So, the Accessible Signed Library is a 501 (c)3 non-profit. It's board is always at least 50% Deaf and its stated goal is to translate classic literature from English into ASL. But why and how?




"Hello, I'm Carissa Martos, here for a new non-proft named the Accessible Signed Library, Inc. It is incorporated in the state of Oregon and was founded because of the long history of Deaf and Hard of Hearing children have had struggling to read.


However, educational research has shown that a lack of reading skills isn't the only problem. When the classes are based around information gleaned from a book the student cannot read, they cannot access information necessary to participate in the class. We were interested, and started to figure out what could be done.


If the book needs to be read but the child is from a family that speaks a language other than English at home (like Spanish, Russian or French), the books tend to be available in other languages. there was nothing for ASL, however.


We found that a few Deaf professionals had already taken it upon themselves to translate some books, poems and other literature from English to ASL. However, in the research for one of my large papers for my Master's degree in Deaf Education, I found that there wasn't a single place where they'd all been collected so that Teachers of the Deaf, Deaf professionals and Deaf students can look for the translated works.


So, when we set up the Accessible Signed Library, we had three board members (myself and two wonderful Deaf Oregonians). The three of us built the Library's website, where you can see different books, works and authors, signed into ASL.


We're looking for three things right now: people who have already completed translations and would be willing to share your work with the library, people interested in doing translations, and funds to keep the website going. That's all, because the board isn't being paid anything. All the funds collected will be used first to pay the IRS and other state fees and then to pay those who do translating work. That's all. (It is possible that later we will set up other programs that include burning some translations onto CD/DVD for schools or for parents whose Deaf/HOH children don't have access to a DHH educational program, but that's not something we're doing yet).


Please take a look at our website, thank you!"