#putting together longer sentences & complete thoughts will always take more time and effort for cass than other people who grew up

[blackbatcass]

hii linden!!

I wanted to know your thoughts on the cass knowing/using sign language?? I personally don’t think it would make sense given how she struggles with learning english and all its ins-and-outs and people usually subscribe to the ‘she uses sign language’ as a link to her body language reading abilities even though sign language has its own complexities and rules to follow or/and use it to explain away why she’s not talking/gives 1/2 word responses even tho finding her voice and being able to articulate things in a clear way is a big part of her/her character, sorry for rambling i just wanted to know your thoughts given you know more about her character and if you think it would make sense for her

hiya! yeah you're completely right. i think fandom played some kind of extensive game of telephone wrt cass & sign language to the point where large swathes of people are convinced that cass communicates exclusively through asl. it just doesn't...make a whole lot of sense when you look at canon and her actual journey to learning english. cass isn't mute, she can speak. there's nothing actually wrong with her vocal chords. lots of people have pointed out that assuming cass would learn sign language as an 'easier' alternative to english is kind of an ableist way of thinking. asl is a language, the same way spoken languages are language, and cass's disability would still apply. cass's language disability isn't specifically that she has trouble speaking & vocalizing, it's language processing in general- because she was raised without language of any kind. asl wouldn't be any easier for her to grasp than english. i think people are well-meaning when they headcanon cass as using sign language because of how it connects to her ability to read body language, but like you said, it's...kind of ignoring a lot of her development to do so.