well, such as allowing authors to be more experimental, affecting the way literary genres are presented, allowing audiences to analyze ASL texts in new ways, standardizing the ASL language across geographic regions, promoting ASL literacy, and solidifying a shared Deaf cultural identity. Literacy Historically, literacy has been understood as the ability to read or write. The spread of ASL literature has challenged the idea that language users can only be literate in languages with written forms. This concept is related to the idea of multiliteracies, a term coined by the New London Group in 1996, based on the belief that literacy is created through social constructs rather than written representations of language. They felt that the traditional definition of literacy was no longer adequate to represent the types of literacies that proliferated through an increased global and technologically advanced society. The way individuals were creating meaning was based on their cultural upbringing, and very different from others they interacted with. For some communities, a visual mode of communication constitutes language, rather than the alphabetical representations of languages that have traditionally defined literacy. For the American Deaf community, ASL provides a form of literacy to those who do not have access to a spoken language as their first language. If the definition of literacy is limited spoken/written languages, then many Deaf individuals would be considered illiterate. Access to signed languages allows Deaf individuals to be included in literate communities. It allows written literature to be translated into a language accessible to the Deaf community, aids in the education Deaf students by helping them learn to read printed text, and allows Deaf individuals to pass on their culture to the next generation. If the definition of literacy applies to all individuals who are educated and have knowledge of the world around them, then it becomes possible to be literate in any language, regardless of whether it is spoken or signed. Literacy allows an individual to derive meaning from language and to make inferences about the world around them. As literacy skills develop, so too do cognitive abilities in such a way that literate individuals can begin making inferences from language by applying their knowledge of the world to what is being said. ASL does not have a written form as spoken languages do, so it requires a knowledgeable signer to view a work of ASL literature and move past the literal meaning