ASL Art & Projects

Aidan McIntosh has been a member of the ASL Honor Society since 2022 and is finishing his fourth year of ASL classes. Since he is deaf, he is able to create Deaf literature, opposed to ASL literature. The following is his short story from his work this semester. 

John has been going from school to school each grade, and trying to make new friends. In a few weeks, he is going to go to a new school with new friends, and maybe even find a best friend. Later when school starts, he gets a new microphone for his cochlear implants and gives it to the teacher and some of the kids wonder what it is. John explains to them that it's a microphone that can help him hear directly what the teacher says and the students are surprised! One of the students wondered "Wait, so how far can you hear her?" and John explains he can hear her really really far from across the hall! Even whatever the teachers say in the conference rooms, meetings, or even the bathroom! Sometimes to John, the ladder annoys him. Later he meets up with a new friend who also is deaf like him, but does not use any Cochlear Implants and has an interpreter with him. and he introduces himself in ASL and says, HI MY NAME fs H-A-R-O-L-D. When John saw him signing he never saw anyone move their fingers that quickly to explain something, and the interpreter explains that he said that his name was Harold. Later in the day he tries to learn some ASL from Harold who writes and signs to him to teach him, and he picks it up quite quickly. John tries to talk with the other kids and be in the group with the other students, but it's quite difficult to hear the other students because they seem kinda quiet to him, but he is quite timid to ask them to speak up when he tries to talk with his new friend. Harold talks with him about him being deaf and John talks to him about his microphone too, and they think of some ideas to overhear about different things. They figured out how to overhear about events coming up for the students in the school, like a fair and other events! They did this by forgetting to tell the teacher in second period to turn off the microphone and John heard everything in the meeting during free-time. They both agree to keep the secret to themselves. During American History class, the teacher had to leave for a bit to go somewhere and the teacher forgot to turn off the mic. John heard the teacher walking across the hall and greeting a passing teacher and student and then kept walking and then John does hear much after that and determined that probably was the microphones limit and then later it gets closer and he hears the teacher washing his hands and assumed he went to the bathroom with the mic on and that annoyed John. After school John goes home to watch a movie and then realizes, "Oh wait!" and turns on the closed captions on the TV and the muffling and babbling gibberish and occasional English sounded like one hundred percent English in just the click of a button. He thought to himself that closed captions were probably one of the best inventions in this world since the lightbulb. After he finished his movie he went to bed and thought about the fair tomorrow and couldn't wait! Next day, when school started everything seemed normal and then after homeroom, the teachers told everyone to go back to the gym and they surprised everyone, except John and his homeroom class, announcing the fair, and explained some ground rules. The principal announced everyone will split up by grade, and the students went to different buses based on grade and drove to the fair. There were alot of different things there: food stands, rides, and even a Ferris Wheel! Later during the fair, John sees two other people signing and comes to meet them. The girl speaks to John that her name is Ana and that she learned signing from her parents very young because she actually has a Deaf mom. The boy says his name is Fred and talks with the group “WANT DO NOW WHAT?" and they all agree to go on the Ferris wheel. John thinks to himself that he found his new friends!