As a millennial, I tend to punctuate a lot of my tweets and personal communication with gifs. I often turn to Giphy when I need to say something with a short repeating video, and with their latest featured collection, I can say things in a new language with it — American Sign Language. Giphy has teamed with Sign With Robert to help teach people ASL using the power of repetitive, silent video.
That's right, we can learn with gifs now.
Sign With Robert's director/producer Hilari Scarl told Mashable that "GIFs, as a visual format untethered from audio, makes them a perfect medium for sign language." Giphy reached out to Sign With Robert while looking for ways to help educate using gifs, and ASL gifs seems like a no-brainer, and one that can help thousands learn at least a little ASL.
If you think this sounds like nothing but a novelty, consider that there are first responders, medical professionals, and civil servants who could benefit themselves and their communities by being able to recognize some basic signs like "allergic" or "fire extinguisher". In fact, we could all benefit from recognizing a few of these, so head over to Giphy's gallery and try to memorize a few. And if you work in an area where sign language could help your job, consider taking advantage of Giphy's download functions to save some on your phone for easy access.
