Signing with a Philly accent

Cheesesteaks, Peanut Chews, Tasty Cakes, oh yeah, the Liberty Bell – there’s so much to love about Philadelphia but one of the best things about the city of Brotherly Love is the accent. This week on the podcast we learn about the Philadelphia accent in American Sign Language. What is an accent in ASL? ASL speaker and researcher Jami Fisher explains it all. She is part of the team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania who is working on the study to document this “weird” as she calls it way of signing. Plus, we hear from the actors of the Broadway musical, “Spring Awakening.” This new production features 8 deaf actors. John Hockenberry from our friends at The Takeaway got the chance to interview some of the actors.