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American Sign Language Undergraduate Programs

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Community shared through the hands and the heart.

It’s more than the chance to learn one of the fastest growing languages in the world – It’s the chance to step into a culture and a community full of new challenges, endless personality and more rewards than you could imagine.

Become a part of the William Woods University American Sign Language family and experience the richness of a community full of givers, fighters, thinkers, explorers, achievers, and dreamers—a community that reaches up to achieve new heights while reaching out to help others—a community that we can’t wait for you to be a part of.

As one of the top-ranked ASL colleges in the country, William Woods campus in Fulton, Mo. offers a unique combination of academic excellence, affordability, and community. Our walkable proximity to Missouri School for the Deaf provides a rich environment for hands-on experience, collaboration and understanding of Deaf culture and trends.

Whether for the purpose of interpreting between ASL and English, or simply becoming a better communicator in work meetings, giving more effective speeches, or avoiding miscommunication conflicts in interpersonal conversations, improving your communication skills through learning ASL is invaluable.

Special opportunities:

  • Communicate and interpret between American Sign Language (ASL) and English
  • Join other ASL students in experiences all over the world. In the past, we’ve taken students to Deaf history locations in London, Paris and Rome
  • Gain practicum experiences in educational, medical, vocational and other settings
  • Work directly with students at the Missouri School for the Deaf, the local Deaf community, and Deaf instructors and tutors
  • Utilize our state-of-the-art language lab equipped with Apple workstations and large-screen monitors for language development, as well as for editing videos of student language and interpretation work
  • Every year, students are selected to participate in one of the country’s largest interpreting conferences, held at Lake of The Ozarks, Mo.
  • Internship opportunities all over the country allow you to network with professionals in the area you wish to work upon graduation
  • Join extracurricular learning experiences including the ASL Honor Society and the Hands Up club on campus
  • Learn about other William Woods University ASL degree programs like the online bachelors in interpretation studies in ASL-English

Our ASL degree at Work

William Woods University ASL program alumni are working as interpreters or using American Sign Language at these and other organizations:

  • The Whole Family Project of Kansas City
  • Access Interpreting
  • Special School District of St. Louis County
  • Sorenson Video Relay
  • Fulton State Hospital
  • St. Joseph School District
  • Deaf Expressions
  • North Dakota School for the Deaf
  • Deaf, Inc.
  • ZVRS
  • Purple Communications
  • Missouri School for the Deaf
  • Missouri Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Alumni Perspectives

The instructors within the interpreting department challenged and supported me. My teachers energized me to learn and encouraged me to become the best interpreter that I could be. The ASL lab was such a benefit to my learning experience, too. Tutors within the ASL lab were there to help further our linguistic development.

— Christina Engeman Godinez, ASL Interpreting Program graduate, working for Access Interpreters and Sorenson, a nationwide video relay service

I learned everything I needed to become a certified interpreter in this challenging profession due to the remarkable state-of-the-art lab with its helpful, knowledgeable lab tutors; the opportunity to immerse myself in the culture and language of the surrounding Deaf community; incredible internship opportunities and, of course, the wonderful teachers.

— Ashley Smith, staff interpreter, Birnbaum Interpreting Services, Washington, D.C.

Majors and Minors

Learn more about our American Sign Language programs that are often ranked among "Best Colleges Offering American Sign Language".

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