Vanessa Marano

“Switched at Birth,” the ABC Family series about two teen girls who were switched at birth, aired an episode almost entirely in American Sign Language last night. It was fantastic.  If you have never watched "Switched at Birth" and want to zone out now, please know that I’ve read about “Switched at Birth” and I’ve seen a few episodes, but I have not seen very many episodes — and that didn’t matter at all. Here’s the necessary background: “Switched at Birth” stars Daphne (Katie LeClerc) and ...

"Until hearing people walk a day in our shoes, they will never understand," says a guidance counselor at a high school for deaf students in "Switched at Birth." Such insights are a staple of the ABC Family drama, a TV rarity that puts deaf characters, played by deaf or hard-of-hearing actors, at the center of the action. But Monday's episode takes it a bold step further: Save for a few spoken words at the beginning and the end, it is silent. The actors' hands do...