About Us

Michelle Jay is the founder of StartASL.com. She earned a Bachelor's Degree in Deaf Studies, with an emphasis in teaching, from one of the nation's premier programs at California State University, Northridge. Michelle is a published author and has contributed thought-provoking articles to academic publishers such as Greenhaven Press. Her unique articles have done much to support Deaf Culture, and have been printed in resource publications such as American Chronicle and Perspectives on Diseases & Disorders: Deafness & Hearing Impairments.

Meet The Signers!

Darcy French-Myerson is an interpreter with Bachelor's degrees in English-ASL Interpreting and Theatre from Columbia College in Chicago. Darcy has interpreted in schools from the elementary to collegiate level, hospitals, big corporations, and in the non-profit sector and the Arts. Darcy has also taught English and Math to Deaf adults seeking their GEDs. Currently, Darcy works as a freelance interpreter throughout Los Angeles and continues to be involved in performance and the Arts.

Mando Garza is an aspiring Deaf actor, business professional and jack of all trades. He first started learning ASL at the age of 14 after fully realizing that oral programs are increasingly inefficient and counterproductive due to various factors. Mando has a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice. He has been involved with the theatre at the National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID) for four years including acting, monologues, and tour.

Christine Jones is an ITP (Interpreter Training Program) graduate and Deaf Studies student at California State University, Northridge. She is a volunteer interpreter and is currently looking to start a steady interpreting career.

Deborah Kanter is Deaf and comes from a primarily hearing family, except for one of her brothers who is Deaf. Deborah was introduced to American Sign Language when she was 5 years old. Deborah is currently attending college and majoring in nursing.

Crystal Lott is an EIPA and NIC Advanced certified ASL interpreter. She first started learning ASL in 2000 at Glendale Community College. She graduated from the Interpreter Training Program (ITP) at Phoenix College and currently holds a Bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Arts and Performances from Arizona State University West. Crystal was involved with the AZ Deaf Theatre for many years and is now getting plugged into the Deaf Community in Los Angeles. She aspires to work with Deaf West theatre.

Mark Loyd is an RID certified ASL interpreter. Mark comes from a theatrical background and first started learning ASL in 1993 after meeting a Deaf person for the first time and falling in love with the language. He learned ASL primarily through the Deaf community and Interpreter Training Programs (ITP) in Kansas. For the past 16 years, Mark has worked in a variety of settings--mental health, medical, educational, theatre, video relay services (VRS), and more.

Cristian Tun is hard of hearing and started learning ASL when he was 13 years old. He is currently attending college and majoring in acting.

Articles about StartASL

Online Interview with Michelle J of StartASL: Founder Helps Hearing Learn Sign Language Online for Free
by Elizabeth Linehan

How to Learn Sign Language Without Taking Formal Courses
by Tarah DeSantis

About This Site

We know you came here to learn American Sign Language, but we decided to add this section because we get a lot of questions about why we give away so much information for free.

We actually use a web host called Site Build It. It caters to beginners, but is applicable to anyone. We kept hearing the buzz surrounding it, so we did a lot of research. We couldn't find anything negative about SBI anywhere on the internet. All we found were success stories and positive reviews. So, since SBI has a money back guarantee, we decided to try it out.

SBI helped take the fear out of building this website by providing an action guide, design templates (no web developing experience necesssary), search engine ranking help, etc. It does so much for us, that all we need to do is teach ASL and have fun building our site. And more importantly, SBI showed us how to make a little cash with our site.

So, even though all the information on this website is completely free (and will always be!), SBI has showed us how to earn a profit with Google ads and other affiliate programs. Because of SBI, we are able to offer all of this free information, do something we love, and dedicate ourselves full time to providing this ASL resource. Needless to say, we never needed that money back guarantee :)

So don't feel guilty about using all of this free information! With SBI, we are able to give you ASL the way we wanted it...fee free and fun!

And just so you know, if you love the concept of what we're doing, you can do it too. Many SBI users have been able to quit their day jobs... including Michelle Jay! Just think about your hobbies or passions.

Do you have the solution to a problem that can help people? Acne? Make-up? Gardening? Dating? The topic can be anything, really.

What we love most is that SBI is completely risk free. SiteSell.com will give you a full refund if it's not for you.

They can honor a great guarantee like that because they know they've got an outstanding product and the success stories like ours to back it up. We wouldn't recommend it if we didn't use it ourselves.

So if this is something you could see yourself doing, try SBI if you get some time and let us know how it goes! :)

© Start ASL, 2008-2012