Disappointing
I’m a high schooler who wanted to learn asl as a basic skill before applying to a new job where I’d work with kids and I worried there could potentially be deaf kids since I encountered deaf people for the first time at my old job. I was really excited but I got through all the available material within an hour before I was stopped by a paywall. Again I’m a high school student and currently unemployed and I absolutely would’ve tapped into my savings for this but I just can’t afford $18 monthly payments. I think it’s unfortunate after seeing how tiring it is for deaf people to communicate with hearing people who’ve never considered learning to sign because it didn’t affect them and I’m sure many would be willing if it was more accessible but I don’t think prices that high are helpful to hearing people willing to learn or deaf people who struggle daily communicating with people who can’t sign. Accessibility would help all sides so I don’t understand.The cost to learn.
I have been learning ASL through professionally taught classes for the past three years, I saw this app being advertised by a well known deaf figure and whereas the advertisement stated that this was free to learn, I quickly realized that this was wrong. The format of this app is good for learning, and the feature for watching yourself sign was also a great way to encourage people's hands to be moving. I quickly breezed through the first lesson, second lesson, and within about fifteen minutes I had reached the paywall. I declined and the next day came back to see if it would let me continue, it did not. This block on simplistic things like the alphabet or words that are more important in everyday speech such as "where is __" or "who are you" or "what is your name" are all things that I believe should at least be accessible to the public; not to mention that without the alphabet, many would not be able to at least try to piece together a sentence. So, with all of that said, this seems like a great app for those who are willing and able to pay for its benefits, but free public classes teach in a similar or even better way and do not have the same cost.Wonderful but...
This is a fantastic app. I found it easy to use and the spaced repetition is excellent. The vocabulary and conversations felt (for the most part) useful and appropriate for the real world. One complaint was the end of section reviews. They were so repetitive I didn't even have to see the word/phrase before answering because they showed the same one so many times. Also there were times I finished the reviews and there was an error forcing me to retake them. I just stopped doing those altogether. But that didn't matter too much and didn't affect the learning process.
My bigger issue was the pricing structure. I 100% support paying for this app and even paid for a full year. It was (with caveat) absolutely worth the ~$100 for a year. BUT that should have been a one-time, for life price. I finished the entire series in about 6 months and the app hasn't added any new lessons since I bought it. There wasn't any point in renewing to pay another $100 yearly (or a monthly) fee to repeat the same material, but now I don't have access the the lessons I already took. That's really frustrating and disappointing. Again, I am not complaining about paying - an app like this shouldn't be free. But continuing to pay without new content is problematic and not worth it. I'm sorry I can't keep using this app as I really loved it.