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The California Department of Education (CDE), with a grant from the Annenberg Foundation, has contracted with California State University, Northridge to develop a DVD that documents and demonstrates the viability and benefits of American Sign Language (ASL) for all babies, with special focus on families with newly identified Deaf and hard of hearing babies and toddlers.

The DVD will be a valuable resource to show that ASL is a natural and vital language appropriate for all babies and families encompassing a wide variety of Deaf and hard of hearing children as well as Deaf children with special needs and children using a variety of assistive listening devices, officials said.

The principal co-investigators of the CDE/CSUN ASL DVD project are Rachel Friedman Narr, associate professor in Cal State Northridge’s Department of Special Education, and Roz Rosen, director of CSUN’s National Center on Deafness. The members of the steering committee include CSUN special education professor Ellen Schneiderman; Patrick Boudreault, assistant professor of Deaf studies at Northridge; Barbara Matusky, parent of two college-age Deaf children and a parent mentor; Lauren Maucere, a Deaf education teacher credential candidate; and David Kurs, a film producer.

"We wanted to communicate a simple truth to our audience: that sign language is a natural and vital language appropriate for all babies. And we knew that in order to communicate this concept, we would have to use animation. And collaborating with Braam was ideal: he understood the feel that we were going for and how we wanted to communicate the facts without coming across as overbearing. It was thrilling to collaborate with an artist who strives for the highest possible bar of excellence." David said.