In a country where the last two presidential races were decided by only tens of thousands of votes, deaf Americans represent a potentially significant but untapped voting bloc. Experts say many of the approximately one million deaf and hard-of-hearing American Sign Language (ASL) users in the United States may not be participating in politics at all, due to the inaccessibility of campaigns. “Often, we see ourselves as visitors," shares Brendan Stern, a political science professor at Gallaudet University in Washington, the world's only liberal arts university for deaf students. According to him, making politics more accessible to deaf voters means "creating spaces where deaf people can converse and engage with others, where they can disagree with others, where they can debate with others." To foster more political engagement on the Gallaudet campus, Stern -- the only deaf political science PhD in the country -- coaches a student debate team and runs programs aimed at registering deaf Americans to vote. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES