American Sign Language
"welcome"
American sign language is the favorite way of communicating among most deaf people who live in the United States. I found that if you make an effort to learn the basics and make friends of deaf and hard of hearing people, they will help you with the rest.
I started with finger spelling. When I was in junior high school, I made friends with several of the kids in the special class for the hearing impaired using this method. I would spell a word to my friend, and she would show me how to make the sign. When this could become tedious, We would write notes to one another.
Taking a class and getting Sign language books make the learning go more smoothly. You can get several from Amazon.com. My favorite is "The Joy of Signing".
visit some of my favorite ASL links: