Deaf people do and can experience music, says Jody Cripps

Clemson University says faculty member Jody Cripps is a leader in the development of “signed music” to allow deaf people to experience something like the hearing population experiences.  Cripps, an assistant professor of American Sign Language at Clemson, says, “Yes, we do” when asked if deaf people can experience music.  He has dedicated years of research to an emerging art form known as signed music.  Cripps and his colleagues describe signed music as “wholly autonomous from the auditory experience.  While it is pleasing to the eyes, just as conventional music pleases the ears, it has parameters that are completely different from musical form hearing audiences are used to, such as audible pitch.”