Free online courseAmerican Sign Language

Course Description

Want to communicate more clearly with Deaf and hard of hearing friends, support a student, or add a valuable language skill to your profile? This free online American Sign Language course helps you begin with confidence, guiding you from the very first signs into everyday, practical communication. You will start by understanding what ASL is and where it is used, then develop the foundation that makes learning faster: handshapes, fingerspelling, and the rhythm of signing.

Step by step, you will practice the ASL alphabet and build number fluency from 0 through larger numbers, so you can handle ages, times, scores, prices, and simple details in conversation. From there, learning shifts into high-frequency vocabulary you can use right away: emotions, family, pets and animals, days of the week, activities, sports, and food and beverages. Lessons are designed to strengthen recognition and production, helping you remember signs by using them in context instead of memorizing in isolation.

You will also explore how ASL communication works beyond the hands. Facial expressions and non-manual signals are treated as an essential part of meaning, especially for questions and tone. As your comfort grows, you will get repeated opportunities to review and reinforce what you learned so signs become easier to recall and more natural to perform.

Along the way, the course introduces key ideas from Deaf culture, including what is typically shared in introductions and why respectful communication choices matter. This cultural context helps you interact more thoughtfully and avoid common misunderstandings. By the end, you will be able to sign basic information about yourself, talk about favorites, describe feelings, discuss schedules and activities, and participate in beginner-friendly ASL exchanges with greater ease.