A small team in Hawaiʻi is building a brand-new sign language that blends American Sign Language with Hawaiian culture, aiming to finally give deaf Native Hawaiians access to their own language — good news for a community that's been largely left out of the decades-long Hawaiian language revival.

• No sign language currently combines ASL with Hawaiian culture, so deaf Hawaiians have had little to no access to the Hawaiian language or cultural knowledge that hearing Hawaiians get through immersion schools.
• Developers are collecting signs and gestures used by elderly deaf Hawaiians and pulling movement and meaning from hula and traditional practices like fishing and farming, so the signs reflect Hawaiian culture instead of just borrowing American signs.
• Parents of deaf children often feel pushed to pick either the hearing world or deaf culture, leaving Hawaiian language out entirely; this project wants kids to have access to all three.
• Hawaiian-medium schools have no official program for deaf students, so the team is pushing for state funding and teacher training to build real programs rather than one-off accommodations.
• Organizers describe the work as still in its early, grassroots stage, with plans to document everything and eventually share it publicly online.

Outlook: The project is expected to keep growing through community documentation and advocacy, with organizers now seeking funding and support to formally train teachers and build a real program for deaf students in Hawaiian-medium schools.