Bachelor of Science in American Sign Language and Psychology

Northeastern University

American Sign Language (ASL) is estimated to be the third most used language in the United States and its visibility in society is on the rise in recent years. There are roughly 500,000 to 2,000,000 Deaf, DeafBlind, or hard of hearing people in the United States who use ASL as their primary language, and a large number of non-Deaf signers use or learn ASL as a second language. A disproportionate percentage of Deaf people experience socioeconomic disadvantage due to their dual status as members of both a cultural linguistic minority group and a disability group. As a result, there is a broad societal misunderstanding of Deaf, signing people’s minority language and culture-their lived experience-which creates barriers to educational and economic opportunity. While state and federal legislation enables improved civic engagement by Deaf, hard of hearing, and DeafBlind individuals, there is continued need to elevate quality of life, equity, and the rich contributions of the diverse members of the American Deaf communities.The program offers a wide array of courses as well as volunteer, co-op, and research opportunities to learn from Deaf people's lived experiences through community and industry connections. This combined major educates students in cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, and the structures of human languages in general and ASL in particular. The curriculum is designed to assist students in acquiring competence in ASL, develop an understanding of the diverse American Deaf communities and Deaf culture, better understand cognitive efforts of interpreters' language transfer, as well as gain insights into various features of spoken language and experience firsthand the principles underlying the spatial organization of discourse required by signed languages. This knowledge and the psychology background from the major provide a foundation for more advanced studies of ASL and interpreting or psychology and Deaf people.