President Obama, I remember the night you became President. I was thrilled. Since you became President, I have watched your speeches, and notice you often talk about "Innovation." I agree, it's important. History has often revealed that innovation comes from those who experience the world differently. For example, Thomas Edison. Edison was a deaf man who recognized relationship between light and communication. He invented something that is in nearly every single home: lightbulbs. How fitting, that this is the symbol for ideas. Innovation happens when people have the ability to think, create, imagine, and when there is a means to express those ideas. That ability is developed through language, and it is less important which language and more important that one can access information. Whether it is through speaking, signing, a variety of languages-- does not matter. We've become so focused on teaching a specific way, in a specific language, that the learning space has become so restrictive as to marginalize many who are denied the opportunity to learn freely. And that is a crime. President Obama, I implore you to take the lead in creating space for American Sign Language in the classroom, in offices, even in the White House. Thank you.