ASL socials offered to George Brown students, staff and faculty

Maverick Smith, facilitator of the ASL socials in the Community Action Centre office. | Photo: Steve Cornwell / The Dialog

George Brown students, staff and faculty interested in sharpening their American Sign Language (ASL) skills, or learning more about the experience of Deaf people, can attend ASL socials in the Quiet Lounge of St. James campus.

Maverick Smith works at the Community Action Centre and facilitates the ASL socials. Smith said the socials are a “means of developing capacity with sign language, a means of understanding the oppression of audism, and a means of succeeding at school.”

The socials turn the Quiet Lounge into a “voice-off” space, meaning that only communication in ASL is allowed during the sessions. Smith, however, does provide notepads so participants can write out questions if they need to do so. Anyone from George Brown is welcome, provided they adhere to the voice-off rules.

Other than the voice-off condition, Smith said the socials are largely unstructured. “I don’t come in with a predetermined agenda of what we are going do. It’s more like I provide snacks and drinks and people can come in and mingle and practice.”

George Brown offers several ASL – related programs through its school of Deaf and Deafblind studies. According the school’s website, “these programs expose students to Deaf and Deafblind culture and the social issues that this consumer group faces.”

The socials will run every Tuesday from 3 p.m to 5 p.m. until Dec. 1. According to Smith, there are plans to continue the socials at some point in the new year, depending on the feedback for the sessions this semester.

When asked to describe an ideal ASL social event, Smith suggested it would be much like the first one this semester. “The last one (had) 19 people, they were having snacks, drinks, enjoying practicing sign language, and expanding their fluency in sign language.” Smith added it was “really amazing to watch.”