Butler University’s new online master’s program in deaf education, launching this fall, has drawn concern from members of Indiana’s Deaf community who say the curriculum leans heavily toward teaching speaking and listening rather than requiring more training in American Sign Language. Deaf educators and advocates said the program’s design could result in fewer future teachers able to provide ASL to deaf children who sign as their primary means of communicating.
The program is funded through a $1.25-million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, according to reporting distributed by the Associated Press. Butler’s curriculum is intended to train future educators to teach speaking and listening to deaf children, particularly those with cochlear implants or other hearing technology, while also drawing community reaction over what that emphasis means for language access and Deaf culture.
Community members have complained that the degree includes only one ASL class: a one-credit course that teaches basic signs and “stories, poems and readings that exist in Deaf culture.” Several Deaf community figures said they are worried that the program—by centering oral and spoken-language instruction—signals a repeat of past approaches that left deaf students without consistent access to sign language.
David Geeslin, a former superintendent at the Indiana School for the Deaf who now raises concerns about the new program, described how learning ASL as a toddler changed his experience. “My world became much clearer and more colorful,” Geeslin said through an ASL interpreter. He said sign language opened opportunities for him after he enrolled at the Indiana School for the Deaf at age 3 and later earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees, before retiring in 2025.
Geeslin and other community members said the Butler master’s program would affect the number of deaf children learning to sign. Butler program director Jenna Voss told Mirror Indy that the degree is designed to train teachers who can give children and families options. She also said the program’s focus on oral and spoken language does not prevent people from learning ASL separately, adding that teachers need to be prepared for both types of communication needs. “There will be deaf children who sign as their primary way of communicating and connecting with others, and there are deaf children who use hearing technology and use the spoken languages of their family’s homes and hearts,” Voss said through an interpreter.
Geoffrey Bignell, director of advocacy for the Indiana Association of the Deaf, said the community wants more comprehensive ASL preparation for educators. “Some (deaf people) speak better than they sign, some sign better than they speak,” Bignell said through an interpreter. He said the range of needs means providing everything is best for the professional workforce that will serve those children.
Advocates began organizing after Butler announced the program in mid-January, community members said, including sending letters to the university requesting additional ASL classes in the master’s curriculum. The letter campaign was organized by the Indiana Association of the Deaf, according to the report.
Other Deaf community members described concerns grounded in both personal experience and historical memory. Christine Multra Kraft said she became deaf at age 4 and that she was encouraged by her parents to keep speaking and then struggled until she started signing. Kraft said she picked up signing quickly and felt “able to be back to myself.” She said she was upset by what she saw as an effort to require kids to speak rather than learn a language that comes more naturally, and she described sign language as “helping people grow as an individual, as a person.”
Kraft and others said spoken-language programs also evoke past restrictions on sign language in deaf schools. The report said sign language was banned in many Deaf schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when children were required to attempt to speak and read lips, and that an official decree banning sign language was not redacted until 2010. Bonnie Conner, chair of Vincennes’ ASL and Deaf culture program, said her reaction to the Butler program was “not again,” while describing a belief that future teachers should be required to learn ASL. “Why don’t hearing people listen to deaf people?” Conner asked through an interpreter. She said she wanted hearing teachers to understand the experiences that deaf people describe.
Parents’ views can also diverge on how to educate deaf children, with the report citing research that is split on whether the best approach involves listening and spoken language, ASL, or a mix of both. What the report describes as consistent is that deaf children are more likely than hearing children to experience language deprivation—a communication disorder that develops when kids do not have consistent access to a language, whether ASL or English, as babies and toddlers. The report also said many studies have found teaching deaf children sign language helps them communicate naturally, even if they later develop speaking or hearing skills using hearing aids or a cochlear implant.
The report also described how access to sign language at home can be limited for many families. It said over 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, citing a 2013 survey from Gallaudet University that found less than a quarter of families with deaf children regularly use sign language at home. Brooklyn Lowery, whose 7-year-old daughter Salem is deaf, said she is happy the master’s program will train teachers to help kids listen and speak, and that her daughter is excelling at her IPS school. Lowery said she would be supportive if her daughter wants to learn more ASL, and she said giving families options is important.
In responding to Deaf community concerns about the program’s emphasis, Voss told Mirror Indy that Butler offers ASL as a foreign language for undergraduate students and is adding an ASL minor that will launch in the fall. She said those classes will not be part of the master’s program. Voss also said the degree curriculum will help students pursue careers specifically in helping deaf kids learn listening and speaking skills, and that some in the field argue every practitioner should do all things while others should accept specialization. “I think there are some people that would suggest every practitioner in our field needs to be able to do all the things,” Voss said. “I pragmatically and practically think that there is a space for specialization.”