Left Handed American Sign Language (ASL)

Dear Dr. Bill,

I am left handed and I feel most comfortable signing with my left hand. Is there any definite rules on which hand I must use and will I confuse people if I sign with my left hand?

Thanks
Sarah Allison

Hi Sarah,
Left-handed signers sign in pretty much a mirror image of how right handed people sign. You use your left hand as your "dominant" hand. You use your left hand for fingerspelling and any "one-handed signs." The signs you see me doing with my right hand, you do with your left hand.

The exception to the "mirror" rule is anything that involves "directions." For example, when you sign the concept "LEFT" you would use an "L" handshape on your left hand and move it to your left. (Left is still left and right is still right.) When a lefty wants to sign the concept "RIGHT" (as in "on the right-hand-side") he or she would sign it with an "R" handshape on the left hand and do the movement to the right.

Bill

Dear Dr. Vicars,
I began looking at your site with some interest, as I am a late deafened
adult. Double disability for the late deaf, who are left-handed - and
there are quite a few, like myself. Even the Gallaudet books describe SIGNs
as right hand this & left hand that. It isn't easy learning SIGN later in
life, but would help if descriptions stated dominant & non-dominent hands.
They don't have to be written out in full, once explained. Each time I
read a description saying - left arm horizontal, right hand....., I have to
say OK - rt arm horizontal, left hand... etc. Slow work.
Thanks for your interest.
Good luck with the site & with the book!
Rosalie D'Souza

Rosalie,
I'm sure at least one out of seven people would certainly agree with you.
You make a good point.
Bill
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Dear Dr. Vicars,
While it is kind of you to say that I make a good point and you are
obviously aware of the left-handed "community" I get the impression that you
have no interest or intention of making your descriptions approapriate to
the use of either hand rather than focusing on right-handed users. Of
course your diagrams & photos are fine, since lefties typically mirrior
righties without difficulty. Can you not work toward dom & non
descriptions? I continue to be amazed that this is not being done.
Rosalie

Rosalie,
You are right. Forgive me. I have no intention of using "dominant/non-dominant hand" terminology in my descriptions. I've sat here for way longer than I care to state mulling this over in my mind. I've started typing various sentences that go about justifying my choice and then backspacing because the fact is any reason I give you will not likely satisfy you. So, suffice to say, I do very much care about people and I do want to be accommodating, but I feel that "dominant/non-dominant" terminology would have to be explained not just once, but again and again (on every sign page) because there is no "one" entry point into an online curriculum like this. Right-hand/left-hand terminology requires much less explanation.
Bill

Signing for lefties, "a matter of life and death"

In a message dated 6/17/2005 10:38:22 PM Pacific Daylight Time, clavimon@nd.edu writes:

Dr Vicars,
I'm relatively new to ASL, and I am left-handed. My question is this:
Does it matter if I use my left hand in place of my right? Does
performing a sign levorotatorily ever affect its meaning? Most ASL
instruction I see indicates that the right hand does one thing while
the left does another, but if, say I signed "afternoon" with my right
forearm and hand on the horizontal and my left forearm and hand at 2
o'clock, would that seem just as valid? I'd like to know if I'm
backwards before I learn too much that way!

Thanks,
Chad Lavimoniere

Hello Chad,

"Levorotatorily!" Geeze, now that's a good word for fingerspelling practice!

If you use the definition of that word that means "rotating to the left" then yes, it changes the meaning of a sign. Sweeping or rotating of certain signs can be used to indicate habituality, plurality, verb agreement, etc. For example, "rotating to the left" the sign "your turn" would indicate that it is the turn of a person (or absent referent) on the signer's left.

But I don't think that is what you are asking. I think you are simply asking "does doing a sign left-handed change the meaning of the sign?"

Does the mere act of a left-handed person doing a sign with his left hand impact the meaning of a sign in any way?
Yes. There are occasionally times when a strict left-handed mirror image production of a sign would impact the meaning of that sign."

For most signs, a left-handed person can and should simply do a mirror image of the way signs are done by right handed people. For example, a right handed person does the sign CHILDREN by patting the "heads" of two imaginary children. One of the imaginary children is standing in front of and slightly to the right of the signer. The second child is standing farter to the right of the first child.

When a left handed signer does the sign for CHILDREN, he should do a mirror image of the sign done by a right handed signer. Which is to say, the first imaginary child is standing in front of and slightly to the left of the left-handed signer. The second child is standing further to the left of the first child.

And so it is for most signs done by left-handed people. They just do a mirror image.

However, there are a few situations when the "mirror needs to be broken" (heh).

Suppose you were with a group of deaf and lost in the big city. People might start using directional signs like "RIGHT" and "LEFT." A left handed person instead of using a mirror image and doing the sign for "RIGHT" with a left-ward movement would use a directionally appropriate movement. Let me give a very specific example. Suppose you are driving in the passing (left-hand) lane on a road in the aforementioned big city and your left-handed passenger wants you to "move into the right hand lane." He would not do a mirror image of the right-handed sign for "CL:3"-"move over to right lane." Because the mirror image would actually mean, move further to the left = CRASH. Instead he would move his hand in a directionally appropriate manner (real world orientation) farther to the right.
So thus you see, this is actually a life-and-death matter.

Best of luck and safe signing.

Cordially,

Dr. Bill

American Sign Language: Left-handed signing Also See "Right or left handed signing"

American Sign Language: Left-handed signing
Also See "Right or left handed signing"