaf community. A greater awareness amongst hearing social media users would also engender a supportive environment for Deaf social media influencers and content creators, since there would be increased recognition and respect for Deaf space on social media platforms. Shifting the spotlight to Deaf social media influencers and content creators would allow ASL-related content to be much more culturally authentic and edifying, in addition to increasing the credibility and respectability of the Deaf community online. This indicates that although the Deaf community has many members working hard towards this outcome, the responsibility lies with the entire body of the online community. It is an ethical imperative for us all.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the Columbia College Chicago Department of ASL for encouraging my continued research in this area of sociolinguistics. Thank you to Windell Smith Jr. for always engaging in exploring ASL linguistics with me. Thank you to the numerous social media influencers and content creators who provided plenty of material to analyze and watch in preparation for writing this chapter.