Sermon to American Sign Language and Closed Captioning

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Eleven percent of the population identifies as deaf or hard of hearing, and require remedies like ASL and closed captioning. What are practical ways your church can welcome members and visitors with disabilities?
The Big Idea: Expand your audience reach by translating your sermon to reach the deaf and hard of hearing via American Sign Language (ASL) and closed captioning.
  • Into The Weeds...
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Hearing Loss is a unique disability in that there is so much diversity to its cause and cure. Some are born deaf while others lose their hearing to meningitis or workplace noise, like being in a steel mill or in military combat. Some are completely dependent on sign language while others can hear and speak spoken language with devices like hearing aids, cochlear implants, and more. 
The big idea: Hearing loss affects everybody eventually, and the church should leverage available tools like ASL and Closed Captioning to include the deaf and hard of hearing ("D/HOH") to its regular services. ​
Netflix reports that 82% of all its streamed contents is played with the Closed Captions on, suggesting that captioning is not just popular among deaf and hard of hearing people, but hearing people too. ReSermon can add closed captions to your weekly sermon. To turn on the captions below, click the "CC" button at the bottom right.
  1. How much is 11 percent of your community? According to the A.G. Bell Foundation, that's an approximation of the number of deaf and hard of hearing people in your community who daily run into communication barriers. If you live in a city of 300,000 people, there are approximately 33,000 who suffer from some degree of hearing loss.
  2. How well are you caring for the disabled? What accommodations do you presently make for people with disabilities? What factored into decisions like adjusting door ways, procuring mobility ramps, and otherwise availing the worship service to the disabled?

​Need help in this area?
ReSermon will translate your sermon into American Sign Language and closed captions. Our translators are trained in biblical literacy so that your sermon does not depend on a vague translation, but careful to use the correct signs for concepts and technical terms. 
​Start by filling out some information.