Discomfort all around...

In one of the readings, a Deaf woman said, "When our language was acknowledged, we gained our freedom." How does this differ from speakers of Spanglish or Black English Vernacular's efforts to have those languages recognized?

I'd like to reference our discussion on Thursday regarding ASL and the ADA in response to this statement. No individual or group of people wants to be labeled as "disabled," which is why we have invented PC terms such as "differently abled" or "handicapable." The fact is, and I hate to be overly blunt, but deafness is a handicap to normal social interaction. While a non-native English speakers may find themselves in the US, completely unfamiliar with English, they still particiapate in spoken language, which increases their ability to learn and survive in a language/culture that is foreign to them because it is typically easier for a speaking/hearing individual to accept and adapt to someone who speaks a foreign language as opposed to someone who doesn't hear or speak (as is the case with many deaf individuals). Please keep in mind that I am writing solely from the perspective of the hearing individual who has, perhaps, never interacted with a deaf person.
It is completely understandable that the Deaf community desires to be brought out from under the purview of the ADA. For an individual to be called "disabled," but have no loss of cognitive capacity would be insulting. However, as far as ASL being recognized before Spanglish or Black English, ASL is not as foreign to English as some would have us believe. It may have a different grammatical structure than Standard American English, but when deaf individuals sign and mouth along with what they are signing, they are mouthing English words. Is this not the definition of Black English or Spanglish? When an individual speaks Spanglish, they are speaking English, but interjecting Spanish words and, occasionally, Spanish grammar (the SOV structure as opposed to SVO). Individuals who speak Black English are also using English words that often have American cultural significance, but are composed in a grammatical fashion that is akward to the Standard American English speaker.
My point is that the majority of the American population does not yet know how to comfortably interact/communicate with the Deaf. Deaf people are often viewed by hearing individuals as unintelligent or slow when, what most hearing people don't understand, deaf people are simply "speaking" a variation of Standard English.