Expressive Poetry in Ghanaian Sign Language: Honouring deaf children's creative and linguistic rights

Children born into hearing families, make up over 90% of Deaf children globally; in this group, sign language poetry may be the first time they witness their own language treated as an art form.

There is also evidence that experience and learning with a visual and spatial language enhances spatial cognition and visual imagery in Deaf signers which is also relevant and similarly seen in sign language poetry.

When I decided to organise an Expressive Poetry Competition for Deaf students at the Demonstration School for the Deaf in Ghana, many people debated as to whether it was possible and were wondering what exactly it would even look like.