For a Free Workshop exclusively for Librarians

Hello Librarians,

My name is Olivia and I am one of the American Sign Language (ASL) instructors at SIGNING Basics, LLC. Many of our clients are Librarians who offer our courses to their patrons. During our Q&A sessions, we receive a lot of questions on how their library can better interact with Deaf and Hard of Hearing patrons, and what has been most effective to improve accessibility at their Library. I thought you might have similar questions.

We have had wonderful feedback from Librarians on how access to our ASL courses have benefitted the community. Here is a comment from a patron shared with us by one of our Librarians:

"Class was amazing!!!! Thank you for allowing us to attend! It was so helpful! I can not tell you how happy this has made my family and me. Since I am now mute it has been hard to communicate. We have been trying to get by watching videos and books. But learning from Caleb was so helpful!!! Thank you. Truly we are so grateful! Thank you. Can't wait for next week!!! Please tell Caleb how much we appreciate him. He was soooo GREAT!! Thank you again."

Respectfully, 

E. W. and family

That is exciting new for us to receive, and it is another reason why I would like to share this tip below which will help you effectively engage with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing patrons that come to participant in your library programming:

Tip: Establish and maintain eye contact. When you meet a Deaf patron, the first thing you want to do is to Make and Keep Eye Contact. The reason this is so important is that in Deaf Culture, consistent eye contact is the “listening” phase of communication. When eye contact is broken, it signals to the Deaf person that the conversation has ended. If you need to look away, be sure to use the sign for “One Moment” or “Right Back.” 

To help you learn these signs and other useful phrases, please join our FREE workshop in April! We have two FREE 45-minutes sessions for Librarians on April 23rd. To register for one of these sessions, “ASL for Librarians,” please register below.

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Here is my email: support@signingbasics.vpweb.com. (413) 241-7992.

I look forward to partnering with you to

Bridge our Communities "One Sign at a Time."

www.signingbasics.com