Grote, H. & Izagaren, F. (2020 May 7). Covid-19: The communication needs of D/deaf healthcare workers and patients are being forgotten. The BMJ. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/05/07/push-universal-mask-wearing-communication-needs-deaf-forgotten/

From what I remember in History of English Language, language has been defined more broadly since Sheridan's day, if language was really strictly defined to words. I think language is now considered as a system of intentional, conventional signs. Unfortunately, animals and the "melancholy mournings of the turtle" (shoutout to kpolizzi and gilmanhernandez) are not considered language within this definition. This reading and the definition of language from the HOEL textbook by Algeo both heavily emphasized oral-aural communication, so I'm curious about the deaf community's perspective on language. Also I was definitely not expecting to bring up disability as much as I have been; I can try to limit my annotations on that subject.