Like English spoken around the world, American Sign Language has regional dialects and colloquialisms.
"Language shouldn't be a struggle," Maile Paongo, who is deaf, said through an interpreter last week. "I mean, ASL for me and its use is so natural, and it's native for us."
Growing up with the Hawaiian hand gestures, Paongo’s father made efforts to communicate. She learned gestures for poi and lau lau. Paongo then attended a deaf school that had oral instruction.
"The oral method of educating students, I was completely left out," Paongo said. "I remember being 12 years old in school and seeing students, other deaf students signing and I thought, 'oh, there's my education.' I'm actually needing to rely on my peers to educate me from deaf person to deaf person."
Paongo remembered feeling dissatisfied, even at a young age because of this.
"I knew already with my education, because it wasn't accessible and it wasn't taught to me in a language that made any sense, it wasn't even taught in a language that was visually accessible, but I had to rely on other deaf people both here and later on the mainland, to teach me ASL," she said.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 5% of the world population is deaf or hard of hearing.
Last week, the state Legislature made strides in advancing House Bill 834, which would recognize ASL as an independent language in the state.
This would be a major stepping stone for the deaf community, according to retired ASL teacher Linda Lambrecht.
"You're bringing me back," Lambrecht said last week. "I want to say back in my 40s, the same conversation came up."
Back then, Lambrecht said they were going to the Capitol to advocate for more accessibility. Eventually, that advocacy got open captions in theaters and ASL recognized as a language in school for credit.
"We were showing our representatives and our senators that we, in fact, are here. We are a larger part of the population than I think people realize," Lambrecht said.
While the Americans with Disabilities Act provides some means for accessibility, there are gaps in health care, education and government.
Sen. Joy San Buenaventura of Hawaiʻi Island is co-convener of the Deaf and Blind Task Force, which puts up bills and resolutions to make the state more accessible.
"A lot of people assume that ASL is a mere translation of English, but in reality, it's not. It has its own grammar, syntax, vocabulary," San Buenaventura said.
As an interpreter, Jackie Emmart said it takes time to be able to faithfully interpret, and integration is key to understanding the community.
"I had to take my time to meet the deaf community," Emmart said. "I still am meeting more and more deaf members of the community to learn the geography, to learn the pronunciation, to learn of the stakeholders, the key players of how to truly represent what it means to be a deaf individual here. I can't do that with integrity without knowing the people first."
One Senate resolution making its way through the legislature would convene a working group to identify ways to grow the state’s interpreter workforce.
By an unofficial count, there are about 13 contracted ASL interpreters on O'ahu.
"Even if you have a mainland interpreter who's well versed in the medical vernacular and how a patient appointment typically goes, those specialties of what makes Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi," Emmart said. "There's no way you can get someone to do, again, what we call a faithful rendering of the message."
