ASL on the Academy Awards

When the Academy Awards take place tonight, there will not likely be any sign language used by presenters or performers. But that wasn't the case in 1978. That year, Debbie Boone sang the Oscar-nominated song You Light Up My Life. She was joined by a group of children performing the lyrics in what appeared to be sign language. But deaf viewers were confused and complained that they couldn’t understand the sign language at all. The Academy eventually admitted that the children were neither deaf nor fluent in sign language.