Luft says a lack of qualified teachers has also caused problems filling teaching positions.

"We were really struggling because we had to find enough staff to teach all of the sections," she says. "The enormous response to ASL classes has strained our resources to some extent."

A master's degree is required to teach ASL at Kent State's main campus, and instructors must have at least a bachelor's degree to teach at the regional campuses.

"This policy severely limits who we can recruit," Luft says. "Our preference is to have deaf people who have experience in teaching sign language, but in many ways the deaf community is like other minority communities because they are very much underrepresented in higher education and degree programs."

Vickery is currently working toward his master's degree in liberal studies at Kent State after receiving a second bachelor's degree in history.

"I thought it would be a great experience for me, and the department thought I was a qualified candidate, so I was hired," Vickery says.

Vickery earned his bachelor's degree in engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology, where 1,100 out of the 12,000 students are hearing impaired.

According to Student Disabilities Services, 15 students at Kent State are hearing-impaired.

Even though most deaf people grow up using sign language exclusively, Luft says little emphasis has been put on the structure of the language.

"One of the issues is that deaf people have had little or no training in their language," she says. "Until recently, ASL was not considered a language, and they can't articulate the grammatical rules to the students."

This obstacle is something Vickery says he tries to conquer in his class.

Vickery is open and responsive to all of his student's questions.

Vickery, who was born deaf, says 30 years of being hearing impaired has taught him the art of reading facial expressions as well as lips. One glance at a student's face reveals if he or she comprehends a lesson.

"Students in an environment like this struggle and sometimes feel awkward having a deaf instructor," he says. "If they don't ask questions, I'll ask them to ask questions. I also notice students will ask one another in class about what I said and things like that. I catch those things, and I ask them to direct those questions to me."