When the Lord revealed through Joseph Smith that in the latter days "every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power," did He have in mind even those who cannot "hear" in a strictly physical sense?

That surely must be the case, as the scriptures and other inspired writings are increasingly being made available to those who are deaf or have hearing impairments.

The latest of these materials are the monthly messages of the First Presidency and the visiting teaching messages that are customarily contained in Church periodicals. Since January, the messages have been available in American Sign Language via video streaming over the Internet at a recently created Web site, www.asl.lds.org.

Doug Hind, manager of special curriculum for the Church, said other materials have been made available in the past on the Internet in ASL. "With this new Web page, we hope to place more items on there," he said.

"There are many blessings that can come from this," he added. "It will benefit teaching the gospel, doing missionary work, training of interpreters and learning gospel signs."

Availability of the messages in ASL is a boon to many deaf members because their form of communication is primarily visual. Its grammatical and conceptual makeup differs from any spoken language. For them, written text involves comprehending verbal language, then, in their mind, translating it into visual communication.

The new feature has been overwhelmingly well received, Brother Hind said. Among feedback comments that have come into Church headquarters are these:

"I have friends I have been wanting to share information about the Church in a way that they can explore and understand the teachings of the gospel. This will open the door for them to ask me questions."

"I am a certified interpreter for the deaf. . . and know that this service can benefit both hearing and deaf members. I still struggle with religious interpreting.

"The work that has been done is helping those who are deaf feel more loved and a great feeling of equality!"

"WOW!! This is great. I just need to figure out how to incorporate it into my Relief Society meeting."

"I really want to thank you for your hard work and putting us deaf members more at ease and understanding the meaning of the gospel into our life."

"So happy to see a Church who can really teach all people no matter what language we speak. (signed) Great job!"

E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com